A 1,000-mile ride across Michigan ends in Detroit, with economic abuse as its subject

A solo cyclist is pedaling across Michigan this summer, and she plans to finish in Detroit on July 20.

Laura Killingbeck, a writer and long-distance rider, set out from the Upper Peninsula on May 20 on a roughly 1,000-mile route she calls the Choose the Bear Tour. The eight-week ride crosses both peninsulas and ends downriver in Detroit, with stops along the way to meet women who have lived through abuse and the organizations that help them recover. The tour's own page frames the purpose plainly: to document real stories and raise awareness about domestic and economic abuse in Michigan.

The subject at the center of the ride is economic abuse, a form of domestic violence built on financial control. An abusive partner restricts access to money, sabotages a job, runs up debt in the other person's name, or wrecks their credit, which can make leaving feel impossible long after the relationship ends. The tour points to a figure that recurs in the advocacy literature, that nearly 99 percent of intimate partner violence survivors experience some form of economic abuse.

The tour's name carries a double meaning. It nods to a question that spread widely online in 2024, asking women whether they would rather meet a man or a bear alone in the woods, and to the credit union backing the ride. Killingbeck wrote about that debate in an essay published by Bikepacking, "A Woman Who Left Society to Live with Bears Weighs in on 'Man or Bear,'" which won a writing award in the site's 2024 honors. She has spent years traveling alone by bicycle and writing about what that looks like for a woman moving through the world on her own.

In her own introduction to the tour, Killingbeck connected the ride to a question she hears constantly. "People often ask if I'm afraid to bike or camp alone because I'm female," she wrote on Bikepacking. "This question shows how normalized gender-based violence really is. People expect that women who travel independently might be threatened, harassed, or assaulted by men."

The ride is backed by orsa credit union, a metro Detroit financial institution whose name is Italian for she-bear and whose logo is a bear named Daisy. The credit union, known as Community Financial until a 2024 rebrand, runs a program called Choose the Bear that offers survivors loans, mortgage help, safe accounts, and credit repair, usually by referral. Per orsa's own accounting, the program has contributed or committed more than $107,250 to organizations and programs that support survivors, working with partners that include First Step of Wayne County, Jewish Family Services of Michigan, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and Uniting Three Fires Against Violence. Survivors can reach the credit union's care center at (877) 937-2328.

When she reaches Detroit, Killingbeck plans to donate her expedition bicycle, a Kona Sutra LTD provided by Kona for the tour, to another woman preparing for a journey of her own.

The tour can be followed at choosethebeartour.org, on Instagram at @laurakillingbeck and @orsacu, and under the hashtag #ChooseTheBearTour.