Tag: vague direction

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

Horror Movies and Frisbee Trickery [VIDEO]

348 – 355: Sault St Marie to Toronto. 

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Spooky moments. There’ve been a few over the last few days. It snowed a lot leaving Sault St Marie, and several hours into the slowest ride ever it was obvious that rather than make minimal ground and camp in the open, it would be wise to seek shelter if any became obvious.

Being in farmland there weren’t many options, other than a single barn on a side road. It looked like it didn’t see much action so I resorted to the age old tactic of – ‘as long as you pack up early enough it’ll probably be fine’. Luckily it worked and the combine harvesters didn’t slip.

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It snowed on and off for a couple of days, but other than that the ride was pretty much plain sailing (except for a bizarre night in the town of Espanola which is a story for a separate post coming soon). To make up some of the lost snow time, I opted for a train ride again to increase the chances of being able to cycle into NYC to finish up. It would suck after so long to finish by train or hitchhiking. As always seems to happen, it’s the time off the bike that provides most of the stories. Fittingly, being halloween and all, what happened next wouldn’t be out of place as an introduction to a horror movie.

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The train was scheduled to leave a small station on the outskirts of Sudbury at 1.30am, and looking at the map, there was a 24 hour Tim Hortons a few km away. Seemed like as good a place as any to wait until the early hours, so I left downtown Sudbury and began cycling to Tim’s. It was late, and at a traffic crossing I very briefly bumped into an older gentleman out for a walk. Then a few minutes later in the cue at TH, he was there too.

“Are you travelling somewhere?”, he said.

We chatted for a while and it turns out he’s a friendly chap called Bruce who’s been based in Sudbury his entire life, except for a 10 day hitchhiking trip he took around the Great Lakes as a 24 year old. Since then he’s been living with his wife and they’re content in the city, scratching any travel cravings with online photos and by chatting to people who are passing through town. He’d been working night shifts so this was his afternoon, and he generously offered to go get his van and then drive me to the station as it’s hard to find. We started walking to the his house to pick up the van and somehow the conversation turned to movies and axes.

“You know, I gave my daughters boyfriend a fright a few months ago. We watched a movie, and the main character is sent a message from God that he has to remove some evil souls from the Earth. One day he’s driving along a country lane and see’s a beam of light land on a barn. He goes in and it’s shining on an axe. The movie is about the guy’s task to kill various people.”

It’s 12.30am. We’ve just met and are walking back to Bruce’s house, where he’s going to pick up his van and drive me to a train station on the outskirts of town. He’s explaining the plot to a movie where a man is tasked to kill people with an axe. Anything suspicious going on here? Then came the kicker.

“Oh, by the way I’m not an axe murderer or anything. Although I could be. You’ve just met me. Or you could be a murderer. It’s hard to tell.”

Hmmm, where’s that bear spray? Should I just leg it? Had a moment of woah-this-is-a-bit-intense, which is laughable now because it turns out Bruce is a truly awesome dude, with a lovely wife called Brenda, crazy kindness, a real van, a knowledge of out of town train stations, and no axe in sight – you had me there for a second Bruce!

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The train showed up at 3am. On at Sudbury, quick snooze, off at Toronto. Magic. Quite convenient timing as far as trains go because it meant waking up and starting the day in the city, instead of arriving at night with no time to explore properly. And what a place. Incredible downtown architecture and amazing graffiti dotted around. Had a fun morning getting lost and then stumbled across a park where there was a bunch of people walking dogs and taking lunch breaks, and in the corner there was a guy doing insane tricks with a frisbee.

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Jolan Canrinus is a freestyle frisbee expert, and in this Vague Direction People video we chat about how he ended up learning such a unique skill. It was frickin’ cool. (If you’re reading this in your email browser, click here to watch the video)

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

A milestone, a thanksgiving, a dog attack & a train.

