Alum's Bike Tour Ends at Academy

PEA alum Rich Hoeg ‘74 pedaled away from the Academy last July on a 2,345-mile bicycle tour up the coast of Maine, in an effort to explore the Canadian Maritimes. On Wednesday—54 days later—an exhausted but victorious Hoeg and his wife Molly returned to campus, pleased to achieve what he’d set out to accomplish some 35 years earlier.

Biking throughout the years has meant a lot to Hoeg, who wishes that he spent more time during his academic and professional career taking time off and getting a bigger perspective on life."One thing you learn about bike touring is, you see a lot more at 12 mph than 60 mph. Also, you meet so many people," Hoeg said.Originally from northern Minnesota, Hoeg was fascinated by the scenery along the eastern Atlantic seaboard ever since he was a student at Exeter.

"Living out here, both in high school and college, and then working in New Jersey before moving back to Minnesota, I always wanted to go up the coast of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes," Hoeg said.

"Living out here, both in high school and college, and then working in New Jersey before moving back to Minnesota, I always wanted to go up the coast of Maine and the Canadian Maritimes," Hoeg said. "First, the area appealed to us. It seemed almost exotic, going to the end of the St. Lawrence River. Duluth, where we live, is as far inland as you can go on the St. Lawrence seaway, so we have saltwater vessels that carry grain and things all over the world. It was neat to see the other side of the seaway."As soon as the Hoegs drew out the plans for the bicycle tour that would stretch over the course of almost two months, Mr. Hoeg contacted the Academy for support in kicking off the tour. With the support of Facilities Management and the Office of Institutional Advancement, Mr. Hoeg was able to drive to Exeter and leave his car parked on campus property for the duration of his tour."When Mrs. Dunham contacted me about Mr. Hoeg’s trip and the fact that he was hoping to park his vehicle here on campus while cycling, I checked in with Campus Safety. I learned that we are always happy to assist alumni whenever possible, and a parking space was no problem," Facilities Management executive assistant Kathryn Kokin said. "Procedurally, we just needed to have the ownership and emergency contact information on the vehicle, and I facilitated that communication."During the tour, the Hoegs kept a blog and a daily journal of their experiences, from New Hampshire and Maine to parts of Canada such as Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. On many nights, the pair stayed at host homes that belonged in an international organization of bicyclists called Warm Showers. Warm Showers provides a medium for long-distance cyclists all over the world to host cyclists on tour and also reciprocate, by providing their homes for overnight stays."Warm Showers is a great way to meet new people, learn about an area, and learn what’s good cycling. We had hosted people in Duluth, and we stayed a few times on short bike trips out in the northern Minnesota area, but I don’t think we had a clue as to just how valuable it was," Hoeg said, about the experiences of staying with Warm Showers hosts.Mrs. Hoeg agreed. "It really made the trip. It took on a whole different nature than it would have. I would say that was the factor that most shaped our trip."Starting and ending the longest bicycle tour of his career at Phillips Exeter Academy holds a special meaning for Mr. Hoeg. Over the course of many decades since his graduation, he has tried to stay connected to the Academy by making visits whenever he is near the East Coast. During his years at the Academy, Hoeg was a proctor in Abbot Hall and a JV 2 football athlete, teammates with Harold Brown, director of alumni and parent relations. In addition, he developed a love for programming, from which he was able to launch a career as the senior software technologist for Honeywell, bringing much of the company’s web initiatives online.

"Just when computing was starting out, you had to learn how to program in BASIC. I was really interested, as was another friend, and the only terminals were teletype terminals that had rolls of paper," Mr. Hoeg said, recounting the years that he spent as a student of PEA. "On Friday nights, we broke into the math department, and we programmed a slot machine program. These were the initial computer games."

During their journey, the Hoegs kept a blog of their travels, and happily retrieved their car at Campus Safety Wednesday afternoon.

Mrs. Hoeg said, "When we’d tell people about it, they would say that it’s outrageous. However, this proved that we could do it."