How the first Indian’s 15,000 km solo bicycle ride across two continents changed the way he felt about life

How does it feel to travel alone for 13 months completely alone – camping every night in the dark and dealing with wild bears? Dhruv Bogra took his love for cycling to another level when he decided to cycle from Alaska in North America to the 9000-feet high Sacred Valley in Peru, South America.

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Dhruv Bogra loves cycling. When he was in class 3, he cycled alone every day from his home in the army cantonment to Sacred Heart Convent in Mathura. While the other kids chose the army truck to travel those four kilometres, for Druv, his cycle was his freedom.

It was this memory that called to him when he was 40 and he longed to re-experience that feeling of being the lightest and happiest he had ever felt. And in 2015, after a trek to the Chugach mountains in Alaska which unveiled to him the unexplored natural beauty in the locale, he decided to do something that no Indian had done before.

"I chose to cycle from the northern most part of Alaska (North America) to South America. I wanted to do what very few people on the planet have done, which is to travel solo and unsupported on a bicycle from one continent to the other," says Dhruv.

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No Indian had ever attempted to cycle the entire length of the Dalton Highway -- one of the most dangerous roads in the world, and surely no one had ever cycled across from North America to South America in one continuous journey extending many months.

"This is what a wild camping site looks like. One had to collect firewood to cook food, filter water and pitch tents" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

Planning for the epic cross-continent cycling trip

However, an epic bicycle trip from the Rockies to the Andes doesn't happen out of the blue. In 2011, Druv had taken out his childhood love for cycling on Mumbai's roads and quickly graduated to mountain biking in just a few months.

"Cycling in remote and on less travelled roads has been a passion since 2012 and I have explored the mountains of Himachal, Uttarakhand and Sikkim since then and clocked over 2000 kms on a bicycle on Himalayan roads and the Western Ghats in the last seven years," he says.

When he knew he was ready for such a massive trip, Dhruv started to plan the technical details of route, equipment, funds, food and communication, all of which had to be decided beforehand to avoid any disasters later on.

There are multiple routes for the cross-continent trip he wanted to take -- Trans Siberian, Old Silk Route and the African continent. Druv chose the Pan American route which entailed a massive journey over 10 countries and 15,000 cycling kms from Deadhorse, Alaska to Cusco in Peru.

"Training in the heat of Delhi with all my gear loaded on Quest" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

Once the route was selected, it was time to fine-tune the travelling route of every single day using detailed maps of each country.

"Over many months, I would pore over the roads after work hours and mark each riding day. I had to refer to numerous cycling blogs for different sections of the route as very few cyclists take such long trips stretching to over a year."

Alongside, he started to select which bicycle and equipment he would take -- this took six months

"I chose the all-steel touring bike - the Surly Troll, proven to be a workhorse across all forms of terrain and installed one of the best gear systems in the world on it - the Rohloff Hub," says Dhruv. He named his bike 'Quest' and it was his constat companion throughout his journey.

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"Each item such as the tent, sleeping bag, rain jacket, thermals, cooking stove, water filtration systems had to be researched for performance and durability -- and weight," he says.

He soon discovered that for such a long trip, every single gram counts! But sadly, the lightest equipment is usually the most expensive.

In all, almost 90 items -- from the cameras to the tent to the rainproof matchboxes -- got stuffed into four panniers and a handlebar bag that altogether weighed more than 40 kilograms.

"All my camping gear and my bicycle , Quest at Fairbanks" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

Convincing the boss for a two-year sabbatical

If you go to your boss looking for a two-year sabbatical and not because you are getting married or having a baby, it is likely that he or she will laugh at your face. Dhruv's experience wasn't too different.

"The conversation with Dave Thomas, the MD of Adidas India, was one of the toughest I have had and most awkward. I was a key member of his team and I felt quite guilty for taking this ultimate step to freedom," recalls Dhruv.

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But after the initial discomfort in revealing all to the team he provided leadership to, he found everyone including Dave very supportive of his once-in-a-lifetime epic adventure.

However, the majority of his friends and family discouraged him from the trip. They said it was too crazy or too dangerous or that taking this sabbatical would kill his career.

