I Hear the Call of Distant Horizons 


For over 47 years, I have had the opportunity to engage in many different human-powered adventures, including bicycle touring and commuting, hiking and backpacking, mountaineering, running, cross-country skiing, canoeing, and sea kayaking. Over the years, I have logged in over 159,000 self-propelled miles of these activities, highlighted by a 7460-mile bicycle trip to Alaska and back, a 502-mile solo backpacking trip along the length of Alaska's Brook Range, and a 1136-mile sea kayak circumnavigation of Lake Superior, among dozens of others.

These adventures have provided much of the motivation that has driven the rest of my daily life. In February 2003, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma), and during the last six years,  have battled two major surgeries, a bout with radiation, two sessions of immunotherapy, and a series of targeted drugs.  

I am gradually expanding this website to tell some of these stories, as well as get out the message of personal motivation to beat the challenge of cancer and the other challenges of life.  Check the links below for some of these stories:

 

 



       Arriving home after 7460 miles, Sept. 15, 1967.
Click Here     to read the blog of my cancer battle and hospital stay, as well as the posts from the 2007 bike trip from Minneapolis to Alaska.



Comments and questions can be directed to the following email:

                  andy@andytknapp.com

Bicycling to Alaska and Back in 1967

In June 1967, I biked west out of the Twin Cities with the idea of eventually reaching Alaska. The first step was to catch up with three others- my brother Steve, Howie Graham, and Dean Anderson- who had left a day earlier than I could. I caught up to Steve and Dean in North Dakota and we continued northwest into Saskatchewan, where we slit up with a vague plan to regroup somewhere later in the summer, British Columbia perhaps. I continued northwest, trying to catch up with Howie, who thought I was already ahead somewhere. I found him several days later, and we continued through Edmonton to Valleyview, Alberta.

Howie wanted to see the McKenzie Highway, which I had done the year before on another bike trip, and he had to return to Edmonton briefly to get a wheel fixed, so we parted ways and I headed for Dawson Creek and the Alcan Highway.

Alaska Bicycle trips continued



Additional Pages in the works to be added while I have time in the hospital:

1967 Bicycle Trip to Alaska, continued

Reflections on The 2007 Bicycle Trip

The Brooks Range in 1972: The Awesome Wilderness

Lake Superior: A Collection of Photography by Kayak

Cancer Clouds My Horizon: Thoughts on Battling Cancer

Arriving in Alaska, near Skagway, on the 40th anniversary trip, 7-30-07



Other Links:



For information on kidney cancer, The Kidney Cancer Association is a good start.

 

The Minnesota Medical Foundation supports some of the leading cancer research happening in Minnesota.

Check out these fine companies that provided assistance for my 2007 trip:

  Detours/Mountainsmith  
       
 

 

My co-workers at Midwest Mountaineering have provided much in the way of support and encouragement, including donated sick days, and have shared many of the trip memories since the 1970s.


 

    Freewheel Bike
   
    



Mountain Hardwear

Camelbak Elixir