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One man's cycling journey through history
A Santa Monica man is on a mission to bike through historical trails across the country.
LOS ANGELES - A Santa Monica man is on a mission to bike through historical trails across the country.
Erick Cedeño, known as 'Bicycle Nomad' on social media, uses his platform to educate people.
Cedeño has biked along a portion of the Underground Railroad, retracing the path of people seeking freedom.
What they're saying:
"I always say I can't compare what they went through and my experience. I've always been fascinated with the resilience of the people that travelled the underground railroad," said Cedeño.
It was after that trip that he discovered his life's mission.
"I came across this particular photo of 20 black soldiers going from Missoula, Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. 1900 miles," said Cedeño.
The men were Buffalo Soldiers, an all-black unit of the U.S. Army after the Civil War.
They were among the first to experiment with cycling as a means of military transportation.
Learning about them opened Cedeño's eyes to a rich history of black bicyclists.
"To see people that look like me, my skin tone traveling by bike in 1897 I was like 'wow.' I just became fascinated because I was like 'wow that could have been my grandpa or my great grandfather," said Cedeño.
In 2022, he pedaled through a portion of the exact route those soldiers took.
Cedeño said it's not lost on him that the freedoms he enjoys now were the dreams of those very men.
Cedeño's been able to identify nine of the 20 soldiers and says he will spend his life working to identify the other 11 and teaching people about them.
The Source: Information for this story came from an interview with Erick Cedeño.