Hanssen, 25, pedaled into Sydney, completing a 3,000-mile ride across Australia that started Jan. 15 in Perth. Hanssen was unavailable for comment after he confirmed his arrival via e-mail at 7:16 a.m.

During his ride, Hanssen endured 100-degree heat, long stretches of lonely Outback, makeshift roadside campsites and even snow. He got caught in a lightning storm and ran out of water on the arid Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia.

Along the way he met various friends, including Anthony Emmett, who coached with him at the Lake Washington Rowing Club. Emmett biked with Hanssen across the Nullarbor Plain, the hardest part of the ride because of the heat and remoteness.

Among the hazards on the Nullarbor were road trains – 120-foot-long tractor-trailer rigs with four trailers.

“You get used to them, but you never get lax because then you would die,” Hanssen said via e-mail in February.

“They have huge bars on the front because they do not stop for kangaroos, camels or cows on the road. They will not purposely hit them, but those bars are there to protect the truck.”

Loaded down with gear, food and water, Hanssen’s bike weighed more than 100 pounds. Good road bikes weigh less than 20 pounds. Still, Hanssen pedaled between 13 and 155 miles per day.

He spent about half of the nights on the side of the road.

“Just stop at any patch of bush and you can find something appropriate,” he said.

“I never cross fences nor knowingly trespass,” he added. “Then again, I try to look for a hidden patch and am in after dark and out before light. No blood, no foul.”

He spent the other nights at hostels where he could get a shower.

“I can go about three days without a shower before my body really needs it,” Hanssen said.

He is establishing himself as one of Washington state’s most adventurous travelers. In 2006 he and three other UPS graduates – Dylan LeValley, Greg Spooner and Brad Vickers – became the first Americans to row across the North Atlantic.

For his next adventure, he and Spooner plan to row from New York to Nome, Alaska, in 2011.

Craig Hill: 253-597-8497

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