When I think back about the past two months that I spent in Canada, I feel nothing but joy. My time biking there has been some of the happiest of my life. Even though when I entered Canada on the Alaska Highway and I had been rained on for a week and had another three weeks of rain ahead of me, I still look back on that time fondly. I was in the mountains! Oh Canada you have some beautiful mountains! I first biked along the Saint Elias and Kluane Mountains “suffering” views like this:
I also got meet some new friends and along with a chance meeting of other bike tourers I had met in Alaska! I was made to feel so welcome and at home by almost everyone I met along the way; people would stop to offer me food and water, lodging in either their back yard or home, or just friendly advice about what’s to come.
While I wasn’t able to see everything I had wanted to in Canada I had hoped to on this trip, I feel I got more out of it than I expected. When I started this I was unaware of the Liard Hot Springs and there I made another lovely friend whom I later got to see in Saskatoon before she headed back to France and I the US.
After Saskatoon I made my way to Winnipeg to another friend I met last year playing soccer, sadly I was too young to play this time but I loved the time we got to spend together. We went to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which was such a moving experience for me and I highly recommend that everyone go there and check it out for themselves. I also spent a day just walking around the city and exploring on foot which was a nice change of pace!
The drivers in Canada, save two, that I encountered treated me so well. They gave me ample space when, never honked aggressively, or yelled mean things to me. I was treated with the dignity and respect everyone deserves while on the road. When I was heading south to the US border I was definitely sad. To me it marked the end of a major part of this trip, a part I loved and cherished. I do look forward to what’s to come but I still long for what I’ve already experienced. Goodbye Canada, you’ve been great and I cannot wait to go back!