One Mile at a Time: Cycling through Loss to Renewal »

Dwight R. Smith is professor emeritus at Colorado State University, where he taught wildlife biology and ecology, and the author of Above Timberline: A Wildlife Biologist's Rocky Mountain Journal.

Auto accidents, nine years apart, took the lives of Dwight Smith's two teenage sons. A few years later, heart disease claimed his wife of 39 years. The cumulative impact of these losses spurred Dwight to retire and embark on a healing journey-13,784 miles alone on a bicycle around the perimeter of the United States. His story is filled with vivid descriptions of forests, prairies, deserts, swamps, and croplands. But his interactions with strangers and friends alike inspired him most, bringing new experiences, new people, and new strength to a man who had lost so much.