HC Completes Cross-Country Bicycle Trip

A hospital administrator with more than 25 years of executive experience, Andy Leeka served as the chief executive director of the Medical Relief Center built in the Los Angeles Convention Center in the spring of 2020 to absorb some of the overflow of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. He currently serves as the president of Angle Health, a medical insurance startup headquartered in San Francisco. Away from his professional responsibilities, Andy Leeka enjoys skiing, surfing, and bicycling.

While the idea of a cross-country bicycle trip sounds exciting, practical considerations make the trek virtually impossible for most adults. The most obvious obstacle is time. Most people young enough to bicycle across the country can’t get enough time off work to make the trip. Andy Leeka figured out how to do it, however.

With his sights set on Cadillac Mountain in Maine, Mr. Leeka started in late November 2011 from his home in California and rode a total of 409 miles in five days, ending in Las Vegas, where he put his bike into storage and took a flight back home. He returned to Las Vegas in December 2012, got his bike out of storage, and rode 167 miles in two days to St. George, Utah, where he again stored his bike. The third leg of the trip came in April 2013, when he biked 486 miles over six days, ending in Dolores, Colorado.

In this manner, he continued his trip, sometimes storing the bike for just a few months and other times storing it for a year or longer. Some legs of the trip were just a couple of days, while the longest took nine days and covered 641 miles. On the final day of the 12th leg, October 6, 2020, Mr. Leeka rode from Bar Harbor to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine, 16.58 miles. Overall, his trip covered 4,604 miles in 68 days in 12 legs spanning nearly 9 years.