Congratulations to Ashleigh Myles for setting the new Pan American Hwy N-S Record in the following categories: Female, 18-49, Standard bike, Unsupported.

118+ days of amazement by Ashleigh. Her last name aptly earned in her grit and determination of preserving this amazing journey of 22,412 Km = 13926 miles!

Read briefly about her journey below the pics! – I don’t know abut you, but I am waiting for the book!

During this larger effort Ashleigh also set the new woman’s South American N-S Unsupported record at 57:9:37

Record Attempt: N-S Pan-American Highway 

Female, solo, self-supported

Name of rider: Ashleigh Myles 

Start date and time: August 23, 2025. 09:22

Exact start location: Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Northern terminus of Pan-American Highway sign (maybe 100 meters from the sign where the pavement begins). 

What were the conditions like: 

The ride started out in the cold, wet and windy conditions of Alaska, became warmer through Canada and the USA; very hot in Mexico; torrential rain and humidity in Central America; hot again in northern South America, and back to cold, wet, and windy (VERY windy) conditions as I approached the southern terminus. 

It was really interesting to flip the world (and weather) upside down and continue to ride through similar conditions, backwards. 

Why did you want to do a record?

I could not find a female record for this route. A number of men have been recorded or in the news for attempting it, but no women. I thought it was kind of strange no one had (at least, no one I had heard of) attempted this route. If I succeeded, one would exist. Representation matters, and my hope is that more women (FLINTA) will be represented in this sport in the future. 

And, of course, I thought riding from the top to the bottom of the Americas was a mind-bending concept (I still can’t wrap my head around how big the world is, or how long the distance actually is). I’d never seen South America before, so every day was something completely new! 

What equipment did you use? Anything special? 

The best piece of equipment I had was my custom-built Fluent Frameworks bike! Steel frame, carbon fork. No issues at all. The only barrier to getting on my bike somedays was a mental one – the inertia to keep going on days I knew the conditions or road(s) would be challenging. 

I had an Arkel seatpacker which I loved. I knew it could endure the conditions. It was the one piece of gear I never really thought about during the ride because it never gave me any issues – a good sign of a well-built piece of gear. Easy to use, durable, and reliable. Perfect for the roads, gravel, and every kind of weather along the way. 

What did you eat and drink?

Mostly carbs and sugar throughout the day. After I experienced food poisoning in Mexico, I opted to make sandwiches to eat during the day. Mostly peanut butter and jam; eventually Nutella and jam when peanut butter slowly disappeared from shelves as I went further south. Fresh, peelable fruit whenever possible. 

At night, or for my last meal, I tried to eat protein, fats, and vegetables. For a long while, my dinners consisted of a can of chili con carne or refried beans, a bag of chips (corn chips, preferably), tomato or avocado (or both), and mayonnaise. Crunched the chips up and mixed everything in a bag! It was usually about 2000 calories, the biggest caloric meal I’d have all day. 

After Ecuador, the protein became a can or two of tuna. I always bought the tuna in oil and drank the oil instead of dumping it out. Near the end, it was just a can if tuna and a package of mayonnaise because that’s all I could find.  

What was the best part? 

I was really looking forward to South America. I purposefully didn’t do much research on the areas I was going to ride through because I wanted to let it all unfold in front of me. Colombia’s coffee and cake culture was really the most memorable – riding through the Andes and stopping in towns to enjoy delicious treats after grueling climbs. 

Anywhere in the Andes was a highlight for me. It was incredible to ride into, and on either side of the Andes the whole way down South America.  

What was the hardest part? 

On day 3, I was on the Dalton Highway, walking up Beaver Slide (a long 3-4km straight and steady climb up in the mud). I was cold, drenched, muddy, and borderline hypothermic. I could hear my brake pads wearing away as a I pushed the bike upwards. No service, no shelter in sight. Someone stopped in a car going north and told me the area was expecting rain (more rain!). I hit my low right there. After this, nothing was truly hard. I slept in a pit toilet that night and when I woke up in the morning, decided I was going to finish this ride no matter how long it took. There was a reason Beaver Slide happened so soon: to put the rest of what I might encounter on this ride into perspective. 

The torrential rain in Central America was tough. I tried to ride through it multiple times before realizing that I just needed to wait it out. Sometimes, it meant hours before getting back on the road, but it was miserable and inefficient to ride through and I really wasn’t getting far anyway. 

The Patagonian winds were mentally draining. It feels like you’re pushing uphill and going nowhere. There’s nowhere to hide (except in ditches), and it’s cold. Trying to find the most opportune time to ride was a bit challenging and meant I had to switch my schedule to ride at night a few times – disrupting my rhythm and sleep patterns. Sleep was an important daily routine for recovery, and I felt the deprivation 10x more than usual, but needed to do it anyway to cover ground when the wind was lighter.  

Lots of mental battles, but that comes with the challenge. 

Did anything particularly unusual happen? 

In my case, the biases of others are not true. I already knew this would be the case, and don’t find it unusual, but others may. 

I experienced kindness in every country, from almost everyone (minus a few individuals). When I would tell someone in one country, I was going to a country south of theirs, their response was usually: “Be careful. The people are dangerous!” And it was never true – I met the kindest people in the next country, and the next. I understand this is my experience as a privileged white woman from a western country, and not everyone will have the same experience. I do believe any person traveling by bicycle will generally have a warmer welcome because you are more vulnerable and exposed, and perhaps that also makes you easier to connect with and seen as less of a threat. 

I wanted to form my own opinions of countries I had not visited before, so I left the biases of others and went to see for myself. 

Exact finish location: Ushuaia, Argentina. Fin del Mundo sign on the waterfront in Ushuaia. 

Exact finish time: December 19, 2025. 20:35