Overview

At fifty-four, Alenka was running out of time to follow through on a dream she'd written down in her pocket-size Rumi book just after her first marriage crumbled. Years later, as she slowly rebuilt her life with her second husband, things started spiraling out of control. The only way she knew how to heal and connect all painful parts of her life was by riding her bike, and she didn't want to have regrets. But was she brave enough to embark on an unknown path and risk losing everything . . . perhaps even her own life? Determined to awaken her dying spirit and heal her battered body, Alenka loaded her mountain bike with 50 pounds' worth of camping gear and set off on a 2,500-mile journey. Starting in Lake Tahoe California, she hoped to ride along the Sierra Nevada Mountain range to the tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, following remote mountain trails.Alone. What followed was an irrevocably transformational journey of love, hope, courage, and resilience-and here, Alenka tells that story in a voice stripped of self-pity and infused with a good dose of humor. She Rides is a galvanizing wake-up call for anyone who wants to unearth and follow their own deeply buried dreams-and reclaim their life.

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9781647424565

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Reviews

A universal story of healing, hope, grit, and determination. Alenka's bike trip from Tahoe to Baja is a heroine's journey that will hold you in its grip. But it's also a love story-about knowing what matters most and finding your way back home. -Valerie Andrews, editor of Reinventing Home and author of A Passion for this Earth Alenka Vrecek invites us to sit side-saddle as she rides from Tahoe to the tip of Baja, battling headwinds and heartache, illness and injury, and others' ideas of who and how a fifty-four-year-old woman should be. Gripping, wise, and snort-coffee-out-your-nose funny, She Rides will make you want to drop everything, get good and lost, and find your way back home. -Brian Benson, author of Going Somewhere

A universal story of healing, hope, grit, and determination. Alenka's bike trip from Tahoe to Baja is a heroine's journey that will hold you in its grip. But it's also a love story-about knowing what matters most and finding your way back home. -Valerie Andrews, editor of Reinventing Home and author of A Passion for this Earth Alenka Vrecek invites us to sit side-saddle as she rides from Tahoe to the tip of Baja, battling headwinds and heartache, illness and injury, and others' ideas of who and how a fifty-four-year-old woman should be. Gripping, wise, and snort-coffee-out-your-nose funny, She Rides will make you want to drop everything, get good and lost, and find your way back home. -Brian Benson, author of Going Somewhere She Rides is heartfelt and riveting from the opening lines. So much more than a grueling bicycle adventure, Vrecek openly shares her feelings of longing for her home country, the fallout from the dissolution of her first marriage, and the prospect that she might not recover from cancer. Ultimately, through courage, fortitude, and sheer badass strength, she makes the most important discovery of all, that she can unflinchingly face any challenge and confront every obstacle head on. And that she's just fine being who she is. -Michael Shapiro, author of A Sense of Place

A universal story of healing, hope, grit, and determination. Alenka's bike trip from Tahoe to Baja is a heroine's journey that will hold you in its grip. But it's also a love story-about knowing what matters most and finding your way back home. -Valerie Andrews, editor of Reinventing Home and author of A Passion for this Earth Alenka Vrecek invites us to sit side-saddle as she rides from Tahoe to the tip of Baja, battling headwinds and heartache, illness and injury, and others' ideas of who and how a fifty-four-year-old woman should be. Gripping, wise, and snort-coffee-out-your-nose funny, She Rides will make you want to drop everything, get good and lost, and find your way back home. -Brian Benson, author of Going Somewhere She Rides is heartfelt and riveting from the opening lines. So much more than a grueling bicycle adventure, Vrecek openly shares her feelings of longing for her home country, the fallout from the dissolution of her first marriage, and the prospect that she might not recover from cancer. Ultimately, through courage, fortitude, and sheer badass strength, she makes the most important discovery of all, that she can unflinchingly face any challenge and confront every obstacle head on. And that she's just fine being who she is. -Michael Shapiro, author of A Sense of Place We all embark on journeys of discovery, whether in our own neighborhood or faraway lands, but few of us take on the rigors that Alenka Vrecek does in She Rides. The psychological and emotional challenges of this solo-cycling marathon from Lake Tahoe to southern Baja are as daunting as the physical ones, but she navigates them all, emerging from the experience having found what she was seeking: her place in the world. -Larry Habegger, Executive Editor of Travelers' Tales Books

A gripping account of small-scale adventure and self-discovery. -Kirkus Reviews A universal story of healing, hope, grit, and determination. Alenka's bike trip from Tahoe to Baja is a heroine's journey that will hold you in its grip. But it's also a love story-about knowing what matters most and finding your way back home. -Valerie Andrews, editor of Reinventing Home and author of A Passion for this Earth Alenka Vrecek invites us to sit side-saddle as she rides from Tahoe to the tip of Baja, battling headwinds and heartache, illness and injury, and others' ideas of who and how a fifty-four-year-old woman should be. Gripping, wise, and snort-coffee-out-your-nose funny, She Rides will make you want to drop everything, get good and lost, and find your way back home. -Brian Benson, author of Going Somewhere She Rides is heartfelt and riveting from the opening lines. So much more than a grueling bicycle adventure, Vrecek openly shares her feelings of longing for her home country, the fallout from the dissolution of her first marriage, and the prospect that she might not recover from cancer. Ultimately, through courage, fortitude, and sheer badass strength, she makes the most important discovery of all, that she can unflinchingly face any challenge and confront every obstacle head on. And that she's just fine being who she is. -Michael Shapiro, author of A Sense of Place We all embark on journeys of discovery, whether in our own neighborhood or faraway lands, but few of us take on the rigors that Alenka Vrecek does in She Rides. The psychological and emotional challenges of this solo-cycling marathon from Lake Tahoe to southern Baja are as daunting as the physical ones, but she navigates them all, emerging from the experience having found what she was seeking: her place in the world. -Larry Habegger, Executive Editor of Travelers' Tales Books In She Rides, Alenka Vrecek finds inner strength and a community that crosses both borders and boundaries as she travels by mountain bike alone on backroads from Lake Tahoe, California, to La Ventana, Baja. Her exciting story will be inspirational-and maybe even a comfort-to women across the globe. -Laura Read, journalist, photographer, and editor Daring herself with the fantasy of bicycling from Tahoe to Baja-right after a string of daunting medical challenges-Alenka Vercek proves that our only limits are the ones we impose on ourselves. Filled with scenic beauty and personal reflection, She Rides is a keenly observed account of Vercek's odyssey through many worlds, inner and outer. -Jeff Greenwald, author of Snake Lake She Rides is a tale of the spunk, perseverance, and desire it took for Alenka to not only finish the ride but always live life to the fullest. It's also funny, humble, and a touching tribute to the human spirit. -Tim Hauserman, author of Going it Alone: Ramblings and Reflections from the Trail

Author Information

Alenka Vrecek was born at the foot of the Alps in Slovenia, a part of former communist Yugoslavia. Born with a spirit for adventure, she came to America at twenty years old with a backpack, a pair of skis, and a pocket full of dreams. She was a ski coach and a director of Pedagogy for Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski Teams for thirty years. Alenka owns Tahoe Tea Company and lives in Lake Tahoe, California, with her second husband, Jim, their four children, three grandchildren, and a Golden Retriever named Monty.

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