April 9, 2025

Column for 04-09-25

     Way back in 2003, Jimmy Jansen became the first Trail Guard kid to get on an airplane, fly a fourth of the way around the world to a foreign land, load his gear in bicycle panniers, and with a bunch of people he didn’t know, bike hundreds of miles along Argentine backroads.

     I think he would agree that it was a life-changing event for him, and I can’t thank his parents, Freda and Gerry Jansen, enough for having the faith to sign that consent for international youth travel form, pack him up, and put him on an airplane at MSP at just barely 17 years of age.  Agreeing to his participation in that adventure opened a wonderful new world for Jimmy and an incredible new opportunity for us as an outdoor-oriented youth organization.  

     We have been supporting kids for international bicycle travel ever since.  But, unlike our other Outdoor Adventure Rewards series of outings, these kids need to raise their own money for the adventure.  We support them in that, but part of the education of the trip is that money doesn’t grow on trees, there is power in combining our efforts as a team, and some of the best experiences in life must be earned through hard work and good planning.

     Jimmy’s trip was the inaugural effort of a new Minneapolis nonprofit called Two Wheel View, started by husband-and-wife longtime Trail Guard friends Rick and Tanya McFerrin.  Rick had met my brother, video producer Donnie Koshiol, while they were studying abroad in Denmark through St. Cloud State University, and we soon became friends.

     Rick and Tanya guided our BWCA and local bicycle trips until they took two years off from their jobs and basically circumnavigated the globe by bicycle.  During that time, they envisioned a youth program that could show kids real world understanding and adventure from the seat of a bicycle – a “two-wheel view.” 

     After a few years, they moved their young family and their very successful Two Wheel View organization to Calgary, Alberta.  But they eventually left the organization they founded (Two Wheel View is still alive and well in Calgary, and doing great work), and started up a new venture called OnaVelo.  “Velo” is the French word for bicycle, so OnaVelo really means “on a bicycle.”

     This July, two young Trail Guard girls and one Trail Guard adult chaperone will be joining OnaVelo on an exciting adventure above the Arctic Circle (24-hour daylight in July!) in Norway.  Raylee Poster, Savannah Lopez, and Beth Schlangen (Savannah’s mom) are ready to go!  Their fundraising is well underway, so please, if you are able, consider supporting them when asked.

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