Once July 31, 2021 came around, I couldn't wait to be reunited with my trusted Koga Miyata World Traveller a.k.a. the Mungi Bungi Bicycle. At 40 pounds, the Dutch built Koga touring bike is anything but lightweight, but it's easy to maneuver and on flat routes, a pleasure to ride on. Once the mountains of the Appalachian mountains came around in eastern Quebec, well, I had another thing coming. I covered approximately 50 miles or 80 kilometers per day and cycled 4000 kilometers or 2450 miles. It was tough pedaling on changing elevations across the Appalachian Mountain ranges and rough ditch camping in the bush for 53 nights on this multi-month 77 day overlanding expedition. But the sweetness of this odyssey was being outdoors, alone during the daily travels and long nights resting up in the small tent, the tent was a sacred space - free from mosquitoes and much of the rainy nights.
I travel overland with no regrets. It is a freedom known and understood by those with wanderlust for world outdoor experiences, moving large geographical distances - using your own human energy. It would be easier in a car, or riding on top of a motorcycle, but with those speeds and distances, you might not meet anybody stopping only at conveniences like a gas station or McDonalds restaurant. If you want to dive deeper, you move yourself at bicycle speeds, which is a snails pace compared to anything motorized. I saw a many roadie cyclists in Quebec, many seniors were active too riding their shiny new e-bikes, electric powered lithium ion batteries helped them voyage.
So, I like the e-bike trend. I would ride one if I could afford one in the future. For now, I still have standard mountain bikes, a touring bicycle, and all of them have no power assist, no batteries, no engines and no petrol to move across the lands. I can box the bicycle in cardboard container (taken from bicycle shops), take my bicycle packed up to an airport, and fly to a new country. The bicycle travels for the cost of Sporting Goods, like a set of golf clubs or snowboards. For $80-100 dollars, the bicycles goes wherever I want to go.
In this case, I cycled from my home in Leamington, Ontario to Corner Brook, Newfoundland and rounding the massive Quebec Gaspesie peninsula added to the delight and challenge ahead of me. This summer I flew 4200kmon an airplane home from St. Johns Newfoundland, and I kept overlanding until I rode the bicycle to my destination city of Corner Brook, Newfoundland and St. Johns, Newfoundland on the other side of a 680km bus ride. I started my summer trip late in the summer season, I worked on renovation of a 29 foot Ford motorhome for a month, started and stopped getting heat stroke along lake Erie in Port Glasgow, Ontario. I stopped and went home. A week recovery and then setting off again July 31, 2021 and arriving at St. Johns 68 days later in October 2021. It was a good trip, a memorable trip, also a tough trip for me.
High points= 53 nights free camping in the ditch or woods along the TransCanada Highway; Seeing black bear along the highway edge while cycling; Meeting amazing Canadian people from all walks of life in the Maritimes, that was truly special and something I will remember for many years to come; making memories outdoors, making new friends, accepting a challenging route I followed from Google Maps. The will to live, the will to explore outside. To go beyond any doubt and see the world from my own perspective on the back of a bicycle. It was really cool.... (:
Ontario was amazing! (hot weather, the Great Lakes), Quebec was amazing! (The Saint Lawrence River south shore route, the amazing people, the French language and mountains), New Brunswick was amazing! (small towns and terrain), Nova Scotia was amazing! (vast landscapes, friendly people and terrain), Cape Breton was amazing (terrain and people) and Newfoundland (terrain, remoteness, people, weather), Newfoundland was all the above, it was definitely an amazing place on Earth!
I passed the days on the stout bicycle I use for overlanding, the 2008 Koga-Miyata World Traveler 26 (smaller 26 inch wheels and rim brakes!) while wild camping for 53 nights in the ditch, washing in streams or small rivers (using paid campgrounds with a hot shower for 7 nights , average about $30 night), 2 nights in boutique hotel where Queen Elizabeth once stayed in Sackville, New Brunswick and hosted for 12 nights in friends or kind strangers homes along the TransCanada highway route, and one night sleeping at the St. John's airport on Thanksgiving during the thunderstorms. A week more either couch surfing in St. Johns or staying in my tent on beaches and coves along the Avalon Peninsula. Totaled 77 days on the road this summer.
- 1989-1996 - Student and Factory worker in Windsor, Ontario. Canada.
- 1993/1999 - Canoe guiding with Voyageur Wilderness Program, Atikokan, Ontario
- 1994 - Motorcycle overland between Windsor, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia 8000km
- 1995 - Train Windsor-Vancouver, Motorcycle Vancouver-California-Detroit, 4500km
- 1996 - Motorcycle 8000km Mountain biking - Northshore Vancouver, British Columbia
- 1997 - Camping year-round in Michigan, United States. Jeep Restoration.
- 1998 - Motorcycle 9500km Windsor, Ontario to Phoenix, Arizona, an Francisco, CA, Vancouver.
- 1999- Suntrek Tour Guide, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Grand Canyon.
- 2000-2003 Teaching English as a Second Language, South Korea/China.
- 2003-2006 Pre-Medical Science education, Camping year round. 2x motorhome restorations.
- 2006-2014 Years of teaching English / Korean-World Bicycle Adventures inside South Korea.
- 2011 Himalayas X - Crossing western China and Himalayas 3200km
- 2012 Mongolia X - Crossing Mongolia from Ulanbaatar to Altai National Park 2500km
- 2013 Totherocktour - Grand Rapids, Michigan to Banff. Lake Louise, Alberta 3400km
- 2014 Mongolia X - Crossing Gobi Desert, to Kentii to Underhaan (Genghis Khan birthplace)
- 2015 Year of work projects. Quebec Gaspesie, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia camping roadtrip.
