t minus four…

a video!

Long time no post (five months, really?!). Here’s a music video Annie made for Dr.How and the Reasons to Live using my GoPro footage. Ready for a roller coaster bike ride across Canada?!

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back to the rocky mountains!

Nine thousand and nineteen kilometers. That’s the final number on my speedometer since I arrived back in Vancouver. The cross Canada bicycle tour is over, I haven’t been on the move for more than a week now. I’ve been renting a room through airbnb and it’s been great to just relax, read and explore Vancouver a bit. It’s also been great to have my own private space for the first time in nearly four months. But of course it didn’t take too long before I started missing the daily cycling. Some of you might know that I’ve been silently dreaming of cycling all the way from Vancouver to Colorado to visit Annie…

Luckily I was able to convince myself that it’s too late in the year to embark on a twenty to thirty day bike journey all the way to Estes Park. By the time I’d get there it would just be too cold and snowy to still be fun. So no more biking for me. Or better said no more bicycle touring: because I’m flying to Denver tomorrow! And of course I’m bringing my bicycle. Really looking forward to see the Rocky Mountain National Park without snow in its Fall coulors. And explore it together with Annie in the next weeks. On my list of things to do: cycling to the top of Trail Ridge Road. I didn’t get to ride it last winter since it was closed because of the snow. Highest point: 3713 meter. A challenging ride for sure, but I think it’s safe to say that I’m in top shape. See you later Vancouver, I’ll be back, but first things first: back to the Rocky Mountains!

vancouver island – tofino to vancouver

daily rain

islands

wood saw mill

graveyard

fog…

…becomes rain

autumn on the galloping goose trail

you are a top banana?

victoria

hundreds of them!

vancouver in the distance

vancouver skytrain

arrival at the pacific – vancouver to tofino

on the first ferry to langdale

when mtb’ers offer you a beer, you drink!

hanging out at the beach in porpoise bay…

… which is the pacific ocean!

a touring buddy! alex, cycling montréal-tofino

on the second ferry to saltery bay

sunshine coast

on the third ferry to comox

in the rainforest: cathedral grove

four hour boat trip from port alberni to ucluelet

foggy

wheel dip :)

wya point, a bright ‘n sunny day at the beach

alex and his bicycle on long beach

coast-to-coast, atlantic to pacific, halifax to tofino!

tofino

the zigzagging continues – hope to vancouver

In Hope I was only one cycling day away from Vancouver, but I felt like I wasn’t ready yet to go down there so I decided to do some extra kilometers. In fact I wasn’t planning on going to Vancouver at all before exploring Vancouver Island. But my trusted Brooks saddle broke on the way to Squamish, so ended up going to Vancouver after all to get a new saddle. More about that on the Camera/Bicycle Wanderings Facebook page, your place for updates in between blog posts :).  I’m on Vancouver Island now and I’ll be in Ucluelet tomorrow. Coast-to-coast, Atlantic to Pacific, Trans Canada, check!

making plans in hope: a little detour to vancouver :)

hells gate tunnel, hot day in the fraser river canyon

looking back on top of jackass mnt. summit

graveyard

steep climb out of lytton

getting late on the way to lillooet

first night time arrival of the trip in lillooet

some colorful electricity poles

duffey lake road, hard to conquer but gorgeous

13%!

autumn weather

stormy dusty tailwind

goodbye dear friend

15,000 kms – and counting

vancouver island in the distance

vancouver!

biked in and out of vancouver the same day, this trip isn’t over yet!

valleys and passes: crowsnest highway – radium hot springs to hope

There’s once more so much to write about. But the perfectionist in me hates half told stories. So I’ll keep some blog post ideas in the back of my head for now and continue down the path of photo blogging. Valleys and Passes is what the Crowsnest Highway (Hwy 3) is all about as it zigzags along the US border. The road follows a valley untill you get close to that border, which then means you have to go over a pass to get away from it. The river on the other side of the pass of course flows South as well, so the game continues… Some of the climbs in British Columbia are definitely more challenging than in the rest of Canada. But beautiful is that same old word again to describe all this. Photo blogs are so much more fun :).

the mornings are getting colder

last views of the rocky mountains

finally a logging photo

liked “scenic” and “coast”, not so sure about “shortest”

finally a cloud photo

kootenay pass

paulson tunnel, columbia & western rail trail

columbia & western rail trail, before the 30km downhill

columbia & western rail trail, looking back

old road stretch, ideal for a post-apocalytic touring photo (didn’t bike it)

another tunnel

search for the two bicycle tourers in this photo

anarchist summit

the grass is still green here

osoyoos, did i just bike to california or what?

fruit in a desert-like and hot landscape

autumn is just around the corner

why not?

some fun at the manning park entry sign

met a fellow eu-flag-tourer from germany in hope!

national parks galore – jasper to radium hot springs

Jasper NP, Icefield Parkway, Columbia Icefield, Sunwapta Pass, Bow Pass, Banff NP, Lake Louise, Fairview Mountain, Bow Valley Parkway, Vermillon Pass, Kootenay NP, Continental Divide, British Columbia, Sinclair Pass, Radium Hot Springs…

Rocky Mountains!  A six-day cycling dream, enjoy.

flying through the prairies – winnipeg to saskatoon to edmonton to jasper

The inevitable moment has come: I’m falling horribly behind on my blog. I’m having a rest day in Lake Louise now in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. The past few days I biked from Jasper to here on the Icefield Parkway. I just don’t know which words to use to describe it, what an incredible ride was that!

