Happy Feet

Returned from a three week tour of Western Canada, from Winnipeg to Hope, and finished editing some pictures and video.

Overall a good ride with weather being less than optimal, making for some challenging days with a rental car shuttle from Swift Current to Calgary to take advantage of a building high pressure system over the mountains.

The bike, a rebuilt 1991 Marin mtb, worked well with only one weird pinch flat in Moose Jaw due to hitting a construction pothole on an odd angle. No mechanical failures.

The scenery was as I expected, more or less, with cloud or rain limiting the amount of pictures I had planned to take, both because of actual photogenic opportunities and by making me often want to just ride to my days destination point.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the lack of people in the prairies. I had worked out there years ago and remember a much more community oriented lifestyle but many towns were half or completely abandoned, or occupied but with very few people out and about. Very ghost town like. Mainly older residents and/or oil and gas workers but not a strong sense of family life. Sad, but this is the effect of younger people not seeing a future in farming and moving away to cities or more metropolitan areas.

21 days in all. I took two rest days to avoid bad weather and two rest days to visit family in Calgary with one driving day in between. 16 riding days covering a distance of 1680km's.

Biggest pros for me were merino wool socks and sweater that retained warmth when wet and did not smell (too much). Also the Blackburn frame bag that turned out to be very useful and easy to access.

Biggest cons were riding jerseys that held moisture against the skin and chilled me and my C17 saddle that numbed my nether regions a bit too much (I think I need a cut out).

Biggest maybe goes to the Blackburn front bar bag. Kinda over built but functional double ended drybag system but not sure if it was any more useful than a traditional handlebar bag.


I've edited a video here:


and the full ride is documented on my website at: WECANRIDE 2016:Cycling across Western CanadaTo Raise Awareness about Dementia - Home

Doug64

Well done, and welcome back.

indyfabz

Wow! Those are some ominous clouds.

Roughstuff

I have done rides throughout the prairie provinces and into Alberta/British Columbia on some of the big highways (1) to smaller backroads in the mountains. Gorgeous riding everywhere. I think the towns are emptied out for many of the same reason towns in the prairie states in the US are emptied. They are very natural resource dependent (oil, gas, metals, agricultural commodities etc) and these have really taken it on the chin price wise in recent years.

Lived on a ranch in Southern Alberta for a couple summers: tough life, especially during haying season. Very tough on families and younger folks, the latter are bored silly and thus the use of drugs from marijiuana to meth is widespread. I rode through some towns where no ones Iris was smaller than a quarter. The only thing I've seen that was worse than that were the Indian reservations in the US.

Roughstuff

Awww...I'm too lazy to click! I am just wondering what route(s) ya took through and over the mountains. I do long tours in alternate summers and 2017 is my summer when I am going to do every square inch of BC that I can bike through, along with the adjacent mountainous regions on the Alberta border. WOOF!

Happy Feet

Thanks Doug, I appreciated your encouragement enroute.

Roughstuff,
I took the Trans Can from Winnipeg to Brandon
then south to Souris and Hwy 2/13
west to Weyburn.
Back up to Moosejaw on Hwy 39
Trans Can to Kamloops
and the Coquihalla Hwy south to Hope.

DropBarFan

Thanks Happy Feet, the great video & photos are almost like being there. Cool shots of overtaking traffic, cars seemed to at least give decent space while flying by. Rural decline is sad but OTOH it seems that stealth camping could be a frequent option.

Happy Feet

Stealth camping would definitely be easy enough though in some areas not too many trees. But I don't think anyone would care if a tent were off to the side somewhere. The small towns tended to have campgrounds (fields really) that only cost $10-$15, often maintained by the local Lions club, some with good services some not so much.

I found the traffic very well behaved except for two trucks on the last day through the Coquihalla who buzzed me for no good reason, running close to the shoulder line even though they had two empty lanes to choose from (?).

In retrospect I would not recommend Hwy 2 in Manitoba as it had loose gravel shoulders that caused my bike to slough whenever I rode in them. Fortunately, traffic was light and I spent most of my time on whatever side of the road did not have cars. But if traffic were heavier it would have made for some pretty trying riding long distance on the shoulder. The rest of the route had good paved shoulders.

bradtx

Happy Feet, Well done and I hope your ride has a positive effect for your cause.

