Willie Weir: confessions of an adventure cyclist

[Published in the September/October 2009 issue of Momentum: the magazine for self-propelled people.]

Bicycle traveler’s new book describes experiences, not logistics

Writer, radio commentator and advocate Willie Weir has cycled over 60,000 miles around the globe

“I am not an avid cyclist,” admits Willie Weir in his new book Travels with Willie: Adventure Cyclist, “I am an avid traveler who has discovered that cycling is the best way to see the world.”

Weir is an award-winning writer, radio commentator and advocate in Seattle who has cycled over 60,000 miles around the globe. He writes a column about living and traveling by bicycle for Adventure Cyclist, a colorful magazine mailed to members of the nonprofit, Montana-based Adventure Cycling Association.

True to the association’s mission to “inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle for fitness, fun, and self-discovery,” Weir’s writing describes the experience of riding a bicycle rather than the logistics. His new book is a collection of his columns, and nowhere in the paperback’s pages does this seasoned bicycle traveler even mention mileage, equipment, routes or the type of bike he rides.

Instead, Weir describes facing fear and finding adventure; guardian angels and going the wrong way; the kindness of strangers; communicating without a word; and the privilege of travel.

Cycle Goa, India with Hostelling International

[Published in the August 2009 issue of Goa Today Magazine]

Backroads “Slow Goa” tour targets cyclists and activists

YHAI cycle expedition takes an early start out of Assolna, Goa (click to view photo gallery)

Visitors have toured Goa by car, motorbike, bus, boat and train; but now – thanks to the Goa Branch of Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI) and Sports Authority of Goa – adventurers and activists can learn about the state’s natural beauty and social issues from the seat of a bicycle.

Says Panjim-based Program Director Manoj Joshi, who added a series of seven-day, 360-kilometre bike expeditions to YHAI’s popular trekking programmes last year, “We wanted to create a tour with the activist in mind. Cycling is a sport for people who have an awareness of environmental and development issues. This expedition shows beaches, nature, and water falls but it also shows how Goa is being deforested; how the greed of the few is displacing families, and the rape of the nature.”

To that end, Joshi and his team volunteered months of their time researching equipment, attractions and routes. In 2008, they provided five groups of twenty cyclists with knapsacks and 24-speed mountain bikes for a circular route that reached as far east as the Karnataka border. Starting from Panjim (Goa’s capital city), youngsters and grandfathers alike pedaled south along the Arabian Sea on Colva-area beaches, east through Balli’s terraced paddy fields and Cavrem’s mining villages; up into the ecologically significant Western Ghat mountains; and then west along the freighter-trafficked Mandovi River past Old Goa (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and back into Panjim.

Along the way, cyclists stayed in rooms in Assolna’s sports complex, lodges in Netravali’s Tanshikar Spice Farm, tents near Dudsaghar Falls in Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary, and dorms in Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary. Extra side trips included Budbudyanchi Talli (Bubbling Lake) at Gopinath Temple; a forest trek and swim at Savari Falls; a zoo tour of cobras, guars and leopards in Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary; and a visit to the Bom Jesus Cathedral in Old Goa.

The YHAI Goa Biking Expedition runs December/January of each year and is open to anyone who is a member of Hostelling International or Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI). Joshi estimates the 2009/2010 fees will be Rs 3000 ($61 USD) for Indians and Rs 5000 ($102 USD) for foreign visitors. Bicycles, rucksacks, safety equipment, accommodation, and meals are all included in the price of the trip. For more information contact Manoj Joshi, Sports Authority of Goa,
or visit YHAI’s web site at www.yhaindia.org.

• Photos: 2008 YHAI bike tour in Goa, India
• Stories: 2008 YHAI bike  tour in Goa, India
• Girl Gone Goa – tales of travel, sex, magic and cycling

Alberta’s Trans Canada Trail and Iron Horse Trail

Western province showcases its TCT urban paths and rail trails

The province of Alberta is the largest per capita donator to Canada’s nation-wide, multi-use Trans Canada Trail, and perhaps as a result it boasts not one but four Alberta TCT routes. I was invited to explore two sections of the trail by very different means: by bicycle on Edmonton’s River Valley Parks, and by all-terrain vehicle (ATV) on northeastern Alberta’s Iron Horse rail trail.

