This is called taking the adage “Travel shapes the young” literally. A resident of Long Beach, California, Liam Garner did not wait for parental approval to take his bike, leave the family home and cross the three American continents.
It was 2021. He was 17 when an irresistible urge to escape seized him. He had to get the equivalent of the baccalaureate, at the end of high school, he had studied well, worked well, showed excellent grades and he was supposed to prepare, like all his comrades, the continuation, the studies, the university, a profession. . “But the closer the deadline got, he confides to CNN, the more the idea of leaving everything grew in me. It was very quick, I didn’t plan much, I just got my diploma, gathered the necessary equipment and left.“
Liam Garner joined Alaska and from there set off on a mountain bike with the idea of descending the entire Pan-American highway to reach Ushuaia, Argentina. It was August 1, 2021, and a year and a half later, he paid off. It has just arrived 32,000 kilometers below, in Tierra del Fuego, safe and sound, two years older and above all changed. Grown up.
He explains that he left with almost nothing, without his parents’ consent, with his mountain bike, his laptop, a first aid kit, spare tubes, a handful of clothes, and water. and food for two days.
On his Instagram and TikTok accounts, he describes the wonder of riding, alone, slowly, of feeling the elements, the wind, the cold, the rain, the perfumes, the fact of appreciating each city crossed, of really measuring the size real of the distances which separate them, of the countries, of the continents, of the Earth itself. It lists the beautiful encounters, but also the bad ones. Liam Garner has had his belongings stolen five times, and had about as many accidents, earning him several visits to the hospital. “In Mexico I almost stopped everything, because there’s no point in hurting yourself and then I got back on my bike, I reached Guatemala, it was beautiful, peaceful, so I continued .“
After 527 days, he has finally reached his goal, and now intends to return home to California, not by bike, but on foot, just with his backpack and especially in the company of his girlfriend who has joined him. in Argentina. It’s been a nice 20,000 kilometer hike,”a last trip, a last opportunity to appreciate all these places, these landscapes, these encounters before starting a normal life“.