Arctic 2007

Hi there, first contact with internet for 7 days (we have been cycling on gravel roads in the middle of nowhere and camping in the wild most of the time). Everything is absolutely amazing. We are at the foot of the Rockies after having done more than 600 kilometres (400 miles). You will have a very detailed update in the next couple of days, we promise and we can tell you there are some good stories coming…. Hope everyone is in good mood. Take care.

EDIT (mumu) I put the translation of the french post that “LTonton” (the uncle of the two heroes) kindly did

We apologize for giving no news but till today, we had very few contacts with civilisation. This first week was an opportunity to give us an idea what next two months will be like. We cycled on highways, pedalled up sandy tracks, crossed rivers and saw the wonderful landscapes of British Columbia. We’ll send photos and videos asap.

2nd July : Vancouver – Abbotsford, 90 km/h, average speed (avs) 19 km/h
Departure 10.30. Everybody recommends Lougheed Highway (very large speedway) to get out of Vancouver but we’re a bit scared planning it as we’re heavily loaded. Panic comes with the first ride : our front saddlebags are so loaded that any change in direction makes them swing and pushes the handlebars from left to right.. We find out that there’s a cycle lane on the highway, which is not that crowded after all, and that drivers do pay attention to cyclers. It’s not that bad ! First true fright : we have to cross over 2 highway lanes to reach our exit. Second fright : the shoulder suddenly disappears and we find ourselves on the right lane. Then, we’re kind of sandwiched between the 6 lanes of the Transcanadian and the 4 lanes of the Loughheed Highway (see here, right in the middle of the two highways). Third fright : on a bridge, the shoulder is 80 cm wide, cars drive at full speed and, at our low speed, handlebars shake like mad. The camping where we had planned to stay overnight being closed, we start again at 17.15 having ridden 75 km. We finally arrive at 19.00, after 90 km altogether. A camping resident, Nancy, kindly gives us buffalo burgers, pecan and strawberry tarts. We eagerly swallow the whole lot in fifteen minutes. We aren’t fully aware yet that this is the first day or our two and a half months tour.

3rd July : Abbotsford - Kettle Valley Railway Trail, 109 km, avs 19.7 km/h
We keep on heading East. At the end of the morning, we meet a couple : Emma, swedish, and Scott, American. Both practice competition raid (Scott was a member of the US team). We do not feel under pressure at all !… Luck, Scott is Environmental Economist and Jean can chat. The day ends on a disused railwail trail which crosses wonderful gorges and tunnels we cover in complete darkness. We finally find a nice place where to sleep, next to a river. We’ve entered the land of the bear and our sleep is lightened.

4th July : Kettle Valley Railway Trail, 48 km, avs 11km/h
Departure 12.30, very sunny… Hard job, right from the start : 6-8% slope on a soft sand track. Jean’s anti-bear water bottle keeps falling nonstop and, once we’re stuck, it’s rough getting started again because our tyres keep skidding in sand. At the end, we’ve climbed 200 meters but are exhausted. We start wondering what we’re here for. The rest of the day will be nothing but steep slopes, soft sand, gravels. In the afternoon, Scott and Emma start ahead while we fix again Jean’s water bottle on his bike. While trying to catch up with them, we pass two bear droppings on the track. Nicolas kindly laughs at Jean singing to keep bears away, but does starts singing together with him soon after seing the first dropping. We’ll have climbed 1400 meters this day . Tough ! …

5th July : Kettle Valley - Nicola Lake campsite, 98km, avs 18km/h
Departure 9.30. After riding a while on a track, where we crossed a river carrying our bikes, we leave Scott and Emma who will follow the Kettle Valley Railway Trail right to the end. Tired of this track, we get back on the highway at the speed of 40km/h with a nice rear wind. We leave the highway after a 4 km downward slope, which allowed Jean to reach 65km/h (Nicolas, wiser, didn’t exceed 57 km/h), to take a small road towards Merritt. It’s hot, we lack water, the road keeps sloping upwords almost nonstop, it’s hard… One of our smartest acceleration was due to a rottweiler running after us. Jean takes advantage of one of the rare downward slopes to improve his record at 67km/h. We reach Merritt to find a seedy town of 3000 inhabitants. Therefore we decide to ride another 20 km to camp on the shore of Nicola Lake. This portion of the road will take place at dusk, with no shoulder, and trucks driving inches away from us. Nicolas discovers an instrument measuring Jean’s stress : his speedometer. Jean cycles at the speed of 37 km/h, on flat ground, no rear wind, even though we have done 80 km. We go to sleep worn-out.

