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Three South Koreans complete 3,500-mile cycle through US

August 28, 2015
Kim Sang-hak, Kim Ji-min and Yeon Do-heum, South Korean college students, completed cycling across the U.S. and Canada in a 3,500-mile journey for 70 days. (Korea Times)

Kim Sang-hak, Kim Ji-min and Yeon Do-heum, South Korean college students, completed cycling across the U.S. and Canada in a 3,500-mile journey for 70 days. (Korea Times)

By The Korea Times New York staff

Three friends, all 24-year-old South Korean college students, flew into San Francisco two months ago carrying nothing but backpacks and bicycles outfitted with Korean flags.

Seventy days later, the students — Kim Sang-hak, Yeon Doo-heum and Kim Ji-min — had completed cycling 3,500 miles across the U.S. and Canada.

“We all grew up in the same neighborhood, and we’d say, ‘Let’s just do it.’ We were able to finish because we started without much knowledge and because we had that reckless spirit,” they said, upon arriving in their last stop, New York City, on Tuesday.

The trio’s journey took them through Los Angeles, Arizona, Colorado, the Rocky Mountains, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Windsor, Toronto and the Niagara Falls.

Sang-hak, who went to Australia under a working holiday program in May, met an American traveler who was doing a worldwide trip via bicycle.

Inspired, Sang-hak went back home to Korea to gather his friends and set off on his own cycling mission three weeks later, no matter that their budget was limited.

“After leaving San Francisco for Los Angeles, we spent 10 days on hilly freeways. The first two days felt like a vacation, making ramen in between. But as time passed, we were overtaken by exhaustion and hunger,” Doo-heum said.

Having little money, the three friends slept each night in tents set up on streets.

“The Arizona desert was the hardest leg of the trip,” Ji-min said. “Going through a 100-mile ‘No Service’ zone, we ended up dehydrated and unable to continue near the 70-mile mark. With the help of a passing American who helped us, we barely made it out of there.”

In Detroit, they happened upon a Korean Liberation Day event and participated in a ceremony for the first anniversary of the installation of a statue commemorating comfort women.

“It was a reckless trip, but it was possible because we’re young, and we’re proud and happy to have completed our itinerary,” they said. “Thanks to this experience, we’ve found the confidence to take on whatever life throws at us in the future.”