Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Josh Taylor can see very little, but that isn't stopping him from embarking on a statewide bike tour where he wants to see the world "through your eyes."
The 19-year-old will start his tour at Franklin, Idaho, right next to the border of Utah. From there, he will travel downward across the state following mainly U.S. 89, bike trails and backroads all the way down to the Arizona border by Kanab — equating to about 40 miles a day.
Each day of his almost two-week tour, he will be experiencing the world through the local people. Josh will be staying the night and eating breakfast with a host family, participating in some sort of experience, biking to a connection point, biking to a second location, and eating dinner with a new host family.
"We will stay with them for the night and get to meet people. Get to hear their reasoning behind what food they want to provide us and get to know their culture a little bit more," he said.
Here's the special part: The whole tour will be done on a tandem bike with a volunteer piloting Josh along.
Josh uses an adaptive bike called the Hase Pino, where he sits in the front in a recumbent seat, and the pilot biker is behind in a normal bike seat. The pilot steers but both riders pedal together to power the bike.
Josh will be biking with volunteers who have signed up to be pilots for sections of the tour. His parents will follow along in the "S.A.G. Wagon" — the car that has the support and gear.
"I'm very much excited," Josh said.
For the meals, he wants the hosts to pick something meaningful to them so he can get to know their background and culture.
"I'm excited but very scared to try out new foods because I am kind of picky about food," he said.
Josh wanted to keep the experiences a surprise, so he doesn't yet know what he will be doing in each city. He simply requested activities that are important to the host or unique to the city they are in.
Josh's father, James Taylor, said one of the hosts works with a Kaysville High School's mountain bike team. The day that he is piloting, a bunch of the mountain bike team members are going to ride with them.
Why a bike tour?
Josh has retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that has made his vision diminish over the last few years. Now, he describes it as having "tunnel vision" where he only see very little directly in front of him.
Josh used to love hiking, but as his vision grew worse he stopped enjoying it as he would frequently trip. When his parents got e-bikes last year, they were worried he felt left out. So, they started looking for a bike for him.
Luckily, his father's "skip boss" — or boss' boss — had a tandem bike. And after the two of them tried it out, Josh was hooked.
"A couple weeks after that, I started traveling and went to Greece. I wanted to travel more but I wanted to do it in an interesting way. I also wanted to connect more with people's culture," Josh said.
He toyed around with the idea of biking to travel with people and learn more about them. He wanted to prove that blind people can do things, so he and his family started making the idea real.
"Inspiring people is very important to me. I was depressed for a while after learning (I was blind), but if I can help people out with my story, then why not help them out? Teach them that adaptation is very important for those that are disabled and also for those that are not," he said.
The tandem bike tour is called the Through Your Eyes World Tour, as he is hoping to see the world through the eyes of the people he meets.
"I'm very much excited to just prove that people with disabilities do have the ability to do things. It just needs the skill of adaptation," he said.
Josh said his mother, Trisha Taylor, has put in a lot of time and effort in getting the word out about the tour, using word of mouth and social media cycling groups to tell people.
The tour starts on Sept. 20 and ends Oct. 4. The Taylors said most of northern Utah is covered, but there are still spaces open for volunteers to be overnight hosts, meal hosts, experience hosts or pilots from Utah County on south.
Anyone interested can even sign up to bike alongside Josh as he travels near their city.
James said the tandem bike is similar to riding a normal bike, and it's not too hard for pilots to adjust as they get used to having another person in front of them. He has been impressed by the interdependence that is needed when using the tandem bike.
"So exercising and riding a bike 50 miles, is not something I ever thought I'd do in my life. But when Josh provides his legs and strength to help me overcome my lung issue, and I provide my eyes and arms to help overcome his visibility issue, all of a sudden by adapting to each other, we can do things that neither of us ever imagined we could do," James said.
"To me, that's such a huge thing," he said. "It was life-changing for me and both of us to be able to do things that we never thought we'd do."
Once Utah is conquered, Josh hopes to continue the world tour around the rest of the world. He has his sights on a cross-country trip in America and the EuroVelo, a network of long-distance cycle routes connecting the European continent.
"By riding or walking a mile in your footsteps, I will go beyond seeing through your eyes and experience the world the way you do. I expect these unforgettable experiences that highlight the rich tapestry of local traditions, people, places, culture, activities and cuisine will lead to the warmth of human connection that does not diminish over time," Josh said on the tour website.