6th July : Nicola Lake campsite - Douglas Lake campsite, 52 km, avs 16km/h
A comparatively short, but exhausting day (dirt track again under a blazing sun). We spend the night on a lake shore after crossing an Indian reservation. Life’s beautiful.

7th July : Douglas Lake campsite - Salmon Arm, 94 km, avs 19.6 km/h
Departure 8.30. The track is OK and we feel like riding along. While going downhill at more than 50 km/h, quite busy avoiding potholes, Jean sees a big dog crossing the road and we slightly slow down to let it reach the other side. We do need a bit of time to realize that we’re seing our first bear. It’s not a slight breaking anymore but a panic skidding which follows. From then on, we use our bear horns at each bend. At the end of the track, we stop in a general shop to eat. Jean notices samples of cakes to taste on the desk. He tastes one of them.
“-How do you like it ?”
Jean, who finds it a bit tasteless answers evens so “-Mmmh , it’s good.”
“-It’s for dogs.”
We then decide to leave quickly
Nothing special about the afternoon ride, but we’re put up by an ex bear hunter. We enjoy his conversation and laugh when he says that his main game is to approach behind a bear that’s just finished hibernating and shout “Bouh !” to see it run away.

8th July: Salmon Arm - Three Valley, 95.6 km, avs 15.3 km/h
Departure : 7.15 after waking up at 6 am. After 50 km of tarmac till Mable Lake, we get on a track. It’s 11.30 and, not being at all aware of it, we start a 32 km climbing on a stony track, in the scorching heat. The 3 km ride downhill after the pass is pure happiness. We’re camping on a lake shore, mountains all around, alone. We’ve started a week ago, rode 587 km (most of it on tracks) and we do appreciate this very moment, proud of ourselves.

We’re approaching the Rocky Montains

Hello there,

We arrived safely in Vancouver on Friday (Jean has obviously been lucky to be able to leave Glasgow). The last two days have been spent buying the last bits of equipment and visiting Stanley Park.
We will leave Vancouver tomorrow, heading east. We intend to reach Banff in the Rockies in the next ten days. The only way to leave Vancouver by bike is on the highway (that is obviously what everyone does around here). We have some apprehension but we are very happy to start this great adventure.

We will give you some updates as soon as we can.

See you soon,

Nicolas and Jean

The day has come… After a year and a half of preparation, our trip starts today.I’m leaving for the airport in about two hours. These last days have been hectic, whether it was to find the last pieces of equipment or to finish my job in the lab. There have been disappointments (thanks to the National Bank who told me they never got my credit card application form even though I filled it in one of their agencies. No Canadian credit card for me…) and comforting moments (thanks to all the staff of Le Yéti for helping me solving the problems I might have had, answering all my questions and showing some interest for our trip).

The only concern now is the mount for the video camera which, though strong enough to hold a stove on my handlbar, might affect my tremendous speed in the hills.

I’ve also (finally) added the questions by the children of the École Enfant-Soleil. They have not been translated to english yet due to a lack of time.

To those asking us if we are ready, I’ll just give you en excerpt of a phone call I had with Jean on wednesday:
Jean: “I think we’ll do 60 miles a day for the first 3 days, but I’m going to ride like a grandmother.”

Nicolas: “Don’t worry. Anyway, I’m out of breath after riding for 50 meters uphill.”

Jean: “Oh, I’m tired after walking 10 minutes.”

Nicolas: “…”

Jean: “We really are stars”

Hi everyone !

