Latest Media

Here are some items that, while they don't count as new news, they might be of interest to you!

First, here are two newspaper articles written about the project.  One by Dianne Wood of The Record, published August 31, 2012:

Have you checked the @wr_record yet today?Thanks @woodrecord for a great article! therecord.com/news/local/art…
— Bike For Bricks (@BikeForBricks) August 31, 2012

And also one from Ross Howey from the Elmira Independent, published on the same day:

Cross-Canada cycling feat raises thousands for Heartwood Place. bit.ly/T2lyIO @bikeforbricks @cycleontario
— Elmira Independent (@Indyupdates) August 31, 2012

Second, here is the final instalment of Holeshot's Bike For Bricks videos.  It covers the last days in Ontario and the homecoming.

I'm still working on the stats, map, and outstanding daily recaps.  Enjoy!

Fundraising Update

It's been almost three weeks since the pedaling stopped, but donations have kept rolling in!  As of right now, the Bike For Bricks project has raised a total of: $21,858.70!

During the trip, we cycled a total of 6813.27km each, minus 49km (Kyle's bike hitchhiked/took rides four times) for a grand total of 20,390.81km.  That means that we have raised $1.07 per kilometre of cycling, 7% more than our goal!  

You can still donate by clicking the big PayPal button there ---------->

Thanks Mary and Anna for organizing, and Dennis and Helen for hosting!

On Saturday, we had an opportunity to get-together and celebrate the success of the B4B project.  It was great to see everyone who supported us throughout the trip, from home through the internet and through prayer, but also from the road: Brent and Kathy Bauman, Julie, Keenan and Carly, and Dennis and Helen.

Some Figures

Hi everyone,

This is the last picture I took with my phone on the trip.

So the trip is over, and it's been an adjustment getting back to work.  Pros: indoors, air conditioning, constant access to cold water, comfy seat, I can even out my tan, and I love my job.  Cons: I can't see a window from my seat, I have "real world" responsibilities now, and my mind was still in a go-go-go gear.  But it had to happen sometime!

I haven't conducted a full analysis of the trip yet, but here are some initial top-level figures for you:

Home!

Bike For Bricks has arrived home!

After 52 days on the roads and shoulders of every Canadian province, we completed a 6811 kilometre route from Vancouver to St. John's, starting and ending in Waterloo.

The trip may be over, but the Bike For Bricks is still going.  Here's what is coming over the next few weeks:

Homecoming

The Bike for Bricks team is on the road at 7:00am this morning, to cycle in from Flesherton.  Quick stops in Fergus and Guelph at Royal Distributing, then we're off to Kitchener.

We will be cycling down Highway 7, finishing at City Hall at 4:00.

http://www.facebook.com/events/511616112188837/

6700kms down, 115 to go....

Days 48-49-50-51 - The Home Stretch

Here's a rare four-part blog to get you up to speed.  It brings you from Batchawana Bay to Flesherton, where we are starting from Tuesday morning.  That way you will be ready for our homecoming on Tuesday afternoon!

The centre of Canada.  

Day 48

We start the day from the exact centre of Canada, according to an official Geodetic survey.  So when we say we cycled across Canada but started in the middle, now we know exactly how close we actually are.  It is the specific midpoint between the extreme east and west, and it is only 500m from Mike's place in Batchawana Bay.

Roadside: Refocus

Struggling on Manitoulin.  Also, please share the road.

I blogged a little while ago about our determination to focus on the here, the now, and the next.  It's a great strategy, but actually impossible to maintain as the trip draws to a close.  These are the struggles that we face as we count down the days.

Roadside: Food

One question we often get is: “what do you eat?”  This is best answered by our friend Evan, who cycled Canada a few years ago: “everything.”  As I have said before, everything tastes good, even things that I would not ever buy in a grocery store.  There’s a lot to say on this point:

Menu
Our daily meal plan looks like this:

Making sandwiches outside a Safeway, Abbotsford.