But first things first: The Prairies. I flew through it: I did 1800 kilometers in ten cycling days. There’s so many topics to write about: the good winds, the bad winds, the horrible winds and how to deal with it, the flatlands and about how that’s a stupid word because there’s actually hills in the plains, that crazy day I biked 315 kilometers to Saskatoon, WarmShowers hosts who had a solar oven and others who were making an alcohol camping stove, another bear in a field right in  front of me (who doesn’t like oats?), endless canola and wheat fields, the meaning of that word endless,…

Sadly enough I don’t have the time for it all, maybe I’ll do some specials later when my tour has come to an end. Which it slowly is, I’m getting terribly close to Vancouver when I fold open that map of Canada. But first there’s many more mountains and passes to enjoy, This trip is seriously getting better every day. Yes, I’m in a bit of a euphoric mood right now after a hike to the top of Fairview Mountain earlier today (short video here), maybe I need some more oxygen? Or maybe I just love the mountains, who doesn’t?!

I selected what I think are sixteen representative pictures. I want to stress out that in contrary to what most people say, I don’t think the prairies are monotonous, boring or anything like that. If you make an effort to get off the major highways like I did there’s lots of beautiful places to discover in the plains of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, I had  great time cycling through it!

a hundred years ago in belgium…

climbing?!

typical roadscape

lots of ukranian communities

yellowhead hwy, partly my guide through the plains

cattle

another typical prairie landscape

early morning ride

grain elevators

tailwind :)

endless hills in the distance

a prairie monster

trains are endless too here

yellowhead after edmonton, “the return of the trucks”

gaining elevation

first view of the mountains! cold!

along came a bear, goodbye ontario – thunder bay to winnipeg

Entering the Arctic Watershed just before Central Time

I apparently didn’t take too many photos the past few days. Not that it was boring or anything like that, it was just still the same old Ontario landscape. I guess there are only so many pictures you can take of  lakes, trees and rocks. After a late departure in Thunder Bay I still made it about a hundred kilometers. I stealth camped close to the Central Time Zone picnic area that night. There were literally a few hundred mosquitos buzzing around my tent, from inside it sounded like it was raining, but it was just the mosquitos flying against my tent. I’m one of the lucky ones when it comes to bugs because I don’t really get any reactions to their bites. But when there are so many of them it’s obviously annoying. I have a Deet spray but at this point I’m still too stubborn to use it as I still prefer some short-term annoyance over long-term skin cancer.

Right in the middle, at the white tree, is where I went down along the abandoned old road stretch

The next day it was time for my third flat of the trip and my second bear encounter. Yes, a bear. At dinner. Around six I spotted a perfect wild camping spot next to the road on what used to be the highway before they upgraded it to the current highway. There are lots of these kinds of places where you’ll see a stretch of old road running next to or crossing the current road. I went down this apocalyptic looking road for about 400 meters to have dinner next to a small lake. After this I was planning to clean myself a bit and get some cool pictures of the cracked up road before heading back closer to the highway to put up my tent. But as I finished my second bagel – with Nutella, the first one was cucumber & cheese – something black and furry appeared in the distance… The bear must have been interested in one of the ingredients of my meal because it really seem to be impressed by my shouting and bear bell ringing. As the bear was stopped down a bit on it’s path towards me and still quite far away I quickly packed my stuff and headed back to the highway. Once back there I decided to combine my adrenaline rush with some beats in my ears and bike another 40 kilometers to a campground in Ignace. Don’t ask me how paying 30 dollar for a campground without bear boxes that’s filled with careless RV campers is actually supposed to be safer. I’m not too scared and I don’t want to be labeled as one-of-those-Europeans-who-is-obsessed-by-bears, “Look, he’s even carrying a bear spray on his bicycle!” But it is a thing, right? Better to be safe than sorry!

GoPro bear escape action photo :) Heading back to the highway

I actually met a European-who-isn’t-affraid-of-bears-at-all the following day as he keeps his food and trash in his tent. When I went over one of the typical gravel bumps on the side of the road that they use to close off the entrance to old quarries, I immediately saw a tent and a guy making preparations for a campfire. Florent from Marseille, France happily shared this perfect quarry camping spot. Just like me he has a one year workholiday visa for Canada and he’s been traveling through Canada and the US on his motorbike for the past three months. He’s heading for Vancouver as well, but he’ll most probably get there a bit earlier than me :). Thanks for sharing that campfire!

Cooking & eating by a fire close to the tent?! Relax! But still…

Manitoba, the fifth province I’ll cross on this trip

The next day I made it a goal to make it to Manitoba. I’ve been cycling in Canada for 41 days now, 21 cycling days were spent in Ontario. It was truly gorgeous but I was really looking forward to something else. After more than 1500 kilometer on Highway 17 I left the Trans-Canada Highway as soon as it changed into the four-lane Highway 1 in Manitoba. Highway 44 or “Historic Hwy 1” brought me to West Hawk Lake and the next day to Lockport. I still stand by what I said earlier about the trucks on the Trans-Canada not being too bad – share the road, no? But it was such a pleasure to finally be on a road without any trucks and even barely any traffic in the beginning. As Lockport was only 30 kilometers away from Winnipeg I decided to head down there after all for a well deserved rest day. And here I am, in another great coffee shop in another big Canadian city.

Winnipeg, Thom Bargen Coffee & Tea

Lots of people along the way said not too nice things about Winnipeg but I actually really like it so far. It probably sounds weird, but I prefer cities where not everything is perfect, or where at least they don’t pretend that it is. Problems are embedded within the concept of a big city, and they’re there to be solved. I think I prefer Winnipeg over Toronto, the marketeers haven’t taken over yet here. Next stop: Saskatoon. In the middle of the Prairies. Long bright ‘n sunny days. Wind battles. Something else!