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COVID-19 Slowed Steve Rankin Down but Didn’t Stop Him

Steve Rankin ’98 (occupational therapy) celebrated his retirement from UW Hospital by cycling across North America with fellow travelers from 10 different countries. He is pictured (center) at Ausable Chasm, New York, with friends from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. His traveling companions ranged in age from 25 to 79, and he overcame COVID-19, uprooted trees, and capsized porta potties in Montana, weathered a hailstorm at Devil’s Tower, WY, and endured hurricane-force winds in Minnesota to complete the journey. Temperatures ranged from 35 to 100 degrees — and those were in the same week. While working in the hospital and on COVID units through the pandemic, he avoided the disease but couldn’t shake it out west, climbing Thompson Pass while getting sick and Teton Pass while recovering. This was his second coast-to-coast journey by bike after age 65. Don’t ask if he’ll do it again.

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