338 – 346: Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie, ON

As each day goes on, it’s more and more obvious that the jaws of a harsh Canadian heavy winter are approaching, snapping away and closing in quickly. Holy smokes it’s getting cold and the prospect of a snowfall that lasts increase daily. It’s one of the first times where I’ve felt like this project has come full circle, with the days now being similar to those first few setting off from New York during 2012’s Nor’Easter snow. Speaking of which, I looked at the remaining route on the map closely for the first time in a while yesterday, and it was a bit of a milestone. There’s less than 1000 miles left, which is kind of insane to think about. Suddenly the scale is more akin to a small island like the UK than a hefty continent like North America.

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The last ten days have been intense. Spent a few of them in Thunder Bay, and managed to get a tune up from the folks at Rollin’ Thunder as the gears had been playing up and as everyone knows front derailleurs can only be fixed with dark magic. The results were amazing – the bike ran like new again and suddenly there was a range of new gears to ride in which had been previously forgotten about.

Leaving Thunder Bay, you pretty much instantly hit hills. Brutal hills. Not as lengthy as some of the previous mountain sections but much more intense, on a par with Big Sur in terms of steep climbs, fast descents, more steep climbs. It’s not a bad thing, if anything it was quite refreshing, but it definitely took some getting used to after so long on the flats. Much more physically demanding than the prairies. These hills take you around the edge of Lake Superior, which provides an amazing setting when the dense trees open up and other than the fresh water the scale of the lake makes it hard to tell the difference between it and an ocean.

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Something that was unexpected setting off on this trip, was the occasional curse of public holidays, and it was Canadian Thanksgiving the day after leaving Thunder Bay. It’s not a day we celebrate back in ‘blighty, so it wasn’t a big deal really, but when you’re camping rough in a rest stop whilst it’s literally freezing outside, and your main company is the peanut butter sandwich you’ve just made, it’s easy for the sighs to begin and flashes of depression to reach your mind when you know that close-knit groups nearby are celebrating with a kickass Turkey dinner. Of course there are small perks to these days – it’s super quiet on the roads, there’s no distractions etc, but still it’s a part of road life that I doubt will be missed much when it’s done.

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Nearly got attacked by a dog which hasn’t happened for a long time. Casually riding through the woods with the familiar, almost-getting-annoying sound of overplayed hip hop in my headphones, and in the corner of my eye there’s a blurry four legged creature coming in FAST from a wood cutting yard across the road. Is it a horse? A moose? No it’s the mother-of-all big dogs, not sure what kind but one of the frightening ones that you don’t want to mess with. It was kind of a sketchy situation in that the dog ran straight across the road and three cars had to stop suddenly, and it was soon resolved when the owner was honked repeatedly by the held up traffic, but nevertheless that minute-or-so provided that days adrenaline kick (maybe too much because a few hours later a chainring snapped in half).

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Reading other cycling blogs, there’s a lot of talk about the Algoma Central Railway linking up nicely with the sparse section between Wawa and Sault St Marie. It’s a railway line that goes through Agowa Canyon, and is mainly used for hunters and summer tourists to take them to log cabins nestled in the depths of the Shield where roads don’t go. The train or a floatplane are the main options. It’s not a frequent on-the-hour deal – it runs 3 days per week, but it happened to be running in the right direction on the right day so I jumped on at Hawk Junction after an intense down-to-the-wire burst from Wawa town. It’s a fairly short trip, covering 155 miles and shaving off two days, and knowing that this trip means you don’t get the reward of a huge downhill is tough, but like the reports suggested it was a great mini-journey well worth taking if you end up in the area.

Being winter the train was deserted. In fact that goes for general road life at the moment too – people are inside now the temperatures have dropped so it’s mainly a quiet and isolated existence. Occasionally a hunter would jump onto the carriage and soon jump off at a lone cabin (once carrying a moose’s head), but other than that it was a quiet, slow journey through some amazing territory under rainy skies. After 6 hours (told you it was slow), the train pulled into Sault Ste. Marie station around 7pm – the transition from heated carriage to bitter city air briefly shocking – and that was another section of the journey ticked off.

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It’s a race against the clock now because of flights, and whilst relatively speaking this trip is nearly over, there’s a lot that can happen in 20 days, especially at this time of year. Here’s hoping the heavy snow holds off a while longer.

