Wisconsin woman aiming to be youngest to travel the world by motorcycle returns home

ASHLAND − The day before her youngest daughter returned home, Eileen McCutchen couldn’t sleep. She checked the GPS tracker at 2 a.m.

It showed Bridget in Bozeman, Montana, about 1,000 miles away. She was the closest to home since she'd left Aug. 10, 2022, at 21 years old in a bid to break the Guinness World Record as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle.

The trip caused 451 days of anxiety for Eileen. Bridget had been robbed in Chile, injured in Peru and escorted through Pakistan by security. She traversed thick jungles in Nepal, endured 120-degree heat across the Middle East and was hit by a car in South America.

“Pick a place, and there’s something to worry about,” Eileen said.

After nearly 50,000 miles and 45 countries, Bridget was coming home.

Eileen decorated the hall she'd rented for the town to celebrate her homecoming Saturday. She would serve Bridget's favorite foods, the ones she'd missed most while on the road: root beer, rotisserie chicken and potato salad.

But by mid-afternoon Friday, Eileen and her husband, Jeff, had lost contact with their daughter. The tracker showed Bridget's location stalled since noon. She wasn't answering their calls or texts either.

By 3 p.m., Jeff was ready to call the Montana State Patrol nonemergency number for help.

Eileen's mind was in overdrive. Had Bridget's bike broken down? Had she crashed? Or another car crashed into her? The worst-case scenario also lingered. If something really bad were to happen, she thought, wouldn't it be now, so close to the finish line?

Brother pitches Bridget McCutchen on Guinness World Record idea

Blame Bridget’s brother, Thomas, for the crazy idea. He rode his motorcycle to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost tip of South America, in 2021.

Thomas wondered about the age of the youngest person to ride a motorcycle around the world. He learned the record-holder had finished four days before turning 24.

Thomas was already 24. But Bridget was just 20.

Bridget was dismissive at first. She had only started riding at 19. Because she grew up homeschooled on a farm, she hadn't traveled much. She'd never even left America.

But a recent motorcycle trip from Wisconsin to Washington state changed her mindset. It "was like this giant door was opened and I, all of a sudden, realized I could do things," Bridget said on a motorcycle podcast episode in September. "Everything became possible. It was very naïve of me, but I was like how is it not possible?"

More: Wisconsin-born adventurer hopes to become youngest person to circumnavigate globe via motorcycle

Months of planning followed. To break the record, Bridget needed to ride at least 24,900 miles, cross the equator at least once and pass two antipodal points — places where if a straight line connected the two, it would pass through the Earth's center. She also had to start and finish on the same motorcycle unless it was documented to be beyond repair.

Bridget initially planned to ride through Russia. The war in Ukraine shifted her route through central Asia.

She saved up money from working on the Madeline Island Ferry, launched a GoFundMe and secured a sponsorship with Aerostich, a Duluth-based motorcycle apparel company. She bought a new 300 cc Kawasaki bike, which she named Mab in honor of her late childhood horse.

Bridget broke the news to her family at a fall bonfire.

"My husband said 'Yay!' and I said 'Arrrgh ...' Eileen said. "... But I didn't tell her no."

The one country where Bridget McCutchen wanted to quit

Every country came with a story.

In Mexico, Bridget celebrated her 22nd birthday. In Nicaragua, the border crossing took six hours. In Ireland, her bike chain broke so she used twine to temporarily hold it together.

Thailand teemed with life. Nepal's street signs warned of tigers. Norway's snow and solitude made her homesick.

Peru wore Bridget down. She crashed on a mountain pass and blew out her knee. The pain sometimes woke her up at night.

In Sweden, her wisdom teeth started coming in, an ache that hounded her the rest of the trip.

Chile was the only place where Bridget considered quitting. There, she and a friend accompanying her on the Central and South America legs of her journey ducked into a grocery store after a long day.

They came out to find all of the friend's gear — passport, laptop, clothes, camping supplies — gone. So were Bridget's camera, tank bag and Guinness witness book.

