KAYSVILLE, Utah — If you got on a plane from Morocco to Singapore, it would take more than 16 hours to travel from one location to the other. So it's exhausting just thinking that a Kaysville teen is attempting to make that 14,000-mile journey on a bike.
In the Anderson household in Davis County, summer vacation is just getting started.
“I guess we’re just trying to hold on to the last little bit of ... the last little bit of childhood we have left with him,” said Shad Anderson of his son.
Their 17-year-old son, Haken, is about to embark on a unique route after graduating from Davis High School.
“... in less than 4 weeks I’m going to attempt to become the youngest person to ever bike solo from Morocco to Singapore," the teen shared on social media recently.
Anderson will be biking over the span of about 5 months.
“I had a free summer, and I was like, I might as well. This is the stage of my life where I can do something like this,” Haken explained.
The teen hopes to travel about 100 miles a day, barring any complications, of course.
“I’ve hit my chin twice, lots of road rash, there was another time I was sprinting at about 30 miles per hour at dusk, and a deer popped out. I didn’t hit the deer, but I laid down the bike, broke my collarbone," shared Anderson about the injuries he's suffered without even leaving Utah.
Haken funded the trip on his own by working odd jobs leading up to the big trip.
“I would be scared, I would never do it myself, but we always said we don’t want to not have our kids do things because we’re scared," said Haken's mother, Bonnie. "So he’s going to do it because he wants to and we will support him.”
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His bicycle's two wheels won’t just bring Haken through 26 countries, he says they’ll help introduce him to new opportunities.
“One of the most insightful things that my journey is going to expose is just how friendly people are around the world," he explained. "There’s good people everywhere.”
And what others call crazy, Haken calls a new adventure.
“Yeah, I think everyone thinks I’m crazy," he admitted, "but that makes me want to do it more to be honest.”
You can follow along on Haken’s journey on his Instagram.
