Owen Kinney On the Colorado Bike Trail

Imagine if you will, the sound of a thunderstorm appearing and you need to take cover under a thick forest from quarter-sized hail. Your clothes are wet, and you know that hypothermia will soon set in if you don’t find someplace warm and safe. It’s day fifteen of solo hiking in the wilderness and your bike has already been broken once, but for UC Davis sophomore and Saugus alumni Owen Kinney, this trail represents a life-changing opportunity. This is a chance to test how strong he really is. After his first year of college, he decided that life was short, and he hadn’t seen enough of the world yet. For Owen, the outdoors has always been a place of beauty and serenity, and in July 2022 he was ready to bike through as much of it as he could.
After living in California for much of his life, Owen had his heart set on biking and hiking through the Colorado trail; and after much training and preparing he was confident in his abilities to survive solo. He was enjoying college, and had made plenty of new friends at UC Davis, but the dark cloud of trauma from the deadly events at Saugus in 2019 had hung over everyone he met. It was the first thing anyone thought of whenever he mentioned his high school, and he was aching to go somewhere the past wouldn’t be able follow. He loved being outside in nature, where he could escape from the city and all the rush of life, it was a respite from his daily routine.
For sixteen days, Owen would ride over 550 miles and reach elevations up to 12,000 feet above sea level. The beautiful arid deserts, dense forests, scenic lakes, and stunningly tall mountains were picturesque and made for a challenging hike. He saw river otters, prong-horned deer, and even a moose on one day of the trip. Luckily no bears, and the only danger were the elements around him. But for Owen, the biggest gift from this experience was the friendliness and helpfulness from everyone he encountered along the way. From a local bike rental shop owner helping him fix his bike one morning, to meeting up and sharing the trail with two local college professors nicknamed the ‘outdoor educators’, Owen saw so much more than just the beauty in nature, but the beauty in humanity itself. He saw the older generations guiding the young, teaching the tricks of the trade, and giving back to their community through their wisdom. And if you asked Owen, he’d say that was the best part. 

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