• First Breakfast, where we slept: porridge, peanut butter and jam sandwich on whole wheat bread, and banana
• Second Breakfast, two hours later: deli meat, cheese and mustard on a kaiser, and an apple
• First Lunch, two more hours down the road: back to PB&J, with some more fruit
• Second Lunch, subject to availability and length of day: maybe we found a restaurant and ordered the special or lunch buffet
• Dinner, where we will sleep: spaghetti and tomato sauce, with a chopped pepper and some precooked meat product, maybe with hot dogs and cereal
• Supper, before bed: subject to proximity to stores, two bowls of cereal with 2% milk
• Snacks: throughout the day, throw in trail mix, fruit, and many granola bars
• Drinks: in the most typical weather, we can range from 300mL-1L per hour of water.  Lately, with our support we have been consuming about one can of Gatorade powder per day
• Snacks: candy, chips, cookies, crackers with cheese

Procurement

This is what and how we eat.  North of Merritt.

We stop at grocery stores as often as possible; it is necessary at least once per day, but subject to proximity to our route and remoteness of location.  We buy deli meat for one meal at a time, but cheese stays around much longer, sweating in the hot panniers.  We purchase mostly apples and bananas, because they are durable for transport.  Only if we are eating at the grocery store do we try peaches or berries.  Over time, we have become quite efficient at walking into an unfamiliar grocery store, dividing, and conquering.  We always prefer a Loblaw’s-owned chain, because they unanimously make the best cookies, trail mix, and chips.  We also signed up for a Safeway card and saved a bundle throughout the Prairies.  

Fast food a few times per week.  DQ, Moose Jaw.

We eat in restaurants approximately one meal per day.  

On the most remote stretches, we carry enough for probably two full days, to be careful.  We always carry at least one meal ahead, and have never had to resort to a meal of exclusively granola bars and trail mix.  


Special Treats
Facilities permitting, we take advantage to spice up our menu.  In a hostel, we might do a taco night and bacon & eggs in the morning.  Our host families have been incredible to us, usually with evening and morning meals well beyond our own standards.  Our ten days with the support teams have been incredible for us, in terms of taking on the responsibility of finding and preparing food.
In terms of fast food, we have eaten at Tim’s the most, with McDonald’s a close second.  We have tried many small local restaurants, but again this is all highly subject to location.  At the end of long, hard, frustrating days, we reward ourselves with fast food.

Portions

Kyle eats like a machine.  We are all eating a lot, but Kyle takes it to a whole extra level.  We split costs on all common meals, and so Kyle is forced to supplement the equal-portioned meals with granola bars.  I don’t know the exact number per day, but it is probably in the 6-12 range.  He’s always first for seconds, and can pack down the leftovers.  Every once in a while, when he isn’t the first one finished, we take a moment and reflect on the gravity of the situation.  

Roles

Tyler with the energy to cook, after our worst Day 10.

Tyler is the cook.  He carries most of the food and takes the initiative, especially when it comes to firing up the stove and actually cooking.  I do a little bit, Kyle does a lot more, but it is really Tyler’s domain.  Over time, our meals have become more elaborate, adding for example, meat products and then also peppers to the tomato sauce.  I’m always the last one out of the tent, and often there is a bowl of porridge ready when I’m up.  I didn’t regularly eat breakfast before this trip, so keeping pace is always one of my challenges.  

There is probably a lot more...feel free to ask if you have any questions.  We did not ever consult a dietician.  

Days 46 & 47 - Marathon to Batchawana Bay

by Tyler

Aug 1 - Marathon to Wawa

This hill is STEEP.

The nature of this trip has made going to bed and falling asleep incredibly easy - the unfortunate reciprocal is waking up before your body would do it naturally can be very tough. This was one of those mornings, the strain of the previous day and setting a new daily ascent record for the trip was easy to feel. However, nearing the psychological point where the end of the trip is an attainable goal provides the necessary motivation to get moving, pack up the tent adjacent to a gas station, cook our breakfast and begin the day. 

