The route. After I got into Nova Scotica I got a little pissed off cause I kind thought that Halifax was even further east than it actually is. I kinda assumed that it was where Sidny is. I really should have looked at a map before I started cause if I did Sydny would have been the goal and not Hali.

Day #50 Masstown to Halifax, 123 km.

Woke up with the tent and grass covered in ice and was glad to
be finished with the trip. Started early and in ideal
conditions. As soon as I got on the road storm clouds arrived
and I was getting pissed on. 40 kms outside of Halifax my knee went on me and I could hardly use it at all, and I got into Hali on the busiest day
of the year. Thanks to the Stones concert, NHL hockey and the a
multitude of other stuff going on every single hotel room was
booked. I planned to spend the night in the 24 hour casino but
through a weird coincidence found a room at one of the hostel.
Celebrated with a glass of pulp free orange juice and went to
bed at 9. I made it.

I really gotta find some other stuff to take pictures of. Cause everything is starting to look the same.

Day #49 Moncton to Masstown, 158 km.

I took my time getting out of camp cause the weather was great
and I wanted to savor every minute of my second last day.

A great day although the scenery was somewhat redundant.

Day #48 Fredericton to Moncton, 181 km.

A good day. Flat, strong tail wind and perfect weather. Was
interviewed on CBC radio Found a hostel and crashed there,
nothing more to say.

An example of some of the old houses of Fredricton.

Day #47 Woodstock to Fredericton, 119 km.

A miserable day, since I was well on track to finish the thing
and since I had such a good time in Quebec City I thought that
I’d try to replicate the fun in New Brunswick’s capital. Well
my friends Fredericton is not Quebec city, but I did stay in a
hostel yet again.

I nearly died on that bridge.

Day #46 St. Leonard to Woodstock, 149 km.

Slept in cause I was still jet lagged and not used to the time
change. There was a time change in N.B. I had a grunt of a
day. Killer head winds and hilly terrain. I don’t think that I
ever had her up over about 15kph for more than a few minutes. I
was worn down by 7 pm when I got off my bike. I saw the sun for
the first time in 3 days today and that helped a little. It was
the closest to death that I came as I crossed the St. John’s
river and a truck nearly hit me.

The pic dosen't do it justice. The colors really were pretty good on this day.

Day #45 Riviere du Loup to St. Leonard, 163 km.

Cold wet rain, drizzle, hail most of the day, but good news is
that itr was a very hilly day. It felt like I did nothing but
climb from Riviere du Loup and there are nothing better tan
hills to make you sweat and warm you up. This would have also
been the day with the best leaves of the tour. Finally getting into
N.B. was nice too.

Flat, flat, flat.

Day #44 Quebec City to Riviere du Loup, 195 km.

An awesome day, big kms ad all without breaking a sweat.
Everyone should get the opportunity to do a ride like this. I
really wanted to get to Riviere du Loup, so I woke up early and
was biking by about 7:30. Took the ferry across the river and
pulled onto the high way and to my delight had a big, big time
tail wind. The villages I went through were very cool and
outside of the rain I got 5 km from the campsite that totally
soaked me and made the night miserable for me it was a good day.

Quebec, Quebec. The city so nice they named it twice. And because I like it so much I'm giving you a double shot of pics.

Day #43 Trois Rivieres to Quecbec City, 141 km.

The weather was nearly perfect, rode all day with some swiss guy
I met in Trois Rivieres, the scenery was great, the leaves were
changing and to arrive in a city like that is a perfect end to
the day. Stayed at a hostel hooked up with four dudes that I
met at the Trois Rivieres hostel and had a blast. I almost
stayed another day cause I had so much fun. Getting to QC was
cool cause it was another one of those landmark days for me. I
was really impressed that I made it there from Ottawa let alone
Vancouver. An outstanding day one of the best of the tour.

One of the unique things about Quebec are the churches. There are tons of them, they are visible from miles away and they all look like small versions of Chartres Cathedral. I haven't figured out if there are way less in the rest of Canada, but it very well may be that they are just more modest. Anyways, it really is very cool and conributes to Quebecs uniquness.

Day #42 St. Jerome to Trois Rivieres, 167 km.

