Jon Olson just keeps pushing on

Fully loaded with enough gear for a three-month, 3,000-mile ride across the country, the Surly brand road bike weighs 80 pounds.

So far, its owner has pushed its pedals up and down the twists and turns of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. He’s endured hazards like the elements, rough roads and speeding semis blaring their horns as they whizzed by just inches from his path. The bike has been tested too, with a finicky flat tire temporarily deflating his Thursday push toward Lewiston.

Those challenges would likely face anyone on a long-distance ride. But Jon Olson faces another challenge, one that makes his arduous journey even more impressive: For the past seven years, he has been living with muscular dystrophy.

“I started having trouble with my hands,” Olson said Friday after arriving in Lewiston. “I would clench them, and I couldn’t open them. Or I couldn’t hold onto things the way I wanted to.”

The 60-year-old retired journalist suspected arthritis, so he went to get it checked out. But after some basic resistance testing, the doctor ominously sent him to a neurologist. That led to a diagnosis of myotonic muscular dystrophy, a variety that afflicts extremities like the hands, ankles and throat.

Olson had been biking for years, and asked the doctor about his dream of one day cycling from coast to coast.

“And he said, ‘You better go now because you’re never going to be stronger than you are today,’ ” he recalled. “The cross-country thing is the big kahuna. It’s the one thing you want to do if you’re a long-distance bike rider.”

Olson was devastated. Instead of mounting up as soon as he could to tackle his dream ride, he fell into a funk that lasted a couple of years.

“I just kind of gave up,” he said. “I just didn’t care.”

The disease affected his walking, which Olson described as more like stumbling. He has difficulty swallowing, and frequently chokes on food. But he figured out that when his feet were locked into the toe straps of a bicycle, he could still push the pedals around and around.

So once Olson got sick of moping and feeling negative about his life, he got back on his bike to take long rides around his hometown of Milwaukee and in neighboring states like Michigan where a longtime riding buddy lives.

Then, even more inspiration struck when he met a young woman while biking around Michigan’s upper peninsula. She was small in stature, but was in the middle of a 4,000-mile ride from Seattle to Maine. They rode together for a couple of days, and Olson said he realized that if she could pull it off, so could he.

“She was just doing it,” he said. “Every day she would get out there and ride.”

So he got out his maps and sharpened his pencil to figure out a route that would avoid more strenuous obstacles like the steep roads of Glacier National Park and cut the miles down to about 3,000. Olson also hooked up with the Muscular Dystrophy Association so people could donate to the organization on behalf of his ride.

With everything in place, he set out from the Pacific Coast on June 1 with three friends. The ride started easily enough, save for a long incline where Olson strained to keep up with his partners.

“I did it, but I died.”

Olson figured his competitive nature pushed him to try to keep up, even though it was too much for his body. So the group settled on a strategy where Olson would either ride ahead or behind to quash that instinct.

Two of his companions had to go back to work after a few days, and his Michigan buddy ended his leg after about 10 days.

That left Olson riding alone, and things got even more challenging on Thursday. The weather got unbearably hot. Road construction slowed him down. And that tire started acting up. He finally threw up his hands shortly after crossing Alpowa Summit on U.S. Highway 12 and hitched a ride to Lewiston, where he’s been resting up at Hells Gate State Park and getting his bike fixed at a local shop.

That anyone would take on such a monumental task as a coast-to-coast bike ride across the United States of America would probably boggle the minds of most folks. But Olson — tall and gaunt, skin sunburnt and dirty from a long day on the road — was certain that he will be able to complete the ride.

He was planning on leaving today for Missoula. Then he will ride on to North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where he’ll take a break of a week or two with his wife. He will cross into Canada after riding through Michigan and reenter the U.S. at Niagara Falls. His final destination is New York City.

Those who would like to donate to the Muscular Dystrophy Association on Olson’s behalf may visit https://mda.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.personalCampaign&participantID=2998. Olson has already blown past his goal of $5,000, and is working with the organization to raise the bar.

But the main goal – completing the ride – will face Olson almost every morning for the rest of the summer.

“And now that I’m alone, it’s easy,” he joked. “I knew there would be challenges that I hadn’t trained for, of course, but the reality is even more daunting. But I don’t go fast. I take a break when I want to. I just want to get it all in.”

Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2266.