As a slight sprinkle started to dampen the streets of Watsonville Friday afternoon, Felix Hindahl rolled into Watsonville Plaza on a bicycle laden with panniers, handlebar bags, electronics and other gear.
That—and the 20-year-old Hanover, Germany native’s bicycling attire—spoke of someone serious about long road trips.
His trip, he said as he settled in for a rest on a bench, began in Alaska.
“I decided to take a year off and explore the west coast,” he said. “Who knows, I might make it as far as Panama.”
Hindahl said he averages between 40 and 60 miles a day on his German made Müsing 22-gear bike.
Thus far he has rolled through Alaska, Washington, Oregon and half of California, including the San Joaquin Valley, through Bakersfield and Death Valley to Santa Cruz.
“I’ve had some very challenging weather,” he said. “The heat was very bad in some parts.”
Hindahl, who works in day care, said that the horror stories he heard of mass shootings and school shootings in America were belied by his experience meeting the people in the U.S.
“As I visit your country and meet people all over, I have come to meet so many kind people,” he said. “It warms my heart; this is such a caring place. Everyone is so nice; it’s so different. But I think I have done all the typical ‘American things’ I wanted to do, shooting guns, driving a pickup, going on a canoe trip, fishing. People have asked me, ‘do you want to shoot my gun.’”
His adventures didn’t end there. He says he has been visited by a raccoon that stole his granola bars, and saw black bears, brown bears, grizzlies, coyotes, wolves and moose.
