Finished!

Dipping our wheels in the Atlantic Ocean

On the ferry to NS

Jeremy lifts the world's largest axe

Second Half Reaches Halifax!!!

Hey Friends and Family!

Well Jeremy and I (Megan) made it to Halifax on Sunday, August 15th. But before I get into the details and excitement of that I'll recap a bit of getting there since you last heard from us in Ottawa.

During the last two weeks we were pretty anxious to get to our final destination after working towards it for three months, so we pushed hard. We had several 130km days and a few that were over 140km. But as Ben said, now is the time to empty the tank!

Quebec was one of the best provinces to cycle through. Along with stunning scenery, houses and architecture, they are very cyclist friendly, having many bike paths and lanes. Also, many people cycle in Quebec so the drivers were understanding and gave us space. One of the highlights from Quebec began at the end of a long, but good day. Hot, sweaty, and ready for dinner, the three of us stopped at the side of the road to decide where we would stay that night. At that moment a car pulled up. An animated man came out to greet us (in English, which was a bonus). He said he'd seen us pass and turned around to catch us so he could invite us to stay at their cottage. I was amazed that he would go so much out of his way to invite us in! The next morning they made us a fabulous breakfast and he told us many amusing stories. We ended up leaving quite a bit later than planned, but we agreed it was worth it to meet such interesting and hospitibal people.

In New Brunswick we stayed on a quiet highway most of the way, surrounded by lush forest--we were thankful for the shade! A lot of the time we were beside a winding river. There wasn't many huge hills, but there also wasn't much flat land. We always seemed to be going up and down, up and down, which proved to be tiring after a 140km day! In this province we were fortunate to see the world's longest covered bridge. I marvelled riding over it, surrounded by thick beams, taking in the old smell of the wood. We were also drawn in to the little town of Nackawic with the promise of seeing the world's largest axe! It was gigantic! Though Jeremy was disappointed that it was too big to pretend to wield it. In New Brunswick's capital we had a great time staying with Becky, a family friend of Jeremy's who he hadn't seen in over ten years. Fredericton was also the place where Ben parted ways with Jeremy and I to take a detour around PEI and Cape Breton. His British humour was missed for the rest of the trip.

Before we knew it we were on the ferry that took us to Nova Scotia. There were a few highlight in our last little province, but it passed pretty quickly as we pressed on to Halifax. In Bridgetown we stayed with some more friends of Jeremy's who he hadn't seen in years. They spoiled us, giving us lots of food to eat and comfy beds to sleep in. The last town we stayed in was Winsor, which is the birthplace of hockey, formerly known as hurley.

It seemed surreal when the sign for Point Pleasant Park, our final destination, appear out of nowhere in front of us. We were met with smiles and hugs from Christian and his mom. It was so special to have them there to share the moment with us and congratulate us. I also shared the moment with Jenna over the phone. It felt good that the team had finished the goal set before us, and that we were able to share the excitement together. Just over three months earlier we had dipped our wheels in the Pacific ocean, somewhat naive to what lay before us. Here we dipped our wheels in the Atlantic ocean, full of experiences and memories, AND able to say that we did it--we cycled across Canada!

Thank you so much for reading our blog and supporting us!

-Megan

HALIFAX!

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Hello Everyone from the East Coast of Canada!

Myself (Christian), and Jenna, are now here in Halifax, Nova Scotia! We made it!

Ready for the rain in Quebec

We had to ride hard without hardly any rest days in order to finish quickly, as Jenna has a very important wedding on the West Coast (Bethany and Derrick), and I had my mum and brother flying in to meet me in Halfiax. So we pushed on to finish as fast as we could, and now we are here! We did close to 30 days of cycling with only one day off!

It is surreal to be done, and I will spend ten days here before I fly back to the West Coast. Jenna and I have already been discussing and processing the trip and what it has taught both of us. It has been truly incredible, and will be something we will always cherish.

Thank you all the family and friends who believed in us and supported us along the way, and to all the people who aided us in our journey with kindness and hospitality.

The cycler's toast I thought of:

May the wind be at your back,
May the shoulder be ever wide,
And may the downhills always be longer than the ups!

Here is to cycling Canada!

Leaving Ottawa

I've been sitting here trying to type a blog entry but to be honest I don't really know what they've been through since their last blog post.
Hi, I'm Jeremy's sister, Kathy. I'm here to just show you a ton of pictures.
I hope you don't mind.