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

It Can’t Be… Can It?

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326 – 335: Winnipeg, MB – Thunder Bay, ON

It’s been fairly quiet on the people front for 10 days or so, but a fair bit’s happened in the saddle. So after setting off from Winnipeg, it all went pretty smoothly really. Leaving the city was a bit sketchy, dodgy roads and such, but 20 miles out things got a lot better. There’s a bite in the air for sure, and generally camping involves every piece of clothing that’s kicking about in the bags, but the day time is cool and to stay warm the best thing to do is pedal which makes decision making quite simple.

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Leaving Winnipeg marks the end of the prairies and the start of the Canadian Shield. Brings back memories from BC listening to the horror stories about “The Prairies” and how on more than a few occasions sheer dread would fill the air as people recollected their experiences crossing the monotonous landscape. Gotta say my experience is pretty much the opposite of that. Maybe they were unlucky or vice versa, but if anything crossing the plains seemed quiet low-stress and varied enough to be consistently interesting.

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Soon after leaving Winnipeg you enter Ontario. Those signs are a welcome sight as always, progress and all, but Winnipeg is up there – definitely a highlight – so it was bittersweet and not totally YEAHHHH ONTARIOOO! like some other lines. Having said that though, Ontario has the Great Lakes so maybe it’ll live up to it’s neighbour.

Riding from Ignace to Upsala turned into a night ride. And in the haze of the night what generally happens is your concentration is firmly on the road, and your peripheral is focused on looking for rogue moose who might want a concrete fix.

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It happened in my peripheral. I looked at it, then looked ahead again. It was a few seconds later that it clicked. “No way. It can’t be. Can it?!”. And to the left was a green and purple tint that was taking over the sky above the trees. But it was quite faint. Hard to see with regular vision. So I pulled over, propped the bike up, unpacked the camera and set up a long exposure to make sure. Wasn’t expecting to see it on this whole trip, thinking you had to be in northern Alaska or the Northwest Territories to have any kind of chance at this time of year.  But sure enough, there it was, the northern lights. An awesome surprise, and for a moment, the counter-argument to goal-setting became obvious.

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Another marker of progress is the final timezone crossing. Back to East Coast time. This was a rest stop outside of Upsala, and was last nights (un)stealth camp. Earlier in the day, a gas station worker had recommended taking bear precautions, as there’s black bears kicking about. It’s something that hadn’t even crossed my mind for a couple of months so was a good reminder. At about 1am, there was a noise coming from outside the tent, near the bike. Rustling. In the midst of being half-asleep, I fumbled about for the bear spray expecting to unzip the tent and see one clawing for cookies. “BAAAAAAAHHH”. Turned out to be a lorry full of sheep instead. The pitfalls of sleeping in a truck stop.

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This morning this happened. That means it’s all downhill from here, right? Cracking time on the road recently, a good mix of epic, spectacular, adventure and all that other good stuff. Fingers crossed the Great Lakes provides more fun.

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Thanks to Selah Motel in Kenora for a sweet hookup for the night. Check it out if you’re in town.

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Philosophy

Ambition & Choosing Something Sufficiently Epic.

There have been a few of moments on this trip of mental battles between having a goal versus being content in the present. Some research says that having goals means you’re more likely to be unhappy (thanks to Jim for pointing this out), whereas other research says goals encourage happiness.

A week or so ago I locked up the bike in a Winnipeg basement and was invited to Silicon Valley for a couple of days for the Evernote Conference, and there was a moment that came close to nailing one side of the goal/contentment dilemma on the head. A point that applied to something much wider than the technology context it was set within. It was about being driven by a grand, epic mission.

For reference, watch this recent video of Louis C.K. talking about emptiness. Louis talks about a moment when he realised he has a massive empty feeling inside. Forever empty – a moment of realisation that, really, we’re all alone and this life doesn’t really mean anything, because we’ll be gone soon. Louis is hilarious and it’s obviously lighthearted and comedy, but kind of gets to something heavy and depressing in parts too.