"Risks existed at all levels but I chose to follow my heart and my desire to fulfill a long-cherished dream," says Dhruv.

"Cycling in Utttarkhand in March 2016 with my gear on the bike"(Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

Routes and terrains: The many faces of the 15,000 km cycle ride

Dhruv travelled across a variety of terrains in his journey. He started from the northernmost section of North America -- from Deadhorse which lies at the Beaufort Sea to Cusco, in the Peruvian Andes.

"It was an odyssey from the cold barren arctic tundra, past the remote wilderness of the Yukon, the sweeping majesty of the icy Canadian Rockies to the beautiful rugged coastline of the Pacific along the US West Coast," he says.

"Training in the Himalayas in the winter of 2016 with my backpack" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

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At Tijuana, the road meandered into Mexico and he cycled more than 4000 km in the country months exploring its mountains and valley towns many of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Guadalajara, Oaxaca, Tequila and San Cristobal.

"I cycled into the exotic arid desert of the Baja Peninsula and into the Valley of the Boojum that some of the most treasured species of cacti in the world," he says.

"Quest and I spent a week in the Baja Desert riding past hundreds of species of cacti and blowing sand. The headwind was very strong and at times the speed was over 40kmph. At the time I was down with bronchitis and it was very tough to survive and ride in such terrain." (Photo: Instagram.com/dhruvbograofficial)

From Mexico, Dhruv rode into thick tropical rainforests and mountainous Guatemala and El Salvador.

"Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama were hot and humid but tropical paradises! Central America was the gateway to South America but due to visa challenges, I had to travel directly into Lima, Peru," he explains.

From here, he made his way past massive desert dunes which are a part of the ecosystem that creates the driest place on earth, the town of Ica, and the Atacama Desert.

"From Nazca, I climbed into the Andes, riding to dizzying altitudes well over 15000 feet! I cycled for two months over a thousand kilometres in the Andes and experienced not only bitter cold but fascinating wildlife such as the Vicunas and encountered the amazing past of the Inca empire and the Quechua people," he says.

Dhruv ended his journey in the gorgeous Sacred Valley at 9000 feet in Peru.

The top memories

An epic journey like this is filled with a line of non-stop incredible memories. But if Dhruv Bogra has to choose, he would pick the utterly awe-inspiring landscapes of the Yukon and Jasper National Park, the mainland of Mexico and its vibrant cultures and the mystical beauty of the Peruvian Andes.

"I had many close encounters with bears and wolves in Canada and those will stay with me for a lifetime," he says.

"Cycling on the Banff Parkway with Takashi, a Japanese cyclist" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

From camping each night to dealing with bears

A 15,000 km solo journey means dealing with regular danger. And all alone, Dhruv traversed the Dalton Highway in the arctic in Alaska, one of the most dangerous and remote roads in the world, as there are no services for over 700 kilometres.

"Then there's the constant threat of bears and having to take extreme precautions while cooking and camping. The third was the rigor of camping every night in the wilderness all alone and being totally self-sufficient for survival. It was all upto me," says Dhruv.

Yet another period of hardship was the intense cold and hard rain he had to face every day for around 2000 kilometres when the weather in the Pacific Northwest of the US turned really bad.

"On the first day of my odyssey I was caught up in snow storm and had to camp in the midst of the storm in the marshy arctic tundra!" (Photo: Instagram.com/dhruvbograofficial)
"In Mexico I came down with typhoid, influenza and bronchitis. I rode through the Baja desert with lungs that had barely recovered from illness," recalls Dhruv.

Another running challenge was climbing hills and mountains almost each and every day on the journey except for a few hundred kilometres in Alaska and Central America.

Camping at Robert Service Campground in the Yukon (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

Cycling through controversies and clearing misconceptions

In this digital world, most of us rarely connect to a place even when we go travelling. We hop on the plane and go miles away to another place and there too, we remain stuck inside our smartphone screens.

But when you cycle, you have to pay attention - and you cannot help but cross out various misconceptions sitting in your mind.