The road was really nice and flat and thanks to La Route Verte
(an inspired idea and one more provinces should adapt) I didn’t
have a single big truck to deal with for days. I got my first
look at the Saint Lawrence and was greatly impressed with the
old parts of Trois Rivieres. Stayed at a hostel since it is
warmer, there is company and has way better location than the
campsites do.

Okay I'll admit this is a pretty lousy shot but when it's pouring and you're riding a bike in it you generally don't see the world as beautiful place. I only took about 3 shots all day.

Day #41 Ottawa to St. Jerome, 182 km.

A horrible day weather wise and I though about staying home one
more day. But since the weather wasn’t gonna get any better at
this time of year, I gritted my teeth and headed out. Real nice
scenery though. Paided 27 bucks for a campsite, which is funny cause I always thought that camping was supposed
to be the cheap alternative. All in all not the best day on tour.

Home sweet home.

Day #39 & 40 Ottawa, rest days.

Canada Update #7

Main street Southern Ontario (Arnprior).

Day #38 Arnprior to Ottawa, 74 km.

A great day coming back into the city for the first time in over three years. I really wanted to make it a special homecoming and I think it worked out perfectly that way. Got home to a newly renovate home and met the folks.

The sights sounds and even smells were all too familier. Biking through my childhood.

Day #37 Stonecliffe to Arnprior, 174 km.

A great day in the Ottawa Valley! I knew I wasn’t gonna get home today so I chilled out and leisurely peddled my way through my own backyard and had one of my best days of the tour. The weather was perfect. And once again I do think that this is the best time of year to be doing this tour as the crops are in full bloom and ready to be harvested giving you perfect picture after perfect picture.

A long dull day of climbing stuff like this.

Day #36 North Bay to Stonecliffe, 144 km.

Woke up warm (I love my new sleeping bag) but everything was wet from the rain. I got out late as a result and just couldn’t get anything going this morning. Never the less after doing a full day in the rain yesterday I was lucky that I wasn’t sick as a dog. I didn’t get as far as I wanted due to the big steep hills that were in my way all day but I got far enough and when I found a campsite at 5:30 I decided to just pack it in.

Even though it was raining it was still a beautiful day to be out and seeing nature. In fact because it was my first real rain day till this point made it all the more interesting to me.

Day #35 Englhart to North Bay, 214 km.

I knew it was coming, but I finally got my first big, big rain day. Woke up early and tried my hardest to stay ahead of the front but it caught me and I spent the rest of the day dealing with fog, thunder and lightning, drizzle and every other type of precipitation outside of snow. I didn’t sit in s store all after noon or pack it in I knew I was due Never the less I didn’t complain and I took it like a man. And I hope I satified the rain gods. I was also happy that I made it to North Bay although I was cold and frozen. However, I over the last 5 days I knocked off more than 900 kms. Not too shabby.

The highway.

Day #34 Iroquois Falls to Englhart, 157 km.

A lousy day with a killer head wind. Anything over 15 kph was fast and at 3pm when I was taking my break I only had 99 km. Normally I have that much before lunch. By the end of the day I was worn out and pissed off at how little did over the last two days, but happy cause I found out that the day before I became an uncle.

Just another lake.

Day #33 Moonbeam to Iroquois Falls, 140 km.

Woke up full of piss and vinegar ready to try to knock off as many 200 km days in a row as I could. But there was just no jam in my legs today and I chugged along at a real slow pace. Today was the day I decided to head to Ottawa and that made me happy, so I crashed early and hoped for better tomorrow.

You make crazy good time when the roads are like this for a few days in a row.

Day #32 Middle of No Where to Moonbeam, 205 km.

My first back to back 200 km day, nice. Looks like my girly bod is finally catching up with my manly will. The main reason that I pulled it off is cause it is flat, flat, flat. This route is flater and straighter than anything I’ve ridden to date. And Quebec came early to my tour as everyone from Hearst on seems to speak french and my Japanese doesn’t seem to work as it’s the only thing that comes out when I try to speak another language these days.

At this point I was so far from anything there weren't even telephone poles on the side of the roads. It is odd, but that makes you feel pretty lonely.

Day #31 Jellico to Middle of No Where, 214 km.

I knew this was gonna be a huge day and I knew going in that I would be sleeping in the forest somewhere cause there are just no towns anywhere around up here, so I wanted to just go as far as I can and bike till dark. Other than that it was nice to finally be going east again after all the north and south I’ve been doing.