- 2016 Iceland/Lake District England/France/Luxembourg journey by Bicycle, Plane, Ship, SUV.
- 2017 Year of work projects. Jeep CJ project abandoned.
- 2018 Year of work projects. Toyota motorhome project #3 completed.
- 2019 Year of work projects. Toyota motorhome project #4/5 completed.
- 2020 Year of work projects. Toyota motorhome project #6 completed.
- 2021 Year of work projects. ToTheRockTour #2 4250km 77 days. Ford V10 motorhome project #7 completed.
ToTheRockTour 2021 - Ontario to Newfoundland, Oh Canada!
Why overland travel?
Overland travel, even on a bicycle locally (Photo above: Leamington, Ontario on Lake Erie shoreline) gives one the opportunity to see the outdoors through an outdoors perspective, take it the air and sea. Share the experience with friends that don't normally ride bicycles. Spend an afternoon riding around. Then, for the big trips these small experiences build up for the longer journeys ahead.40 days later...
In Sauble Beach, my friend Kimberly Trudell from Windsor Motorcyclists invited me to stay in her spare bedroom, and that was the first real shower at the start of this trip, Other nights, I just plunged into Lake Huron with a piece of Ivory soap and washed myself off before returning to spend 8-10 hours recovery time sleeping, eating, and reading inside my small pop tent.
Overlanding and travel in itself, is an opportunity to meet and make New friends for life!
Meeting Jeremy Steffens, the Musician in North Sidney, Cape Breton was definitely a highlight this summer. We plan to meet up again in 2022. Let's hope this pandemic doesn't stop that possibility!I met some awesome local photographers that were spending the whole morning capturing the large waves crashing in on the Pouch Cove rocks and cliffs. The salty Atlantic Ocean was superb!
The East coast trail and Stiles Cove, one of the many Coves along the northern Newfoundland east coastline.
Totherocktour - July 31st until ???. I'm fully vaccinated with the new covid-19 vaccine Moderna and ready to hit the road. It's already July 31st and it's 5am going out the front door. I have prepared my bicycle 🚲 🏕 🍁, the KOGA Miyata World traveller that I have dubbed the Mungi Bungi bicycle 26er mountain bike. This is opportune time for a long bicycle journey along the Appalachian mountains ⛰ of eastern Canada. My plan is simple, follow the water along the Canadian/US border 🛂 to Sarnia/Port Huron, ride along Lake Huron and swim 🏊 as often as possible to beat the heat 🔥 wave. Then along the TransCanada Highway 7 ride across the rail trails also known as, TransCanada Trail, camp alongside the cycling and walking trail at sunset each day. The TransCanada Trail has different sections, it's a snowmobile/Quad 4x4 track in winters, but in the summers, it's all of us Outdoor nuts - the hikers, bikers, and nature walkers taking over the dirt and gravel paths across the eastern provinces (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick,Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland. I camp 🏕 🍁 free along these nature trail edges. There are nearly no services along the TransCanada trail itself. No washrooms, no hot showers, no canteens or restaurants close at hand. For services, you have to ride the TransCanada highway 6/7 into towns or cities to get the restaurants, grocery stores, and gas stations also offer hot coffee, tea, snacks, and chocolate milk (my high energy favorite). At small supermarkets, I purchase the best breads, vintage aged white cheddar cheese blocks, peanut butter and jams, and trail mix for my fuel. I don't cook on this bicycle adventure. I only eat raw foods, occasionally mixing in some yogurt, chocolate milk, bread and cheese, and the main course is usually, trail mix (peanuts, raisins, dried cherries, Cashew nuts, Walnuts, dates, Chocolate covered nuts or raisins, dried apricots, etc). I also try to buy fresh blueberries that was in season, price is $5 a quart, bananas are readily available everywhere too. To top off my daily trail mix based meals, I take 2x Mens 50+ multivitamins in the morning and 2x the multivitamin horse pills, every evening too. The magnesium supplement is really, really important because it helps me avoid the muscle cramps, and muscle spasms that can plague a touring bicycle traveler. With loads of magnesium, my leg muscles stay limber at night in the tent, however, it's not 100% full-proof. when I had muscle cramps in my legs or feet, it can be severe and I twist and turn to try and relieve the spasms, eventually falling asleep in exhaustion.
I stopped in Grand Bend, Sauble Beach, Sauble Falls, Wiarton, Owen Sound, Penetenguishine, Peterborough, Sharbot Lake (Provincial Park), Kanata's Costco adjacent field for bush camping, Ottawa, Montreal, Levis (Quebec City is located north Levis on the Saint Lawerence River), I stay along the southern St. Lawerence River shoreline, making wild camps every evening, my search begins around 5pm each day. I am actively traveling by bicycle from 9am-5pm daily. This is my routine.
Up along the TransCanada Highway near Algonquin Park is getting remote, less and less traffic and more and more woods. Some older hotels and gas stations are all bordered up, no longer a main route for travelers. Still, I find this an opportune route with less traffic and worth the effort to get here.
Lake Sharbot Provincial Park is beautiful, first free park entry, I wash my tent, I wash all my stinky clothes. I stay the day and relax by the shimmering lakes. Not wanting to forego the expensive Ontario camping fees, I opt to continue on the TransCanada highway east until a locate a suitable camping location in the forest edge of the highway. This is also a daily routine i repeat for the entire journey!
Good luck 🤞 🍀 and hope to see you soon. Thanks for the bike ride across eastern Canada 🍁 🤘 😁 this summer. This is a test post 📯 from my phone (: 🇨🇦
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