Monday, August 27, 2007

Cold Spring Harbor biker back from Coast


He’s home.

Cold Spring Harbor senior Kent Gillin returned to the Island this weekend after completing his 1,045-mile bicycle trip from Vancouver, British Columbia, to San Francisco to raise money for a charity of Hall of Fame hockey player Pat LaFontaine.

Gillin and his father, Paul, raised close to $28,000 on their ride, which they finished on Thursday.

“It was really cool.” Gillin said today. “It’s kind of hard to explain, since I had no idea of what it would be like.” He added that he was most impressed by “Seeing a part of the country I’ve never seen before … that most people never see.”

Gillen kept a daily log of their trip, which began Aug. 5. Here is a portion from the final day:

“The Golden Gate Bridge has a wide walkway on each side, but only the east side was open today. As we pedaled along the walkway we dodged other bikers, pedestrians, Japanese pedestrians that prefer to walk on the left and a straggling band of about 50 nuns that were on some sort of outing. Strangely, as we were going over the bridge a logging truck, heading north, zoomed by and as we have come to expect, showered us with bark. Perhaps a final salute from the Pacific Northwest.”


LaFontaine’s charity, the Companions in Courage Foundation, builds interactive playrooms in children’s hospitals throughout North America.

Click for an earlier story.

Caption: Kent and Paul Gillin at the end of their trip.

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