Jack Boettger feels at home on two wheels. And, his love of riding a bicycle has been passed down to his family.
Jack, a retired accountant who lives with his wife, Betty, in the Harbeson-Angola area, is the ride director for Sussex Cyclists, the bike club in the Cape Region.
For the past couple years, Jack has been scheduling, coordinating and participating in the club’s three rides a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The rides go on throughout the year except when the temperature dips below 20 degrees or there is ice or snow on the ground.
Living in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and finally back home in Delaware, Jack said he always connects with bike clubs. “It’s a lot more fun to ride with someone,” he said.
Jack grew up in Wilmington and immediately started to ride a bike. “When I was a teen I rode a 3-speed bike everywhere, even a few rides of 70 miles or slightly more,” he said.
He can still recall his first glimpse of a 10-speed back in the late 1950s as a pair of riders whizzed by him. “It was something to see,” he recalls.
For the past 55 years, he has spent countless hours in the saddle pedaling away, mile after mile. He estimates he has ridden well over 100,000 miles. He participated in the MS Bike to the Bay this past weekend.
After moving to Connecticut and starting his family, he bought his first 10-speed bicycle in 1964 and got his wife interested in cycling by introducing her to a tandem, which is a modern version of a bicycle built for two.
As a tandem couple they have participated in organized and family rides throughout the East Coast.
Jack said by the time his sons, John and Ken, were 5 years old they were riding on their own on family biking trips and on local club rides throughout the Connecticut and New York area.
Jack became active in the cycling community, founding the Connecticut Valley Bicycle Club and sponsoring Pedal Power, a sanctioned event, which is the title used in his email address.
The introduction his sons had to cycling early on has stayed with them throughout their lives. John is a mountain biker and bicycle commuter in Syracuse, N.Y., and Ken owns a bicycle shop in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Long-distance riding became a passion for Jack. “Nothing really got me started riding,” he said. “I just enjoyed the fun, camaraderie and the ability to ride some pretty long distances, and I have done many rides over 100 miles in a day.”
The most he has ever ridden in one day was 187 miles, which he did two days in a row while riding from Candaigua, N.Y., to Windsor Locks, Conn., while returning home from a League of American Wheelmen ride of 430 miles.
He and his wife are members of a bicycling network program, Warm Showers, offering their home as a stopover for touring cyclists. This past summer they have had several cyclists spend the night including Aaron and Laura Beese, a couple who have embarked on a two-year journey to ride to the geographic center of every state.
Jack is trying to get members and guests who ride with the Sussex Cyclists to branch out beyond the Cape Region. He has planned several routes into western Sussex County and Maryland. One of his favorite rides starts in Laurel and then goes to Salisbury, Hebron and Mardela Springs, Md., passing the Mason-Dixon marker near Delmar.
Last year he led a 3-day Civil War battlefield tour starting in Frederick, Md., visiting Monocacy Battlefield in Maryland, Manassas Battlefield in Virginia and Harper’s Ferry, W. Va. “Betty was our faithful sag-wagon driver who scouted out our lunch spots and was where we needed her for snacks and water,” he said.
The one ride he planned that everyone talks about is the Hills of Eastern Sussex County ride – a 50-mile ride where all eight hills in the area were included on the route. The highest elevation on the ride was 39 feet. “It’s really a misnomer because the ride actually included all roads with the word hill, mount or knoll in them,” he said with a smile.
Jack aims to ride about 5,000 miles a year - hitting a record 5,700 miles last year. Treatment for prostate cancer sidelined him for a while this year, but he still plans to ride about 4,000 miles in 2007. He is one of the few, maybe the only person, who rode his bike to the Tunnel Cancer Center during the five weeks of treatment he received.
For more information about Sussex Cyclists, check out the website at www.sussex cyclists.org.
Contact Ron MacArthur at ronm@capegazette.com