At the event, Evernote’s CEO Phil Libin talked about what his fuel is. What gets him out of bed in the morning and provides focus, motivation and drive. And it’s the polar opposite of Louis‘ thoughts. He expressed the view that there’s no reason to have that emptiness if you choose a mission that’s sufficiently epic. You never have to be forever empty if you’re confident that you’re on the path to making a sufficient dent.

His specific example of epic was the company motto – helping everyone “remember everything”. Of course an epic mission doesn’t have to mean a goal of ubiquity, but it’s impossible to argue that a hundred year plan that strives to reach everyone is anything short of epic.

An ambitious mission potentially keeps us hungry, humble, and improving, because it’s not going to be finished anytime soon, we’re always learning, and we have to get better to have any kind of chance.  For the above example, there’s 75 million people using the app. Sounds like a lot, but put it in context of the mission, and it’s really small – there’s 6.9 billion people who haven’t been reached. Suddenly it seems there’s a hell of a lot of work to do. And that’s awesome, because having such a huge goal can bring a team together, trickle and permeate through a culture, is a driver of progress and a provider of fire. There’s work to do, and it’s not going to be done for a long, long time.

Possibly most of us could learn from this kind of ambitious thinking if we experience Louis-type emptiness. Maybe we should stop putting off the epic things because they’re hard, and consider them because they’re hard.

Look at some notoriously difficult missions – from the D-Day Landings, to reaching product ubiquity, to walking on the moon. These kind of missions don’t always work, and there’s bound to be a lot of grand goals that failed which we never heard about, but the ambitious ones – the ones that appear nearly impossibly out of reach – are the same ones that do become meaningful. They’re the ones that make a dent and change how we do things.

Perhaps having an epic mission should be as much a personal driver as a company one. But one that isn’t a project but an overall outlook that takes time. Having no goals seems like a copout, but maybe total achievement of the goal isn’t actually the most important part – rather it’s what we get from working towards it. Either way, doesn’t it seem like something is broken if we stop being ambitious?

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

Video: Curling in Winnipeg

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A couple of days ago there was an opportunity to quickly take a return trip from Winnipeg to San Francisco for an event (more on that soon), so there’s not been much route progress since the last post. Tomorrow morning the momentum builds again and it needs to be pretty full on for the next 6 weeks or so. It’s very much autumn now – seems to have switched from ‘kinda autumn’ a couple of weeks back. Really looking forward to hitting the road, it’s perfect for biking at the moment.

Speaking of the weather… Manitoba gets cold. Hopefully it won’t be too brisk for a while yet, but in Winnipeg a cold winter can be more than 40 below celcius. It gets icy, and so like a lot of Canada, ice sports are all the rage, hockey especially. One that doesn’t seem talked about as much is Curling. Turns out Winnipeg is basically the world capital of curling, and the Granite Curling Club, which stretches back to 1880, is known to the Curling Community as the ‘Mother Club’.

Had the chance to visit a few days ago and talk to Lisa, a competitive curler, and Churchy, a hobbiest and also the clubs Ice Maker. Hope you enjoy the video! If you like watching Brits fall on their faces this one’s for you too.

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P.S. In other news, yesterday was the first Vague Direction / Huffington Post collab. The plan is to write a few stories about some of the meetings that have taken place so far, and you can read the first one, about meeting Brad, the cross-country walker, here.

P.P.S. Big up to Bill at the Guest House International in Winnipeg. Stayed here for a couple of nights and it’s an amazing hostel setup with a basement that’s perfect for stashing a bike. He also wrote a book about Canadian Spy, William Stephenson, who is apparently the basis of James Bond!

P.P.P.S. Where’d September go?

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Adventure Bicycle Travel Interviews Philosophy

Vague Direction People: Sierra Noble [music maker]

‘Sup from Winnipeg!

“I guess I went through a little bit of a period when I was younger of wishing that I could have had a normal teenage life. Which I didn’t have at all because I was on tour all the time. But that was my normal, and looking back on it, I wouldn’t trade a single thing to go to one party on a weekend.”

