This is a long post. The most important details are at the top, so don’t feel the need to read all the way unless you like specifics.

A few days ago, I dipped my two wheels into the Atlantic Ocean in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The journey to get there took three month and started on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. I rode about 12,600 km and ascended about 90,000 m.

I still feel overwhelmed and processing my accomplishment. I’m not a Redditor myself, but a close friend mentioned that this group might be interested in hearing my story.

If you want more information, feel free to ask questions in the comments. I’ll try to read all of them.

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Smoky day in the British Columbian interior. When it wasn’t smoky, it was rainy. I swapped my tires in Prince George and rode orange Panaracers until they failed me outside Saskatoon.

Background

You can read a short bio about me on my personal website, www.nickavis.com. I set up a website for my ride because I was raising funds for RAVEN Trust, Canada’s leading Indigenous legal defence fund. I’m a lawyer by training, and so I’m interested in supporting access to justice and the enforcement of Indigenous rights. I managed to raise over $15,500 (and counting — my fundraising page is still open!).

I’ve long had a love of bike touring and it’s been a dream of mine to bicycle across Canada. My route started in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. I then rode south to Victoria, British Columbia (about ~4,000 km), and then east to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (a further ~8,500 km).

I put my career as a lawyer on pause in May 2023 and set off on my ride at the end of June. The northern part of my ride required that I cross the Mackenzie River twice. The river only cleared of ice in mid-June, around which time the ferry started operating. Starting earlier wasn’t an option, unless I started really early when the river was still frozen.

Highlights

I included some map screenshots at the bottom of this post that show the rough outline of my route. The screenshots aren’t exact. At a high level, I went from Tuktoyaktuk → Whitehorse → Victoria → Edmonton → Regina → Winnipeg → Thunder Bay → Goderich → Toronto → Ottawa → Québec → Fredericton → Charlottetown → Halifax → St. John’s.

About 10% of my ride was on gravel — and when I say gravel, I don’t mean nice stone dust. I’m referring to the rough gravel that gives gravel a bad name — the type that is either dirt/mud, golf-ball sized loose stones, or pitted/potholed/washboarded. Sometimes the road would be flooded and I’d bike through water halfway up my panniers.

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Quality gravel road in New Brunswick.

I loved seeing so much of Canada. Canada is beautiful and incredibly diverse. Although I had some gear stolen in British Columbia, the vast majority of people I encountered were friendly and supportive.

I was disappointed by the lack of wildlife I encountered. Despite largely sticking to a lot of low-traffic secondary roads and trails, I only encountered a couple moose and a dozen black bears. I didn’t see a single grizzly, caribou, or other big game.

The northwest portion of my ride was defined by constant, 24-hour sun and 35°C temperatures. The central/southwestern portion of my ride was defined by rain, smoke and wildfires. I rarely had a clear day in British Columbia. I’m told the mountains are beautiful, but sadly I didn’t see many through the rain and smoke.

The prairies were the roughest part of my ride. I had rain every day from Regina to Winnipeg, cold temperatures, and an incredibly fierce headwind (I think ~40 kmph for days on end). The remaniants of Hurricane Hilary were hitting the prairies at this point. I wanted to give up near the SK/MB border, but realized that wouldn’t be a good idea: I was in a remote area surrounded by endless fields and freezing cold, soaked through with rain, low on water and nearly out of food. A trail angel took me in that night and saved my ride.

Northwestern Ontario was beautiful — probably the most beautiful stretch of my ride. Good weather prevailed from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

I made the mistake of not realizing the ferry from Nova Scotia to Argentia, Newfoundland, was seasonal. I had to take the ferry to Port-aux-Basque instead. This mistake added ~780 km and about 8,500 m of climbing to the end of my ride.

My Bike

I rode a 2018 Kona Sutra. I bought this bike back when I rode the Great Divide in 2019. I made a number of modifications to it, including new hand built wheels, 44 mm Panaracer Gavel King tires (for the north — I changed tires further south), and a Son front dynamo hub connected to a Cinq 5 Plus converter. I left the gear set, handlebars, and seat unchanged from the stock parts.

