Unicyclist Blogs Journey Across Canada

Unicycling Across Canada

Monday, February 22, 2010

Background

• Philip Schleihauf

• Male

• 18 Years Old

• 6’2”

• 140 lb

• Unicyclist


Unicycling

• Seven Years
Experience

• One Previous Tour:
Ottawa to Kingston

• 250 km

• Four days

• Self-Supported


Invisible Children
• Operates in
Northern Uganda

• Ending the
Longest-Running
war in Africa

• Freeing, Protecting,
and Rehabilitating
the Child Soldiers
of the LRA


Training
10 Weeks
Riding
Research
Persuading Parents


Snow Most cycling paths in Ottawa are snowed
over until late spring


Train Ticket Purchased six days before departure


Small Tent Purchased three days before departure.

Most of the planning was a bit last-minute.


Toronto
Train Changeover
Unicycle Tune-Up


Bedford Unicycles
• Checked in for a
Tune-Up

• Unicycle was
Falling Apart

• New Hub,
spokes, cranks,
seat, much more

• Thanks Darren!


Broken Hub The bearings broke upon removal


Wheel Rebuild The bike shop where my wheel was rebuilt
with new hub and spokes.


Train West

Northern Ontario A bit of a shock to wake up ﬁnding the
landscape blanketed in snow.


Toronto to
Vancouver

Four nights. We stopped for several hours each
day so I was able to ride a bit and keep in shape.


Black Bear The only bear on the whole trip.


Ferry to Victoria They charged the extra “bike” fee, but I still
had to carry it with me.


Victoria, BC
One Week to Prepare and
Get in Shape


Bike Paths Victoria’s bike paths are incredible. Packed
gravel or paved, and the landscape is
beautiful.


Paciﬁc Ocean


Fraiser
Valley, BC
Four Days of Easy Riding
Before the Mountains


Surrounded by The route to Hope, the town on the edge of
the mountains, is remarkably ﬂat.
Mountains After the second day the mountains in the
distance almost surround the valley.


First Newspaper My ﬁrst article was arranged for the
morning I headed out of the valley and into
Article the mountains


Rocky Mountains

Road out of Hope

The highway splits after Hope into the number 1
Transcanada, and my route, the number 3
Crowsnest highway.
This photo was just after that split, showing the
beginning of Hope Slide, and mountains looming
in the background.


Lunch Break Part-way up Hope Slide


Snow Just a little into the mountains and I hit one
of my biggest concerns, snow.


Hope Slide These signs are only posted at the tops of
big hills, never the bottom. It’s almost nice
to see them, conﬁrming the tough climb
just completed.


First Night Camping It was a challenge to ﬁnd dry ground.


Misty Morning It started raining halfway through the
night, and kept up well into the ﬁfth day.


Allison Pass I had read that this pass is one of the
toughest. Not because it’s demanding, but
because it’s the ﬁrst. I didn’t realize I was
climbing it until I got here.


Leaving Manning After four days in the mountains, I ﬁnally
left manning park, the most remote stretch
Park of the trip until Northern Ontario.


Camping in Luxury Someone left a smouldering ﬁre, some pots
and pans, cutlery and mugs, and chairs in
this forestry reserve. My tent is in the
background on the right.


Osoyoos, BC One thing that struck me in the mountains
was the diversity of landscapes.


30 km Uphill Steep uphill for 20 km out of Osoyoos,
mostly uphill for another 10. I had gotten
warning of it in Osoyoos, where I took a
rest day. It was the best pass of the trip.


Frozen Lake After Manning park, there was little trouble
with cold temperatures and snow. Only at
high elevations was it cold enough to be a
problem.


Blueberry-Paulson
Pass

By far the toughest climb. I left much later than I
should have, and was assured it would be easy.


Paulson Pass Many hours later and over a kilometre
higher, I made it over the pass and found
the ski shelter where I spent the night.


Nelson, BC


Kootenay Lake I took Highway 3a through Nelson, which
added a bit of distance but bypassed a
mountain and brought me along Kootenay
Lake, one of my favourite rides.


Camping on Another case of listening to drivers’ advice.
It was difﬁcult to ﬁnd anywhere not
Kootenay occupied by houses or cottages, and I got
stuck here for the night.


Emu I was offered a place to stay in Wynndel,
just before Creston, BC. The woman had
two emu at that time. Incredible creatures.


Cranbrook, BC The ride into Cranbrook was the best of the
trip to that point. I did two short days’
worth in one.


Mountains and 23-photo panorama taken on the way to
Yahk, BC.
River

Horses Zoom of a region of the 23-photo panorama
on the way to Yahk.


World’s Biggest Now decommissioned, this truck used to
work 24/7 in some kind of mining
Truck operation


Unicycle and pack for scale


Crowsnest Pass Highway 3 crosses the AB/BC border at the
summit of the Crowsnest Pass.


The Prairies

Mountains to
Prairies

The change is pretty abrupt.


Long, Straight Roads


Saskatchewan I started averaging about 100 km each day
after entering the prairies, taking away
most of my time energy for photography.


Snowstorm Saskatchewan got dumped with snow the
day before I crossed the border. The storm
had closed the highway.


Second Unicyclist
• Dave Cox, from
Newfoundland

• Left a few weeks
after I did, caught
up in SK.

• Rode together to
Regina, after which
he went back to AB
for a girl...


Salt Flats


Rocket Stove

• Dave showed me
how to make a
small stove out of
two pop cans

• Finally, I could have
warm meals when
camping


Ontario

Welcome to Ontario Ontario’s welcome sign was . . .
disappointing.


Ontario’s second welcome sign, on the
other hand . . .


Road to Thunder I rode three days with Brian and Emilie on
their “Tour de Support” from Calgary to
Bay Thunder Bay.


Upsala, ON Bryan, me, Emilie.


Handlebar Drops

I added handlebar extensions in Thunder Bay,
making the ride much more comfortable from
that point on.


Sleeping Giant


Terry Fox Memorial


More Cyclists I ran into a lot of people crossing Canada
on bicycles. These two were heading west.


Wawa, ON


Lake Superior


Montreal River Hill


Sault Ste. Marie


Almost Home

• North Bay

• The ﬁrst sign
showing Ottawa


Mosquitos


Ottawa

Final Stretch About 20 cyclists joined me for the very last
leg of the trip.


The End
Ottawa, ON
4700 km

Unicyclist Blogs Journey Across Canada

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Unicyclist Blogs Journey Across Canada