During the summer of 1976, the Battle Ground Bike Club took the trip of a lifetime, a 3350-mile trek from Washington state to Washington D.C. The trip began as a dream in the mind of Syd Muzzy, a teacher and coach at Battle Ground High School. With his wife Judy, a kindergarten teacher, he sketched out a route and started working on the logistics of taking a group of high school students on a cross-country bike trip.
Later, Syd and Judy asked another teacher and librarian from the school district, Butch and Ann Hill, to join the leadership team. With a background in coaching track and football, Butch took charge of fitness development for the riders.
Syd’s dream captured the imagination of many Battle Ground high school students, and soon the group was preparing for the trip in earnest by taking practice rides, lifting weights, learning bike maintenance, and raising money.
However, except for the bike club leaders and students, no one really thought the trip would ever get off the ground—not the school administrators, not the school board, not the city officials, and perhaps not even the parents, who were enthusiastic about the trip but understandably anxious about sending their kids across the country on bikes. The obstacles were enormous and the questions many — how to get insurance, choose the route, raise money, develop fitness, keep riders safe, feed the group, and find housing, to name a few. Nevertheless, the group persevered, overcoming each barrier one by one until suddenly it was June 14, 1976 and time for departure.
To learn more about the trip, click on the images below to see a map of the route, the itinerary, photos, and texts (newspaper articles, letters, journals, and certificates). Alternatively, click on the “Begin” button and follow the trip day by day.
