•   
  •   
  •   
 

You Are Viewing Canada

Show 30: Kettle Valley Rail Trail

Posted December 21st, 2009

kearsleyfamilyMike Kearsley is our guest this week, talking to us about a trip on British Columbia’s Kettle Valley Railway with his wife, daughter and family dog.

We also touch on a new and exciting bike wheel from MIT and my favourite bike blog of the week. Listen in and start planning next year’s tour as you’re cooking the Christmas turkey.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Show Notes:

And check out this Bikely map of the Carmi Subdivision, the section of the Kettle Valley Railway that Mike and his family biked:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Posted in Canada, Radio Shows

CBC Radio Interview

Posted September 27th, 2009

CBC Radio in New Brunswick asked for an interview about our trip. It aired on Shift, the drive home show. We’ve recorded and uploaded it here so you can listen in.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Posted in Canada, Cycling Trips, New Brunswick, Radio Shows

An Epilogue

Posted September 18th, 2009

672km St. Bruno to Rimouski

Our circuit around the world ends in St. Bruno but the next morning, after Michael has gone to work, we carry on as if nothing has changed at all.

Hurrah! What fun we've had!We eat our breakfast of cereal and fruit, lug our bags downstairs and load them on the bikes like we’ve done a thousand times before. I take a moment to examine the fraying bag that sits across my back two panniers, the one that has held our sleeping mats for months now. I wonder how it’s ever held out this long. This one bag, more than anything else we’re carrying, really looks like it’s gone around the world. Maybe it will stay intact just a little longer.

My thoughts are broken by Andrew handing me some sunscreen. We make the last checks of our bikes and gear, drop in a few cubes of ice from Michael’s freezer into our water bottles, give each other a kiss and head out under a surprisingly intense September sun.

Our loop is already completed but we’re continuing to cycle because, just like a runaway truck going down a steep hill, a strong sense of momentum pushes us onwards. We have been continually moving forward for 3 years now and it’s so incredibly hard to even contemplate putting on the brakes. More than anything we need time: time to digest all those special places and kilometres riding in our wake and time to consider what will come next. (more…)

Posted in Canada, Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Quebec

Thank you! And a peek into the past

Posted September 14th, 2009

DSC_9993.JPGWow.

We are truly overwhelmed at all the kind comments that have come our way in the past few days since we posted about finishing our circle around the globe. We feel so lucky to have made friends — virtually and face-to-face — through so many people because of that wonderful thing called the internet.

Your words have encouraged us countless times on the road and now again as we face that scary thing called reintegration. A massive THANK YOU to everyone who’s followed us this far.

As for what’s next, we’re not quite ready to say yet. We have a million ideas and every day is a case of ‘let’s do this!’ and then ‘no, let’s do that instead!’ but when the time is right, we’ll let you all know where the TravellingTwo are off to next. This website will not fall dormant. We have a redesign planned, about 100 new things we’d like to add and we just have to find the extra hours and internet time to do it all! Oh, and did we mention we’re off to Germany for a family vacation in October?

DSC_0016.JPGUntil that flight to Europe (you know you’re hooked on travel when you think you need a vacation from your vacation), we’re going to soak up our last few days of cycling along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, over some reportedly very big hills but with a bowl of excellent clam chowder awaiting us about 4 days down the road. The weather is great for September and we’re going to enjoy every moment of beautiful riding.

As for you, maybe you’d enjoy a little look back at one of the more challenging and colourful weeks of our trip in a ‘Week in the Life Of’ column that we wrote for our friend Nora and her Professional Hobo website. Learn what happened when we froze during cold nights in Syria and how we almost didn’t recover our bank card from a Turkish ATM: A Week in the Life of Friedel & Andrew

Posted in Canada, Cycling Trips, Random Ramblings

Closing The Loop

Posted September 10th, 2009

993km Garson to St. Bruno

The end of our round-the-world trip happens so quickly, we barely see it coming. In the logical part of our minds we know it’s getting closer. Anyone can see that on a map. But emotionally the last pedal strokes towards the point where we began feel much the same as any other day or week or month over the past three years.

Those last spins of our wheels begin slowly, interspersed with lazy lunch breaks on outcroppings of solid Canadian Shield rock and long moments of quiet reflection beside the endless lakes that look like a string of rain puddles on the vast map of Ontario. In Parry Sound, we help an old college friend rip up some truly terrible 70s shag carpeting in her new house and then it’s back on the road again, over the hundreds of small rolling hills that make up this part of Canada.

Victorious at the topThe usual preoccupations of our life – where to sleep, what to eat, how much sunscreen to put on – take up their usual chunk of time and then there are the unexpected challenges, like an attack by raccoons in Algonquin Park. Incredibly bold and undeterred by our presence, this little group of bandits surrounds our site and makes repeated charges for our food-filled panniers. It’s only when our neighbours lend us enough rope to lift our bags up into the trees that we can retire confidently to our tent.

The raccoons aren’t our only companions during this part of our journey. Rob is a funny, easy-going cyclist from Toronto who hooks up with us in Huntsville and his sense of humour shines through in the $5 sunglasses he’s wearing, held together by reams of duct tape. When we first meet, we’re a bit worried that Rob might have used the same thrifty approach when buying his bicycle but there’s relief all around when we discover his trusty steed isn’t also counting on duct tape to make the distance. (more…)

Posted in Canada, Cycling Trips, Journal Entries
Older results
Newer results