The Great Plains Project

A lot has happened since my last Great Plains Project post in 2019, in which I introduced the scope and purpose of creating the project. I’ve been fortunate to have ridden and bikepacked about half of the original route through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. It’s beautiful country, to be sure.

I’ve also incorporated it into immersive learning curriculum at Texas Tech University, wherein we led a small group of travel documentary students as they followed me riding between Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Pickstown, South Dakota. Post-production delays and other responsibilities had up to this point put a halt on getting this work out to the public, though.

That is, until now! The Great Plains Project is alive and well, and post-production is currently underway on a multi-part PBS docuseries on a 15-day-long adventure we just wrapped. Friend and collaborator, Brandon Weaver, and I just finished riding what will ultimately be an official gravel touring route from Mexico to Canada, exploring the Great Plains and meeting its peoples along the way.

How’d we do it in 15 days, you may ask? Not shirking the spirit of two-wheeled travel (but needing to travel more quickly than pedals would allow), we rode adventure motorcycles up the middle of the country, determining the viability of the route for cyclists, as well as other modes of travel.

But, enough here. If you want a taste of what it was like during our 15 days on the route, check out our new website for the project at www.thegreatplainsproject.com. There, you will find dispatches from each day we travelled north from Presidio, Texas, as well as additional information about the route we traversed and the upcoming television series!