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What an incredible summer!!!
I really crossed Canada by bicycle, from Vancouver to our home, in N.B.!! If you would have suggested that I would do such a trip two years ago, I would have answered: 'Never in a life time.' Everyone was saying that Charles would make it to the end, since he cycles a lot every summer. But most had doubts about me. It's true that I also had doubts myself. What helped me was that I told myself that if ever it became too difficult, I could always follow by car; but the farther we got from province to province, I wanted to get to the end.
Mountains:
At the beginning of a long travel like this one, it is good to start more slowly and increase the distances with time, to avoid the injuries that could prevent you to finish. So to do the big mountains at the beginning of this journey was a good thing since we were already expected to small distances. But in the mountains I had to stop often to relax and to catch my breath, sometimes I had to stop after only one kilometre of climbs. This was making our days longe, but Charles always encouraged me. He kept saying: 'One kilometre at a time.' When you start your day knowing that you will be climbing a long time, you prepare yourself mentally and that helps a little. Even if I never like climbing and I often see it bigger than it really is, I am also afraid of going down on a steep hill and don't like the speed, so I end up having sore hands from trying to break a lot. If we were to go back to B.C. right now to bike the mountains again, I would probably want to do longer distances in a day and take less breaks, so I wonder if I would make it.
Weather:
We were lucky with the weather. A little too much even, since we got heat waves in a lot of places that we were at. Fortunately, we are early birds, and were on the road early so we could finish in early afternoon, before it was too hot. The warmer the weather was, it seems that we were pedalling less fast and we also had to stop more often to drink. When there are clouds in the sky, it is cooler and a much more agreeable weather to cycle. If you get rain, but only light rain and not for too long, you don't mind. But when you get more heavy rain it is not so much fun, you are all wet and it is also a bit more dangerous. Mainly it is less interesting to stop on the side of the road to rest, drink or eat. We only had three days of rain in this tour and this helped us a lot, at least morally.
Camping:
We didn't do much camping, mainly because of the heat; we wanted to be inside, away from the sun and take advantage of the cooler temperature and air conditioning. After a while, it became a habit and we did not look too much for camping sites, unless it was the only option. One advantage with most motels, was the fridge in the room, mainly if it also had a small freezer. We were each freezing a bottle of water, and with our cooler bags on the back of the bikes we were able to keep our beverages cold for a longer time and that was great in the hot afternoons. Most cyclists don't have that cooler bag, since they don't have a trailer and they use that space behind the bike to carry their tent and sleeping bag. We enjoyed the times we stayed in camping sites, even if I don't sleep as well in a tent. Also almost every time we camped, there was rain either in the evening or night. When camping you had the advantage to meet other people and other cyclists. And some of our best times, are the days when we cycled with Kevin Ticknor and Farha Hafsaoui. It's even too bad that our road separated and we did not spend more days together.
Warm Showers (it's a network for cyclists only - similar to couch-surfing):
Since we did not know our strengths, mainly mines, and that a lot of things can affect the rhythm of your day when you cycle, like head wind, rain, lots of climbs and a mechanical problem; it was hard to tell that we would get to a certain place at the end of the day. We were planning for more than one stop depending on how far we would get. This is why we did not look for places to stop within the Warm Showers network, except where we already knew people because we had hosted them when they cycled in our region. And we looked only if it was on our road, without too big of a detour. And since our habits are to get up early, finish in mid-afternoon and go to bed early, that might not have been to easy for our hosts.
Friends and Family:
One thing that we really enjoyed was the times that we stopped in houses where we knew someone, either friends or family. All those stops were very special. Everywhere we were very comfortable and felt like home. We had a good bed and good food, but it was mainly sharing our adventures that we enjoyed and have a good time with lots of laughs and time to relax. Thank you everyone!
Blog:
Making an entry in the blog every day, sometime was kind of a burden, mainly when we finished cycling later or when we were at friends or family since it was keeping us away from them. But we really enjoyed writing the blog and this will be a good souvenir. It was the best way to let our family and friends know where we were and how we spent our days. We knew that a lot of people were following us on the blog, either every day or occasionally and that they were enjoying reading it, so that encouraged us to write it. It was also another thing that helped me cycled to the end since indirectly these people reading the blog, gave me a moral support.
