The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Kent man plans to bike, kayak into history
A Greenwich native and Kent resident who has never shied away from an adventure will be embarking on one of the biggest of his life on Saturday: He plans on biking and kayaking nearly 800 miles in the name of history.
Sal Lilienthal, owner of the Bicycle Tour Company in Kent, will commemorate the 240th anniversary of the 1781 victory at Yorktown by traveling the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.
“It seemed like it would be kind of interesting,” Lilienthal said of the grueling trip that will culminate at the end of the month. “I’m most looking forward to meeting all the people along the way and giving back to the community.”
Running from Newport, R.I., to the site of the decisive Revolutionary War battle in Virginia, Lilienthal’s route includes about 120 miles in Connecticut. He plans to travel through Plainfield, Scotland, Windham, Columbia, Andover, Coventry, Bolton, East Hartford, Hartford, West Hartford, Newtown, Danbury and Ridgefield as part of the journey.
The trail is a series of roads used by the Continental Army under the command of George Washington and the Expédition Particulière under the command of
Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau during their 14-week march from Newport, R.I., to Yorktown, Va. Designated as a National Historic Trail, the route is marked by interpretive signs and exhibits.
Lilienthal will stop in Waterbury at 9 a.m. Aug. 17 for a wreath-laying ceremony and solemn musket salute to honor two fallen French soldiers who are buried at the French Soldiers grave site at the East Farms Cemetery Monument at 3155 E. Main St. The public is welcome to attend the ceremony, one of many planned to promote the historic route through American history.
“It’s designed to highlight one marquee event per state,” said Lilienthal, who has also studied and written about American history and taught through The Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Conn.
Lilienthal’s love of cycling took shape when he was a student at Greenwich High School and participated in a bike tour in France. While in college, he led bike tours, including a 1989 trip from Amsterdam to Paris. He was on the Champs-Élysées in Paris when American Greg LeMond made history by winning the Tour de France.
An economics student at Hobart College, Lilienthal spent a year in Sri Lanka and later moved to Vermont, where he took a job in a bike shop, working on races. When a couple of friends
decided to bike across the country, he thought, “Why not?”
“You can do things when you’re 22, 23 years old, right?” Lilienthal said with a laugh.
When the bikers hit snow in Colorado, Lilienthal decided to go skiing and ended up meeting and working with Olympic trainers and technical experts who would later form teams that worked with U.S. biking phenom Lance Armstrong.
A licensed mechanic with the U.S. National Team in
Colorado Springs, Lilienthal lived and worked with cyclists and staff in Belgium, France and Germany in preparation for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Lilienthal said he often made note of the history he encountered in his travels through both the United States and Europe, including seeing the marker commemorating Washington’s famed crossing of the Delaware River on the night of Dec. 25-26, 1776.
From 1998 to 2014, Lilienthal documented 25 historyfocused
bike tours from Quebec to Savannah, Ga., in “Revolutionary Battles: Experience America’s Roads to Independence,” available through the National Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association Inc. (W3R-US).
This month’s route tells the story of the Americans’ march to victory at Yorktown, the diversity of the troops, the role of women and the critical help from the French in supplying land and water forces, arms and funds to the fight.
The Connecticut leg, the longest on the route, will highlight sites of French Army encampments or meetings. The state segment also includes the hilliest and most varied terrain, including the highest elevation in Bolton.
Sponsored by the W3RUS and the WashingtonRochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, the trip will also feature several kayaking sections, including 15 miles in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.
Lilienthal said he should reach Yorktown on Aug. 28, before traveling back to Boston to paddle to Long Wharf and past Castle Island to Dorchester Bay on Aug. 31 for the end of the journey.
In preparation for the journey, he recently completed a nine-day 500-mile training camp. But he said he has been training for this journey for years and encouraged others to delve into the experiential learning provided by such an adventure.
His decision to travel to Vermont or Sri Lanka or Paris might have led to his upcoming adventure.
“You have to wonder sometimes,” he said.
For mor informaiton on Lilienthal’s itinerary, visit w3r-us.org/washingtonrochambeau-2021-bike-kayak-tour/. He and his team will also provide updates on social media during the trip.