Just another highway shot.

Day # 30 Nipigon to Jellico, 123 km.

As soon as I pulled off the Trans Canada and onto the Norther Route everything was in slow motion. The road was great and the traffic was nonexistent. Unfortunately I could never really get my head into this ride and just kinda plodded along. Finally shutting it down in one of the coolest named towns in Canada.

42 km a day for 143 days. That equals over 5, 300 km and to date nearly 500 million raised for cancer research all done on one leg. Kinda makes you wonder what you or I could do if we put our minds to something? My hat is off to you Mr. fox. You were nails.

Day #29 Thunder Bay to Nipigon, 108 km.

Not bad considering I didn’t actually pull out of Thunder Bay till 2 pm thanks to my last Update taking so long. Anyways, the first thing you get to when you go east from Thunder Bay is the beautiful Terry Fox Memorial. This was the second time I was there and the second time that I nearly bawled because of it. After some time spent reflecting, I rode on the worst roads in Ontario for 100 km till 7 pm and stopped in Nipigon.

Kakabeka Falls. A 150 foot waterfall they call The Niagara of the North.

Day #29 Shabaqua to Thunder bay, 78km.

A relaxing day needed to get the bike checked and be in a city for an afternoon so I did an easy day. The problem with easy days is that you get out of the nice efficient routines you’ve worked so hard to create for yourself and end up wasting a lot of time for a day or two. However the geography around here is beautiful and the people are great.

Canada Update #6

This is pretty much all you get up in this parts over and over and over again.

Day #28 Ignace, to Shabaqua 185 km.

Today represented the worst aspects of biking through Northern Ontario. Either you have to stop at noon in Upsala or grunt out another 75km and hope there is a campsite along the way somewhere. At 8:30pm after going since 8:30am I got to Shabaqua and found out there were no campsites there either. So I ended up sleeping about 5 m from the Trans Canada on a bumpy hill and had my worst night of sleep of the tour. Plus I had a killer head wind. The head winds on the prairies are great compaired to here cause they are constant and come at you all day long. Because of the trees the curves in the road and the hills Ontario head winds gust and gust and gust and theat definitly wears you down a lot more. A crappy day as a result.

I really am having fun just watching how the roads twist and turn through the landscape.

Day #27 Vermillion Bay to Ignace, 158 km.

I was off and running by 8:30 and got to Ignace and camp at a decent time for once. I was having a really good day until the shoulders disappeared around Dryden. The old memories of crossing Ontario became all to familiar and the trucks came just a little too close for comfort.

The lovely and talented town of Kenora Ontario.

Day #26 Falcon Lake to Vermillion Bay, 170 km.

My first day back in Ontario. It is starting to feel like I’m home. This was another one of those landmark points I got to that was nice to pass but I did come in with a little nervousness about the work I had to do in this province and that it is a little more difficult to get don here. After Falcon Lake the hills start again and that slowed me down a little.

When you leave Banff you leave the coniferous forests of BC behind and when you get past Winnipeg the forests start again only now they are deciduous.

Day #25 Winnipeg to Falcon Lake, 155km.

A good day but a late start didn’t get out of the house till 12:00 cause they had me moving furniture. The road was flat and the traffic was really thin after Winnipeg so I made decent time. It was great to get back into the tent again especially with a sleeping bag as nice as the one I just bought.

This town is so cool. Block after block of grand old stone buildings like this. And then sitting right below them all are the crack heads. I guess the locals all seem to be down at Home Depot.

Day #23 & 24 Winnipeg, rest days.

Had some shopping to do, some bike maintenance to do, some sightseeing to do, an Update to write and a whole lotta relaxing to do. Most was taken care of, although pricing out expensive camping gear in Vancouver then waiting buy it in Winnipeg will likely add up to one hundred dollars to the price. Just something to keep in mind. Note to self, get a credit card.

Canada Update #5

Sigh...my last day of riding through this.

Day #22 Brandon to Winnipeg, 225 km.