Best Times:
1 - finish the big climb from Hope to Manning
2 - get to the summit of big mountains, three times
3 - the days we cycled with Kevin and Farah
4 - arriving at home, in Saint-Louis; a very big feeling that I had accomplished something big
Memory:
What I remember the most about this journey, the first thing that comes to my mind; is the support I received from Charles. He always encouraged me, but without pushing me too much. He kept saying to take it one step at a time, one km at a time. He even took a larger load of luggages to help me. He was not able to ride at a constant speed or as fast as he would have liked and could not do as much distance as he would have liked. He stayed behind me and since I often take a break in pedalling (idle), my speed would go down and then I would start pedalling again and would speed up, so he kept having to change speed, break and then try to catch up which would have been quite a change for him, since he is a cyclist who has a very regular paste when he cycles alone. Charles also had a lot of patience when I was getting a bit negative, like when there was head wind and I thought we were not going fast enough and when after the prairies, I complained that there was too many hills and when I wanted to stop because I was a bit tired but the conditions would have been good to go much further without too much effort. Without Charles' moral support I would certainly not have completed this tour. Thank you Charles!
Bad Time:
One thing that really affected us, was to find out that a Montreal cyclist, Alain Palardy, died during his bike tour, even if we only knew him a little. He was 54 years old, our age and was also realizing his dream to bike from Vancouver to Montreal, his home. We cycled a little with him and his travel companion, Bruno and even camped with them one night. We often hear of accidents involving cyclists, but this is the first time that we knew at least a little, the person involved; and on top he was our age. That really made us think. Quite often I was riding in situations that could have been dangerous. Probably the daily prayers from my father helped. Thank you dad! Thank you also to all the drivers who pushed to the left to give us more room or slowed down when there was less place.
Conclusion:
Even with my 6318 km of riding, I still don't consider me as a good cyclist. I still have a hard time with climbs and don't like the speed going down and still have difficulty staying inside the shoulder when it is quite narrow. Also I don't stand up to pedal, which could be helpful in the mountains. At he end, I was more tired and my legs were getting tired earlier in the day; so I am glad that I stopped home. Also, the big climbs in P.E.I. and Newfoundland made me realize that I had taken the right decision. It was also fun to have the car to visit Newfoundland a bit more. Will I do another bike tour? I still don't know. I would need more training and I would prefer safer roads and maybe go for not so long at a time.
In conclusion, this has been a wonderful summer!! We spent good time together, Charles and me. We saw nice scenery and completed something that we are not going to forget for a long time.
Mountains:
At the beginning of a long travel like this one, it is good to start more slowly and increase the distances with time, to avoid the injuries that could prevent you to finish. So to do the big mountains at the beginning of this journey was a good thing since we were already expected to small distances. But in the mountains I had to stop often to relax and to catch my breath, sometimes I had to stop after only one kilometre of climbs. This was making our days longe, but Charles always encouraged me. He kept saying: 'One kilometre at a time.' When you start your day knowing that you will be climbing a long time, you prepare yourself mentally and that helps a little. Even if I never like climbing and I often see it bigger than it really is, I am also afraid of going down on a steep hill and don't like the speed, so I end up having sore hands from trying to break a lot. If we were to go back to B.C. right now to bike the mountains again, I would probably want to do longer distances in a day and take less breaks, so I wonder if I would make it.
Weather:
We were lucky with the weather. A little too much even, since we got heat waves in a lot of places that we were at. Fortunately, we are early birds, and were on the road early so we could finish in early afternoon, before it was too hot. The warmer the weather was, it seems that we were pedalling less fast and we also had to stop more often to drink. When there are clouds in the sky, it is cooler and a much more agreeable weather to cycle. If you get rain, but only light rain and not for too long, you don't mind. But when you get more heavy rain it is not so much fun, you are all wet and it is also a bit more dangerous. Mainly it is less interesting to stop on the side of the road to rest, drink or eat. We only had three days of rain in this tour and this helped us a lot, at least morally.
Camping:
We didn't do much camping, mainly because of the heat; we wanted to be inside, away from the sun and take advantage of the cooler temperature and air conditioning. After a while, it became a habit and we did not look too much for camping sites, unless it was the only option. One advantage with most motels, was the fridge in the room, mainly if it also had a small freezer. We were each freezing a bottle of water, and with our cooler bags on the back of the bikes we were able to keep our beverages cold for a longer time and that was great in the hot afternoons. Most cyclists don't have that cooler bag, since they don't have a trailer and they use that space behind the bike to carry their tent and sleeping bag. We enjoyed the times we stayed in camping sites, even if I don't sleep as well in a tent. Also almost every time we camped, there was rain either in the evening or night. When camping you had the advantage to meet other people and other cyclists. And some of our best times, are the days when we cycled with Kevin Ticknor and Farha Hafsaoui. It's even too bad that our road separated and we did not spend more days together.
