Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration

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However, I learned more about butterflies than I could ever care to know, and I never grasped the reason for Sara’s dedication to the butterflies. With action comes connections – connections to a team that is growing bigger every year, and to a migration that is growing smaller but that we will not give up on… You can’t protect just one aspect of a traveler’s journey; to protect the traveler, you must protect their every step, every wing beat. The plight of the monarch butterflies continues to be a major concern and a topic in national media outlets. Despite Mexico’s reputation for deserts and heat, in the high-elevation forest lit by a cloud-tangled sun, freezing storms and cold temperatures still bully the monarchs each winter.

An extraordinary story in which Dykman seamlessly weaves together science, a real love of nature and the adventure and hazards of biking with butterflies from Mexico to Canada and back. Dykman is knowledgeable and opinionated and sometimes a little out there, but it was indeed fun to travel with her. That tour, a month of 40-mile days up the East Coast, taught me a useful truth: a long trip is nothing more than a collection of miles. Additionally, she goes on political rants about topics that, in my opinion, are a complete tangent to the story.To raise awareness about the decline of monarch buttefly population, Dykman embarked on a solo bike trip more than 10,000 miles long. Many other things than you have, do, and will use your property, and likewise what you do affects things well beyond those lines. For her, it was more than a way to experience the monarchs' travel; it was a project to raise awareness. TOO MANY TIMES I wanted to tell her to let her passion shine through, but in a way that gets people to want to join her, not stand back and avert their eyes. What they prayed for I could only guess: tailwinds, milkweed, or the peace that exists in quietness.

Her almost incredible account captures the animal itself, the continent it crosses, and its plight with style and deep connection. I studied monarchs for two years in college, so I was immediately drawn to this book and what it stands for.Dykman's transformation as she follows the kaleidoscope of butterflies is a wonder to observe as it unfolds [. Her plan was to average 40 miles a day, stopping wherever she was at the end of the day to find a place to camp, often behind a church or school. After the last ice age, as temperatures increased, the oyamel fir forest that had once covered much of southern Mexico was forced to retreat to the cool, humid refuge of the mountains’ higher elevations. When you have over 10,000 miles to document it isn’t surprising that some of it is filled with homilies like: "The temperature plummeted that night. Sara is an amazing woman who plans this trip to bicycle the path of the monarch butterfly's migration.