From Pedals to Paddles

People

When Mike Quirk set off on an epic, 1,300-mile bike ride last summer to raise money for Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness and move to New York City, he had no idea that, over the course of this multi-week adventure he would trade his wheels for a paddle and experience two countries in a way he never imagined.

Quirk’s connection to the Boundary Waters began in high school, when an outdoor adventure class sparked his love for nature. “I had an amazing teacher who really ignited my love for outdoor recreation,” Quirk recalls. His passion for being outside grew, cumulating in a formative ten-day canoe trip in the Boundary Waters after graduation. “We had a great time. We had our trials and tribulations as well. It is pretty wild up there and there’s a lot of bugs. And you get really gross and stinky and tired, but at the end of the day you fall asleep in your tent under the stars and it’s really something special.”

One college diploma and a few years later, Quirk was living in Colorado and about to make the move to New York City. He could just fly or rent a van and drive across the country, but the move presented an opportunity. Why not bike? The route from Minnesota to New York would bring him right next to the Boundary Waters. To make the journey mean something more, he reached out to Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, turning his personal journey into a fundraiser to protect the area he loves.

Quirk and his friend, Nico Peters, departed St. Paul with loaded bikes and high spirits. The first leg took them north along Lake Superior. After crossing the Canadian border, the journey took an unexpected turn, when Nico, shaken by the dangerous conditions on Highway 17, which often lacked a shoulder and posed significant risks for cyclists, decided to turn back.

Now on a solo trip, Quirk continued on the narrow or non-existent highway shoulders. Then one day, a semitruck was coming behind him. It began to veer into the shoulder and at the last second, swerved and barely missed hitting Quirk. In the process, the truck was overturned. 

Having narrowly escaped with his life, Quirk was stunned. During the following days and weeks, he grappled with what happened and struggled to continue on his bike. “That was really tough,” he admits. “Especially just being alone all day on my bike with nothing to think about.”

Stressed by this near miss led Quirk to seek an alternative route. In the small town of Mattawa, a chance encounter with a friendly local named Lisa at a Tim Horton’s (this is Canada, after all) led to an unexpected solution. After explaining his trip to her, Lisa declared, “We’re getting you a canoe today.” This set in motion a dramatic shift in Quirk’s journey. Soon, Quirk found himself loading his bike into a canoe, ready to paddle the Ottawa River towards Montreal. 

What Quirk assumed would be an easy float turned into a grueling paddle against headwinds and whitecaps. “For a couple of days, I just kind of had to sit around and read my book,” he says, laughing at the memory. The 11-day canoe journey could have been done in two days by bike, but it offered its own rewards – and challenges.

A canoe on the water with a towering rock wall on the horizon and bike loaded in the bow.

One section of the Ottawa River threw Quirk into a churn of world-class rapids. “It was basically a full-on, all-day, just adrenaline-pumping day through the whitewater,” he recounts. With his bike lashed to the canoe, Quirk navigated these huge rapids, that are the playground for kayakers, capsizing once and spending a miserable night shivering on an island in soaked gear.

The kindness of strangers buoyed his spirits. “I was blown away by the hospitality and kindness of the Canadian people,” Quirk says. “Multiple times people let me stay with them or donated to the campaign.”

After reaching Ottawa, Quirk sold the canoe and returned to his bike, covering the final stretch to New York City in a blur of 100-mile days. Having pushed his limits farther than he ever imagined, he arrived exhilarated, ready to start a new stage in his life.

Mike Quirk astride his bike with the NYC skyline in the background.

The journey was about more than personal challenge. It was a way to give back to a place that had shaped him. “If you’re going to do a big trip like this, it’s not that much more effort to link up with a charity and do it for a good cause,” he says. “It’s a great platform for raising awareness or raising money for important causes like the Friends of the Boundary Waters, protecting our water and environment in northern Minnesota.”

Quirk’s adventure serves as a reminder that extraordinary journeys often begin in our own backyards. By combining personal passion with a greater purpose, one person’s bike ride can become a powerful statement about the places we love and the lengths we’ll go to protect them.

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