Keeping the wheels in motion

COEUR d’ALENE — Nick Maniscalco is once again planning a long distance bike ride to raise scholarship funds for those who have suffered traumatic brain injury.

The Dalton Gardens man hopes to begin pedaling in May from Astoria, Ore., and finish either in Coeur d’Alene or push on to Missoula, depending on how long it takes.

“We’ll find out,” he said.

It won’t be easy, not with some 1,000 miles of road which includes passes that are part of the TransAmerica Bike Trail he wants to follow.

“I’m thinking, 50-55 miles a day, that’s not going to be hard at all,” Maniscalco said.

Well, he admits the hill climbs will be “quite a bit of work” as he’ll be hauling a small trailer with supplies and probably going 3-4 mph.

“That will be slow,” he said, laughing.

And there will be daunting days highway traffic will be whizzing past just a few feet away off his left shoulder.

“So the people behind me are going to go crazy,” he said, laughing.

The 32-year-old knows about overcoming challenges.

Maniscalco was 19 when the car he was driving slid on black ice near Walla Walla, Wash., where he had been visiting friends and was on his way home. It slammed into a flatbed cement trailer. The impact pushed his skull into his brain.

The crash, he said, “changed my life.”

He spent eight months in the hospital, four of those in a coma. Doctors told his parents he had a 50-50 chance of living. And if he did, he might not walk or talk again.

He underwent nearly five years of physical therapy. He learned to walk and talk again. He went back to school and is working on an associate of science degree.

And he began biking to build strength and endurance.

“I’m doing great,” he said in a recent interview with The Press. "But I haven’t been biking near enough because I’ve been in school.”

Last year, a planned bike ride with a friend from Anacortes, Wash., to Dalton Gardens, about 400 miles by the Northern Tier route, didn't work out.

Despite that setback, this year he's planning to increase the mileage and travel on a frugal budget. He and a friend plan to camp along the way.

“I don’t have the money for motels,” he said.

Asked about waiting for warmer summer days, maybe until he has a support team, Maniscalco said he’ll have waterproof gear, and added, “it’s not going to hurt me if it’s a little cold.”

If this regional bike ride goes well, Maniscalco is planning a 4,200-mile cross-country ride next summer.

That, he says, will be more complicated and require more planning, better conditioning and a support vehicle.

“If someone would be willing to give of a little time to be a support driver, that would be amazing, I would love that," he said.

Maniscalco wants to raise $1 million for scholarships for others dealing with TBI “to give them the possibilities that I have had to go college.”

His education has been paid through grants.

“God has really blessed me with that,” he said.

Maniscalco goes by “Nick Recycled” on social media. Donations to his fundraising efforts can be made at GoFundMe, where he has set up an account.