Parliament, Road Trips, and the Flu

Hey everyone!

Sooooooo, it's been a while since our last update and there have been some developments.

First, due to time constraints, Christian and Jenna decided not to take a day off in Sault Ste. Marie and they are now in New Brunswick.

Megan and Ben arrived in Ottawa almost a week and a half ago and have been staying at my mom's house most of that time. We decided to have an extended layover here so that I could visit with my family. I was able to see my little sister and nephew, Austin (who has started walking since the last time I saw him, a year and a half ago), as well as my older sister and her family (including meeting my youngest niece, Dahlia, for the first time!). We also took a drive out to Quebec City for a few days so that we wouldn't have to stop there later on. Unfortunately Megan and I both ended up catching a bit of a stomach flu as well.

That's about it for now, we're going to head out now and start the final leg of our trip. Halifax in two weeks! My sister's going to post pictures of us at some point.

Bye for now!

Jeremy

Ontario, Super Mario

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been so long. Internet access is SO hard to find for a traveller in Canada unless you knock on people's houses (which I'm not partial for). I'll give you a brief layout of what's been happening.

Moosejaw to Grenfell (regina, indian head, grenfell)
-day off in Regina
-tents flooded in the middle of the night in Grenfell because of storm 1 and ended up in a motel. Grenfell...is umm...NOT a place I want to go back to.
-chewed up by mosquitoes, noseeums, and black flys

Grenfell-Winnipeg (moosomin, miniota, minnidosa, portage, winnipeg)
-day off in grenfell because of thunder storm 2
-put in the moosomin newspaper and stayed the night at the reporters house
-a lot of broken spokes on Christian's new bike
-christian hitch hiking to Winnipeg to get his bike fixed
-Jeremy, Megan and I caught in thunder storm 3 on our way to portage le prairie
-Jenna hitch hiking the rest of the way to portage (20km)
-Thunder storm 4 into winnipeg
-Thunder storm 4 into winnipeg
-free showers from someone who lived in Miniota who later accused us for stealing her phone...

Winnipeg-Thunder Bay (pine creek, kenora, vermillion bay, dryden, ignace, upsala, thunder bay)
-Cycled with a guy named Julian from Victoria for three days
-Got to our half way mark!
-Entered Ontario!
-Cycled with a guy named Ben from Britian for ...well it's been over a week and he's still with us!!
-Cycled with a guy named Johannes from Germany for one day
-Caught in Storm number 5 that lasted 5 hours
-Jeremy's back tire popped so he hitch hiked into Thunder Bay (100Km)
-Another broken spoke on Christian's bike an he hitch hiked to thunder bay(90km)
-day off in Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay - Terrace Bay (Nipigon, Rossport, Terrace Bay)
-we've been hitting some very steep and long climbs again and it feels like we're back in the fraser canyon...or even the rockies at times
-rossport people are unwelcoming but the beach was beautiful
-terrace bay is beautiful

Long time, no see.

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been such a long time since our last update. We haven't had much access to the internet.
The past couple of weeks have been going well. We've had an unusual amount of mechanical malfunctions. Most just some broken spokes, although I did have to buy a new tire in Thunder Bay because my other one wore out.
We met a few other cyclists who we joined up with. Julian (from Victoria, BC) and Johanos (from Germany) have since left and continued at their own pace. We met Ben (from England) at the Manitoba/Ontario border and he has been riding with us ever since. He's riding from Vancouver to Halifax in order to raise money for injured servicemen.
There is so much more to tell, but I have to be going now. I will try to update again once we hit Sudbury (hopefully in about a week and a half).

Take care!

Jeremy

On The Road Again

June 4th, 2010, I (Christian) was riding just past Moose Jaw when I was cut off by a truck and collided into the side of the vehicle. I remained conscious and waited for the ambulance. Five hours later I was discharged from the hospital with some fractured fingers, a deep muscle contusion to my left thigh, some general muscle pain due to the trauma of the impact, and a lot of morphine.

Our recent acquaintances in Caronport, SK, Don and Ellie Wall, graciously took us back into their home. I was a wreck physically and emotionally, traumatized by the flashbacks, the plethora of body pain, and the feeling of helplessness as I could hardly stand up out of the bed. I cried more tears this week than any other week of my life. My wonderful girlfriend, Jenna Webb, took care of me for the seven days while we stayed with the Wall's, and I would not have healed so fast if it wasn't for her constant care.

