Bicycle Nomad<\/a>, Cede\u00f1o has retraced many historic routes, including the Underground Railroad route from New Orleans to Niagara Falls.<\/p>\n\u201cI was always fascinated by the resilience of people traveling through the Underground Railroad, not knowing how to read a map, but knowing how to navigate through rivers, mountains, and the natural world,\u201d he told me. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how they escaped to freedom because there were things that were passed down that\u2014if you follow this river, if you look for this mountain or the North Star.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another project of the Bicycle Nomad is still underway. After he discovered a historic photo of the 1897 Bicycle Corps, a subset of the Buffalo Soldiers, Cede\u00f1o wanted to know more. The Buffalo Soldiers were the first all-Black regiments in the Army, who, among many duties, served as some of the first caretakers of our national parks. Cede\u00f1o biked 1,900 miles to retrace the route that the men traveled in 1897. And he has since begun identifying the 20 soldiers in the photo he found and meeting with their descendants when he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that was my great-grandfather, I\u2019d want the world to know how awesome he was,\u201d Cede\u00f1o said. \u201cPotentially, there\u2019s somebody out there that doesn\u2019t know how awesome their great-grandfather was. These are pioneers, outdoor pioneers.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, six years into his project, he has identified nine of the twenty in the Buffalo Soldiers Bicycle Corps.<\/p>\n
We caught up with Cede\u00f1o after his panel at our parent company\u2019s festival, Outside Days, to ask him more about his Bicycle Corps project.<\/p>\n
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