Edmonton’s River Valley Parks

With 460 parks, the city of Edmonton boasts the largest expanse of urban parkland in North America. Twenty-two parks comprise the “ribbon of green” that lines the North Saskatchewan river, and the Trans Canada Trail joins over 150 kilometres of total urban bike trails.

Accordingly, Edmonton’s bike community is active and ardent. Visit Alberta’s capital city for their annual Bikeology festival every June; drop by the Edmonton Bicycle Commuter Society’s non-profit Bike Works shop; or join a “Show N Go” ride with the friendly members of the Edmonton Bicycling and Touring Club.

View photos of Edmonton City Cycling: River Valley Trail, North Saskatchewan bridges, Bike Works, Earth’s General Store, and Bikeology’s “mocktails on the bridge” event (20 images).

Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail

It’s taken 10 municipalities more than 3 decades to transform almost 300 kilometers of abandoned rail bed into a visitor-friendly section of the Trans Canada Trail, but they did it.

Thanks to the grassroots efforts of individuals (Riverland Recreational Trail Society) and communities (Muni-Corr), Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail (AIHT) now passes through boreal forest, farmland, and wild animal habitat to connect 15 historic towns in the province’s northeastern “Lakeland” region.

Still in progress and partly a wilderness trail, the Iron Horse caters primarily towards equestrians, snowmobilers and ATV’rs at the moment. That may go against the Trans Canada Trail’s non-motorized use philosophy, but bear in mind that it’s these community users who have maintained the trails over the years and worked so passionately to preserve it. In conversation with the townspeople along the route (in Heinsburg, Elk Point, St. Paul, Bonnyville, Fort Kent and Cold Lake) I was convinced that they are very excited about welcoming hikers and bikers as the trail moves towards completion.

All the trail’s staging areas provide water and toilets for example; and food and accommodations are not far away. I was particularly impressed by the tiny town of Elk Point which has blue prints for an off-the-grid “green” visitor and community centre.

View photos

At this point organizers suggest that though it is considered an unsupervised backcountry, the trail nevertheless demonstrates a community-supported legacy experience along Alberta’s oldest and longest continuous trail.

View photos of Alberta’s Iron Horse Trail: Heinsburg, Elk Point, St. Paul, Bonnyville, Glendon, Fort Kent, Cold Lake.

A “gonzo” rail and bike trip around Western Canada

Being on a train is like riding a bicycle: it’s slow, social, historic, and rebellious

What is it about trains? And what was it about a train journey into western Canada that yanked on my heart hard enough to make my eyes water? That wasn’t the idea. When we first batted the idea around, Momentum editor Amy Walker and I played with a “gonzo car-free road trip” that would see me, a buddy, and a couple of bikes onto a few trains and into a few communities for laffs and blog stories.

To select a route I pored over road atlases and train brochures and happily found that, not only can you circle the region by train (as opposed to just going across), but that two rail providers ~ Rocky Mountaineer Vacations and VIA Rail Canada ~ are wowing the tourists doing just that.

Now, I’ve travelled by bike and train in Thailand, New Zealand and the U.S.; but it wasn’t until California-based Dahon put a couple of tour-ready folding bikes into my hands that I even considered doing it at home.

Interior slopes offer fun on or off skis

Four B.C. resorts serve up inventive programs for family fun in the snow

Chris Keam is a single parent who’d like to introduce his daughter to the joys of skiing—gently. “I’d really just play it by ear and see how she is responding to it,” the Vancouver video editor says. “If it wasn’t going well, I’d probably want to explore other things too…like tobogganing, which is easier with a five-year-old than skiing all day, every day.”

Four ski destinations in B.C.’s Interior have just the thing. Sun Peaks Resort (near Kamloops), Silver Star Mountain Resort (near Vernon), Big White Ski Resort (near Kelowna), and Apex Mountain Resort (near Penticton) serve up some very inventive programs that don’t require skis for kids, youth, and grownups.

