A teenager has embarked on an incredible journey of unicycling from Maine to Key West, Florida, to raise money for the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile pedestrian and bicycle path that connects the two states.
On 8 September, 19-year-old Avery Seuter left his hometown in Wells, Maine, where he worked as a tour guide on a lobster boat. His goal is to bike to the southeastern-most tip of the United States.
Standing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he was biking through Friday, Seuter said that he embarked on the journey to see the various types of pedestrian and biking infrastructure across the country.
“I’ve been commuting by unicycle to work and school in my hometown and I noticed that the infrastructure has a bit of a deficit for people walking and cycling,” he explained. “It’s not super accessible to people outside of a car so I was curious [about] what kinds of infrastructure were out there.”
“Right now,” Seuter continued, “our bike lanes … are pretty typical of what you see in the US. They’re right on the road and they might be painted in but there’s no separation between cars and cyclists and pedestrians. So it’s fairly unsafe compared to having a separated trail.
“By going out and seeing what kinds of infrastructure have been implemented throughout the country, it would help me to better advocate when I go back to my town.”
Seuter bikes an average of six hours daily for 20 to 30 miles and expects to be in Key West by early February. He posts his daily adventures and fundraising campaign on Instagram under @avery_seuter where he has gained nearly 800 followers so far.
When he first set out on his journey, the first few days were a struggle.
“I wasn’t really prepared to start doing so many miles every day, so the first couple days – until I got some muscles built out – was kind of a struggle,” Seuter said. “It’s consistent because the wheel doesn’t have any gears, so you have to constantly pedal … but at this point it’s sort of the same each day so there’s not a ton of extra exertion that might make me sore and I’m not going super fast.
“It’s not terrible.”
With over 1,500 miles completed so far, Seuter said that finding accommodations along the way has been fairly smooth. When he is not staying at motels or camping outdoors, Seuter turns to friends and various online forums that match traveling cyclists with hosts in different cities.
“There’s an online community of cycling tourists through different forums,” Seuter added. “I can look on the map and there are people who have put down that they are available to host. I can look at what city I’m going to be in in a few days ahead of time and I can message them and be like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in the area. Are you available to host?’”
“I’ve had just amazing experiences with that,” Seuter also said. “Everybody … is just so kind and generous.”
As someone who is not a fan of freeze-dried foods, Seuter has mostly relied on fresh fruits and vegetables when he is cycling through areas where restaurants are scarce. However, his favorite snack remains a peanut butter-honey-tortilla sandwich when he is on the go.
“It’s just like a protein bomb,” he said.