I re-painted my bike since it’d taken quite a beating over the years, which is why it doesn’t look like a stock Kona Sutra.

My Gear

I’ve tried a number of set ups over the years, from ultra lightweight to heavy pannier-style bike touring. I settled on what I considered a medium-weight set-up for this tour. Ultralight wouldn’t work given that I was riding though very remote areas—at times, I had to carry more than a week’s worth of food, along with camping gear and whatever else I needed to be fully self-sufficient.

I started with a Tubus Tara front rack, but it broke after a crash in British Columbia. I was forced to replace it with an Axiom low-rider front rack. I used an Old Mountain Man Great Divide rear rack. My front panniers were 10L Tailfinn bags. I used a Revelate handlebar bag and frame bag. The rear panniers were North St. Adventure Micro Panniers (14L).

All together, I had somewhere around 60L of baggage. I strapped my tent (Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 Bikepack), U-lock (Oxford Alarm-D Pro — I really didn’t want to be robbed), and a pair of old running shoes to the top of the rear rack.

I carried a DSLR camera and canister of bear spray in a fanny belt.

Gear Review

Overall I was happy with my set-up. I came across lots of cyclists, some of whom were carrying more than me and others that were carrying less. I think I was around the middle of the pack. I could have cut weight most easily by (1) eliminating “city” clothes (carried in my handlebar bag), but I was on a multi-month tour and wanted something comfortable when staying at Warm Showers and visiting family and friends; and (2) eliminating my photography / video gear (which took up most of a front pannier), but I wanted to document my trip.

I was surprised at how easily my Tubus Tara front rack snapped when I crashed. It was a hard crash, but for whatever reason I thought it was a heavy duty steel rack. The Axiom rack I got as a replacement held up for the rest of my ride, but I had to do a lot of jerryrigging to get it to fit and it wasn’t as comfortable to ride with as the Tubus Tara. My rear rack worked flawlessly.

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Stealth camping in British Columbia. The fire pit isn’t mine (I didn’t make any fires during my trip due to wildfire risks).

My Tailfinn panniers held up well. They’re largely waterproof, but not perfectly so. I still used dry bags inside. I wasn’t as impressed with my North St. panniers. These panniers are hard to fully seal because there is only one clip strap to hold the top closed. These panniers aren’t watertight. The Velcro straps that fastened the North St. panniers to my rack weren’t reliable: if I went over a big bump, the Velcro would sometimes slip off my rack and the bag would flip 180°, fastened only by the Voile strap at the bottom. Near the end of my trip, I got concerned one of the panniers would fail.

My Revelate bags were perfect. I’ve had these bags for years and they’re still in great shape. This trip was the first time I used my Tailfinn and North St. bags.

My camping gear was tried and tested, so I had no issues with it. The Big Agnes bikepacking tent was perfectly sized, although sometimes I wished I had a bivvy sac to simplify setting up and taking down camp. I used a neo-air Therm-A-Rest mattress and zero degree MEC sleeping bag. I did not bring a stove in an effort to save weight (and I wanted the space for a tripod).

The Cinq 5 Plus dynamo converter (with USB-C) plug failed me about 2/3 of the way through my trip. I was very disappointed with this, since I had thought I‘d get a number of years out of it. It failed me after the most remote parts of my trip, so thankfully I no longer needed to rely on it for electricity. Had it failed me earlier, I’d have been in serious trouble.

Conclusion

I’m so happy that I embarked on this ride. I know it sounds cliché, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime life-changing experience. Canada is vast and full of surprise. I’ve gained a new appreciation for how rural Canada is. I’d often go days without passing through a single town, which made for an incredible ride (although I always feared running out of supplies).

I highly suggest bike touring in Canada, but be prepared for anything and everything!

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Regina Indian Industrial School Memorial #everychildmatters

This map isn’t exact, but it roughly shows the western portion of my ride.

Rough idea of the eastern portion of my ride.