I would also like to thank some medical help I received: Dr. Susan Bell, who bandaged my hand over and over again, and my physiotherapist, Mr. Van Hennegam, who speeded the healing in my leg and motivated me to be positive and prayerful about the situation.

6 days after the accident, I received a phone call from my dad saying he was driving out to help me and bring a new bike. I burst into tears of joy while I sat in the Medical Clinic's waiting room. This was a shining moment in the midst of the ongoing drudge of unknowns.

The new bike was coming from Bastion Cycle in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. The owner and friend, Jeff Goerz, discounted the bike and all the gear! And even gave free labour to help us out. It was unbelievable.

We had decided to move to Moose Jaw for one week, and then try to continue our ride from there. We again received amazing kindness from multiple people. The Raine's hosted Megan and Jenna, and Evelyn Falk, a woman whom we also had never met, hosted us for the week. Evelyn also took my dad in while he was here.

During our time in Moose Jaw things started looking up. Insurance was helping us out a lot, even covering my dad's travel expenses to get out here and back! My new bike was getting set up, my body was getting more mobile, and I was spending time with my dad. There was lots to smile about!

While in Moose Jaw, I got to catch up with Peter and Sandy Falk. These are dear friends and beautiful people, and I can honestly say that it was worth the accident to see them again and
share some laughs and tears.

We are now gearing up to go again! And we will be shortening out distances for a while until my body is completely back to normal. But it will be great to get back on the road again.

I thank all the people who have helped us in the last two weeks, and I thank all the thoughts and prayers that have been made on our behalf. I had phone calls and e-mails from people I had never met, and I am encouraged by them all. This was a difficult experience, but God has brought good out of it and enriched me with it.

May all get to experience the kindness and generosity that has been shown to us,

-Christian Pye

Home, home on the range...

Howdy folks!

So for those of you who don't know, we ended up staying in Calgary two days longer than we had expected due to snowy weather.
Now, however, we find ourselves in Caronport, Saskatchewan. The Rockies have long since disappeared over the western horizon and in infront of us lies about 1000km of wide open terrain before we arrive in Northern Ontario.
It's been interesting to see the landscape change, and with it, the wildlife. Each place has its staple rodent. In the Fraser Canyon we saw marmots, followed by columbian ground squirrels in the mountains; now, it's gophers. These are by far the dumbest of the small rodents that we have encountered. Biking through the prairies we have been able to keep ourselves amused by counting the dead gophers on the side of the road. Today, within the first hour of biking, Megan counted over 140. Aside from them we have also seen herds of antelope (including babies) and a few coyotes. Some signs along the road warned us of wild buffalo, but alas, the prairies have not yet delivered on this promise.
The prairie folk have lived up to their name in that they have all been very kind and welcoming. As we make our way along the highway we are greeting with a long of honking and waving (we even had a train honk at us!)
The winds have also been good to us helping us to pedal along at 40km/h and coast up the rolling hills.
Well, that's about it for now. The week has been relatively uneventful. We'll update again from Winnipeg!

Jeremy

Distances travelled since Calgary: Sun.150km, Mon.150km, Tue.90km, Wed.130km, Thur.160km

Greetings from Cowtown!

So we have arrived in Calgary a day or two earlier than anticipated. Originally we were going to go from Banff to Cochrane, but when both Megan and Christian were having knee troubles on the ride to Banff, we thought we would have to split that up into two short days. But, I am happy to report that upon arriving in Cochrane everyone was feeling up to cycling the extra 35ish kilometres to Calgary, making it our longest ride yet at 133km.
We are now going to be taking four days off in Calgary at Megan's grandparent's house. It will be a nice break, and we are hoping that it will allow our muscles to fully heal.
I (Jeremy) will also be using this time to finish up the last of my homework. Speaking of which. I must get on that.

Bye for now!

