Cycling Across Canada

Photos

Thomas — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:58:17 +0000

I’ve finally put together a complete album of our pictures.

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=326099&id=627430190&l=a1ead61634

End of the Road

Thomas — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:38:57 +0000

Hello all!

We’ve been so cut off from internet for soo long! It’s great to see how much people are interested in what we are doing. Sorry for the lack of updates!

Big News: Emily and I are heading home!

Don’t worry, nothing bad happened.. we’ve been having a wonderful time. However, we decided that we wanted to spend some time back in Guelph this summer (especially since I have to be back in school in September).

Right now we are at a hostel in Fernie, BC waiting for the greyhound to arrive at 2:50 am! That will take us to Calgary where we are going to spend some time with a friend and then we will continue on home.

The decision to end our trip wasn’t an easy one, but we finally realized that our only purpose this summer was to enjoy ourselves. We have been doing just that for several weeks now, but we both feel that we have run our course.

There is still so much to tell but I’m much too tired at the moment (it’s 12:45 and our normal bedtime has become 8 o’clock!). But stay tuned to the blog because I will be sure to post photos, videos and many more stories once we get easier access to the internet.

Cheers!

Thomas and Emily

What goes up, must come down!

Thomas — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:34:06 +0000

We haven’t been able to write anything for a while because we are now deep in the Rockies and there’s no 3G internet reception here for the Blackberry! Finally, we’ve come upon a small internet cafe where we’ve stopped for a break.

So much has happened since Hope, the most significant of it it being climbing mountains! On Thursday we were thrown right into what felt like the interior of BC because we spent the majority of the day climbing and we didn’t pass through a single community. The only social interaction we had was with a crazy hitchiker who was headed up to the top of the mountains to longboard down them! …and some people think that we’re crazy.

Friday was a grueling, yet satisfying day. We started off by climbing the Allison Pass alongside the beautiful Skagit River. Although it was tuff riding, the payoff was very worth it. We rode downhill for 30 km and got to stop for lunch at Mannning Resort where we treated ourselves to some hot fries! That afternoon we climbed another pass and camped at the top of Sunday Summit.

Saturday morning we were hoping for the luxury of riding another 30 km down Sunday Summit but it was actually quite difficult riding because it was quite steep and hilly. Finally we got to Princeton where we stopped for lunch outside a grocery store. We were surprised by another cyclist named Graham who had biked all the way up from California and is now following his nose around Canada. We soon left him and started making our way to Hedley, but not before stopping for a swim along the way!

When we arrived in Hedley after riding downhill all the way from Princeton we stopped at a museum/tea room to ask where we could find a campground. Chuck, who himself rode all the way to Nova Scotia, offered us the backyard of the museum with an all-inclusive garden hose for water.

This morning we rode out of Hedley and have now found ourselves in Keremeos for lunch. We’re hoping to get to Osoyoos tonight and find a place to camp.

Cheers!

Thomas and Emily.

Update from the road!

Thomas — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:47:01 +0000

Things have been a little crazy lately and so it’s been difficult to post an update, but here we are now in Hope, BC!
We had a great time in Vancouver over the weekend and my cousin Kim and her partner John were wonderful hosts. We got a chance to visit my dad’s sister and Emily cousin as well! Biking around the city that much was very nice (Vancouver is soo bike-friendly!) and we had incredible weather, however we didn’t foresee the bad weather that was to come…
We tried to leave the city on Monday just as it started to rain. The reason I say that we “tried” is because once we got to the point on the highway where we had a foot of shoulder, semi-trailers rushing by our sides and rain soaking us completely we decided that it was time to turn around and re-assess things!
We left yesterday on the city bus and headed out to Maple Ridge where we found an alternative route instead of Hwy 7. We biked this road for most of the day, even through the pouring rain. Eventually it led us back to the 7 where we ultimately had to end up. The traffic was a bit more difficult here but we managed to ride on and eventually we found a place to camp.
This morning we woke up very discouraged by yesterday but we somehow managed to get back on our bikes. Lucky for us we soon found wide shoulders to ride on and the traffic only got better and better through out the day. We also managed to avoid most of the rain all day!
At lunch we pulled in to a rest stop and to our surprise there were two other cyclists all geared up like us. When we got chatting we discovered that were heading all the way to Nova Scotia! Jordan and Braden are trying to raise money for the Calgary Food Bank so make sure you check out there blog at http://www.thederksenbrothers.com and you can even give them a donation online!
We bid them farewell and said that we might see them in Hope. Soon after we parted ways we had another surprise. We were biking along and suddenly I looked in my mirror and saw a cop on a motorcycle with his lights flashing right beside Emily! Just as things started racing through my head I realized that he was leading a pack of around 30 cyclists! Could it be? The Tour de France has come to Canada?!?
…nope. It was some sort of ride for cancer, but it was still very exciting! We tried to ride with them but soon fell behind considering the fact that we were each lugging 50 lbs of gear and they weren’t.
We managed to get to Hope by 5 o’clock and did laundry, found a cheap camp site (what a deal! 14 bucks for cyclists!) and we even managed to meet back up with our cycling friends at the local Subway!
What a crazy first few days. But we’re now feeling very confident and optimistic about the whole trip (…even if we left the chain oil back home).