I was really starting to wonder when I get my first 200km day. When I started in Vancouver I figured I'd have half a dozen of them by this point, but bear in mind I'm doing this trip on a mountain bike not a roadie. But I finally bagged her today and did it with a 30.9kph average, it felt really good. My only wish was that Winnipeg was 50 km farther away. I got out of Brandon late 10:15 since was planing to get to Winnipeg in two easy days and as I had to try to dry off my stuff from the night before. I was pleasantly surprised to have a decent tail wind when I pulled onto the highway. I soon realized that with some planing and hard work I'd be able to get to Winnipeg today if the wind didn't change on me. That being said the road are just plane scary to ride on in this province and for all the fun I had at times there was sheer terror at others. That is no joke.

Vancouver to Winnipeg in 21 days of riding is pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

Just for a change I biked past this today.

Day #21 Elkhorn to Brandon, 108 km.

Rain, pain, lightning and there was a new issue to deal with today hangover. Woke up to thunder and lightning and figured that being on a bike wasn't the place for me today. But sitting in tent though it all day then having to drink more whiskey all night would have been worse. Was on my bike at noon riding Manitoba shitty highways after things calmed down a little. When I got to Brandon at 5 a full on typhoon was raging I found a campsite put up my tent and sat shivering cold and wet in a Subway restaurant that had the air conditioning cranked to about only ten degrees. My third rough day in a row and I was really feeling worn out and sore by the end of it and getting irritable.

My timing couldn't have been better on this trip. I am getting to see the prairies as they are filled with ripe wheat and getting a ton of classic shots as a result. It is also a great year cause the farmers are getting bumper crops and a little making money for once. It really is a pretty tough life they struggle to maintain out here.

Day #20 Grenfell to Elkhorn, 142 km.

Another, maybe even worse, headwind day, but today it pissed me off more than anything and I somehow mashed out 142km. For anyone who believes that what I'm doing is a romantic and fun way to see this country try 15 minutes on a day like today. I dare you. Never the less today's ride meant crossing into Manitoba and getting a new map to read as I was curled up in bed at night. But getting to Elkhorn also meant I was “stuck” in a campsite with a whole bunch of guys paving the TCH and getting rather inebriated. Which was just what I needed cause at this point my hopes of getting to the Peg in four days were pretty much finished.

Didn't I tell you the sunsets were nice. And the town I was staying in was even nicer. Everyone has to go to Genfell Sask. once in thier lives.

Regina to Grenfell Day #19, 136km.

Since it is 575 km away the plan was to be in Winnipeg in four days after Regina that ment 150 a day over that period of time. This day was the first day I had to deal with a full on day long head wind and a day I'd been dreading since I rolled onto the prairies. Progress was very slow and what with my bike rack breaking on highway despite my efforts I didn't reach my goal.

Just like something out of The Wizard of Oz. There are just tons of old houses, barns and towns like this scattered all over the prairies. They make for some interesting scenery.

Day #18 Chaplin to Regina, 161 km.

Made it to Regina, stayed in town at an expensive hostle with my soul intention of getting the greatest Update of all time out to you. Spent hours writing it all up, but due to technical problems couldn't put it up got piss off. The ride in was great though and the strech of road between Moose Jaw and Regina is the only perfectly straight long boring section of the prairies to bike.

If it's not the cows it's the trains. They're pretty much all the company you get out here.

Day #17 Gull Lakes to Chaplin, 148 km.

Some days are easy and a ton of fun like day 16. Some are bitches and grunts. Today was a grunt. The bad news is that I woke up sick, couldn't really eat and felt like I was gonna puke all day. The good news is that I still somehow squeezed 148 km out of it. I don't know what was wrong with me if it was the notoriously bad Saskatchewan water or the fact that I'm doing this whole trip without bothering to take a day off. Either way it was tough. Also seriously considered dropping down to ride out Sask. on the 13, but after viewing the locals lack of enthusiasm for the plan I decided to stick to the TCH.

These guys are so much fun to bike beside they just watch you as they chew their food and wonder what the hell you are.

Day #16 Red Cliff to Gull Lakes, 188 km.

The easiest 190 I'll ever get. Totally wind-aided and my only problem with this day was wondering how far I'd have gone if I started at a decent time. In the morning I had to go to a bike shop in Medicine Hat to repaire the repaires I'd done on my bike from the mess that Calgary made of things. Doing a tour like this sucks if you don't trust your gear. As a result I didn't actualy get going till 11:45.