Rogers Pass to Banff

Well, here we are in beautiful Banff, Alberta. That's right, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. We are now in Alberta! Take THAT British Columbia!
After our last update we cycled from Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park to Golden. There was a lot of downhilliness, and we had to pass through a bunch of snow sheds. But we all made it out alive.
Once we reached Golden, we stopped in at Dairy Queen for some ice cream, and then to the grocery store to pick-up some food. After that we made our way to the municipal campground where we realized that we had bought cream cheese for our bagels, but did not think about where we could store it to keep it from going bad. Thankfully our campsite was right beside the river, so we put the cream cheese in a zip-lock bag, tied it to a rock, and tossed it in the river. That did the trick.
That night we actually cooked a meal that was NOT made up of rice and beans. Stirfry = delicious. Plus, we had decided to take the next day off before carrying on to Field, BC
Godlen was a quaint little town with enough to do so as to keep us occupied on our day off. Bookstore, coffeeshop, local art gallery, and a 50's diner.
The morning that we left Golden started off a little...well, off.
In an attempt to relight the stove in order to make more oatmeal for breakfast, the girls managed to singe Megan's eyebrows and eyelashes. Don't worry though; she's okay. Following that, Christian, realized that he had put soap in his mug in order to beginning cleaning before he was voluntold to finish off the extra oatmeal.
When we began the actual riding for the day, it started off with rain, but that quickly dissipated. later that day we decided to cut a day out of our trip by not stopping in Field, and continuing on to Baker Creek (about 10km past Lake Louise). There a really bad hill coming out of Field that took a lot out of us, but I think we were all motivated by the fact that not only had cut out that extra day, but that we were also going to be spending out first night in Alberta. In the end, we cycled 101km with 70km of it being uphill.
This was a bittersweet evening, however, as it was the last night the Stephen and Carol would be with us. They were going to ride with us to Banff the next day, have dinner, and then we would part ways.
The morning of our ride to Banff, Stephen drove us all up to lake Louise to walk around. It was kind of a letdown. The lake was frozen over and covered with a layer of snow, making it impossible to see the beautiful jade colour of the water. After that we went back to the lodge, grabbed our bikes, and began the journey to Banff.
On our way there we saw three elk grazing at the side of the road. Despite the number of people staring at them, they seemed quite calm and content. It was at this point that Christian and I (Jeremy) were sent on a mission to bike as fast as we could to Banff in order to make it to the information centre before it closed. We still managed to stop and get a picture of some mountain sheep, however, before completing our task. 10km in 20minutes. I made it there first because Christian strained his knee and had to petal the last 4km with ONE LEG! It's okay though. No longterm damage. His knee is fine now.
Well, that's about all there is to say now. Sorry about the length. We'll try not to let it go so long between updates.

Banff sends its regards!

Jeremy

Oh! Thanks to Christine Dahlen we are staying at Bumper's Inn because it was too cold to camp!!!!!!!

From the Top of Rogers Pass

Greetings to everyone!

Well, we have now gone over 800km and are now at the summit of Rogers Pass. Before I get into today's ride, however, I will quickly regale you with tale of days gone by. Specifically, the last few days since we left Kamloops. I'll make it quick.
Kamloops to Salmon Arm. It was our first day of riding over 100km (but not our last). The family we stayed with in Salmon Arm was amazing. When we got there, they were celebrating a birthday party for this awesome guy named Greg, who Megan knows - or is it 'whom'? He had us all sign a little autograph booklet that he has. The dad, Sean (or Shawn...) also hooked us up with free tickets to go see Robin Hood at one of the non-profit movie theatres that he oversees.
Last night we stayed just outside of Revelstoke. We were close enough to town that we went and hung out at this little cafe called 'La Baguette". It was such a great little shop.
And that brings us to today. 70km + 60lbs bags + the occasional head wind + uphill = today. This will probably be one of the most difficult rides of the trip, simply because the level of physical and mental exhaustion of ascending to over 1300m.
Highlight of the day (other than reaching the top): Running into my roommate and his girlfriend on the side of the road. Weird...
OH! Also! Christian and I each got to pet a wild (I use that term loosely) Columbian ground squirrel! Fun times!

Well, that's all for now! Hopefully tomorrow will bring a lot more downhill.

Bye for now!

Jeremy

To Kamloops, and Beyond!

Hey everyone!

Well, we've officially broken the 500km mark from Horseshoe Bay to Kamloops. This has been our first day off since leaving Abbotsford and our butts are very thankful for it.
The hills are starting to get easier to pedal up, which is good because we have some long ones coming up in the next couple of days.
For the most part our accommodation thus far have been great. We camped the first two nights, but both places had running water and hot showers. Our third night, Stephen and Carol paid for us to stay at the Totem Hotel in Lytton (They had cable there, so I was able to catch some of game six of Montreal vs. Pittsburgh!). After Lytton we cycled up to Cache Creek where we stayed with Megan's friends at there ranch (for the purpose of keeping this blog relatively short, I won't go into a description of it, but trust me when I say, it was awesome!).
The views have been absolutely incredible. There's a feeling of being sent back to the Old West, especially when the trains can be seen across the river coming around the bend of a mountain.
From a distance, the hills look green because of the sage bushes that cover the ground.
We saw a coyote the other day. It popped out from the one of the bushes, looked at us for a second as we looked back at it, then it disappeared down the hillside.
We also saw two mountain goats grazing on a cliff above the highway, and a few hundred metres down the road from them, we saw the leg bone from a First Nations burial ground that had fallen into the ditch during a rock slide.