The first batch of photos!

Thomas — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:36:13 +0000

Well we’re hitting the road tomorrow! I figured this will be our last chance for a while to upload some photos so here they are:

Chicago, Chicago

Thomas — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:06:47 +0000

This morning we finally awoke after a night (or half a night rather) of waking and sleeping, adjusting and stretching. We ate some lovely muffins, made by Thomas Kilgour himself, and drank some awful tea (with cream not milk!) from the dinning car. Around 10:45am we arrived in Chicago for a four hour lay over! After a misunderstanding of ticket info, we were relieved to find that it wouldn’t be necessary for us to hall our boxed bicycles and gear on our lay over to the Empire Builder (the train to Seattle). With time to spare, we set out of Union Station into the city- our mission: to find fresh fruit (…and to see some of Chicago of course). We ended up in the blue and white filled, “Greek Town”. Soon enough we found a market with, pause, fresh fruit (mm mmm). And so, we’re on the train until thursday aft when we reach Seattle. From there we’re only a three or four hour bus ride to Vancouver, where the biking will begin! Cheers, Emily
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Midnight Train

Thomas — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:10:10 +0000

Well, we’re on the train. It’s not the easiest to sleep on (considering it’s 5 o’clock in the morning) but the gentle rolling of the tracks is quite peaceful. Both Em and I we’re surprised to awake to the sight of a big city out the window, and we soon satisfied our curiosity by discovering that we were in fact in cleveland! Sweet dreams!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

24 hours left

Thomas — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:05:17 +0000

Here we go!

Tomorrow we leave on the train to go to Vancouver. We’ll be on there for three days but we’ve got lots of food to eat and books to read so we should be set! Then we’ll spend several days in the city getting the bikes setup (they have been taken apart and boxed up for the journey) and visiting family. Hopefully we will be off on our bikes on Monday, July 6th. That’s only one week away!

You may notice that there have been some changes around here. Most noticeably the whole background and theme of the blog is now white instead of black. Also, there is now a link at the top called “The Route“. This will take you to an interactive map of the route we plan on taking. Finally, things are always changing in the sidebar to the right. You may notice the newest addition of the logo for backpeddling. This is the bike shop that has helped us get all our gear together for our trip.

I’m not sure when we’ll get the chance to write another post but hopefully we’ll have started our big journey by then!

Winding down, then starting up.

Thomas — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:10:28 +0000

Classes are over. Only three exams left. Last shift at the cafe was on Monday.

And now it’s on to bigger and more exciting things! The train ticket has been purchased. Nearly all the gear is set. The route has been planned.

All we can do now is hit the open road.

… 12 days and counting.

Status of the trip

Thomas — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:39:33 +0000

So where are we at now?

Well, we haven’t quite bought our tickets yet, but we are almost certain that we will be leaving on the train from Buffalo to Vancouver on June 28th. That’s just over two weeks away!

You may be thinking to yourself that taking a train from Buffalo sounds like quite a roundabout way to get to Vancouver… and that would be a fair statement. But we do have our reasons: A) flying is expensive. B) taking a train through Canada is even more expensive! C) the greyhound is uncomfortable. D) the train from Buffalo is only a bit more expensive than the dirt-cheap greyhound. And as an added bonus we get to see a bit of Chicago and Seattle because of lay-overs.

Once we get to Vancouver (probably on July 1st) we plan on staying with a cousin for a few days so that we can get set-up and do a bit of exploring! We’re tentatively planning to hit the road by around the 6th of July.