GREENFIELD – Ted Tarricone has fond memories of riding his bike around Greenfield as a kid until life took him all the way to the northwestern tip of the continental U.S. as an adult.
Last month, he biked his way back home.
It took him about six weeks to bike the 3,100 mile journey between Greenfield and his home in Bellingham, Wash., a coastal town near the Canadian border.
Tarricone set out on June 15 and arrived Aug. 8 in Greenfield, where he’s been staying with family. He averaged about 65-70 miles each day, biking anywhere between three to 10 hours a day, depending on the conditions.
“There were places where the heat index was above 110,” he said. “If I wanted to cover 70 miles that day, I would wake up at 4 in the morning to ride, then take a break to avoid the hottest parts of the day, then ride at night sometimes past midnight.”
Tarricone has spent the past few weeks with his dad and stepmom, Lee and Cathy Tarricone, and his mom and stepdad, Bonnie and Joe Young, all of whom live in Greenfield.
Long distance biking is nothing new for the 32-year-old cyclist, who makes his living as a professional cycling guide, leading rural bicycling expeditions all over the world.
On Sept. 4, he’ll load his bike onto a plane and catch a flight to Slovenia to lead a bike expedition through the Balkans, an area between western and central Europe.
Tarricone travels paved roads and trails whenever he can, but his travels often take him across more rugged terrain.
“On this trip, I actually did more gravel and dirt than pavement,” he said.
His stepmom is a board member for Pennsy Trails of Hancock County, a nonprofit which works toward connecting Hancock County’s portion of the trail from Cumberland to Greenfield, and also advocates for connecting the trail to Indianapolis.
Tarricone said he’s proud of the work his stepmom and fellow advocates do in making trails available to local residents and guests.
Comforts of home
Although he’s been exploring paths and trails around the world over the past decade as a cycling guide and explorer, Tarricone said he’s always considered Greenfield home.
“Greenfield has always been sort of an anchor for me,” said Tarricone, who graduated from Greenfield-Central High School in 2011.
His family moved from the Eastern Hancock district to Greenfield when he was in the second grade, and he fondly remembers riding his bike to J.B. Stephens Elementary School from his rural Greenfield home.
Tarricone makes a point of getting back as often as he can.
“Pretty much every year between working I’ll make my way back to Greenfield and have it be a place of recuperation,” he said.
He moved to Washington State to pursue his master’s degree in environmental science, for which he studied engineering systems and the changes the world can make to impact climate change.
The lessons he learned has shaped the way he views the world, said Tarricone, who feels biking helps connect him to the world around him.
“I think my goal to ride from Bellingham to Greenfield was partly to get a feel for all the communities that I fly over by plane, to get to understand the depth of each one along the way,” he said.
“Traveling by bike is a means of immersing into the communities you travel through, and I wanted to experience those places between the two of the places I call home.”
While he’s a huge advocate for creating and expanding trails throughout the country, “There is a whole network of different existing routes that are out there,” he said Tarricone, who connected a long series of trails together for his recent trek to Greenfield.
A number of the trails he took were converted rails-to-trails, former railroad beds like the Pennsy Trail that have been converted to multi-use trails.
Tarricone rode a well-established trail across Washington State before traversing Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois.
“I had a great time crossing Nebraska and Missouri, which both have rail trails that cross the entire state, then eventually found my way home,” said the cyclist, who appreciates that dedicated paths eliminate the need for navigation or worrying about oncoming cars.
“You know that you are in a space where you don’t constantly need to be looking over your shoulder worrying about your safety due to a driver on their cell phone or a lack of shoulder on the road,” he said.
Tarricone appreciates that the Pennsy Trail gives riders that same sense of safety and freedom in his hometown.
“You can make it dozens of miles along this pathway and you’re safe, and you’re coming through smaller communities, which is a great way for people to experience the world,” he said.
After graduating from high school, Tarricone spent four years earning a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University-Bloomington before setting out to travel the world.
He hasn’t owned a car since 2015, ever since starting work as a cycling guide for a company called Backroads, which has taken him to 10 different countries.
While Tarricone has been having a blast “gallivanting around the world, (Greenfield) has sort of been the hub for me,” he said.
While he’s been home, he’s enjoyed hearing his stepmom share about the latest efforts being made along the Pennsy Trail.
“It’s been cool to watch her engage the community and advocate for safe spaces for people to enjoy and interact with each other. I have a lot of respect for those efforts,” said Tarricone, who was inspired to hear about a local man who spends time each day clearing brush from an undeveloped portion of the trail in hopes that it will be connected and paved some day.
A couple weeks ago, Tarricone stopped by a meeting of the Hancock County Trails and the Hancock County Parks board to share some of his cross-country adventures.
“There is so much to discover no matter where it is that you find yourself,” said Tarricone. “I can be in the craggy peaks of Slovenia and find a sense of gratitude and awe that I can also find under a sycamore tree by the creek in Riley Park.”
Adventurous spirit
The lifelong explorer clings tightly to his memories of his adventurous childhood, catching bullfrogs and grasshoppers and running around the acres of land out in the country where he grew up.
“Ever since I’ve continued to chase that feeling,” said Tarricone, who has bikepacked probably over 10,000 miles, rode his bike around another 20,000 miles, and backpacked hundreds of miles in different places.
“My goal is to experience the miracle of nature because there is an unlimited quantity out there,” he said.
When cross-country biking, Tarricone tries to keep his load as light as possible.
He takes along a lightweight tent, sleeping bag, a change of clothes, and a fair amount of electronics to document his travels along the way. His YouTube channel has nearly 13,000 views.
On his most recent trip, he also brought along his mini guitar. “That was my luxury item,” he said.
On most nights, he’ll set up camp in a park or rural setting and make a quick meal before getting some rest. Camping was especially handy throughout Nebraska, which offers free camping and showers in every state park.
Occasionally Tarricone will stay with someone registered with Warm Showers, a network of people who welcome touring cyclists into their homes.
On rare nights, he’ll splurge on a motel room, where he’ll grab a hot meal and a shower, sleep on a real bed and wash his clothes in the sink.
To keep his load extra light, he did without a portable stove on his most recent journey, “which means I had a lot of cold-soaked oatmeal and cold-soaked Ramen, packets of tuna and peanut butter,” said the cyclist.
He’ll sometimes grab a cheap meal at a restaurant along the way. “You can get a good meal at Taco Bell for six bucks,” he said.
After his Labor Day respite in Greenfield, Tarricone looks forward to once again hitting the road and engaging with a wide variety of people and places that makes each journey so unique.
While traveling through the middle of Wyoming, Tarricone ended up blowing a tire and hitching a ride with a local cattle rancher.
“I was 40 miles from the nearest town, so I got a ride with this guy who owned a little shop out there,” he recalled. “We got talking and I heard about his work as a cattle rancher, and just what his experience over the past few years has been. I later went through a couple Indian reservations where I got to speak with men who were involved in helping to raise bison as a means of bringing good healthy food to their communities.”
Tarricone said hearing people’s stories is one of his parts of biking, he said.
“I think traveling by bike can serve as a bridge for understanding others,” he said.
“Everybody has got such an interesting story. We just don’t have the time to hear it. (Through cycling), I have more stories than I have time to tell them.”
To follow Tarricone’s journey, search for his name or @interpre_ted384 on YouTube.