That brings us to Kamloops now, where we have been running errands, getting ready for the next stretch.

All is well. We hope it is with you too.

Jeremy, Megan, Christian, and Jenna

Bon Voyage!

Today is the day! We are just heading out the door to meet up with the cycling team, hug and kiss our loved ones, and hit the road!

Thank you to all the people who have helped us this far with Cancer Inpatient care donations, living expenses, empty bottle donations, and vocal support!

A big shout out goes to Jeff from Bastion Cycle, he has helped us immensely in preparing for this trip, with sound bike knowledge and touring advice. If ever on Vancouver Island, please check out his shop:

4196 Departure Bay Road, Nanaimo,
250 - 758 - 2453


Anyways, we hope to blog once a week, so if you like to follow us that would be great!

much love,

biking4change

We passed the trail run!

Hey everyone!

Well we just finished a our first leg of our trip. We rode from Vancouver to Abbotsford, with an overnight camp in Maple Ridge. We had lots of fun figuring out little clicks on our bike and being guided by our friends/mentors Stephen and Carol Hinde who are riding with us to Calgary.

And now, for the next two weeks some of us will be finishing up our semesters and jobs, and getting the final details ready to leave May 8th!

Thanks for reading!

much love,

-Biking4Change

It is go time!

Well we are one day away from starting our epic journey! We leave out of Horseshoe Bay Vancouver tomorrow morning. We will be doing a Vancouver to Abbotsford ride first, then on May 8th we will be leaving out Abbotsford for the rest of the trip.

We are all getting very excited, and cannot wait to clip into our pedals and set off on this grand adventure! We will be trying to update this blog about once a week when possible. Please follow us by reading up on how we are doing!

much love,

-biking4change

Thank You!

Our trip is coming up very fast, but first we would like to say a big thank you to all the people who generously donated to our inpatient care Cancer fund. We were hoping to raise $5000.00, and we surpassed this and have successfully raised $7318.47! We will continue to do some small advertising and fundraising along the trip. If you are interested in donating as well, please go to:

www.biking4change.com


The people and companies who donated:

Chuck Webb

Hilda Warkentin

Jocy and Justin Much

Al Cochrane

Haedy Dick

Anonymous

Peter Stauffer

EECOL ELECTRIC CORP. (CO Chris Hazen)

Mrs. Feather Janz

Mrs. LIsa & Mark Smallenberg



Thank you again!

Living three different lives at the same time.

Oh dear life is way to busy! We are all in school in some way or another and at the same time trying to work and plan the biggest adventure of our lives!! It's as if we each were trying to live three different lives at the same time...

We are getting ready for this Saturday's fundraiser. Christian has been working away at his presentation, Jenna has been practicing music everyday, Jeremy has been making posters, and Megan has been searching the town for sponsors. We are hoping that at this fundraiser we will raise a large portion of both our accommodation goal ($3000) and our goal for the bc cancer foundation ($5000).

The trip is starting to feel more real now that it is only a month away and planning is in full force. Friends and family are asking a million questions, most of which we know the answers to but a lot which we make up answers to. It is so encouraging to see how interested everyone is in what we are doing.

We hope you can make it out to our event. It will be guaranteed fun for all. If you have empty bottles we are collecting those as well. You can either bring them to the event of drop us a note and we will come pick them up.

cheers for now!

Biking 4 Change; collecting change for cancer care

On May 5/2010, our team of four will leave to cycle from Vancouver to Halifax. We will be raising funds for the BC Cancer Foundation. Our team members are Christian Pye, Jeremey Hoos, Megan Naples, and Jenna Webb. We have decided to direct the funds raised toward inpatient care. This means that it will help fund the unique demands of cancer. This includes hospice care, wigs, medications that are not covered through medical plans, pain management, treatment toward side effects of cancer therapy, and many more. We are hosting a benefit concert and information night at 7pm on April 10th at Columbia Bible College. At this event you will hear more information about our trip and how you can track journey.