Roadside: B4B Glossary

Here is a collection of stories that just didn’t make it into the daily blogs, in glossary format:

"The Wobbles"

We carry a lot of weight on the back of our bikes.  The most important aspect is balance, and when we have it right, it really anchors and stabilizes the whole arrangement.  So a significant change in weight can have drastic effects.  On the first day, we took a quick detour to visit my sister Lahring at work, the only member of our immediate families (besides Jaime, overseas) who could not attend the send-off.  I am the first one to rise out of the saddle on hills, and about 5km into our trip, we face the hill going north on King St. in St. Jacobs.  I stand, and woooshhh, my bike nearly capsizes from the weight.  None of us have experience with this much weight, and when we stand, the whole bike convulses from side-to-side with each revolution.  It takes a little while to get the hang of, and soon we are proficient.  But every time thereafter, if the panniers are removed, it’s back to the wobbles.  It happened when Monica took our bags in the Rockies, and then again when we picked them up in Canmore.  And again for each of our successive support teams.  Wobbly!

"Near Flat Experience"

We know too well what a flat tire feels like - it drags and makes a distinct noise. 

Days 44 & 45 - Record Speeds, Record Climbs

Our new thing: XL hot chocolate with three cups.  Saves $0.40 each.

And this is why we got ahead of schedule.  The top priority for Monday morning in Thunder Bay maintenance of the bikes; thanks Petrie's for your accommodation!  But a simple tune-up turns into a five-hour delay as the bikes need a lot of work.  It's ok - we planned for this!  But now we're starting at 2:15pm, much later than we would normally choose.

We started Day 44 at the Terry Fox lookout and make great time into a strong cross/headwind.  The wind is gusting over 15km/hr across us, but as the road is winding, it is often a headwind.  This terrain is also the hilliest that we have experienced since the Rockies.  All of these usual factors - wind, hills, rain (yes, we got poured on once, and rained on again later in the day) - would normally combine for a brutally difficult effort, probably ending no earlier than 10:00pm.  But with the support of the Martins, we don't have any panniers, and we don't have to worry about the logistics of the water and food.  This will allow us to do some incredible things over the next two days.

The safest we ever were - we finished this day around 9:00pm.

Day 44 was speed - we finished our 127km at a record 30.2km/hr, faster than our one day of tailwind in the Prairies.  With all the factors that changed between those two days (panniers, wind, hills, etc.), it shows most clearly just how significant of an effect our support teams have made.  The late start means we have to cycle into the twilight hours, and the support crew means that we can end wherever we choose, and not depend on the availability of water and grass.  We chose to end the day 30km past Nipigon, now just 30km ahead of schedule.

Kyle muscling up a hill near Nipigon.

Day 45 was ascent - we climbed more this day than any day previously.  This day was filled with 100m and 200m at-a-time hills, not quite mountains, but very technically challenging.  The wind was largely a non-factor on the winding roads.  Towards the end of the day, again, we had the flexibility to end wherever we wanted, which was just long enough to set the ascent record, as a testament to the phenomenal support that we are receiving.  We ended 40km east of Marathon, again about 30km ahead of schedule.  It's hard to know specifically because I haven't been getting reception since Thunder Bay, so we can only navigate by road signs, Garmin, and paper maps, but not the precision of the Google Maps.

Both of these days, with the speed and ascent, would not have been possible without the Support Vehicle (pictured in the background, above).  Dennis and Helen literally going the extra mile - sometimes three times as they backtrack - to take a large load off our bikes and minds.  We are better rested, better fed, more clean, and more agile than we would have otherwise expected to be.

Last point, on the schedule.  After having "spent" most of our time compensating for problems (Thunder Bay) and leveling scheduled long days (three times in the past week), we now plan to end the next day in Wawa - right back on schedule.  With six days left, this should put us in the right position to make our scheduled arrival.  But we hear there could be thunderstorms tomorrow...

Days 42 & 43 - "Thunder" Bay

By this point, one of the largest remaining factors for us is the schedule.  We're trying hard to keep our scheduled finish date of next Tuesday while we also plan to compensate for contingencies during this last week.  So that leaves us in Ignace, about 100km ahead of the schedule.  The decision boils down to, how do we spend that time?  It is a difficult psychological decision--after having been ahead for a week now, whenever we give it back, it feels like we are falling behind.  This relationship will be a large factor in our decisions over the next few days.