This is the first part of a book that I am reading the second part will follow in my next blog. I am reading a book “Bicycling with Butterflies” written by Sara Dykman. The book is about her journey alone to follow the Monarch butterfly as it travels from Mexico to Canada.

Ms. Dykman arrives in Mexico by bus from Kansas City. She has with her:  camping gear and a bicycle she put together from old and used parts of another bicycle. From Mexico City, she travels to El Rosario, Mexico, a location where the overwinter in the Oymel Fir (Abies religiosa) trees. The Oymel Fir was a new species to me, so I had to look it up. I learned the trees grow 10,000 feet above the sea in Mexico.

She stays in El Rosario until the monarch start their migration to Canada, which is usually in April. The monarchs need 41 degrees Fahrenheit to crawl and fifty-five to fly.

While she is waiting in El Rosario, she volunteers to teach English to some of the people but also helps the family she met there and is staying to help plant their crops.

Once the monarchs start their journey, she follows them on her bicycle that will carry her and her camping gear. She spends nights in culverts, behind haystacks, and anything to keep her out of site from the road. She stops at small markets for water and any food they might have to eat.

She writes about the female monarch's search for the Milkweed plant to lay their eggs and once laid, the larval and pupal the stages finally ending as the Monarch butterfly. It can take 4 to 5 generations for the Monarchs to make the journey.

I am reading the part of her book where she is back in Kansas where some Monarchs are about to begin their journey southward.

I will continue reading the rest of her journey as she watches the monarchs in my next blog.