Max Morales Interview

Tell us about your background as a cyclist

My interest in cycling really started during my time as an undergrad at Humboldt State University, where an awesome hand-me-down cyclocross bike given to me by my uncle was my primary mode of transportation all 4 years there. I credit a lot of my affinity for all things cycling to one of my first roommates and best friends, Cole. He was part of the cycling team at HSU and got me involved with all sorts of bike-related shenanigans, guiding me into the magical world of mountain biking. I was at Humboldt State between 2011-2015, then got my teaching credential at UC Santa Cruz in 2018. Both the landscapes and environment I was surrounded by in both my higher education settings propelled my interest in bikes and the community, where I could explore on my bike, and see how far the bike could take me.

This translated into the time I spent teaching English abroad in both Peru and Guatemala. I made sure to get my hands on whatever bike I could find with the money I had because I knew the bike was a vehicle to propel me to see and discover things I may not have seen when visiting a place. Even now living in San Francisco, with its outstanding bike infrastructure, I make it a habit to try to use my bike to take me wherever I need to go.

How did you get started bikepacking?

I did a few overnighters in college, which got me excited about the idea of traveling by bike. I ended up planning my first solo multi-day trip the summer after I graduated, heading from San Francisco back to see some friends in Humboldt. The first day into the trip, I, unfortunately, got into a pretty avoidable accident and broke my collarbone. Fast forward a couple of years. I had a few weeks to kill before heading to grad school at UC Santa Cruz. Because I already had all the maps, itinerary, and gear from my first attempt, I reversed the route and biked from Humboldt to SF in about a week. On top of enjoying every moment of that trip. I met so many awesome bike travelers and heard so many amazing stories, I knew the potential to see the world by bike was limitless.

About a year later, I ran into an old friend, Rory, out of the blue who was scheming and putting together a group to ride the great divide mountain bike route and asked if I’d be interested. Knowing that I’d have the summer off after my first year of teaching, I knew I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. After accomplishing such a feat with such an awesome group of friends, I knew that bikepacking was something I could continue to lean on to see the world at a different pace and grow in community with others.

What motivated you to become a teacher?

Yeah, so I’ve known I’ve wanted to be a teacher for most of my life. It’s not only metaphorically in my blood, but I also come from a family of educators. I just love what I do and love working with kids. One of the motivating factors of becoming a teacher was the fact that for the majority of my educational time in school, I never really saw teachers who looked like me. Did you know that about 80% of public school teachers in the U.S. are white? This is compared to the 53% of BIPOC identifying student population nationally. So while I am extremely passionate about the work I do, I also know the importance of being a mirror for many of my students. Junot Diaz, an immigrant and Pulitzer prize-winning author brings up the idea of diverse representation, "You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There's this idea that monsters don't have reflections in a mirror. And what I've always thought isn't that monsters don't have reflections in a mirror. It's that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn't see myself reflected at all. I was like, "Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don't exist? And part of what inspired me was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it." This is kind of my throughline, the thing that carries me through and reminds me of the importance of being visible, not just in teaching, but also in outdoor recreation spaces.

You were an OTT BIPOC scholarship recipient. What did that mean for you?

The pandemic sidelined my ambitions to take a large bikepacking trip during the summer of 2020, as I felt it necessary to not travel in an effort to protect any community I might be passing through. Having to sit long hours in front of the computer for virtual teaching throughout the year lowered my baseline level of fitness to only the miles I put under my belt bike commuting as well as weekend rides I took part in. The OTT was on my list of things I wanted to tackle, especially since one of my awesome friends who I rode the divide with, Taylor, crushed the whole thing in the summer of 2020. So when another friend of mine, Emily shared the scholarship on social media, it not only seemed like the perfect opportunity to see if I was capable of doing a race like this but also to get me out of a pandemic slump of not moving my body as much as I would have liked. It gave me something to look forward to, taught me a lot about myself, and allowed me to connect and interact with so many awesome riders and friends.

One of the things that really stuck out to me when riding the great divide was that of the many riders we encountered, I didn’t quite see myself represented. As big of an accomplishment I felt that summer was, I told myself I would eventually see it through that I would attempt to race in a large adventure race similar to the Tour Divide. Even if I wasn’t gunning to win, I knew that just being out there, being a mirror for others, was meaningful to hopefully inspire other BIPOC folx to try out this amazing sport.

Can you tell us a bit about your ride? Did you plan to go fast or just enjoy the ride? Or both. Or neither…

Virtual teaching during the first year of the pandemic took its toll on my body, but despite my lower level of fitness, with enough training, I knew with previous experience that I was capable of getting through the ride. I had never done a solo race-style trip before so there was the competitive side of me that wanted to see how fast I could go, how much sleep I could forego, how much I’d be able to put my body through. There’s an interesting masochistic personality trait that surrounds bikepacking, it’s type two fun that I think interests a lot of people, myself included. Humans’ relationship to pain is very interesting to me. There’s also this balance of how far you’re willing to push the physical aspect of your body as well as your mental stamina, while also staying safe and taking care of your primal needs of getting enough water, food, and sleep.