New Zealand photo gallery

“Why cycle North Island?” asks an incredulous Auckland bike mechanic

True: it’s expensive, hilly, and the cars drive really fast. But I cycled a few areas of the North Island independently for a month and discovered that from a bicycle seat it’s the little details and moments that make it worthwhile.

Mamaku, North Island, New Zealand

New Zealand North Island travelogues (photos with commentary)

Coromandel Peninsula including: Miranda Road, Pipiroa, Thames, Tararu, Pauanui, Tairua, Whitianga, Kuaotunu, Coromandel Town and the Kawau Kat ferry into Auckland (50 photos).

Central region including: Auckland, Papakura, Pukehohe, Tuakau, Pukekawa, Huntly, Waingaro Hot Springs, Raglan, Hamilton, Cambridge, Lake Karapiro, Tirau, Mamaku, Rotorua, Murupara, Galatea, Taupo, Tarawera, Te Pohue, Eskdale, Napier, Wellington, and a Tranz Scenic train to Auckland (200 photos).

Tarawera

Raglan

Rotorua

Lake Taupo

Cycling Belize’s temple-to-temple tour

Tour d’Afrique founder takes bike travelers on a 7-day, 750-km race through the jungle

Sunrise at Caracol in the Mayan Mountains

Caracol, Belize — Eight cyclists scrambled up the moonlit stone steps of Caana, Caracol’s tallest temple, to assemble under its curved ceiling of night sky, contemplate its 1,300-year-old ghosts, and practise the Downward Facing Dog.

Yellow, our group’s bike mechanic, sits a few steps above us with four headlamps strapped to his head. He illuminates Taj’s movements as she patiently guides our wisecracking group from one yoga pose to another.

At the beginning of the eighth century, about 150,000 people, 30,000 structures and 88 square kilometres of bustling Mayan civilization would have surrounded us. Now, only howler monkeys and the dark, tropical jungle of Belize bear witness to our awkward attempts to raise our tail bones. It’s taken five days and almost 500 kilometres of pedalling to get to this remote mountain plateau and we’re goofy and giddy, but not untouched by the sacredness of this place. The ghosts will make sure of that.

“Did any of you sleep up there?” asks a groundskeeper the next morning, sternly motioning up at the pyramid’s site. This is a touchy topic for Michael de Jong, the Toronto-based organizer of this Temple To Temple bike event. He negotiated for six months with the archeology department of Belize’s National Institute of Culture and History to gain permission for our group of 30 cyclists and support staff to camp here.

Two riders, Anthony and Stephanie, pause in their packing, and the groundskeeper shakes his head. “If you sleep up there,” he warns, “your parts will fall off!”
Everyone cracks up, though Anthony looks as if he’s not sure if this joke might apply to his bike or his body.

Belize photo gallery

Paved roads join Mayan temples to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east

Belize is a small country in Central America, just south of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula (“Mayan Riviera”). I traveled by bicycle in Belize for three weeks in January 2006 to sightsee as well as participate in an adventure race called “Temple To Temple”.

Caye Caulker, Belize, Central America (Click to view photo gallery)

Belize travelogues (photo galleries with commentary):

Independent bike travel in: Belize City, Caye Caulker, Belize Zoo, the Coastal Highway, Gales Point, Dangriga, Hopkins village and the Placencia Peninsula.

Temple to Temple bike race including: Placencia village, The Placencia hotel (race start), the Toledo district (Conejo, Bella Vista, Lubaantun temple), Hopkins village, the Coastal Highway, Jaguar Paw, Mountain Pine Ridge, Caracol temple, San Ignacio, Western Highway, Caves Branch, Hummingbird Highway, and the race finish.

Western highway	Caye Caulker	Barrier reef
Lubantuun temple	Unitedville	Humingbird Highway

All images © 2008 Ulrike Rodrigues.

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Nootka Sound aboard the cargo ship M.V. Uchuck

Cycle across Vancouver Island, then soak up the history on a working vessel

When people ask why I go where I go, I tell them it’s “part curiosity and part stubbornness”. The curiosity part is usually prompted by a map. My Vancouver Island Backroads Mapbook, for example, shows an east-west Highway 28 between Campbell River and Gold River that ~ by following a river valley ~ allows a shorter and more level crossing of the mountainous island than Tofino’s trafficked Highway further south.