Sierra Noble is a singer-songwriter from Winnipeg and one of Canada’s leading fiddle players. On Saturday in the city centre, she was headlining the Concert For Peace – which is based around the UN’s International Day of Peace.

We caught up on the streets of her hometown before the show (and during) to record a live gritty session and chat about her path into music, growing up on the road, finding inspiration, ignoring haters, and the lessons she’s picked up along the way. Wicked fun. Got 5 minutes? It was a blast to make.

Here’s the direct YouTube link. You can keep up with Sierra and listen to more at www.sierranoble.ca.

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

303 – 313: Lanigan, SK to Portage La Prairie, MB

Some notes from the last week or so.

303: Lanigan

Another morning. Pack up the stuff, load up the bike, get going slowly but surely. One of those mornings where any excuse would do. Resting sounded like a great option. Things often just seem to fall into place and today was another one of those days.

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Whilst cycling past Ross Inn in Lanigan, Tara Ross was doing some work in the yard and we got chatting. She’s one of those people who immediately radiate positivity.  She was the owner of the inn and had free space that night and generously offered a motel room to kip in (first rule of cycle touring is never turn down a bed if it’s offered, specially if you’ve been tenting it for a while).

I interviewed her the next day and the conversation became about how faith is very important in Tara’s family. I’m not a religious person (different strokes for different folks), but have met enough people who are, to know that a higher belief has the power to change lives for the better and in hugely profound ways. That was the case with Tara. One thing for sure is there’s been a ton of generosity during this trip on more than a few occasions that has come from the religious community. There’s not always a bunch of time on the road to edit the footage, so instead of keeping a load on hard-drives I’m going to start posting some very quick uncut sections. There’s not much to them but you’ll get an introduction to the characters along the way. Here’s an uncut section from the Tara interview talking about a part of her belief.

We spoke a lot about how Tara’s belief has changed her life, and how many of the toughest decisions she’s made have become less tough because of that belief. One of the things I struggled with for a while on this project is the fleeting, skim-the-surface nature of some of these heavy-topic conversations. I’d love to (and will) come back in the future and remove the travel element, and just focus on some of these stories. There’s always a battle; do you even talk about the heavy stuff? Because without really knowing someone and really taking the time to explore (i.e. weeks / months rather than days), suddenly jumping into a big subject seems a bit superficial. Perhaps a bit tabloidy and even a bit unethical? Alas, because of the looming visa deadline and all that stuff, I won’t settle on this trip, and over time have become ok with the movement and fleeting nature of some of the conversations. But it’s definitely fuel for future, much more in-depth projects. It was another case of amazing hospitality from Tara and if you’re ever in town do swing by because their place is ace.

 307: Churchbride, SK to Russell, MB

A lot of people have mentioned the mental game in the prairies. It can feel samey but it’s not been too tough. Could be a lucky streak but the weather’s been playing ball, there’s been no rain and the wind’s been literally an amazing boost. The samey nature can mean that often days are uneventful though. You can have 5 day + spells of: wake up, pack up, eat breakfast, cycle, eat lunch, cycle, eat dinner, pitch tent, sleep, repeat.  It’s been a long time since seeing other cyclists – it’s getting a bit late in the season and anyone with any sense probably chooses a more southern trip at this time of year, but in between Churchbridge and Russell, there were two figures in the distance frantically pedalling and quickly getting closer.

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It’s nice meeting other cyclists, and one reason for that is that it makes you aware that there are other people drawn to a similar, seemingly bizarre, mission. Alberto and Fausto are from North East Italy and are cycling from the East of Canada to Alaska, hoping to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis before the winter arrives in full swing. Best get pedalling chaps ‘cos it’s getting nippy. Super friendly folks who are loving life in the saddle, and you can follow their progress through a blog and video at www.ibou.it.

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 312: Gladstone to Portage La Prairie

It’s been the first time in months and months when it’s been chilly at night. The leaves have begun to fall from the trees and suddenly it’s clear that proper autumn isn’t far away. The mornings are getting frosty and I’m digging out clothing from long lost pannier compartments that haven’t seen the light of day for several months. Hoping the Canadian Winter starts off slowly and holds off for a while longer. It gets to -40C so it’s nothing to take too lightly.