As you already know, the weather and the wildfires had a lot more in store than any of the inaugural OTT racers/riders could have anticipated. Over the first few hours, I stuck to my original plan of seeing how fast I was able to take myself. The number of downed trees and the plenty of hike-a-bikes over the first 10 miles really spread out the field and made me realize just how individual, how solo the ride had become. I ran into another racer halfway through day 1 and we joked about how intense everything was. The temp dancing around the hundreds, the altitude, the wildfire smoke. It was a great relief to have company as we rode together for a bit, but it being a race, he told me to push on without him, probably sensing that I wanted to go a little faster and he needed a little bit more time to rest. I continued on and made sure I prioritized finding some water, especially with the heat. I missed the first water source on the map, so even though it sucked up a lot of my time searching for the 2nd water source, I was happy to have resupplied myself. I continued trucking on through an almost apocalyptic-like landscape of loose ashy trails and charred and blackened trees from the previous year's wildfire that didn’t provide much if any protection from the unrelenting sun. Around 2 o’clock, I ran into the same racer I had ridden with earlier on, this time resting on the side of the trail under the scant shade of a tiny trailside bush. I knew even from a distance as I was biking up that he didn’t seem well. One of the first things he told me when I biked up was that he was considering hitting the S.O.S button on his spot device due to how delirious he was feeling. He had missed the second water source that I had stopped at, not even noticing my bike on the side of the trail. He couldn’t hold down much food or ibuprofen that I offered, but after some time he got to the point where we agreed to push on together to a fire-road bailout point 3-miles up the trail. He had miraculously found a sliver of cell service and was able to tip off his partner of his misfortune, who he knew would be waiting for him once he got there due to the google magic of placing a pin on a map. We walked slowly, biked the few downhills, and took plenty of breaks until we finally got to the fire road. When we finally parted ways and I knew he was safe, I had about an hour left of sun for the day and continued pushing on. Maybe 5 minutes later a group of 3 other racers caught up with me. Sam had told us that he had researched and reserved a tiny cabin, “the Squirelville lodge” a few more miles away and offered the space up to the rest of us. I contemplated riding into the night to make up for some lost time but ultimately took up his offer, knowing I could start fresh in the morning.

It wasn’t until the end of day 2 that we racers began to realize how bad the Bootleg fire had gotten. At the top of Moss Spring, I began getting cell service and texts from the race organizers that many parts of the trail were becoming too unsafe to ride and to consider bailing out soon if possible. Everett, another racer and Squireville Lodge guest, and I searched for a water source in the dark together. While filtering out our h20 we both decided to bail out in the morning to Paisley.

During day 3 in Paisley, a bunch of riders linked up and were able to find rides north to continue on the race route away from the smoke. Because we all technically scratched the race by leaving the course, this provided for a much more relaxed riding time, and in my opinion, made the entire experience a lot more enjoyable. I got to ride with a core group of folx for the remainder of our days on the route, really building an ephemeral bikepacking community that stuck together and made decisions as a group. I don’t think it was even spoken of or decided that we would all stick together, I really enjoyed everyone's company. If we weren’t racing this thing, the least we could do was enjoy our time together and take in the beauty that surrounds this route without all the pressure of racing.

I was super grateful and lucky to ride with Conan Thai for the majority of the remaining time on the route together. On the 7th and final day of riding, I lost my phone on the route near Waldo lake. Conan is such a genuine and caring friend that he backtracked an hour on the trail to help me search for my lost phone as Everrett pushed on. I eventually called the phone search party quits, unfortunately losing all my photos from my trip. This is all to say, I feel extremely lucky to have ridden with Conan as he documented the trip so well. With his permission, I’ve chosen 10 of my favorites from the trip, which I’ll share in a bit.

What advice would you give to others that want to do a future OTT Grand Depart?

Push yourself, but try not to let stubbornness override your ability to make safe decisions. Overall, you know your body best and try and listen to it. There are so many great resources provided by the OTT. One thing in particular was the google drive that allowed users/riders to update water sources throughout the route. (I didn’t have service so I just made sure to download all this info into offline mode on my phone. I also think it was Conan who printed out this and laminated in which I thought was pretty smart)

Any essential gear that you brought with you?

There are two pieces of gear that I was able to purchase with the scholarship funds that I’d consider essential for this trip. My Garmin Edge GPS unit kept me on route and was a lifesaver when trying to find water sources, and also my small travel-sized bottle of Cholula hot sauce.

What’s your favorite food on trail?

I’ve got quite the sweet tooth, so gummy candies were always a convenience store go-to. Bikepacking allows me to satisfy my sweet tooth with the amount of candy, ice cream, and calories I’m able to consume because I know I’ll just burn it off anyway. My mantra is that you can “eat trash and get away with it”.

How can we make the Oregon Timber Trail more diverse, equitable and inclusive? And more broadly, how can we do so with cycling

It is with gratitude that through the femme, transgender, women and non-binary and other BIPOC community-led organizations such as Radical Adventure Riders(RAR) that the opportunity to even apply to a scholarship such as this currently exists. This is what really excites me. To participate in the efforts to change the narrative of who is seen in these spaces by challenging companies, race organizers, and the entire cycling industry as a whole to break down the barriers of entry and aiming to enhance gender equity as well as racial and ethnic inclusivity in this sport.