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

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Thanks to this book, readers have a better idea of what that incredible journey entails… Dykman’s enthusiasm will motivate others to be more thoughtful about their decisions. She would then desperately attempt to relocate them if she saw a lawn mower approaching, as she did on many occasions. Whether you are a cyclist, nature enthusiast or adventure traveler this book will capture both your interest and imagination page by page as author Sara Dykman recounts her 10,000-plus mile bike ride through North America, traveling the yearly migration route of monarch butterflies. With both humor and humility, Dykman offers a compelling story, confirming the urgency of saving the threatened monarch migration—and the other threatened systems of nature that affect the survival of us all. She had done a few hardcore bike trips before, including one where she visited 49 of the states by bike (actually it may have been 48, but I think 49 sounded better).

However, the real meat of the book is the information about the monarchs, their main plant hosts the milkweed, and other aspects of the natural world.On one occasion, during a very stressful day Sara loses a pannier containing some essential items and, in despair, knocks on the nearby door of a total stranger. In Bicycling with Butterflies , Dykman recounts her incredible journey and the dramatic ups and downs of the nearly nine-month odyssey. The most emotional part of the journey for Sara was the last three miles - arriving successfully back at the monarch's overwintering site in Mexico.

Stuffed into the bags that were clipped, tied, and fastened to my bike was a collection of gear, old and new, that I needed to make the trip. It is when I really look, with all my senses, at the feat of an egg becoming a butterfly that I find God”…“I can’t imagine the amount of ice cream I would need to eat to grow from 150 pounds to 300,000 pounds in just two weeks.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. She was 26 and lived with her family at the outskirts of town, where there were more fields than houses. I would never consider doing a nine-month bike trip, but I’m happy Dykman did and made it home safely,* and that she shared the experience with us in Bicycling with Butterflies. What a glorious story and an urgent one, as the author advocates for protection of this magnificent threatened species and the fragile ecosystem that supports it. This conviction is clearly shared by Sara Dykman, a serious cyclist and inquiring environmental scientist as well.

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.

In this way, I could confront small distances, and celebrate strings of tiny victories that would soon add up. Sara Dykman made history when she became the first person to bicycle alongside monarch butterflies on their storied annual migration—a round-trip adventure that included three countries and more than 10,000 miles. On his belly, he gently prodded a small purple plant emerging along the trail—an Earth inhabitant he deemed worthy of examination.

I had arrived at the start of my trip, the start of my dream: to follow the monarchs by bicycle and give voice to their alarming decline.Beyond A Book presents ButterBike, a 2017 project to follow the monarch butterfly migration and connect the story with schools, nature centers, and communities along the route. The author's goal seemed to be wanting to raise awareness, which I think she accomplished; yet I struggled to understand why she felt the need to spend months bicycling their route and how doing so was that important. And it’s clearly in evidence in the story of her engrossing cycling adventure, which she shares in Bicycling with Butterflies.