Cedar City teen riding from 'C to sea' on solo bikepacking trip to Pacific Ocean

CEDAR CITY — Some 17-year-olds wake up in the morning and do what 17-year-olds do. Ollie Bryan of Cedar City, however, has been waking up to ride his bike all the way to the California coast.

"It's been a dream of mine, and I'm really happy that it's a dream coming true," he said.

Ollie is calling his adventure "C to Sea," as a play on words referring to the "C" on the hill in Cedar City and the sea (Pacific Ocean), which is a 650 mile distance. He started his ride on Monday and plans to bike 80 miles per day, with a goal of finishing next Tuesday — all while carrying his own gear.

"It's partially solo, so I'm carrying all my gear — my food, my water, my tent, stove, all that kind of stuff," he said. "My grandparents are coming along; they just joined me last night, and they're just coming along to hang out every night."

This is Ollie's second long-distance biking adventure. His first was at the beginning of the summer, when he rode from Idaho to Arizona. He said "C to Sea" is something he's been thinking about doing for the past couple of years.

"I just thought it'd be really cool to ride my bike from my house to the beach," he said. "It's been an idea for the past two years, but it's really within the last year I decided I was going to do it, so I learned a lot about bikes and bikepacking. I learned how to sew some bags for my bike, and yeah, now I'm doing it!"

Bikepacking is a self-supported style of adventure travel that combines all-terrain cycling with minimalist backpacking, where cyclists use specialized, lightweight bags that strap directly to the bike frame.

While bikepacking is fairly new to Ollie, he said he has grown up learning about and experiencing the outdoors. In fact, his dad, Derek Bryan, serves as the director off SUU Outdoors, a campus recreation and adventure program at Southern Utah University. Ollie is also the third-oldest of seven kids, going on adventures with his five brothers and one sister.

"My dad takes people at SUU climbing and rafting and biking and hiking and all those things," Ollie said. "So I've grown up doing all of that, and I've just started the bikepacking by myself, and I've learned all about it."

KSL spoke to Ollie's dad, who confirmed that this adventure is "all him."

"He's been the go-getter from the genesis of it," Bryan said. "We just supported him in the sense that, 'If this is what you want to do, get it.' It's all him."

Ollie is also homeschooled, which he said has also been key in his ability to pursue goals like this. He said he really wants to show himself and others that getting outside and experiencing the world is worth it.

"I would hope to inspire other people to have a dream and a goal to do something big and something crazy, and then to go live that dream and make it a reality," he said. "Put in the work and do the training and learn about all the things, and then make your goal come true."

Ollie's dad said it's been good to watch him do things he loves, and he hopes others will also take time to get outside.

"It's been awesome to watch him grow into this and doing what he's doing right now and loving it," Bryan said. "He's doing great and crushing it. Now, get your kids on bikes and off their phones. ... It's real and way more exciting."

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