Tim and I have just graduated. Although Convocation isn't for another month or so, our grades have come in and we have completed what we need to formally graduate, barring, of course, any outlandish events in the meantime. Come September, we will have to do something else with our lives. Tim is off to do a Master's degree at UBC in Vancouver. I on the other hand have decided to take a year off from school. While I mulled about with different ideas and opportunities for the year, I have recently decided that I will spend 8-10 months on a bike trip through parts of Canada and the USA.
My intention is to keep an online record of the trip and while there are several bike-specific sites for this, I think it'd be appropriate to use EnviroBoys to keep this record. So, for the next few months you will likely see a handful of posts documenting the preparation of the trip and at some point in September, once I'm on the road, I will try to post as often as possible.
I have spent several months thinking of different routes to take. Choosing to do something more continental, I eventually settled on doing in something in Canada and the USA. Although routes through Mexico and much of Central America certainly interested me, a combination of inexperience, not wanting to ride through too much desert and most importantly, an extremely concerned legion of family and friends, led me to drop those regions from the trip.
Although specific details of the route are yet to be decided -- and much will likely be left to my discretion on the trip -- a general route has been laid out. I will be leaving from Winnipeg and travelling towards Salt Lake City, Utah, then moving northwest up to Vancouver and Victoria, BC. I will then travel southbound along the beautiful Pacific coast before venturing to the deserts of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The next leg of the tour will take me to the South in through Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and down into Florida before swinging back up the eastern seaboard, ultimately back into Canada as far as Newfoundland. In total, the trip will take approximately 20,000 km and will likely last well over 250 days.
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The map above provides a general outline of the route, although certainly not specific as it simply follows the interstates and common highways, which are not particularly conducive to cycling.
At this point, it is a solo trip, although I'd be more than happy to travel with someone else along the way, or even for different legs of the trip. I will be riding on a Norco Bushpilot mountain bike that I'm converting to make tourable by adding racks, new tires etc. I have some equipment already, but will have to invest in much more, which I will include in later posts. I will bring a tent, sleeping bag and other necessary camping equipment, as frugality will be of the utmost importance on the trip.
Many people have asked me why I want to do this. In my opinion, there is no better way to see the world. It is slow enough to effectively visit places and fast enough to see lots of places. Plus, it'll be a good workout.
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