Later in Chile, a car crashed into Bridget, leaving her with a minor concussion, some scrapes and a brief fear about getting back on her bike.

What helped Bridget overcome her "week of hell" was the outpouring of support and donations.

A complete stranger, Minnesota motorcyclist Linda Theisen, reached out after reading Bridget's story on social media. She was flying into Santiago just days after the theft and arranged to deliver supplies from the McCutchen family to Bridget at the airport, bypassing the need for shipping or customs.

"It was just like it was meant to be," Theisen said. "Motorcyclists take care of motorcyclists."

Surrounded by new gear, family photos, cards and cash at the airport, Bridget said it felt like Christmas morning.

Fiercely independent, Bridget McCutchen figured it out as she went

Eileen calls Bridget her “wind child.” She always wanted to feel the wind in her hair.

The day the family moved onto their farm, Bridget was 3, and Eileen couldn’t find her anywhere. She peeked out the window and spotted Bridget's bright pink snowsuit, chugging up a hill half a mile away.

“She’s not happy when she’s not in motion,” Eileen said.

Bridget was always in motion over the past 15 months. To break the record, she couldn't stay in one spot for more than two weeks.

Sometimes she stayed at a friend's place or rented a room. Many nights, especially in Europe, she camped. At least once, she drove through the night to escape the heat of the Middle East. Other times, she met people along the way who extended their hospitality.

In Kuwait, for example, the hotel she found on Google Maps didn’t exist. She realized she had accidentally walked into a police station instead. The general on duty offered a family member's home for the night.

“I’m always struck by how, over and over again on my trip, when my personal plans fall apart, the universe seems to put people and places in my path like they’re engineered to help me," she posted on Instagram. "I have no idea how I’ve earned this, but I’m grateful nonetheless.”

Surgery back home prompts an emotional phone call

Eileen, a devout Catholic, never prayed as much as she did in the past 15 months. She asked the priest at her local parish to bless Bridget and her bike before she left.

In February, Bridget called home. Eileen, who had faced a number of health problems since 2019, had been scheduled for open heart surgery.

In tears, Bridget wondered whether she should return home. What if something went wrong?

Eileen insisted Bridget continue on. It's not like she could just re-do the trip.

Eileen gave Bridget the middle name Marie in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That way, Mary could always watch over Bridget, even when Eileen couldn't.

The last day of the motorcycle trip

Bridget's last day of the trip was her hardest. She left western Montana around 3 a.m., a 1,000-mile ride ahead of her. She arrived in Duluth at 11:30 p.m., with temperatures in the 20s and frost forming on her bike.

She hadn't planned to cram so many miles into her last day, but shipping her bike from Malaysia took longer than expected. When the crate arrived in Vancouver, she learned her bike was in pieces. She had to reassemble it.

Her parents' panic over losing contact with Bridget came with a reasonable explanation. Somewhere in North Dakota, her GPS hit a dead zone with no satellite reception. And she wasn't answering calls because her cellphone had died.

It'll be several months before Bridget hears if she officially broke the record or not. Guinness told her to start a new witness book after hers was stolen. In her view, she's already broken the record. But the record wasn't really what drove her to finish the ride.

What's next for Bridget?

"Lots of sleep," she joked Saturday morning, just before setting off on the last 70 miles of her journey. She was excited to see the "places that are so familiar I don’t need Google maps to navigate."

Bridget will probably return to working on boats for a while to save money. She said this trip cost about $30,000, $24,000 of which was fundraised.

Bridget wants to finish her captain's license so she can sail around the world. Maybe she'll get her pilot's license, too.

A homecoming in Ashland

The church bells rang at noon, just as the roar of Bridget's motorcycle rounded the corner. She honked as her family and friends came into view.

Bridget flipped down her kickstand and hopped off.

Later, she'd reunite with friends, meet her 2-month-old niece for the first time and joke with her dad about how much white hair he'd grown in her absence. She'd ride her bike right into the wood-paneled hall her parents rented for the party and eat plenty of potato salad.

But first, the important stuff.

"Where's Mom?"

Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bridget McCutchen rides motorcycle around world in record-breaking trip