More intriguing still, when the solid line of highway ends at Gold River’s pier, a dashed line takes up the roadway’s westerly route and continues into the water! It heads west towards the village of Yuquot, then curls around Nootka Island to head northwards into long, fingerly inlets with names like Tahsis, Esperanza and Zeballos.

Slow and serene off Nootka Island

Bears, sea otters and marbled murrelets show paddlers the Nuchatlitz way

Sea otter rafts near Nootka Island

NOOTKA ISLAND, B.C. — The afternoon sun glints sharply off the rolling blue swell south of Rosa Island and it’s difficult to follow Brad’s finger to where the glistening bulbs of ocean kelp end and the glossy heads of sea otters begin.

We squint from our kayaks’ cautious distance to take in the fragile “raft” that the otters have created on a bed of seaweed.

Brad Comeau — one of two Gabriola Cycle and Kayak guides who’ve accompanied this group of six paddlers to the edges of Nuchatlitz provincial park — describes how twenty or so otters will float together on their backs to groom their thick, insulating fur and feed on sea urchins they have gathered on their belly.

Paddling a wide swath past other relaxed-looking rafts, it’s hard to believe that it was the sea otter’s famously luxuriant coat that led to this creature’s near extinction.

Backyard Whale Watching

Vancouver operators guarantee sightings with departures right out of the city

Thinking of hauling your out-of-town visitors to Tofino for some whale-watching? Think again. This summer, four local tour operators are guaranteeing sightings with departures right out of the Lower Mainland.

Vancouver Whale Watch and Steveston Seabreeze Adventures (both departing from Steveston), Wild Whales Vancouver (from Granville Island), and Pier’s End Adventure Centre (from White Rock) are all offering boat tours across the Strait of Georgia and down to the Gulf and San Juan islands to watch the whale pods play.

Central Valley Greenway for cycling

Vancouver area multi-use trail offers a bushwhack to bikers willing to explore

The name “Still Creek” may not quicken the pulse of southern B.C.’s white water paddlers; but the blackberry thorns that line the tributary’s urban bike trail are sure to draw blood from a Lower Mainland peddler or two.

Greenway looks like a country lane between Gilmore and Willingdon

Not only is Still Creek one of Vancouver’s original city streams, but it actually flows away from the ocean and toward the Fraser River. While municipal planners pore over a 50 year plan to rehabilitate the historic watershed; a Vancouver-based collection of cycling advocates have ~ with the support of VanCity, Translink, Transport Canada, and other private and public organizations ~ scratched up enough funding, support and publicity in six years to slam a multi-use trail down along its course.

When it’s signed, sealed and landscaped in March of 2007, the 22-kilometre Central Valley Greenway will span Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster and offer those cities’ residents an chance to travel to workplaces, shopping centres, schools, and transit stations without their cars; more Greenway, less Kingsway.

Until then, adventurous local cyclists have discovered that ~ as Richard Campbell of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (B.E.S.T.) puts it ~ there’s “a functional interim route” just begging for a good urban bushwhack.

Cuba photo gallery

Cycle from Varadero to Vinales along the Circuito Norte

Got two weeks for a holiday? Sit on a bike instead of a barstool! I discovered fourteen days is plenty of time to explore Cuba’s Circuito Norte by bike. From resort-town Varadero, through Havana, to the peaceful Vinales valley, it’s a perfect, paved, almost-flat view of the island’s less known northwestern coast.

Matanzas (east of Havana), Cuba (click to open gallery)

Cuba travelogue (photo gallery with commentary):

Independent bike travel in: Varadero, Matanzas, Playa Jibacoa, Guanabo, Cojimar, La Habana (Havana), Vinales, Puerto Esperanza, Cayo Levisa, Play La Altura, Playa San Pedro, and Playa Baracoa.

