Lindy Millington, 76, does not look like a super- athlete, but she can out-bicycle most people less than half her age. Millington is not very tall, her muscles not visibly defined. She wears her gray hair cut short, and looks out on the world through eyeglasses. Last year, she biked from Green Bay, Wisconsin to Burlington with her daughter-in-law and granddaughter on a tandem beside her – 1372 miles in nineteen days, camping at night in tents.

"Biking just feels good," Millington says. It makes me happy that I've got the legs and heart to do it. I thank God for that."

Born in New Jersey, Millington came to Burlington in 1949 to attend the University of Vermont. She met Clyde, her future husband, here, and they raised four children on the old Millington family property near the Winooski River in Burlington's far north end. She always preferred biking to driving, she says, and she and Clyde dreamed of making a cross-country trip. When she was 50 and he was 54, they biked across the United States with Wandering Wheels, a national Christian bicycle organization. The group averaged 80 – 90 miles a day, and the Millington's were the oldest bikers. How did they train for such a trip? "We biked to St. Johnsbury once," Millington says.

The Millington's biked in Alaska, starting in upper Montana, and in 1996 Lindy biked through China with Wandering Wheels.

A widow since 2001, Millington has been making annual five to six day bike trips in Vermont and environs for the past eight years with her friend and fellow outdoor enthusiast Dot Myer. Last year, they biked to Fairlee, another year, Lake Willoughby. They have biked in the Adirondacks to Lake Placid and to Tupper Lake, where it got dark before they found a campground. They wound up sleeping along the side of the road. With a grin, Millington recalls looking up at the stars as trucks rumbled by and wondering what her family would think.

Millington and Myer have biked the hills around Groton, the Richford – Sutton area, and they have circled Lake Champlain. The lake trip was notable, Millington says, because on the first night they camped for $6 in an old trailer without a level floor. They spent the last night in a posh tavern for $80. They carry sleeping bags, camping equipment, and a simple repair kit. Rain doesn't stop them. Only once have they had a break down. Myer had a flat tire in Montgomery, Vermont, and their patching kit was not up to the job. Luckily, they were able to hitch a ride to a tiny repair shop seven miles away.

"A bike trip is always an adventure," Millington says. "Whatever happens is funny. It has to be funny, or you wouldn't survive." Among the funny things is missing lunch, dinner, and breakfast one day because they ran out of food and couldn't find a grocery store; realizing that all campgrounds are on the top of a hill; and meeting friendly, helpful, and amazed people everywhere. The people say, "You're going WHERE?" "You really shouldn't be biking on this road" and "How old ARE you anyway?"

"My motto is, 'Don't get off the bike," Millington says. "I pray. I thank the cars for not hitting me."

Millington competes with one of her sons to rack up at least 2000 biking miles each year. "I love not using a car," she says. "Instead of using gas, I fuel myself with good food. If I have a problem, I just get off the bike." Bananas are her favorite energy food while biking – and ice cream when she can get it.

Millington bikes most days in the Burlington area – on the bike path, around Colchester Pond, out to get her groceries. She carries things in a cardboard box strapped on to a rack behind her bicycle seat. She bikes twelve miles to Shadow Cross Farm in Colchester because she likes fresh eggs. She hasn't lost an egg yet, she says, but once she did lose a gallon of milk. Only snow and ice keep her off her bicycle. She does not mind cold or rain. When it snows and the Winooski River freezes, she skis on it. In the summer, she cruises the river in a kayak.

Millington attributes her strength to genetics and her love of the outdoors to her father. He was the first Eagle Scout in East Orange, New Jersey. Besides biking, skiing, and kayaking, she is an avid birder. She can identify the birds she hears while biking by their sound. And she keeps a large vegetable garden in back of her house.

"But I can't play all day," she says. "I need to feel that I am doing something to serve my community." Millington spent years as a Girl Scout leader, is now a volunteer with the Joint Urban Ministry Project (JUMP), and trains volunteers for the Methodist United Church's Stephen Ministry.

This summer Millington and Meyer plan a bike trip to the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee. "It's great not using a car," Millington says. "No gas or parking problems. I love being out of doors and listening to the birds. Biking is fun. It's easier than running."

Barbara Leitenberg writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.