About
Meet Mike
The Long Way back
After heartbreak from a college relationship and burnout from an intensely demanding volunteer ministry role, Mike turned to alcohol to numb the pain. What began as a coping mechanism slowly became a nightly habit that stretched on for years.
Over time, his body and mind began to fail him. Severe fatigue, sleeplessness, heavy brain fog, and crippling anxiety became his daily reality. For more than a decade, nearly every symptom associated with anxiety and depression followed him through his professional life. Though he couldn’t see it at the time, Mike was living with both addiction and clinical depression.
A Change of Scenery – Not yet a Change Within
In May of 2020, Mike left his career and moved to Bend, Oregon — a place he had long dreamed of calling home. With the world in the midst of a pandemic, the timing felt right. He hoped that skiing, cycling, and living in a place he loved might heal what was broken inside.
But for the next three years, the same habits and symptoms persisted. What he thought would be freedom became an anchor, pulling him deeper into an internal prison he couldn’t yet escape.
The Night everything shifted
By 2023, something inside Mike had reached its limit. Thirteen years had passed without feeling like himself, and desperation had replaced denial.
On the night of July 4th, 2023, while watching fireworks over Pilot Butte in Bend, Mike experienced a seismic internal shift — one that escapes words. He set down his empty beer can and never touched alcohol again.
Within a week, the symptoms that had haunted him for over a decade vanished. The problem was finally visible. The solution was clear.
Sobriety.
“After a decade of searching, the answer arrived in a single act of surrender.”
Thanksgiving on Pilot Butte
On Thanksgiving Day, Mike returned to Pilot Butte — the same place where his sobriety began — and went for a run.
He hadn’t run in 12 years.
One lap turned into another. Tears streamed down his face as he felt something he hadn’t known in years: Wellness. Strength. Freedom.
After hours of running and an unexplainable surge of resolve, Mike decided to extend his jog into a full marathon. It took six hours and carried real risk, but he finished.
The impossible had become possible.
The Call
A short time later, while cooking dinner in his van on a quiet gravel road outside town — a place he had spent thousands of nights — a voice came to him:
“Mike, you messed around in Bend for the first three years. For the next three years, you’re going to do three big trips.”
His heart came alive.
It was a moment of surrender.
A moment of calling.
The beginning of a mission he is still living out years later.
Racing Against the horizon
Fueling Mike’s urgency was another truth: a diagnosis of an inherited retinal disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa.
R.P. has no known cure. It slowly destroys the rod and cone cells in the retina, leading to progressive vision loss — including blind spots, distortion, night blindness, and light flares. Mike hadn’t known he was at risk due to being adopted.
Time, suddenly, mattered more than ever.
The First Journey: transamerica
In the spring, Mike flew to Virginia to begin his first major journey: TransAmerica, a historic cross-country cycling route created in 1976 for the United States’ 200th birthday.
The route spans 10 states and roughly 4,200 miles.
Eighty-one days later, Mike reached the western terminus in Astoria, Oregon — forever changed.
Becoming who he was meant to be
Mike’s mission was never just about completing three massive bike trips. It was about becoming whole.
After returning home, he immersed himself in growth: audiobooks, therapy, yoga, journaling, meditation, and deep self-reflection. He entered the healthiest relationship of his life and learned what love could look like without avoidance or fear.
Along the way, he ran three marathons and two ultramarathons.
The holy grail: the great divide
In May of 2025, Mike departed for his second epic: The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
At 2,700 miles of mostly dirt road stretching from Banff, Canada to the New Mexico border, it is the longest continuous off-road cycling route in the world — and widely regarded as the holy grail of bikepacking.
It is remote, grueling, and dangerous.
Sixty days later, after profound hardship and extraordinary kindness from strangers, Mike reached Banff — having done something he once believed was far beyond his reach.
What comes next
In May of 2026, Mike plans to ride TransAmerica Northern Tier, a coast-to-coast route from Washington to Maine. With the United States turning 250 in 2026, the journey feels like a fitting tribute.
Along the way, Mike was approached by a former student about documenting his story. The film, Eyes On The Horizon, will be released in 2026. A book under the same title is planned for 2027.
What began as a personal pursuit of healing has evolved into a life of service.
the heart of it all
Mike’s story is ultimately a human one.
It is about the courage to pursue dreams later in life.
The slow work of healing.
The fight against addiction, depression, and vision loss.
The belief that transformation is possible — even after years of darkness.
And above all, it is about helping others find their way forward.
The perfect ending to a self-improvement journey is helping someone else begin theirs.
Charley
Charley is Mikes’ three-legged German Shepherd companion, named after John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, a book about a long cross-country road trip. She may be mixed with Chow or Husky—something has to explain her fluffy, soft coat and crazy curled tail.
Behaviorally, she is all shepherd: protective, expressive, and suspicious. Mike adopted her on Thanksgiving Day 2018, not long after her amputation. She is missing her right rear leg but hasn’t let it stop her from having fun and smelling every bush in North America.
Every night, Charley lets out a big sigh before falling asleep, and it reminds him to do the same. Charley has lived van life with Mike since May 2020.
Moments on the Road
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Follow the journey — quarterly reflections on the film, the rides, the speaking, and the story behind the book.