According to David Peterson, Don Grimsley and Randy Dykes, one good challenge deserves another.

The three friends leave Thursday on a 5,200-mile off-road, cross-country motorcycle ride to raise money for Sandhills Teen Challenge, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates young men with drug and alcohol problems. They are calling it a “Freedom Ride.”

“The idea is to challenge ourselves by taking a road less travelled,” Grimsley says. “It is a close parallel to what goes on at Teen Challenge.”

The trip begins in Southern Pines and is scheduled to end 23 days and 11 states later in Oregon.

To complete the ride on time, the friends will have to average 12 hours of riding per day, or 276-miles per day.

They will cross creek beds, forests, deserts and mountains with elevations of more than 12,000 feet above sea level. They will likely traverse snow-covered mountains in Colorado and the scorching heat of the Nevada desert.

Peterson says the adventurers will be mentally prepared for the task, fully aware that things could go wrong and that success or failure will largely depend on how they handle various situations they encounter.

“There is an anticipation of the unknown, but we look at it as an adventure,” he says.

And there is a bit of fear that comes along with making a trip of this nature. In fact, Grimsley says, of the thousands who have tried, he knows of only about 20 who have completed a similar ride.

“There is a chance that not all three of us will make the destination,” he says, “and there is a chance that if someone gets hurt along the way we will have to stop to help them, but we have make plans for self rescue.”

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