As My Dream Becomes Reality

For many years now I've had a dream. My dream is to ride a bike from Vancouver Island across the vast expanse of Canada right to the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland the eastern most point of Canada. After my experiences last winter travelling around Mexico and central America I have made an addition to my plan. If all goes well and my health and spirit persevere I shall continue my tour down through the eastern United States, through Mexico and Central America to South America and eventually reaching the southern point of the South American continent. I cant say for sure right now that this is a definate plan because Im really not a guy who likes to plan very much and there are many other possibilities. I have all the time I need with no commitment of work or school in Vancouver and my funds saved over the last year should be sufficient for such a journey.

As I write this Ive actually just completed the first leg of my journey on vancouver Island. From the ferry terminal in Nanaimo( East-Central Vancouver island) I biked north about 475 kilometers, some through urban areas but much of it on the lonesome 19 highway with very little traffic except for the terrifying logging trucks roaring back and forth between the forests to the north and the lumber mills to the south. Then 65 kilometers on rough logging roads where the logging trucks become really terrifying as they spit rocks and dust in your face as they pass. After this though I was rewarded with a 23 km long hiking trail through pristine Old growth forest contaning 800 year old cedars and the largest Sitka Spruce I have ever seen, some standing a good 200 feet tall. Aswell toward the end reaching the pristine whitesand beaches surrounded by decreped oldgrowth timbers battered by some of the strongest winds and worst weather anywhere. Also layed the rotting remains of attemts by Danish Settlers from the early 20th century to tame the land and live off it. Actually there were several attemts to settle the lands in the first half of this century but always the same factor ruined the settlers attempt. Surprisingly not the regular hurricanes and unrelenting rains in the winter but isolation, the fact that Cape Scott is so far and difficult to access. I was sure that Cape Scott was the place where I must jump into the Pacific Ocean before starting my transcontinental voyage. I would have happily taken a ride up the island saving me the effort and a long backtrack and began from their but I sure as hell wasnt going to pay 50 bucks for the bus to Port Hardy; With the trip begun I was now on a rigorous travellers budget. Willing to spend as much money as needed to feed myself with adequate nutrition but determined to try to camp for free the vast majority of nights.

One of the ideas behind my trip is to see and experience as many of the endless landscape variations that are found within this vast country. Starting from the West Coast and heading east I decided I had to start from a bold point on the Pacific where I could relish in the true Pacific spirit and climate which Ive come to love so much. I wanted to see bears, eagles, old growth forests, waves, culture and history. All of which I found in abundance especially the wildlife. The northern section of Vancouver Island Is a true wilderness, unfortunately extensively logged but still very sparsely populated giving the animals the space they need to thrive. In a few of my days on and near the logging roads to cape Scott park I saw the majority of the wildlife. Being on a bike and travelling in relative silence I sure saw a lot. About 12 black bears a few of which I just about ran right into because they simply didnt hear me coming until I was 20 feet away and then they dashed out and down the road. For anyone reading this who is not as familiar with bears as me and some of my friends black bears are usually not very dangerous. Exccept of course for mothers with their cubs, the odd one that is a little crazy or just really hungry, and of course when you surprise them they can have panic reaction. Well I definetly surprised the hell out of a couple of them, one small one even bolted up a tree, but I guess that being on bike with big bags and everything is pretty intimadating for them. needless to say though I kept my bear spray very handy. Aside from bears to my surprise I saw my first mountain lion which is very rare to see. I came a little to close to it again surprising it with my silent approach as it drank from a stream beside the road. Those scare me way more than black bears as Vancouver Island has the highest concentration in the world aswell as the most attacks and deaths caused by mountain lion attacks. Then I spotted a bobcat from the highway which is also extremely rare and lucky to see. Of course I also saw lots of deer, tons of bald eagles, an elk, a moose, a couple hawks, and a massive grizzly bear viewed from the safety of a tour boat with a guide from Sayward.

On mytrip down the island I was energized. Invigorated by the Cape Scott atmosphere and thrilled to be free with nothing but time, money, and thousands kilometers of open road that lay before me. I suddenly realized that almost everything on the North American Continent was conected to this road that I was on, a few ferries here and there of course. The thought thrilled me and the more I thought about it the more positive my bicycle touring atitude grew.

Then in a single day I met two very important people that had a great influence on me. It was a quiet morning only a few cars had passed by, the sky was brilliantly blue with no humidity or hint of pollution. Other than the birds singing it was totally silent, so quiet I could here the logging trucks gearing up hills from several kilometers down the valley. As I was joyfully crusing down the empty highway something came into view on the road ahead. I knew it wasn't a bear because it was red so I continued approaching. Finally I realized it was a guy on a bike, what the hell is he doing here? I thought I was the only person crazy enough to cycle across this empty land. He was adjusting his massive pile of gear, bags on the front wheel, bags on the back piled high with his enormouus tent bag and huge sleeping bag. Also with sweaters and clothing bungy strapped on of course not to mentinon his folding aluminum chair piled on top of everything. It looked very tiring and unsteady. "Hey man where are you going," I asked him as if it was not unusual to see him there. "Around the world" he replied. Wow I guess that figures with his load. " cool, I'm going to St. John, Newfoundland" I replied stll proudly. " Nice thats where IM going right now" he said. This was very inspiring for me to meet him. His nam was Steve Fox( www.Stevefoxworldbiketrip.com) and he was only 18 years old having just finished highschool and made some money, it had been his dream for many years now. Immidately we were good friends and so we continued down the road together happy to have eachothers company. Only 50 km later we ran into another biker going in the opposite direction. This was Matias from germany. He had left germany two years ago and cycled staight across the African Continent to the southern tip then caught a plane to Argentina where he began cycling up to where we met him now. He boasted of the natural beauties he had seen in South America. He had clocked an incredible 79000 km to this point and was on his way back to Germany via Alaska and Asia.

With these encounters I became incredibly inspired to do something profound, something respectable, what most people think of as crazy but really just dont understand. I was now very determined to continue my journey after reaching St. johns, Newfoundland. This was my opertunity and the time was now, I felt an urge, a longing to satisfy the thirst for adventure and experience I've had for so long. With this bike was how I was going to do it.