Monarchs, which have evolved to survive the dry season in Mexico, are finding the dry season no longer exists. In January 2017, I braved a 52-hour bus ride from my hometown outside Kansas City, Kansas, followed by a two-day bike ride, to arrive at the parking lot of the El Rosario monarch sanctuary in Michoacán, Mexico. I have been inspired that this fall would perhaps be a good time to clear out some of those grapevines and figure out a way to plant milkweed (native, and untreated with poisons). We both chuckled despite the fact that my joke, “I’m only breathing hard because I want to,” wasn’t that funny.

While other farms spray away the milkweed, Native American Seed embraces each plant and their monarch suitors. That would be difficult to recapture from audio, so I bought a copy of the hardcover book and am setting into it with my yellow highlighter in hand.The book offers a unique premise and Dykman's enthusiasm will motivate others to be more thoughtful about their decisions, from planting milkweed to mowing the lawn.

Dykman begins her trek west of Mexico City in the state of Michoacan at the El Rosario Sanctuary, the largest and most popular of the sites in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Sara Dykman made history when she became the first person to bicycle alongside monarch butterflies on their storied annual migration-a round-trip adventure that included three countries and more than 10,000 miles. The whole ride - the people, finding a place to set up camp for the night, the occasional creepy encounter - was so neat to read about.Along the way, she stops to occasionally stay with a fellow monarch advocate, and she also speaks to groups at schools and any other place that can get people together about the monarchs.

That tour, a month of 40-mile days up the East Coast, taught me a useful truth: a long trip is nothing more than a collection of miles. With action comes connections – connections to a team that is growing bigger every year, and to a migration that is growing smaller but that we will not give up on… You can’t protect just one aspect of a traveler’s journey; to protect the traveler, you must protect their every step, every wing beat. With both humor and humility, Dykman offers a compelling story, confirming the urgency of saving the threatened monarch migration—and the other threatened systems of nature that affect the survival of us all. Science, nature, and adventure come together in Sara Dykman’s riveting account of a solo bike trip along the 10,201 mile-long migratory path of the monarch butterfly.

She has no regard for private property and even turns a trespassing situation with cops into a commentary on race. In this way, I could confront small distances, and celebrate strings of tiny victories that would soon add up. Though people gasped when I told them what I was doing, it seemed to me that the monarchs, with their unburdened wings, deserved the accolades. After decades of pursuing the pleasures of cycling, I’m convinced that riding with an intent, an objective of some sort, adds meaning and value. Sara al igual que las monarcas, a lo largo de su viaje crea vínculos entre tres países, sus comunidades y diferentes ecosistemas; al leer su libro no puedo dejar de imaginar todos los momentos únicos e inigualables que vivió y los bonitos paisajes que sus ojos deben haber visto.

Sara Dykman follows the monarchs over 10,000 miles on a bicycle as the butterflies migrate from Mexico to Canada and then back from Canada to Mexico again. All you need is the interest in learning about another human being, a humanist, and her hero-journey, for it is exactly that. Although she kept a diary as her reference for the trip, it is obvious that she bases her writing on an extensive background as a naturalist, and biologist.Sara Dykman is a wildlife biologist who in 2017 biked over 10,000 miles on her journey to follow the Monarchs and to expand awareness about the challenges to their survival. All I knew was that treasures were not easy to find, and that winter’s beauty was guarded by vast space, steep mountains, and the echoes of a long-standing forest. From March to December 2017, Sara followed the monarch butterflies from their overwintering grounds in central Mexico to Canada and back. Sara has a passion for all of God's creatures, not just the monarch butterflies, but here she shares many of the lessons she learned from them on her journey following their migration path. Promoting her trip on social media, she received invitations to speak at schools, garden clubs, and butterfly sanctuaries all along the way.