Jan Bennett courtesy @Wanderlustbybike
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Jan Bennett learned a lot of lessons on her solo bicycle ride across the entire 2,220-mile Pony Express Trail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
She already had endured food poisoning, hail and near misses with tornado weather by the time she made it to a remote stretch of northern Nevada as part of her effort to map out a bike-packing route the historic trail. But she told the Reno Gazette Journal recently it was a "little bit of a gut check" when she had to walk her bike up a canyon road where the water was scarce. She remembered a piece of advice she had received about endurance riding: "If you have to cry, cry while you are moving." Eleven days later, she pedaled into Sacramento.