Luke Rein turns ride to see friend into trip to raise climate-change awareness

Luke Rein stood near the Santa Monica, California, pier and could see the Channel Islands in the distance Friday evening. He hadn’t seen the ocean in about two months.

“It’s weird, not to think that I’m here, but to think about all of the stuff between,” he said.

Rein had just completed a 4,030-mile bike trip in 68 days, from the East Bay Bike Path in East Providence to California.

He learned plenty during the journey, but one lesson stood out: at 22, he completed an adventure that most could only dream of.

“There are a lot of people who have jobs and really wish they were doing something they really wanted to do” instead, Rein said.

Rein has been traveling on two wheels for a while. In high school, he biked from his hometown, Barrington, to Bristol for a job as a sailing instructor, and sometimes out to Providence.

“It’s so much more efficient” than driving, he said.

In the fall of 2011, Rein headed to the College of Charleston in South Carolina and studied marine biology. He wanted to go on a post-graduation trip and planned to bike to Flagstaff, Arizona, to visit a friend. When he realized it was only another 500 miles to the coast, plans changed.

He decided he would reach the Pacific, and use the trip to raise climate change awareness. His mother, Candace Clavin, wasn’t surprised.

She runs children’s nature programs and her husband, Christopher Rein, is an environmental scientist and consultant. Her son grew up traveling and camping.

"He sees the changes that have occurred, ever since he is little," she said, including a glacier breaking off and sinking.

Clavin was apprehensive about the trip, but she said, "What could you say, how could you stop somebody who dreams like that?"

Rein set out Oct. 26. His goal was to use zero fossil fuels, so he hooked a solar panel to the small trailer that held his camping gear and tools to charge his phone and safety lights.

Rein averaged about 75 miles a day, ate mostly trail mix, canned beans and tortillas and, occasionally, went to restaurants. He took a few rest days, and the nights he didn’t camp, he spent with friends or found a room online.



He has raised about $4,000 to help fund the trip and to donate to 350.org, a climate change awareness organization.

Lucky is a word Rein uses a lot: there were no accidents, and he escaped weather hazards like the floods in Missouri. The bike broke down twice, both times in cities where he could get it fixed.

Rein chronicled his adventures in a Tumblr blog called Renewable Ride. Most posts have a touch of humor and excitement. But on Day 53, a short post begins: “The day starts fine, and soon becomes terribly painful.”

Rein was in New Mexico and faced a “perpetual headwind."

“I feel terribly, embarrassingly slow,” he wrote. “A few times I think about turning around, sailing back to Albuquerque, and finishing [quitting] the ride.”



But he didn’t.

“I made a promise to all these people that I would do it, and I made a promise to myself … that really kept me going,” he said.

On New Year’s Day, he had met his goal.

“He called us in total joy,” Clavin said Saturday. “He had his feet in the ocean!”

The company TerraPass has purchased carbon offsets so Rein does not have to rely on fossil fuels on his flight back to Rhode Island.



He is hoping a job offer he received before leaving is still available. But he could also continue advocating for climate change, or write a book about the trip, he said.

Rein said he is not looking to outdo himself with a bigger adventure, but another one of his dreams is to kayak the Hudson River.

“It would be pretty cool,” he said.

ckozma@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @CarolKozma