Two Wheels North: Cycling the West Coast in 1909

Two boys on a bike trip are sure to find adventure. Send them off into the wilds of the American West, and it's a safe bet adventure will find them.

In 1909, Vic McDaniel and Ray Franciso, just out of high school, set out from Santa Rosa, CA., on second-hand bikes, bound for the great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Vic and Ray reported their adventures to their home-town newspaper, and what adventures they had. They met their share of memorable characters, from a young girl who stole Ray's heart to pin-striped hustler who tried to pick Vic's pocket. They traveled beside railroad tracks, fought their way around boulders and up brushy hillsides, and crossed rivers layered with salmon. They survived a grizzly's nocturnal visit and the sudden terror of a snake bite. They held their breaths crossing railroad trestles over treacherous canyons, and discovered that a railroad tunnel doesn't offer safe passage when you're halfway through and a train comes along.

Evelyn Gibb, Vic's daughter, has drawn on his recollections to tell this incredible adventure in his voice. A captivating account of a journey that today we can only dream about, Two Wheels North has won the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nonficiton Book Award.

Author: Evelyn Gibb
Paperback
192 pages