I Recommend…

MAP:
The Rough Guide Map: Cuba – excellent 1:850,000 scale with contours & distance markers
READ:
Lonely Planet “Cycling Cuba” – a bit out of date (2002) and the routes are a bit picky, but good overall touring info and maps
Georgia Straight writer Andrew Scott’s experiences with casa particulars

WEBSITES:
- Cuba’s version of inexpensive B&B’s: www.casaparticular.info
- Hotels in a variety of price ranges: www.particularcuba.com
- Bike-friendly Skyquest flies economic direct flights from Vancouver to Cuba with no charge for bikes, and no need to box them (they provide a $5.00 plastic bag) www.sunquest.net
- Bicycles Crossing Borders: a Toronto-based organization that ships used bikes and parts to Cuba. www.bikestocuba.org

Cojimar

Havana

Vinales

Blood, Blisters and Bears: one woman’s Odyssey Tour

A 1,600 kilometre expedition by kayak, foot and bicycle through B.C.’s north

Day Two of a 10-day hike...no trail, no boots, no turning back.

ISKUT, B.C. — Gregg Drury is a Minnesota-raised outdoorsman, social activist and eco-entrepreneur who ~ I discovered ~ has a lot to say about menstrual products.

I’d agreed to join him on an exploratory section of his 60-day self-propelled Odyssey Tour and inquired ahead of time ~ as any inexperienced gal about to go hiking through northern B.C.’s grizzly country might ~ if it was okay to bring “Aunt Flow” along.

“Well,” I could hear him deliberate over the phone, “There is no doubt in my mind that a woman who is menstruating while on a wilderness trip increases the risk associated with a bear attack ~ both for herself and her travelling companions.” He went on to describe the dangers of conventional disposable tampons, the benefits of reusable menstrual cups and where in Vancouver I could get one.

Simultaneously terrified and impressed, I made the necessary gear adjustments and met Gregg, assistant guide Fiona Brodie and fellow guinea pig John Harrison over topographic maps in Gregg’s Iskut, B.C. base about 320 kilometers south of the Yukon border. We’d be helped along by Tahltan elder Pat Etzerza, his nephew Clarence Quock, and five of their pack horses.

Roger’s Pass and Me

A web-footed West Coaster ponders snow, slush, and sickening spins on black ice

I’ve lived in Vancouver for thirteen years and naively believed I’d left winter driving behind. It waited for me one December weekend at the crux of Yoho, Kootenay and Banff National Parks. Winter road report: packed, slippery in sections with occasional panic patches.

Toqued and goretexed, Jen and I bravely slushed into Revelstoke after a couple of hours of front-wheel driving along the Trans-Canada. While I concentrated on keeping the Mazda inside two furrows on the road, Jen ~ fresh from a stint in internet marketing ~ remarked how the endless flakes of alien snow looked like a screen saver flying into the windshield.

“When does snowmobile season start?” I asked a Chevron attendant, noting the parade of Ski-doo-toting pickup trucks gassing up at the pumps. “Honey,” the attendant drawled as she handed me a tourist map, “It’s been snowmobile season for two months“.

Heading for the Hills? Then Get on the Bus

Stress-free snow bus services to B.C. mountains for when you’d rather ride than drive

Mittens firmly in the 10 and 2 o’clock positions, I was driving behind a Greyhound bus one winter morning when an impatient driver turned a Celica from a side road in front of the coach, lost control on the icy shoulder, bounced off the side of the bus, and–shooting off fractured quarter panels and shattered glass–spun to a stop five metres in front of me. I realized then that I’d be better off inside the bus than behind it.

Ski-tour operators and bus companies agree. Moose Travel Network, Destination Snow, Canadian Outback, Snowclub, and even Greyhound have hit the highways with stress-free bus services to B.C. mountains. Cheap and flexible, the ski-bus trips are ideal for adventurous skiers and snowboarders–both locals and tourists–who’d rather ride than drive.

Unlike the SUV driven by your mom, boyfriend, or buddy, these vehicles are steered by professional drivers. Other benefits? They’re righteously HOV, they often include movies, giveaways, and discounts, and (ahem) they’re a great way to meet new people with similar interests.