Today, we answered three more questions, thanks to Jean. As usual, all the answers are summarized in the Questions page. I also reorganized that page to outline our answers.

I also would like to mention that Mumu has been promoted from the status of “moral support” to the one of “Editor”. She will be in charge of updating the blog when we will not have access to the Internet (namely, we will give her lots of information once a week and she will split it in daily updates).

Thanks Mumu!

And the questions with the associated answers:

What will you do if it rains when you are cycling?
We have waterproof equipment, so except if the conditions are really, really bad, we will keep cycling when it rains. — Jean

In Alaska, will you cycle on road or on snow?
We will always travel on road. Some road will be gravel roads. We do not expect to have snow on the road. However, it is not completely impossible to have snow close from the Arctic Ocean. The snow should be removed from the road as vehicles need to use the road. If there is snow on the road itself, we will not be in a position to cycle. We will then either wait for the snow to be removed or we will have to change our plans and to use another route. — Jean

Will there be snow in the Rockies?
There will probably be snow on the tops of the Rocky Mountains. No snow is expected on the road though. — Jean

If you are caught in a very violent storm, will you keep going or giving up? — Charlotte, Ecole Stanislas
If we are caught in a very violent storm, we will look for a shelter and wait for the storm to calm down. We will not keep going. — Jean

Hi everyone,

A little update to tell you that almost everything is set now. We have a Bed and Breakfast booked in Vancouver, a satellite phone and bear-proof barrels.

I also visited the school Enfant Soleil on tuesday and gathered many questions and drawings. We also got some drawings from Kincardine in Menteith and Jean decided which one he wanted to see first.

Edit: the drawing is from Becky Hamlyn (Primary 7).

I have also been told that the “Questions” was bit confusing. I will thus try to explain it a bit better: we will answer the questions regarding our attitude towards the trip and the preparation before leaving for Vancouver. The rest of the questions will be addressed during our trip. Every time an answer to a new question is given, it will be both posted on the blog and added in the Questions page.

11 days left…

(Click on the image to access the album)

In exactly a month, we will be in Vancouver (without anywhere to stay yet) for the beginning of our trip. We are almost ready (except for the video camera, a few schools to visit, having the access to the Arctic Ocean granted and the bear-proof containers) and have only one desire: leave!

Besides that, we have had just over 1000 visits in May (compared to 584 in April, 151 in March and 52 in February, for a grand total of 1789) and 162 different visitors. This is not that much, but it encourages us in what we are doing.
Regarding the training, Jean cycled 680 miles so far and I cycled 400. I have a hard time realizing that what I did in 6 weeks is going to be our weekly average.

To leave comments, click on “Comments” located next to the post title.

After a long break, the blog is finally updated. We read all the questions we have received and we compiled them in the page Questions. We will answer the ones concerning the preparation in the next month and the rest during our trip.

We can already make some comments:

- the most concerned about our health (and also the ones thinking of the most frightening situations) are the girls
- when the Scots wonder if some plants have already gone extinct, the Quebecers ask for our budget and what we would do when confronted to a grizzli.These are all great questions and we hope our answers will contain all the information you want.

I will complete this post by answering one question I particularly like:

Are you aware of the danger of this trip? Marian

Well, probably not as much as our parents wish us to be. However, if we were aware of the danger of this trip, we would probably not do it and that would be really sad.

Today, I got my Salsa Ala Carte! It’s orange, weighs 14.6 kgs and gave me the smoothest ride I ever had. Riding this bike makes me realize the huge difference there is between such bikes and the ones I rode until now.

Pictures of it can be found THERE.

First interview published in L’Express d’Outremont, where one can discover that my oral skills are somewhat to be improved.

The article is available here (in french).

Wow! I gave my first talk to Montreal kids today! It was at Stanislas school, in Outremont, Montreal. The children were wonderful, participating, asking questions and interested in the project. As Jean had told me, these moments are pure magic! I can’t wait for April, 17th to meet them again, this time with my bike and all the equipment.

Thank you all for being there.

The pictures are available there: http://www.arctic2007.org/photos/schools/stanislas/