8, six days after Keddy departed, Fossum began to worry. The only person who would have a sense of his intended path would be a friend in Norway, Carl Fossum, who helped Keddy with his films.īut on Feb. After seven months of work, he had two months off-plenty of time to ride the most difficult stretch of the Bicentennial trail. He uploaded clips of his adventures to his YouTube channel, “My Travel Forever Machine,” editing many of his videos to the song Hard Sun, Eddie Vedder’s single from Into the Wild, the movie based on the true story of a young solo adventurer who ultimately died in the Alaskan wilderness. He arrived not long before the pandemic, spending his off-days covering miles on the Australian mainland, in Tasmania and in Papua New Guinea. He would save up money plying his trade as a diesel mechanic, then spend his free time on two wheels and turn those adventures into films. Layton had moved Down Under as part of a long-term plan to bike around the world, piece by piece. I have to find my limit.Ī scenic outlook along the trail at Birregun Road, Victoria, Australia (Layton Keddy) I won’t say goodbye because I know I can do it but I’m warning you now that I will be gone for a while. “Nobody here thinks one man on a bicycle is capable of the mountain crossing between Marysville and Omeo without veering off the trail,” he continued, adding locals told him the most experienced riders pack enough provisions to last 25 days. He said he wanted to feel like Neil Armstrong did when he first stepped on the moon. That this wasn’t about getting away, but rather getting away from where other cyclists would go. He went on to tell his mother, Betty Keddy, that he wanted to cross the “Australian Divide,” referring to the Great Dividing Range, a complex of mountains and hills that separates the country’s east coast from its interior outback. As I grow wiser I realize that the harder I push myself, the more alive I feel. I feel like I need the challenge and the rush I get when I face the unknown. I have tried to accept this, but I can’t. I’ve been thinking about how you say I always push myself too hard. Finally, just before shutting off his phone and setting out from Marysville, he wrote a lengthy note and posted it on Instagram. Then he packed his camera gear to film the trip. For sustenance, he crammed as much dry food as he could fit into his backpack: mostly oats, powdered milk and peanut butter. He took along a tent, one set of clothes, a single pair of socks-there would be no laundry on this trip. He didn’t even give himself the luxury of a GPS tracker, or a flare gun to send up distress signals. The 32-year-old didn’t want it to be easy. This was notoriously difficult terrain, devoid in many parts of cell service to call someone in an emergency, and days by bike from the nearest community. Local ranchers said he’d need three pack horses to carry supplies. Firefighters from the region told him his route would be impossible to traverse alone. And he wasn’t interested in avoiding areas deemed impassable by bike, remaining steadfast in his resolve to travel the original path-the one meant for horseback-from the bone-dry highlands to the valleys strewn with deadfall. The Prince Albert, Sask., native had heard this was the hardest part along the country’s Bicentennial National Trail, which spans more than 5,300 km of Australia’s eastern coastline. He planned to carry as little weight as possible for this biking adventure: a 330-km stretch of Australian wilderness between the towns of Marysville and Omeo, in the southeastern state of Victoria. He removed the buckles from his backpack. Layton Keddy broke his toothbrush in half.
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