Ocean to ocean for Jakob
Ken Smith, 70, riding coast to coast to raise funds for his sick grandson
People always say Niagara has some of the nicest bike trails around, but how would they really know?
But when Ken Smith says Niagara has some of the nicest bike trails around, you can believe him. Because he’s seen a lot of them. In fact, by the time he reached the bike trails in Fort Erie, he had already clocked more than 4,500 kilometres on his bike.
“It really is a beautiful ride,” said Smith, as he caught his breath during a break along the trail at the picturesque Waverly
Beach.
Earlier this year, Smith hopped on his bike where the Pacific Ocean meets Oregon, and he started heading east. He won’t stop until he hits the Atlantic Ocean.
“It starts out well enough, but then you reach those coastal mountains and the Rockies, and wow, it really slows you down,” said Smith, originally from London, Ont.
But what goes up must come down.
“Once you get to the other side, it’s awesome. I was just screaming down the mountains for a few days.”
Smith has two motivations for tackling the colossal coast-tocoast bike ride. The first is that several years ago, he met a man along the bike path near his home in Grand Rapids, Mich., who was doing the Pacific-to Atlantic ride.
“I told myself, ‘That’s pretty neat. I’d like to do that one day,’” said Smith, who is now 70 years old.
The other reason he’s riding is to raise money for his grandson, Jakob, who needs 24-7 medical care.
“When Jakob was two months old, he had a massive seizure, and doctors said he would be dead by his second birthday,” said Smith.
Sixteen years later, Jakob is still alive; however, he never fully recovered from the seizures, and he never regained the ability to speak, and his motor functions are limited. Jakob’s father is a firefighter, and Smith said he began to worry about his grandson’s future.
“His medical care is very costly, and if something ever happened to his father, I don’t want to think about what that might mean for Jakob,” said Smith.
To make sure there are always funds to take care of his grandson, Smith has been accepting donations from people as he crosses the country.
“People are so generous, they see me on my bike and ask about what’s going on, and sometimes they just hand me a $10 bill or a 20, and it really warms my heart and gives me the motivation to keep going,” said Smith.
Smith rides about 90 kilometres every day, and he expects to reach the East Coast in Boston by the end of September. And what does he plan to do when he gets there?
“I think at that point, I’ll just fall into the ocean and finally relax,” he said.
To contribute to Smith’s fundraising ride across North America, visit www.gofundme.com/ ride-pacific-to-atlantic-for-jakob.