Brad

Happy Feet

Thanks Brad.

I think the awareness aspect went pretty well overall for a first time try and I certainly learned a couple of things that I will apply moving forward. Happily, upon my return, my wife herself suggested she might enjoy the idea of following me in a camper/rv on a longer run

Another really bright spot was that my friend, who has early onset dementia and was the primary genesis for the idea, felt totally connected to the ride and followed along via my blog posts and several phone calls, with his wife's help. I think (I hope) it made him sense the positive response so many people were having towards the cause.

My goal was to generate buzz about the subject and to drive interest towards the dementia friends program offered by the Alzheimer Society and I think I did that pre (and hopefully) post ride, as I knew I could not do too much on the road. I really didn't meet that many people. I'm really happy with how it was promoted and shared on social media and by my facility and extremely happy that it was shared by recreation and care staff with the residents who live there. There may still be some talks to do now that I have pics and video to share.

Looking back I think I would not do it all myself next time and would have a savvy "communications" person who could work media on my behalf. It was hard to try to blog and respond at the end of the day by hen pecking into my phone and the app I was using was glitchy, dropping blog posts several times and not allowing me to respond to comments on the blog. I could have been more effective if I (or another person) could have worked media like FB better and I didn't even touch twitter or other platforms like Instagram. Too much for a tired rider, a cell phone and so so reception.

I would also add a fund raising component next time. This ran counter to my initial sensibility as I thought people would find it refreshing and be more receptive to something that was not asking for money but almost everyone who heard about what I was doing wanted to donate something. I came away feeling that donating is a way people could actively connect with the activity that they either support or perhaps wish they could do themselves. People were very positive towards what I was doing and I was impressed by the overall response. At the same time as my ride, a friend participated in a Cops for Cancer ride that raised 500K!

Next time I will either use a link provided by the Alzheimer Society for donations or have a specific fund raising goal in place. For example, I think I could have easily raised enough to buy an adaptive bicycle for my facility to start a recreation program to take residents for rides which would have been a good tie in to my ride conceptually.

Mostly, I came away feeling good about this aspect of the tour and also realizing the need not to wear all the hats myself and to create a team to share some of the duties associated.

Roughstuff

Love it, have done many of these roads. I recall Hope fondly, because there was a big church group that let me stay there overnight and fed me to the gills. The Transcanada is stunning through the mountains and I found wild camping anywhere and everywhere. Was the wind on the prairies tough for you or not that much of a problem?

Happy Feet

I would say 2 days of strongish headwinds, several moderate to light and the rest negligible. Maybe one or two tailwinds but not that I would notice or maybe more like crosswinds. I know there is much ado about going west to east to avoid them but for me it was mainly a non sequitor. Rain, hail and thunderstorms on the other hand...

Strong head winds through Kananaskis country in the foothills and at the kicking horse pass as to be expected. They are almost always present.

skookum

I once rode from Barrier Lake to Highwood Pass and back and had head winds BOTH ways. Situation normal.

Aerohip

I did an Edmonton to Vancouver ride last Summer. 3weeks of eternal bliss!!! Sunshine everyday, beautiful scenery, great people! Loved it so much that I'll be doing it again next Summer, 2017. Just gonna take a different way!

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/..._id=15396&v=Iy

Happy Feet

I would also say that the "vibe" changed quite a bit from the prairies into BC. More laid back and into other stuff than just work. We do like our toys and playtime. In the prairies it seemed people were there in more smaller closed communities or just to work. Not a lot of open enjoyment going on. That's not a knock perse, just an impression that could have been skewed by weather or the time of year. I envy your weather

Roughstuff

Years ago I left Waterton Lakes national park on the US border (opposite Glacier NP) and was headed north. At that time Pincher creek was a tiny town and I headed east to Fort McLeod and then north on Alberta Rt 2.

I noticed that the drivers were remarkably well paced and disciplined on what is, actually, a pretty major road. I complemented them on their modest speed.

When I stopped for lunch in High River (it night have been Nanton...the latter rings a bell in my head) and looked at my map I realized what was going on! The howling southern wind was pushing me along at such a great pace (I am normally a nice slow pokey cyclist and driver) that I had already ridden over 100 miles! I must have been riding at 20+ mph! NO wonder every car seemed to pass me at a modest speed.