Warm Showers (it's a network for cyclists only - similar to couch-surfing):
Since we did not know our strengths, mainly mines, and that a lot of things can affect the rhythm of your day when you cycle, like head wind, rain, lots of climbs and a mechanical problem; it was hard to tell that we would get to a certain place at the end of the day. We were planning for more than one stop depending on how far we would get. This is why we did not look for places to stop within the Warm Showers network, except where we already knew people because we had hosted them when they cycled in our region. And we looked only if it was on our road, without too big of a detour. And since our habits are to get up early, finish in mid-afternoon and go to bed early, that might not have been to easy for our hosts.
Friends and Family:
One thing that we really enjoyed was the times that we stopped in houses where we knew someone, either friends or family. All those stops were very special. Everywhere we were very comfortable and felt like home. We had a good bed and good food, but it was mainly sharing our adventures that we enjoyed and have a good time with lots of laughs and time to relax. Thank you everyone!
Blog:
Making an entry in the blog every day, sometime was kind of a burden, mainly when we finished cycling later or when we were at friends or family since it was keeping us away from them. But we really enjoyed writing the blog and this will be a good souvenir. It was the best way to let our family and friends know where we were and how we spent our days. We knew that a lot of people were following us on the blog, either every day or occasionally and that they were enjoying reading it, so that encouraged us to write it. It was also another thing that helped me cycled to the end since indirectly these people reading the blog, gave me a moral support.
Best Times:
1 - finish the big climb from Hope to Manning
2 - get to the summit of big mountains, three times
3 - the days we cycled with Kevin and Farah
4 - arriving at home, in Saint-Louis; a very big feeling that I had accomplished something big
Memory:
What I remember the most about this journey, the first thing that comes to my mind; is the support I received from Charles. He always encouraged me, but without pushing me too much. He kept saying to take it one step at a time, one km at a time. He even took a larger load of luggages to help me. He was not able to ride at a constant speed or as fast as he would have liked and could not do as much distance as he would have liked. He stayed behind me and since I often take a break in pedalling (idle), my speed would go down and then I would start pedalling again and would speed up, so he kept having to change speed, break and then try to catch up which would have been quite a change for him, since he is a cyclist who has a very regular paste when he cycles alone. Charles also had a lot of patience when I was getting a bit negative, like when there was head wind and I thought we were not going fast enough and when after the prairies, I complained that there was too many hills and when I wanted to stop because I was a bit tired but the conditions would have been good to go much further without too much effort. Without Charles' moral support I would certainly not have completed this tour. Thank you Charles!
Bad Time:
One thing that really affected us, was to find out that a Montreal cyclist, Alain Palardy, died during his bike tour, even if we only knew him a little. He was 54 years old, our age and was also realizing his dream to bike from Vancouver to Montreal, his home. We cycled a little with him and his travel companion, Bruno and even camped with them one night. We often hear of accidents involving cyclists, but this is the first time that we knew at least a little, the person involved; and on top he was our age. That really made us think. Quite often I was riding in situations that could have been dangerous. Probably the daily prayers from my father helped. Thank you dad! Thank you also to all the drivers who pushed to the left to give us more room or slowed down when there was less place.
Conclusion:
Even with my 6318 km of riding, I still don't consider me as a good cyclist. I still have a hard time with climbs and don't like the speed going down and still have difficulty staying inside the shoulder when it is quite narrow. Also I don't stand up to pedal, which could be helpful in the mountains. At he end, I was more tired and my legs were getting tired earlier in the day; so I am glad that I stopped home. Also, the big climbs in P.E.I. and Newfoundland made me realize that I had taken the right decision. It was also fun to have the car to visit Newfoundland a bit more. Will I do another bike tour? I still don't know. I would need more training and I would prefer safer roads and maybe go for not so long at a time.
In conclusion, this has been a wonderful summer!! We spent good time together, Charles and me. We saw nice scenery and completed something that we are not going to forget for a long time.
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