Human Powered Bicyclist Searches for Road Kill for ASC

Human Powered Adventure Science from Reno to Prudhoe Bay

Adam Bradley is an avid adventure athlete with a speed record of the PCT in 2009 and has traveled over 20,000 miles on foot and 13,000 river miles on his quest for human powered adventures.  Adam is currently biking from his front door in Reno, NV to Prudhoe Bay, AK and back.  Along his journey he will be recording observations of road kill for the ASC Road Kill Survey for Road Bikers.  Adam's contribution to this project will help researchers identify areas with high animal/vehicle interactions along the stretches of road he travels.  Below is an excerpt from his blog, Never Came Back,  explaining how ASC will fit into his human powered trip

Wildlife Overpass near Lake Louise. Photo credit: Adam Bradley

Mary Catherine O'Connor of Outside Magazine kindly put me in touch with another NGO: Scientists and Adventurers for Conservation.  This group I highly recommend to any outdoors aficionado as we all as outdoors people may contribute to science through our observations out in the wild.  There are several ongoing studies on their website that one may take part in by simply creating an account and uploading the locations of their observations.  One that caught my eye for being a perfect fit for my bicycle leg of the Tippy Top Tour is the road kill study.  Not only do they want data collected on road kill that is observed along my route, but also the waypoints of all the live animals I observe.  Cool thing about that is when I return they will also be able to use my uploaded data from last years BLC to Bering Sea adventure.  This data is then used with regards to recommendations for wildlife corridors along busy highways where collision with animals may be avoided.

Big horn sheep near a road way. Photo Credit: Adam Bradley.

I will have my gps located on the top of my handle bar bag again and will basically waypoint my observations while on the fly.  When I get in camp at night I will note like I did last year in my journal which waypoint was which animal.  I think the 7,600+ miles of the Tippy Top Tour is an excellent route to provide lots of data for this ongoing study.

I am very lucky and honored to have these two opportunities fit in with the Tippy Top Tour. Going forward I hope to have an environmental component to all of my adventures in addition to my commitment to human powered adventures.  I hope to inspire you to take part in or consider taking part in work with NGO's likeManomet or Scientists and Adventurers for Conservation too.  If that isn't possible maybe consider donating to non-profits like these.  Now is a really good time too as our budget is really lean for groups/ studies like this going forward.

- Adam Bradley
To follow Adam's Tippy Top Tour visit his blog