Halifax Bound

It began with something as simple as walking through the camping aisles at MEC. Seeing all the new gadgets, the tiny stoves, the nearly weightless titanium cutlery, sparked my desire to embark on another adventure.

The desire grew, but planning takes a lot of mental energy–choosing roads, deciding how far to ride each day, where to stay each night–and while training for the Toledo, Ohio marathon through the winter and early spring, such planning felt too daunting.  I couldn’t fathom the trip while training so hard–it was as if I was asking myself to pack up at that very moment and head out into the snow and ice–so I waited until the marathon was done, and the weather looked springlike before planning in earnest.

Conquering Toledo Marathon with Tanya

I had a number of variables driving my planning.  I wanted to depart from my own front door, and I wanted to head east to Halifax, where my good friends Janine and Andrew, and Lisa and Jeff live. I love New England, and would have liked to ride through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, but suffice to say, given the political climate and the state of our dollar, it is no time to journey south. That narrowed down my options considerably.  The next consideration was how best to ride across Ontario, which is the most challenging province, given the general busyness of most roads in southern Ontario, and the sparseness of road options in northern Ontario.  

I decided to take the trails as much as possible to Orillia, and then to head to my brother’s family cottage on Twelve Mile Lake.  From there I will ride across Algonquin Park, which I haven’t cycled since teaching at Lakefield College School back in 1992.  At the time I was riding a mountain bike, with weathered yellow panniers, and I was carrying a hard copy of Michael Ondaatje’s newly published novel, The English Patient. I have fond memories of sitting on the porch of a red and white cabin I rented, reading what remains one of my favourite novels.  It was well worth its weight.

I have booked a newly furnished room at the Rolling Rapids Motel in Whitney. The earnestness of these family run places makes my heart hurt sometimes. I am rooting for them, and even if they fall short of my idyllic vision, I am grateful for the love and effort that goes into the welcome notes left on the table, or the hand stitched artwork with endearing messages about the comforts of home.  

I will continue east to Pembroke, and from there, I will retrace the route I took through Quebec in 2021, including a stop to see my friend Christina in Mansonville, QC. I plan to stop in different places this time, and not to push as hard each day, to give myself more time to breathe, and to enjoy Quebec’s incredible bike trail system.

From Quebec, I will take a slightly different route through New Brunswick, because I will be heading to Saint John in order to take the ferry to Digby. Once in Digby, I will be in familiar territory, as I spent much of the summer of 1989 housesitting in Kentville, NS while completing my Masters at Dalhousie. More recently, though by that I mean 2009, I competed in a Half Ironman in Bridgetown, NS. That seems like a lifetime ago, and I will be happy enough to be staying on the shore, and simply pedalling.

After spending a few days revisiting some of my favourite spots in and around Wolfville, I will head to Halifax, where the highlight of the trip will be seeing my good friends.  Lisa and I have been friends since meeting at the climbing gym here in Guelph many moons ago, long before she began teaching at Dal’s dental school, and Janine and I have been friends since high school. Our friend Kieran, with whom I have been friends since kindergarten, is going to fly out to join us, so we can celebrate Janine’s upcoming retirement. Should any dark moments befall me on the trip, and no doubt there will be difficult bouts of rain and wind, or hours when my neck and back are protesting vehemently, I will envision the three of us together, laughing gently at our naive teenage selves, and I will be more than okay. 

I am envisioning the trip in terms of gains and losses. As ever, I am hoping to gain insight and perspective, while losing myself in a ride for a few weeks.  Weeks without glancing in a mirror, weeks of moving through the world, more motion than self.  Alistair Macleod, my thesis advisor at Windsor, used to ask me what I meant by this “self” that I wrote of escaping, or eclipsing. I still don’t know how to explain it other than to say it is a state of consciousness, of thinking in terms of who I am. On the bike, I can often transcend that consciousness, and I can exist in a space filled with colour, light, and sound.  Those are the perfect moments I am forever chasing.

I depart on May 23, and will be posting on Instagram, Strava, and Komoot, and of course on the blog, without which my trips would not seem complete.  Looking forward to hearing from any of you who have time to drop me a line, especially if a photo, or a familiar road sparks a memory for you. In the meantime, I am getting out for as many training rides as possible, and am grateful for my training partners.

Training Ride with Mylene

Pre-training Ride with Mylene's sweetest pup, Henry

Training Ride with Jeff