By Larry Weiss

The ranger drove me back up the mountain to the lake. I then proceeded to find my group. It was very dark by then, and I found them by calling our and listening for their answer. They were already in their sleeping bags, but I told them about the incident. In the dark, I found what seemed like a good place to

lay out my sleeping bag. The next morning, I heard someone calling and jabbing me with a stick. I had laid out my sleeping bag in the middle of a patch of poison ivy! Very fortunately, I had always been immune to poison ivy.

We enjoyed the rest of the morning by Crater Lake. Aptly named, this mountain is an old dormant volcano crate and is extremely deep. There was a big stone wall around it with hundreds of chipmunks. Over the years, these creatures have gotten so used to being fed peanuts, which you could buy up there, that they just came right over to you and would scramble up onto your lap to be fed.

After we left Crater Lake, we took a train down to San Francisco. We saw Fisherman's Wharf, rode the cable cars, and saw a lot of the city. We enjoyed the city, but didn't ride our bikes there much since it was so hilly.

We rode a train down to Los Angeles and toured there and Hollywood. We also got a bus tour through the 20th Century Fox studios and lots. It was great seeing the mock towns, cities, buildings, stored, and event he mock jungle that they made for the Tarzan movies. We rode around Hollywood and saw the many famous sights: the Brown Derby, Grumman's Chinese Theater, the Walk of Stars, and many other interesting places. We saw, but certainly didn't go into, many of the fancy expensive stores.

We continued to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were given a tour by local friends of the hostel people. We rode in the back of three pickup trucks, without our bikes or gear. These were left in town. We saw old Indian villages. When we arrived at an old village built into the side of a mountain, one of the drivers got out and told us we could enjoy walking around and exploring the area. He warned us, though, that it was shedding season for the rattlesnakes, and they will often strike for no reason at someone just passing by. "Be careful and watch were you walk," he said. No surprise, not one of us got out of the bed of the trucks! We looked and too pictures of the Indian village right from the trucks.

We then went to the Grand Canyon. That was a wonderful sight. We took a mule ride down into the canyon and had a great time there. We did a bit of hiking, too, and saw the canyon from both the rime and from the bottom on our mule ride. The canyon and the Colorado River were magnificent sights, and of course, we got plenty of pictures.

Next was a long train ride back east to Washington, D.C. We rode our bikes around there and stopped to see most of the sights. We had a tour of the US mint and some other buildings. I'm not sure why we did not tour the White House or the Smithsonian Institute. However, we did get to see most of the magnificent monuments.

From D.C., we took a train to New York City, where we met our parents, spouses, or friends, and the trip was over.

I just spent a little over 60 days on this tour. These were days I will never forget. It was truly a wonderful adventure. We lived on a train, stayed in hostels of every type, and slept out under the stars. We went swimming in lakes and rivers, met people from all over, and became great summer friends with each other. We learned to accept, work with, and help each other, even though we were from different walks of life.

Ten years of school couldn't have taught me as much as that summer did. I was very proud that I was fully accepted into the group and respected for what I could contribute to the group, despite being the only kid. As it turned out, there was never a need for any of them to take care of me. In fact, there wasn't a need for anyone to take care of anyone else. We all shared in the work and the experience.

We discovered that wherever we went, whatever we did, and regardless of the weather, we were able to enjoy and make the best of the situation. Some days when we had a longer ride, or the roads were hotter, we found ourselves more tired. But when the next day came, we were ready, and in fact glad, to go on to more sights and adventures. I can't honestly say we ever had a really bad day. No matter what they day brought, it was always interesting and fun. I look back today and remember some of the different nicknames I have been called over the years. But one of the best was from that trip. Though I did more bicycle repair than people repair, I did enough cleaning and bandaging of scrapes, burns, and cuts, that they called me "Doc".

Written about his 1942 AYH cycle tour trip, this article was taken from Larry Weiss' upcoming autobiography, Such a Life You Wouldn't Believe It (But It's True). Parts 1 and 2 of this article appeared in the April and May issues of Columbus Outdoors.