St. Ignace native Joe Ossmann (right) and Rich Fowler of Sacramento, California, are bicycling across the country this summer. The bikers stopped in St. Ignace Thursday, July 15, where Mr. Ossmann visited with some of his classmates from LaSalle High School, which he attended in the 1960s. During their bicycle trip across the country, St. Ignace native Joe Ossmann, 64, and Rich Fowler, 67, both of Sacramento, California, have been inspiring people wherever they stop, proving that while everyone ages, there's no reason to stop living like you're young.

After starting their adventure at the end of May at the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco, the two retirees rolled into downtown St. Ignace on their bikes Thursday, July 15, completing roughly threequarters of their 4,000-mile journey to Portland, Maine, where they will dip their tires in the Atlantic Ocean to mark the trip's completion.

“There is an enormous sense of being [older] and still being able to do something that's really challenging with your body,” said Mr. Fowler of the trip, which he organized to raise money for emergency food bank programs in California. “It pushes on you to say, 'Can I do something like this still?' There's huge personal satisfaction.”

The bikers, who've been accompanied by a 24-foot camper driven by their wives, faced their first formidable obstacle right away as they rode through the Sierra Mountains, the tallest range in California. Climbing multiple passes higher than 8,000 feet, they were grateful for the broad range of 20 gears on their bicycles used to combat the slopes.

“We had one day in the Sierras where we climbed for 21 miles,” Mr. Fowler said of the difficult stretch.

Traveling through Salt Lake City, Utah, the two bikers were unexpectedly bombarded by a storm.

“We hit our first really nasty weather,” Mr. Ossmann said. “It was cold, rainy, and snowed. We were soaking wet and we had to do this eight-mile steep descent into the town where we were staying, and we were just frozen.”

But while they encountered challenging weather conditions, the riders were quickly rewarded for their efforts with long stretches of beautiful scenery. They next rode through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming, which featured lush valleys and an abundance of wildlife, including bison and elk.

“We've seen so much beauty that it's just astounding,” Mr. Ossmann said. “To see it from a bike is particularly tremendous because you've got a 360-degree view of nature, and you can hear the birds. When you're driving a car, you're going four times as fast as we are and you zip through it.”

Exiting Yellowstone, the riders accomplished an 11,000-foot climb up Beartooth Pass, a steep, but picturesque ascent that zigzags upward by way of switchbacks. They were flanked by snowbanks on the mountains as they reached the top of the pass, Mr. Ossmann said, which led them into Montana.

Their next major test was riding through North Dakota, and this time it wasn't by virtue of the rain or snow.

“North Dakota is windy!” Mr. Ossmann said. “The winds were gusting up to 35 miles per hour, and we never had a tailwind. One day we had to ride dead into the wind, and we cut our ride by about 20 miles. It was absolutely exhausting.”

They then traveled through northern Minnesota, stopping at Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River, and riding into the U.P. across northern Wisconsin, where they visited Mr. Ossmann's family at Teal Lake, including his brother, Bob, a LaSalle High School graduate.

Happy to be back in St. Ignace, which he last visited in 1988, Mr. Ossmann met with several friends from his youth in the 1960s during his stay. His father, Edward, was the superintendent of St. Ignace Area Schools from 1946 to 1962.

“Joe will see things that remind him of things that happened when he was a kid and tell stories, so it's been fun to be in his home turf and see through his eyes,” Mr. Fowler said of their time in the U.P.

Next, the two cyclists planned to travel about 800 miles through Canada to finish the last leg of their trip, which will ultimately bring them to the shore of the ocean.

Thinking about the final leg of the journey, Mr. Ossmann said, “There are 14 riding days left. But if I look back, 14 days ago we were in the middle of Montana, so it's still a long way.”

“Yikes,” Mr. Fowler responded. “I wish you wouldn't have said that.”

By Sunday, July 25, the men had reached Renfrew, Ontario, on schedule to reach Portland, Maine, Saturday, July 31.

Mr. Ossmann is keeping a journal of his trip at www.joesbike blog.blogspot.com.