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The general direction of the wind in the prairies is favourable for anyone heading east. There have been days that it felt like cheating – so easy to cycle, because really there’s not much biking involved. It’s more like sailing. Sit down and get pushed across the flats. That’s reversed in the last couple of days and the last couple of days have been brutal in terms of the wind. Cycling straight into it has been unrelenting. It’s hard to go very far and even a small day done feels like an achievement. It also seems to be the way that maintanence of roads is increased the nearer you get to a city. Means the shoulders are gravel and not conducive to moving at pace.

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Super excited for Winnipeg which is just a days ride away. Going to take a couple of days off (to coincide with the incoming rainy streak) to rest the legs, and hoping to film some fun segments over the next few days. Misplaced the LED light a couple of months ago (good job it’s been summer), and haven’t done any night riding since, so am picking up a new light from the always rad Gemini Lights and am stoked to pedal into the night again. Cycling at night seems to generate a different mood entirely, and it seems much easier to get into the zone and bike for longer.

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

295 – 302: Lloydminster, AB to Lanigan, SK

First off – a HUGE thank you to everybody who donated and helped spread the word after the last post. Totally blown away, thanks! The game goes on because of you! [If you missed the last post and are able to help out at all, all the details are here.]

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300 days on the road. Nothing like century numbers to make you realise how long it’s been. It’s been a stint of plugging away, making a bit of progress in the prairies, then exploring Saskatoon, then cycling more prairies. It’s been crazy hot – the locals are shocked and say it’s very unusual. It’s not uncommon for the first snow to fall in September so a T-shirt and shorts climate of 27 C+ isn’t a yearly thing. Makes for tiring sweat-ridden days in the saddle, and it’s kind of weird but it seems as though the surface of the road becomes softer and slower. Gloopy tarmac that tries to eat at your tyres. Could just be a placebo effect though.

The approach into Saskatoon definitely was slowed down though – no placebo there. There were road repairs which meant cycling through unset tar, followed by loose gravel and sand. The 20 miles into downtown Saskatoon were so sluggish. It would have been faster to jog as the bike tyres were now a big tarry mess. Saskatoon is an amazing city though. I spent a couple of days exploring and definitely think there’s something about that place that’s appealing. It’s under the radar compared to other Canadian cities and is gritty enough to not feel touristy when downtown, but with a super friendly, young and diverse community to be welcoming. It’s made the ‘one day go back and explore properly’ list.

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Like several people have mentioned, the actual riding is quite samey in terms of landscape. But unlike some reports I’m not finding that to be a bad thing (not yet anyway!) – from Thunder Bay onwards it’s going to get steep again, so for now the flatness is appreciated. The only thing you have to be careful off is drivers throwing apples at you near North Battleford. Just kidding – you just have to be careful of the one driver who does that. Who’d have thought someone who eats fruit would be so aggressive? But it does gives you good practice at flipping the bird.

The prairies make awesome visuals, as the horizon can be so far away. There’s nothing like cycling into the wind all day on the flat plains, having spent the day face down with your eyeballs occasionally looking up for direction, to realise it’s 8pm and a killer sunset has just formed behind you. It’s hard to see how anyone can get bored of the prairies when it’s like this day after day.

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Thought I’d sign out with a quick lesson about all-you-can-eat chicken from day 294.

After the most unsubtle camping session for ages, I woke up in Lloydminster hungry and sore. It was definitely going to be a slow start. The kind of morning where you yawn for the first hour and can barely open your eyelids. But then something great happened, there was a sign, through the blur of half-open eyelids, that read ‘All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet for $10’. Protein – that repairs muscles right? Good for soreness? Unlimited protein? It was on.

I’ve never eaten so much chicken. Unfortunately, upon standing up and leaving the buffet, something was wrong. I’d eaten far too much, and could hardly move. It’s the novelty of something being unlimited. Cue stomach cramps. I kind of figured that maybe it’ll all be ok in an hour or so, and it would be fixed by sitting it out for a while. I sat there for ages, meat sweats dripping down my face, altogether in an uncomfortable and embarrassing way, forehead resting against table.

