FARMINGTON—Brett Shaw is proud to say he dipped his bike tire in the Pacific Ocean in Oregon and then dipped his tire in the Chesapeake Bay in the Atlantic Ocean on his ride across America. Shaw started the 59-day bike ride May 21 of this year and covered 3,739 miles and finished Sept. 10. 

The 65-year-old Farmington man didn’t even let a heart attack stop him. Shaw had five stents put in his heart from 2022-2024. He worked with his doctors to get him ready to meet his goal and took a few weeks off during the ride to return to Utah and get checked out then returned to finish.

“I’m grateful for my doctors who helped me,” said Shaw. “If they would have said, ‘nah don’t do it.’ I probably would have listened to them – maybe.”

Shaw really got into biking after he had an accident. “I broke my tibia and my fibula when I was stepping off a ladder and it slipped,” he said. “I was going through rehab and my orthopedic surgeon said ‘get a bike.’ So I started riding long distances to build up and go longer and longer.”

He started riding in the LoToJa Classic, a 200+ mile ride that starts in Logan, Utah and ends in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“I really wasn’t racing or doing it competitively,” said Shaw. “I just wanted to get better.”

Shaw said he started doing California rides. “I did a bunch of those but I always wanted to ride across America. I wanted to qualify for it at least so I kept trying to ride these 400 mile qualifiers. It took me a couple of years to be able to actually finish one that long and I got a coach involved.”

After several longer rides Shaw set out to do it. “I decided to start in Astoria, Oregon and then ride down through the middle of Oregon and then over to Idaho.”

Along the way, Shaw said he saw some amazing things and met some great people. “I got to see the Sawtooth Mountains which I just absolutely loved.”

It was so beautiful in Missouri and so green going into Kentucky, he said. “I found that the people were really good to me. When I hit Virginia I went through Jefferson and Washington National Parks and then up to Charlottesville and all along the way there’s so many historical monuments.”

There were markings for both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, said Shaw. “It was just humbling to ride through there. I just loved it – I absolutely loved it.”

Shaw said the best part of his ride was mostly the people. “When I was riding in Omaha it seemed like I was always seeing this guy. I was having a hard time because the route changed. There was construction on the road so I couldn’t figure out how to get over to this Wabash Trace Trailhead.”

This guy pulled off to the side, said Shaw. “He said ‘are you looking for the Wabash Trace Trailhead?’ I said ‘yeah’ and he said ‘well I live right nearby there. Just follow me and I'll even save you a couple of miles because I know the area.’”

People like that are the most amazing thing, he said. “I’ll never forget. It was so good to just run into people and say ‘hi’ and to interact with my fellow human beings.”

Shaw’s wife Jean joined him for the last half of the trip to support him along the way. “I survived on Jean’s love and her peanut butter sandwiches she made me,” he said. “I just love peanut butter sandwiches and putting Coke in my bottle was nice.” 

Shaw said it was a special moment when he finished the ride. “There were a lot of tears at the end but it was worth it. It was a lot of fun. I’d do it again but I don’t think they’ll (doctors) let me.”