Just to let you know what the trucker who hits me in Norther Ontario is going to see just before he slams on his breaks. Er subtract the nice wid shoulders.

Day #15 Bossano to Red Cliff, 152 km.

Spent a day with another cyclist today. It was nice to have some company for a day, but progress was way slower than I'd have liked. I won't be doing that again anytime soon. No offence Pam.

The second you start driving east of Calgary this is pretty much all you see. Till Ontario.

Day #14 Calgaray to Bossano, 134 km.

Although getting to Calagry felt great biking in it sucked eggs. Every inch of the TCH through there is ultra skinny and a construction zone. Three flats in about 2 hours today. I knew they were coming, but I was really hoping it wouldn't be like this. As a reault I didn't really get going till like 11. However it was great to get back into the tent and sleep there again after three straight nights on beds and couches.

the mountains, clouds and moring sun as I pulled out of Banff.

Day #13 Banff to Calgary, 125 km.

My last day of mountains. Gettting into Calgaray was great it was a major landmark for me and it ment that the mountains were done with for good. I was really happy at the end of this ride cause I was finished at 2pm and I stayed at another cousin's place.

The money shot. A nice place to visit but...

Day #12 Banff, rest day.

After 1200km of riding and all kinds of aches and pains to go with it I chilled out here and enjoyed a little of the beautiful mountains and weather.

Canada Update #4

Oh Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

Day #11 Marble Canyon to Banff, 52 km.

Not wanting to use up all my time in the mountains on just one day's ride. I decided to save some for today and was not disapointed. It is impossible to narow down all the great views into one shot. But this one is kinda cool. It was also great to finally get out of BC and into Alberta, I then rode into Banff and tried to find my cous.

Kootenay National Park.

Day # 10 Windermere to Marble Canyon, 113km.

The views just never ended today. Outstanding weather and beautiful mountains made for a great ride. Unknowingly slept in an empty campground that was closed beacuse there were a high number of bear attacks earlier in the year...oops.

The end of an awesome day.

Day #9 Cranbrook to Windermere, 123km.

Started biking to Fernie and just at the turn off decided to go to Banff/Calgary. It was the best day of the tour till then. As I biked along the Rockies they slowly got bigger and bigger beside me.

Yahk.

Day #8 Creston to Cranbrook, 112km.

Rode to Cranbrook in pissing rain and 18 degree temperatures. I have a jacket with me but I can't wear it cause if it gets wet I will have nothing dry to wear at night and then a miserible evening. So I stuck it out and nearly died of hypothermia. Stopped at Cranbrook cause there was a campsite there and after all the rain I didn't feel like sleeping in a ditch again.

Kootenay Pass 1774m.

Day #7 Burnt Flat to Creston, 72km.

After waking up early I made the 21km climb to the top of the pass in three hours just before it got too hot. I then got to Creston just before it started to piss so I called it a day.

The typical Canadian wall mural. Every single Candian city no mater how big or how small has one of these corny things usually blending elements of multicultuarlism, history and nature. They suck! This one is in Trail BC.

Day #6 Rossland to Burn Flat, 73km.

After I fired off my last Update I got bored sitting in Trail so despite the 36 degree heat I jumped on my bike and after a few hours got my first rain. I ended up right at the bottom of Kootenay Pass.

How sickeningly Canadian is this shot? Red mountain behind Nancy Greene lake.

Day #5 Greenwood to Rossland, 141 km.

A good ride, but very tough. Twice I had to ascend over 1500m. Rossland and Trail however are truely beautiful places that I could spend a long time in.

Canada Update #3

Osoyoos. The hottest place in Canada and they actually advertise it that way.

Day #4 35 km weat of Osoyoos to Greenwood, 113 km.

Hot, hot, hot and climb, climb, climb. I hated this day with everything I had.

Just outside of Princeton.

Day #3 Manning Park East Entrance to 35 km west of Osoyoos, 141 km.

The green disaperas and turns to hot dry desert. The forest fire in Washington State had me breathing ashes all day. Not nice.

Manning Park.

Day #2 Chilliwack to Manning Park East Entrance, 138 km.

A tough day huge climbs.

My road to paradice. This is how I get to spen the next six weeks. No. 2 road outside of Chilliwack.

Day #1 Vancouver to Chilliwack, 104 km.

Canada Update #2