{"id":123802,"date":"2019-04-15T10:19:28","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T14:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=123802"},"modified":"2019-04-15T16:21:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T20:21:51","slug":"for-chip-noble-97-trek-across-maine-is-a-family-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/04\/15\/for-chip-noble-97-trek-across-maine-is-a-family-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"For Chip Noble \u201997, Trek Across Maine is a family affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chip Noble \u201997 and his daughters, Abby and Emma, are waiting for us outside Garmin International\u2019s office in Yarmouth, Maine. Inside, the world\u2019s largest globe spins slowly behind floor-to-ceiling windows.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve brought everything they need for our photo shoot: their bike helmets, both Garmin jerseys and Bates sweatshirts, and a three-person bike that, during three days in June, will take the family on the Trek Across Maine, the 180-mile bike ride that benefits the American Lung Association.<\/p>\n

A senior product manager at Garmin, Noble is both a Trek veteran and a central figure in its organization. He leads the creation of detailed maps for the Trek, which has raised $24 million for lung health since its inception 35 years ago.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
More about Trek Across Maine<\/h6>\n

Learn more about Trek Across Maine, register, or support a cyclist at TrekAcrossMaine.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

This year\u2019s Trek is a bit different, and particularly special for Noble. For one, the Trek\u2019s course shifted from its traditional mountains-to-sea route to a central Maine loop that begins and ends in Brunswick, reaches as far north as Waterville, and has a stop at Bates.<\/p>\n

\"Chip<\/a>

Chip Noble \u201997 and his daughters Abby, 10, and Emma, 7, pose with their three-person bike at Garmin International\u2019s Yarmouth office. In June, they’ll ride the bike in the three-day, 180-mile Trek Across Maine. Behind them is Eartha, the world’s largest globe. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

For another, the Garmin technology available to riders, developed by Noble\u2019s team at the Yarmouth office, has been upgraded and includes a device that can send an SOS signal and keep supporters updated with the rider\u2019s location.<\/p>\n

But most important to Noble, Emma has hit the Trek\u2019s minimum age of 7, which means that dad and daughters can all ride the Trek together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really emotional thing for me to have my own daughters participating and understanding that it\u2019s a fundraiser for lung health,\u201d Noble tells me.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll ride on a tandem bike with a child\u2019s trailer attached, which, during the photo session, Noble is trying to maneuver away from Garmin\u2019s brick wall and in front of Eartha, the globe. The rig has a long turn radius. \u201cWait till we\u2019re actually trying to get around the state on this thing,\u201d he says. They haven\u2019t tried to ride the bike yet.<\/p>\n

\"Chip<\/a>

Chip Noble \u201997 talks to daughters Abby and Emma, shortly before taking their three-person bike for a spin around the Garmin office parking lot. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Emma and 10-year-old Abby are energetic, excited to be outside after a school day and ukulele practice, and eager to talk about the Trek. For Abby, who\u2019s ridden twice on the trailer, which they call the tag-along, the excursion is old hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel happy,\u201d she says of the ride, \u201cand I don\u2019t feel stressed, because I know I can take my feet off and Dad will pedal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noble himself has been involved with the Trek since 2005. Back then he worked for DeLorme, Maine\u2019s well-known mapping and navigation technology firm, which Garmin bought in 2016.<\/p>\n

The lung-health mission of the Trek resonated with Noble, whose father had respiratory issues stemming from polio. And when the map-making task came to him, he decided to organize a company Trek team.<\/p>\n

\"Chip<\/a>

Chip Noble \u201997 and his daughter Abby, now 10, rode the Trek Across Maine together in 2015. This year, his other daughter, 7-year-old Emma, is old enough to ride the Trek with them. (Courtesy of Chip Noble)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe best way to understand the event and the maps that I\u2019m making is to actually go ride the Trek,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Noble, who ran track and played rugby at Bates, was hooked.<\/p>\n

For the first few years, he says, the Trek was a personal physical challenge. Soon, however, it became a family tradition among Chip, his wife Amy, and the girls \u2014 Amy has ridden the Trek in the past; now she’s in charge of Team Garmin’s support vehicle.<\/p>\n

Abby and Emma have been observers, volunteers, or riders each year since they were born, and they\u2019re front and center in the Garmin team\u2019s fundraising campaign.<\/p>\n

\"Abby<\/a>

In 2014, Abby and Emma Noble were the literal poster children for Trek team of DeLorme, which was bought by Garmin in 2016. (Courtesy of Chip Noble).<\/p><\/div>\n

Abby has ridden the Trek twice now, offsetting the hard work of a two-person ride through sheer motivation. During a rest stop on one Trek, Chip and Abby realized that a support vehicle that stayed at the back of the pack was approaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe turned to me and she said, \u2018Dad, I don\u2019t want to finish last!\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI nearly killed myself, but we did not finish last.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the next few weeks, they will start training in earnest, increasing up to a day\u2019s ride. Abby and Emma are particularly excited about one training ride, which involves staying in a hotel with a pool.<\/p>\n

Plenty of the Nobles\u2019 cherished memories have come from the Trek. There\u2019s camping in a field in good weather and a gym in bad. There was the time that Emma left her blanket at a picnic table, and a Trek organizer found it and brought it back. On Abby\u2019s first ride, the family raised more than $1,000, which means she got to be part of the Trek\u2019s \u201cWinner\u2019s Circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chip<\/a>

Chip Noble \u201997 and his daughters pose outside Garmin International\u2019s Yarmouth office. Noble, a senior product manager at the company, leads a team that makes the maps for each year\u2019s Trek. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Noble thinks of his father when he rides. \u201cI\u2019m sure he would have loved to see the girls and me riding around on a bicycle built for three,\u201d he says. \u201cHe would have gotten a kick out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the photo shoot and our goodbyes, the Noble family takes the bike to the end of the parking lot, to try it out in a secluded place. They start making big loops on the asphalt. Once they figure out how to pedal together, they look good to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Noble, a senior product manager at Garmin, makes the maps for each year’s Trek. And this year, he’s riding it with his two daughters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":123833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,130,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-collaboration","category-society-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123802"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123834,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123802\/revisions\/123834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}