Darren Alff

We are all influenced by others whether we come to realize it or not. We all acquire multiple villains and heroes through our lives. Today I want to talk about one of my heroes. While I was waiting to publish this article later, my impatience got the better of me. The man whose story I am about to tell is the main inspiration for my life’s path as well as countless others’ waiting to surface.

Darren Alff is an entrepreneur and traveler. Like me, he has chosen the bicycle as his way of seeing the world. In high school, Darren was an avid athlete, running daily as well as playing soccer for the school. During this time, a movie was released that would lead him to the idea of traveling around the world someday, as well as myself. The movie was Tom Hank’s best role yet in the hit motion picture, Forrest Gump. In fact, after its release, Darren was often referred to as ‘Forrest’ or ‘Gump’ due to his infatuation with running. Now Darren persists that he was never addicted to athleticism, just that running served a purpose for him.

It seems that after finishing grade school, both Darren and I showed reluctance to enter college. So, at age seventeen, he decided to act out his movie fantasy. Knowing he couldn’t really run across the United States, Darren decided that he would run from his home in Oregon down to Mexico along the Pacific Coast. However, his plan didn’t work out as he hoped; deciding that he should make a practice trip, Darren ran a marathon worth for three consecutive days to see what the experience would be like. After only three days, he couldn’t even walk.

With running out of the picture, Darren received help from an uncle in Ireland who had recently completed a bicycle tour. He suggested that his nephew do the same since it was less demanding of the body. Darren took his uncle’s advice. Again mapping out a route down the California coast, the seventeen year old took his father’s twenty-year-old Schwinn mountain bike out of the garage, strapped the used panniers his uncle lent him, and headed south on his 1,000 mile journey with only $500 in the bank.

As he expected, his savings didn’t last long. By the trip’s three month mark, he had already spent $300 of his budget. If you equate that out, this means Darren lived on only $3 a day. Yet, it was enough for him to complete the trip. Darren would later complete his next four bike tours within the U.S. living on the same budget.

Since his first tour Darren has completed one trip the past ten years. During that time he has gone to college and recently made the transition to internet marketing running a consulting website named Silver Mountain Marketing. On the side he runs two recreational websites, 21bikes.com and bicycletouringpro.com. The first is a collection of user-submitted pictures involving both bikes and their owners where visitors rank their appearance in one of the twenty-one categories.

The second is a Darren’s attempt in sharing all he knows about bicycle touring. Launched in 2007, bicycletouringpro.com is a blog oriented website describing how to get started in bicycle touring, how he manages to finance his trips, as well as many other articles containing all the little tips to make your trip one to remember.

Darren has been reported saying that created bicycletouringpro.com to target a younger demographic. He feels that bike touring is an activity very few people know about, even less among adolescents. As many twenty-year-olds are going through the transition from childhood to adulthood, these journeys can be a method in which to have fun and reorganize your priorities in life.

Although we haven’t met in person yet, Darren’s life is a great model for my own. To close this article, I would like to point out two things that Darren has said about touring. First, for you travelers out there, remember that the “moments don’t happen on the bike”. And second, when asked what his favorite destinations were Darren wisely said, “My favorite places are those little, random spots that I couldn’t explain how to get back to. They’re those places when you’re in the moment and it makes you stop and think, ‘Wow…this is really cool.’”