Across the country for a cause: 3 college students on off-road adventure to benefit mental health

When Jack Waterman, Oscar Moy and Clark Harrington pulled out of Marianne and Victor Waterman’s driveway in east Petaluma just after 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, they had already put some miles under their belt.

More than 5,000 of dirty, dusty, muddy, rocky, windy and exhilarating miles.

The trio, all of whom hail from Leesburg, Virginia, were taking off to ride the final leg of their journey across the Transamerica Trail — a meandering, mostly dirty trail of back roads that, taken from east to west, brings riders from northern Virginia, south through the upper reaches of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi (riders barely dodge Texas), up into Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah and Idaho before it heads back east.

But this group, with California and some of Waterman’s family on their minds, kept riding west through Nevada, over the Sierra Nevada range and into Northern California where a hot tub and a Father’s Day cookout awaited them last weekend.

“We have never touched any interstates,” said Waterman, who was born in Petaluma. “We crossed dirt roads, mountain passes, the Rubicon Trail. The Transamerica Trail is solely based on back roads and dirt roads. The biggest thing we hit was a two-lane state road.”

After a year of unprecedented isolation and upheaval, the high school pals wanted to break out when shelter-in-place orders lifted, and life looked like it was inching back to quasi-normalcy. They were compelled to break out big.

It had been that kind of year.

“We just kind of saw what COVID was doing to everyone our age, getting everyone depressed, everyone was stuck inside,” Waterman said. “We thought, ‘Hey if you put your mind to it, you can get your friends, and you can get a pretty cool adventure.’”

Adventure is one thing and no one doubts their need for it. But they wanted to hang something weightier on this trip, too. They wanted to add a layer of meaning behind what, on the surface, looked like pure fun.

It might not have been a driving force, but it was there, with them, as they rode through lonely stretches of America, when they bickered with each other, and when their bikes got flats.

Before they launched, they linked their social media and trip updates to The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit group that for more than two decades has worked to support mental health and prevent suicide among the nation’s youth.

“Especially with our age group, 15-25, (suicide) is the second leading cause of death,“ Moy said. “We wanted to make an impact and try and make a change.“

Young people in Sonoma County have struggled in the pandemic. In October, a survey found that more than 7 in 10 high school students say they feel deep anxiety about their future and nearly 4 in 10 high school students had one or more failing grades.

So the trio have sought support for The Jed Foundation by documenting their trip on Instagram and social media.

They have been planning it for about six months. What gear would they need to camp out for three weeks? What kind of clothing to handle both freezing nights and temperatures that topped 110 degrees in the Utah desert?

For the most part, they nailed it. All except for perhaps one thing: Money.

“We expected it would take 40 days, but what we found out was that money does not last forever, so we had to push a little bit quicker than we would have liked to because the college kids were running out,“ Waterman said.

So, the crew rolled into Petaluma and into the home of Waterman’s aunt and uncle late Saturday. There was a Father’s Day cookout and there was rest. And there was reflection.

“For me, it was huge eye-opening experience,” Moy said.

“I had never see people live like I saw people living, in places that were barely put together, with blankets and towels, pretty much nailed on to the house to create shelter. Kids playing in dirt outside of a house with basically nothing.”

Both he and Waterman described their Leesburg upbringing as relatively well-to-do. And living the life of a college student? They haven’t really known struggles that they saw on their trip.

But they have known difficulties. And the past year has been rough. They have seen it in their friends, in the classmates and in themselves to a degree. Self-isolating when you are a 20-something college student can do a number on you.

Moy, who said he has personally wrestled with anxiety, said there was almost a guilt when it would flare up. He has so much — a great college experience, supportive parents, financial resources. What about classmates or young people who didn’t have those safety nets?

“I have all these great things and such an amazing life. How would mental health be affected for someone who doesn’t have all this stuff?” he said. “These people that lost their jobs or are having to support a family and all these crazy pressures.”

So, the trio planned the ride to both break out of their own isolation and quarantine year, but also to give the journey a little bigger purpose.

They didn’t go too big, the goal was to raise $10,000 for The Jed Foundation, mostly through social media updates and the sale of T-shirts. They are a little more than halfway there. But they hope that just because their ride is over, they donations won’t completely dry up. People are still struggling, after all.

But on Tuesday morning in Petaluma, the mood was light, if tinged with fatigue. It was the final day.

“I think we are going to park right next to the bridge, take some pictures with the bridge in the background, maybe take a dip to celebrate,” Waterman said.

“And say we finally did it.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.