Paul Mandala has been bicycling more miles than a lot of people have traveled by air and this trip from Alaska to Panama must have been epic.
By pedaling 10,000 miles from Alaska to Panama City last July, Paul Mandala experienced the trip of a lifetime and laid eyes on an array of wildlife, people and environments while traveling along the unfamiliar roads. With just him and his road bike, Mandala found the cycling journey exhilarating. “By bike, it’s a perfect pace to get in and out of towns every day,” says Mandala, 25. “You’re still going slow enough to see everything — all the bugs crawling and birds chirping.”
For Mandala, cycling symbolizes his sense of adventure.
He first started biking beyond recreation in 2007, when a friend invited him on a charity trip from Rhode Island to California. It took 2½ months to ride.
“As soon as I finished that trip, it really opened my mind to the world,” says Mandala. “It got me not just thinking about New Jersey, and that I wanted to see the world more.”
The idea for his most recent trip, the Pan-American Highway, also started in 2007. It was a buddy’s “dream ride,” he recalled. For the next six years, it was also Mandala’s.
The Pan-American Highway connects North and South America from Alaska to Argentina. Mandala started July 2, 2013, in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska — the state’s most northern town — and finished up in Panama City. He arrived home in New Jersey on Jan. 18.
Mandala took the trip alone — the only riders were a few friends who rode with him from Vancouver, Canada, to Portland, Ore. He pedaled through Yukon, British Colombia, Washington, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and more.
“I got lost all the time,” says Mandala, adding Alaska was the easiest to navigate through. “Once you get there — lower California — there are a lot more choices of roads.”
He occasionally utilized the GPS on his smartphone, though it struggled to get cellular signals. For the most part, Mandala used paper maps.
“I don’t really stress about getting lost,” Mandala says. “It gives me more chances to getting to talk to people. The interactions about the kind of people you meet on the road is amazing.”
Among the 10,000 miles of land he crossed, Mandala listed the Baja Desert, Costa Rica and Olympic National Park as his favorite spots.
His photo album has over 2 million views