Village Hostels on the Sunshine Coast

Three coastal “backpacker B&Bs” welcome budget travelers north of Vancouver

Marney and son Coulter of Up The Creek Backpacker's B&B in Roberts Creek

I used to sell panniers at Vancouver’s Bike Doctor and when novice cyclists would come in and say they were going to spend a “relaxing” weekend biking the Gulf Islands, I’d cringe. There’s got to be an easier way for these people to discover the simple joys of bike touring, I thought; a destination with less gravity-defying hills, a shorter ferry ride, comparable island cachet and cheaper accommodations.

Since then I’ve thrown my bike on the #257 Horseshoe Bay bus and confirmed that this place does exist but the catch is ~ it’s not an island; it’s the thirty or so kilometers between Gibsons Landing, Roberts Creek and Sechelt known as the Sunshine Coast.

Each of the three villages are spaced fairly evenly apart and are linked by the Georgia Strait coastline, the paved-shouldered Highway 101, and a bike-rack equipped Sunshine Coast Transit System. The curious traveller can sample a day’s worth of arts, eats and adventures by bike or bus, then settle into an cozy hostel-type accommodation when it gets dark.

Merridale Cidery in Cobble Hill, Vancouver Island

Family-run apple orchard grows, squishes, ferments and pours their own ciders

Terry and I were waiting on the corner of Granville and Broadway for the #601 bus to take us to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, when a grey pony-tailed fellow in mirrored sunglasses rode up on a blue ten-speed with two shopping bags hanging from the handlebars. He said he was going to Jamaica.

“How are you going to get to Jamaica once you’ve run out of land?” I asked him, motioning to his bike. He looked at me hard. “What are you, writing a book?”

“Er, no,” I back-pedaled, “I was just wondering in case I want to try it myself.”

Our journey ’s motivation was much simpler: we’d take our bikes on the ferry to Vancouver Island, cross the Saanich Peninsula, jump on the Mill Bay ferry, and cycle the rolling hills and smooth blacktop around Cobble Hill’s Merridale Cidery.

The family-run cidery grows apples, cultivates honey, and squishes the two together to make a sweet, hi-test cider called Cyser. I wanted some, and I figured it was worth a weekend of camping and riding to get it.

Cycling to Pitt River Hot Springs

Vancouver-area pools are accessible by boat and bicycle ~ but not by car

[Updated July 2009. Originally published in Adventure West Magazine, October 2004. Photos by Luke Moloney. ]

My trusty B.C. Backroad Mapbook refers to the Pitt River Hot Springs as one of the most scenic hot spring destinations in Southwestern B.C. Having been to a few over the years and this one in particular in August I have to agree; and the best part is that it’s gurgling away in our own backyard, yet utterly inaccessible to the car-bound.

To us crafty multi-modal adventurers, however, it’s a simple matter of combining bus, bike and boat. The reward is a sweet, sand-bottomed pool carved out of a canyon shelf that overhangs the rushing Pitt River. An upper, hotter pool holds the spring water until it is ready to be sluiced down a rock crevasse into the river-side pool. There, six or seven cyclists can get naked, settle in, and watch shreds of cloud slip down between the canyon’s fern-and-moss-covered wall to meet the river’s milky spray.

Urban Orienteering on the Central Valley Greenway

Spray-painted artwork along the Central Valley Greenway

The spring I turned 35, I found out that four ligaments join the bottom half of my leg to the top, and that when two of them snap on a damned bike descent of a Grouse Mountain trail, it’s a very bad thing.

Once the reconstructive surgery was completed and I had learned to walk again, I decided that my cycling energy was better spent on more moderate adventures.

I pored over TransLink’s Regional Vancouver Cycling Map & Guide and discovered that the Lower Mainland’s immense Fraser Valley floor offers an extensive network of flat-earth forest paths, linear parks, dike trails, and greenways. (For a list of retailers who sell the guide [$3.95], visit www.translink.bc.ca/ and click on Maps.)

Some of them, like Stanley Park, Pacific Spirit Regional Park, and the B.C. Parkway Trail, are well-known and well-used; but many, such as the newly christened Central Valley Greenway, are largely unpaved, unsigned, and unexplored.