BaseCamp group coaching member Jaime Baeza shared her experience bikepacking with fellow BaseCamper Jeremy Raeszler as a fundraiser for the Be Good Foundation.
My fellow winter BaseCampers may not know Jeremy Raeszler simply because he's not on Zwift, but he's a BC teammate, and he's been a paraplegic for sixteen years. Don't ask me the mechanics of it, but he has the use of some quad muscles, and he taught himself how to ride an upright bike if he has something to balance against to get started. Don't let that fool you; it's an unbelievable struggle every time he has to stop, because it means the whole process has to happen again to get restarted. The energy it must require is enormous. Thankfully his coworker baked him some killer fresh sourdough bread to share.
I joined Jeremy on his first bikepacking trip in the Nevada desert. This trip was made possible for him through a grant from the Be Good Foundation provided by Jay Petervary’s project and fundraising. We had a surprise up our sleeves, as Aerah Hardin and I were working behind the scenes to let Jay track us on my Garmin inReach and catch up to us when he got to Nevada. Jeremy had been working hard all day, and in the afternoon on a rest break, I saw Jay rolling up in the distance and started the video. It was priceless when Jeremy recognized the iconic goatee and realized who it was. All we could do was chuckle. We pressed on and got to camp in a breathtaking place not far from Lake Mead.
We worked together, endured, rested, pressed on, were awed at the landscape, and bonded throughout the journey. We are three different people from three different walks of life and live in three different states, but we were all connected through the common thread of the huge heart of Rebecca Rusch. I will treasure this trip forever. I've included a couple of videos below.
Jeremy's purpose is to raise money to provide more scholarships for paracyclists to go to Rebecca's Private Idaho. If you're up for giving up your five dollar coffee today and donating instead, we'd be super thankful.