"One of the greatest misconceptions about a part of the world that has been created by the media is the exaggerated fear of how unsafe Mexico and Central America are," says Dhruv.

"They are safe and they are vibrant, happy cultures. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful and fun to be with. Yes one has to be careful and avoid some places that carry an additional risk but that holds true of any part of the world," he adds.

He feels another major aspect ignored by the media is the utter and systematic destruction of the languages and culture of indigenous tribes and natives or people of North, Central and South America.

"The erosion and destruction that started with the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century continued well into the 20th century causing irreparable damage to the language and customs of millions of people who had lived on these lands for thousands of years," explains Dhruv.

"Curtis and Jenny were also cycling to South America and we met on the road once again in Mexico" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

How a 15,000 km solo cycling trip changes a person

Dhruv Bogra firmly believes that his incredible experience has transformed him completely - an almost spiritual transformation that perhaps won't be replicated in this lifetime again.

We humans haven't always been digital entities disconnected from the environment and ecosystem around us. For around two million years, we were hunter-gatherers. We worshipped nature and its elements and walked around foraging for food, moving on when the resources in the area became sparse.

The rigors of the solo cycling journey awoke some of these primal instincts inside Dhruv as he came into contact with many ordinary people on the road -- from farmers, huntsmen, carpenters, builders, truckers to other world travellers either cycling, hitchhiking or backpacking.

"This epic journey has rewired my brain and my view of the world has altered. I firmly believe that the natural destinies of the people of the planet are interwoven and interconnected," he says.
"Cycling to Coldfoot on the Dalton Highway, one of the most remote and dangerous roads in the world." (Photo: Instagram.com/dhruvbograofficial)

"We need to reconnect with our primal side and come into greater contact with nature and animals. I began to understand why our ancestors believed in nature worship," he adds.

Dhruv said the experience had spawned in him a greater awareness of the history of the indigenous people around the world and how important it is to protect and preserve their culture "even if it means we have to eschew the meaning of development and progress."

"I have become a far greater compassionate person, more resilient than ever before and capable of embracing hardship and struggle in my stride. I turned vegetarian when I came back to India and am on a journey to becoming a vegan," he says.

"I also began to consciously reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible by going to work in a metro instead of my car," Dhruv adds.

"I would cook my meals on an alcohol stove using super light titanium pots. I would cook pasta, eggs, soups and oats most of the time" (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

Can anyone become a tour cyclist?

Dhruv Bogra feels anyone can take up tour cycling.

"All you need is some basic equipment, a hardy and proven bicycle and an adventurous spirit," he smiles.

"It is easy to begin with weekend trips to the mountains or to the closest town. It is what we call micro-adventures. Slowly the body and spirit will grow in strength and aspiration and you will aim for longer trips and farther destinations. And one day you will truly embrace a journey that will change your life," he adds.

Pedalling on the Stewart - Cassiar Highway in British Columbia, Canada (Photo: Dhruv Bogra)

'Grit, Gravel and Gear': The account of the epic cross-continent

After returning from his adventure, Dhruv penned 'Grit, Gravel and Gear', an account of his 15,000 km solo journey on a bicycle across two continents from the Arctic to the Andes, which is now available in all leading online stores.

Peppered with detailed maps, illustrations and vibrant pictures depicting the landscapes of the Americas, the people and their culture, the travelogue has 22 stories and numerous poems written by the author while on the journey.

He had kept notes on his journey, especially on the people he met. Along with that, he also took thousands of pictures with his cameras and hundreds of videos with his GoPro.

Dhruv Bogra at the book launch (Photo: Instagram.com/dhruvbograofficial)

"I have always aspired to write a book on my experiences and this odyssey was the most epic trip of my life," says Dhruv.

"I certainly wanted to chronicle it so that I could share it with others and inspire them to uncage themselves and believe in doing the unthinkable," he adds.

Will he go on a trip like this again?

"My journey into the far corners of the Earth will never end. Maybe the trips will be shorter, a few thousand kilometres over 3-4 months but I do intend to ride across Siberia, the old Silk route and into parts of Northern Europe such as Iceland, Norway and Scotland," says a hopeful Dhruv Bogra.

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