By Elena Coe-McNamara
Staff Writer
Waszkiewicz has worked in the Forest Service as a Wildland Firefighter for four years. He began his 25-day bike ride on April 2 in Miami, Florida and finished on April 25 at the Manhattan Beach Pier. The total mileage of the ride was 3,382 miles.
On the ride, Waszkiewicz would eat breakfast within 40 miles of his starting point and, for other meals, he would stop somewhere on his way. To sleep, Waszkie- wicz would either camp or find a motel.
“I was always tired and almost al- ways hungry,” Waszkiewicz said. “The ride was all a matter of planning.”
“The inspiration throughout the entire ride centered around the families of fallen wildland firefighters; that never wavered,” Waszkiewicz said. “I would think of the men and women I know who have experi- enced loss and the countless others I don’t know and try to pull strength from that.”
The hardest part of the ride was the day
On the day Waszkiewicz came home, his friends Hunter Porter, Tim Burdiak, Carrie Walpole and Dash Porter met him at the intersection of Peck and Manhattan Beach Boulevard to ride the last bit of the ride with him in support. Together they rode to the pier where they met a group of family and friends of the fallen firefighters.
Although he only began riding his road bike three years ago for crossfit training. Waszkiewicz trained intensely for the long trip through strength training and stretch- ing, Waszkiewicz said.
He carried a lightweight sleeping bag, bed- pad, and a one-man waterproof tent that he would set up if he was planning to camp.
he rode into Jal, New Mexico, where he fought a 30 miles-per-hour headwind for a total of 130 miles. New Mexico was both frustrating and demoralizing, Waszkiewicz said; he felt small and helpless fighting against the wind.
Mira Costa alumnus and wildland fire- fighter Bret Waszkiewicz was fired up to honor his fallen firefighters and decided to bike ride across the country.
“If I were to change anything, I would have stretched more leading up to the ride,” Waszkiewicz said. “The fitness and cardio aspects were there, but a little added mobil- ity would have helped, I believe.”
Waszkiewicz covered about 50 to 80 miles a day, six days out of the week. On the ride, Waszkiewicz averaged just under 140 miles per day for 12 consecutive days of bike riding. He then rested for a full day in Stephensville, Texas, which was fol- lowed by another consecutive 12 days of bike riding.
“My inspiration throughout the entire ride centered around the families of fallen wildland firefighters; that never wavered,” Waszkiewicz said. “But it took dedication to get through that day, and to get in and out of every day, and to push on, through the good times and the bad times regard- less of the way I felt.”
The Wildland Firefighter Foundation pro- vides services such as therapy and relief to families of these firefighters. Waskiewicz’s original fundraising goal was $10,000; however, after he created an account on the Crowdrise Fundraising website to raise money, he raised nearly $13,000 in donations by friends and family. All of the donations from Waszkiewicz’s crowd- rise page go directly toward the Wildland Firefighter Foundation’s efforts to support these families.
“I had thought about that exact moment of seeing my family and friends at the Manhattan Beach Pier for nearly a month,” Waszkiewicz said. “When it finally hap- pened, it was everything I had dreamt of and more.”
“Having worked closely with the Wild- land Firefighter Foundation, I’ve seen first- hand the good that they do and provide for the families that have experienced loss,” Waszkiewicz said. “You see the suffering that these families are going through and want to take some of that grief away and shoulder it yourself somehow.”
Now that the trip has come to an end, Waszkiewicz eventually plans to get his paramedic certification from the University of California, Los Angeles Daniel Freeman Paramedic School, which is a program he began on May 2. After he receives his certification, Waszkiewicz would like to be a firefighter for a large city and ultimately become a fire chief.
“I am attending paramedic school right now, and that’s my next step toward achieving my goals,” Waszkiewicz said. “I’m taking everything one step at a time.”
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