“Do you think they’ll convince everyone? You know, Obama and Cameron?” 

Talk about a curveball. The chicken greed meant any form of decent communication was impossible, other than through banging my head on the table surface and groaning. It didn’t get better, I didn’t cycle anywhere that day and it was a thoroughly pathetic site.

“Not sure, sorry.”  It was a conversation that didn’t get very far.

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Adventure Bicycle Travel

290 – 293: Edmonton to Lloydminster, AB

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Just a quick blog post and images before heading forwards on into Saskatchewan. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Road life’s been going pretty well recently. Leaving Edmonton was super built up and was definitely more precarious than arriving, but darting traffic and getting hit by the gusts from passing trucks keeps you on your toes / pushes you along nicely.  It didn’t take too long to be out of the city and back in the depths of rural farmland, where the fields begin and are consistent throughout the day – green wherever you look, loads of barley fields and the biggest round hay bails you’ve ever seen. It’s often really similar to riding through the countryside back in the UK but without the hills.

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One major positive shift is that it goes dark again, which makes the whole travel part seem a lot more thrilling – obviously it didn’t happen overnight but there’s now a lot of darkness and cooler temperatures from about 8pm. Whilst it means not as much road time, it also means overall quality of sleep and body clock is vastly improved. It’s now possible to be fully recharged after camping rather than just a bit rested, which is awesome and has a big effect throughout the rest of the day. There’s been a lot of stealth camping happening – beside a baseball pitch was probably the best, and now that the stars are on show again the night photography has re-started.

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In a rest stop near Ross Creek, at sunset it looked like a perfect night. The sky was an intense red, but the cloud cover was minimal, until about 3 hours later when the mother of thunder and lightning storms began. It lasted maybe two hours, and offered intense rain and the type of lightning where you can’t pin down where it’s coming from, it’s just happening all around you. It was super dramatic with huge flashes of bright white light and shaky rumbles of thunder, but being in a rest stop there was a bunch of lampposts and trees and all that good stuff so it never felt sketchy. I doubt there’s anyone on earth who could sleep through those roars, so I digged into the RadioLab podcasts (check out the episode – ‘Limits’) and hunkered down with a chocolate spread sandwich. Yep. Happy days. Typical view:

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I’m just writing this post whilst passing through Lloydminster, on the way east. Down the road is the start of a new province, Saskatchewan – it’s crazy really because it didn’t seem like much time was spent in Alberta compared to everywhere else.  Nonetheless, those simple road signs are a great boost and a literal indicator of progress. Onwards to Saskatoon. Intrigued to see what this next province will bring.

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290: Edmonton – Ross Creek
291: Ross Creek – Mannville
292: Mannville – Lloydminster

Categories
Adventure Bicycle Travel Interviews Philosophy

Vague Direction People: Tim Koslo

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This weekend it was the close of the Edmonton Fringe Festival, so the south side of the city was bustling with street performers / singers / comedians / artists. Quite a culture shock from the recent remote weeks and it did take a little adapting to, but there’s some amazing acts (one of my favourites was from Maggie, an elderly lady who told me a poem about how she genuinely thinks we’re all from the moon), and it’s a very inviting atmosphere.


Whilst pottering about for a day, I bumped into Tim Koslo who was selling T-shirts on the street. He sells his work during the summer and is a standup comedian throughout the rest of the year. It became obvious fairly soon into talking to him, that like Brad, he’d been through more than his fair share of tough times, battling with addiction as a young adult.

Tim was open to talking about his struggles, so the conversation ended up being steered down a rabbit hole of addiction, recovery, complacency, finding what your calling is and how focusing on that can, as a convenient by-product, fix the other problems in life.

We can get caught up in the best way to do something most effectively, with the least resistance, the biggest impact and the loudest noise, but time and time again it seems like the most important and longest lasting changes come about simply by making the decision to just start.

Hope you enjoy this quick snippet video: