Alenka Vrecek, She Rides: Chasing Dreams Across California and Mexico

"She Rides is heartfelt and riveting from the opening lines. So much more than a grueling bicycle adventure, Vrecek openly shares her feelings of longing for her home country, the fallout from the dissolution of her first marriage, and the prospect that she might not recover from cancer. Ultimately, through courage, fortitude, and sheer badass strength, she makes the most important discovery of all, that she can unflinchingly face any challenge and confront every obstacle head on. And that she's just fine being who she is."
--Michael Shapiro, author of A Sense of Place

She Rides: Chasing Dreams Across California and Mexico is a deeply personal memoir of Alenka Vrecek's 2,500-mile solo bike packing pilgrimage along the spine of the snow-covered Sierra Nevada and into the hostile desert mountains and plains of Mexico's Baja Peninsula-a story about crossing emotional, physical, and cultural boundaries--will inspire readers to follow their own dreams as Alenka followed hers.

Alenka Vrecek was born at the foot of the Alps in Slovenia, a part of former communist Yugoslavia. Born with a spirit for adventure, she came to America at twenty years old with a backpack, a pair of skis, and a pocket full of dreams. She was a ski coach and a director of Pedagogy for Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski Teams for thirty years. Alenka owns Tahoe Tea Company and lives in Lake Tahoe, California, with her second husband, Jim, their four children, three grandchildren, and a Golden Retriever named Monty.