CHILE -- Daniel Burton of Eagle Mountain is the first man on record to ride a bicycle 100 percent of the way across Antarctica to the South Pole.
His wife Media Burton said she is grateful that the expedition is completed.
"I wasn't ever worried, they have a lot of safety things in place," Media Burton said.
He began his journey on Dec. 1, 2013, at Hercules Inlet on Antarctica and reached his destination on Jan. 21.
"The South Pole station came into view when I was about 13 nautical miles away. When I saw it, I was so overcome with joy. I called home to my wife and lost all control of my emotions. The black dots on the horizon were the most wonderful thing I have ever seen," Daniel Burton said.
"I have never totally lost control of my emotions like I did then. I could see the pole and could go home soon," he emailed during an interview in Punta Arenas, Chile.
Burton is arriving home late Friday night and Media Burton said they are in the planning process for a welcome home gathering sometime next week.
Daniel Burton was named after his grandfather, who in turn was named after his 5th great-grandfather, the American explorer and frontiersman Daniel Boone.
"Frequently when I am out in the wilderness, I think I must have his blood in my veins," Daniel Burton said.
Boone blazed the Wilderness Road from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky in 1775.
"They call the Antarctica the world's last great wilderness. Biking to the South Pole would be an adventure worthy of the memory of Daniel Boone," Burton said in his blog at epicsouthpole.blogspot.com.
He owns Epic Biking in Saratoga Springs. Burton put his newly arrived fat bikes - mountain bikes with nearly four-inch wide tires - right by the front door of the store when they arrived.
People just walking past often would come into Epic Biking just because they saw the fat tires through the window and wanted to know what fat bikes were designed to do.
"Anyway, I would tell them how they are so great in the snow that some guy tried to ride one to the South Pole," he said.
The idea of cycling to the South Pole began to take shape in his mind. The more he talked about the idea, the more committed he became.
"Between being overheard talking about it, and the fact that I get excited about the adventure that I share the idea with anyone that listens to me, a lot of people at church know of my planned trip," he said.
He began working on fundraising for the expedition, launched a Kickstarter.com video, and received sponsorship from a number of companies.
Two others arrived before him trying to achieve similar feats. Maria Leijerstam of Wales became the first person and woman in the world to cycle from the edge of the Antarctic continent to the South Pole. She arrived at the South Pole on Dec. 27 using a custom-designed aerodynamic recumbent polar tricycle. She also set the new world record for the fastest human-powered coast to pole traverse, completing her journey in 10 days, 14 hours and 56 minutes.
Juan Memendez Granados of Spain completed the first bike expedition by a man to the South Pole on Jan. 17, cycling 40 percent of the distance and skiing the other 60 percent. Later, Granados would change those stats to cycling the majority of the time.
"Juan's math is terrible, 120 of 642 is no way close to most of the way. That is what makes me so upset is he is outright lying about it. He told the people at the Pole that he biked 40 percent of the way. I guess that lie was not good enough, so now he is making an even bigger lie," Burton said.
He knows the truth because he often followed Granados' ski tracks. Burton said his poles made distinctive marks in the snow.
That said, Burton became the first person to cycle 100 percent of the 700-mile distance on a bicycle. He braved extreme cold, katabatic winds or down-slope winds, possible hidden crevasses, and climbs of more than 9,000 feet.
His journey was tracked on Google map. By Dec. 14, there were no longer site reports posted on the map. Dennis Ordiway posted on Burton's blog Dec. 30, "You have reached the edge of the world. Or Google Maps anyway. Beware: Here [there] be dragons."
The mean annual temperature of interior Antarctica is minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes after getting into his tent, he would have to wait before he could take off his face mask because of the extreme temperatures freezing the mask to his beard.
And the journey was deathly quiet -- no train whistle, no motorized traffic, twittering birds, barking, kids laughing.
"Yeah, it was quiet, other than the noise I would make and the wind," he said. "I talked to myself a lot, and even worse I talked back, I sang to myself, and I carried a voice recorder and talked to it a lot."
At one point, he thought about if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound.
"I felt like I was so alone that I could answer that question if only there was a tree," Burton said.
Sometimes the sun would warm him on his back or side.
"Which was nice but also bad, as I could not afford to sweat too much or it would eventually make me extremely cold and would be dangerous," Burton said.
Still, the sun was a constant help most of the time. By its position he could tell the time of day. There was no nightfall, so Burton was able to charge his phone and other equipment with solar power while he slept. He would only use his Iridium and RedPort Optimizer satellite phones as needed because the extreme cold would drain battery life.
There were scary moments and the biggest was not the frigid temperatures. The biggest fear, he said, was falling prey to the Antarctic crevasses. There were three caches he cycled to in order to get resupplied during the expedition. The last cache was planted in the middle of a large crevasse field.
"Or maybe it was those last 40 miles when I was seriously afraid that after biking over 700 miles, I would fail with less than 50 to go," he said.
Before and during his South Pole Epic expedition, Daniel Burton wanted good to come from of his journey.
He initially started biking to improve his health, then he opened a bike shop.
"My intention was to help people lose weight like I did and hopefully help them avoid heart problems and diabetes. At about 87°55' south, I figured out how I want to do this," he said.
Burton has created a foundation to give bikes to teens who prove that they will learn how to use them and use them well. His goal is to make lifelong cyclists.
"Which will do more to lower health care costs than any insurance program," he said. "By living active cycling lifestyles, we will reduce obesity, lower cholesterol, and reduce diabetes. Also the clean air we get from biking instead of driving will benefit our health and bikes will reduce dependency on fossil fuel and foreign fuel."
For more information on his foundation and to donate, go to www.gofundme.com.
