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This will be my final post on the Sierra Club website. It is a reflection of what I believe I learned on this trip, and what I hope I have accomplished.

When I first started planning for this trip more than six months ago, I had no Idea where to start, whom I should contact about riding for charity, nor even what route I would take across the country. What I DID know was that one way or another, I was going to ride my bicycle across Canada. Slowly however, the plan began to take shape. After sending out handwritten letters to Greenpeace, the Sea Shepherd Society, and the Sierra Club of Canada, I began my physical preparation for the trip. I got a few responses back from all three organizations, but in the end, almost at the point where it would be too late for me to leave across Canada in time, the Sierra Club of Canada gave me the go ahead. I was ecstatic. I have never committed myself as fully to anything as I began to for this ride. While the efforts I began to undertake may seem small (Eating better, hosting free car wash to raise awareness, writing and posting flyers around town) to me they were significant,  because I finally felt as though I was contributing to the environmental movement; I felt refreshed.

Everything was going quite well until Earth Day, which is the date I attempted a 24 hr ride for the planet, and subsequently injured my knee in the early hours of the morning, stopping my ride at the 18 hour mark. I was crushed, though not at first. I believed it was a simple over-use strain, and would disappear within days. As the days turned into weeks however, and my scheduled departure date began to loom, my initial good spirits sank as my knee got no better. I ended up pushing my start date back one week, planning to simply leave from Vernon instead of Vancouver in order to give myself even that little bit of extra time to heal. Even still, up until the very day I left, my knee was in seemingly not much better shape than it was 3 weeks before. Incredibly though, it did not tear or break under the pressure of the new added gear. This small victory is what gave me the courage to truly be on my way, and the strength to believe for the rest of the trip that what I was attempting could be done.

The trip itself is split into sections in my mind; Kootenays, Rockies and Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, west Ontario, east Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, and the Coastal Mountains of B.C., each of which I will give a quick summary of my impressions of.

The Kootenays were my proving ground, the point where I would either make it over and out of, or end up going back home. There were tough nights alone in the mountains, and great days for the very same reason. I consider this section to be everything from Vernon till Creston, and I would say it was my most enjoyable section of the trip.

The Rockies and Alberta are together simply because I remember coming out of the Rockies at a great speed, and exploding with a massive tailwind into Alberta; it felt like there was no loss of momentum between the two sections, so I remember them as one. My first ever real Prairie experience, Alberta left me humbled by its size and amazed at its skies.

Saskatchewan holds a special place in this trip as the worst part for me. In fact, the only thing I can say about Saskatchewan is what I have said before: Saskatchewan has moments of such incredibly sublime beauty, yet has this audacity to suck so completely the rest of the time. Rain, headwind, and claustrophobic anxiety were all experienced to varying degrees in Saskatchewan; Land of the Living Skies. Manitoba however, was beautiful weather, sunny skies and cool breezes, which were admittedly still blowing in my face. Manitoba feels like a buffer between the wilderness of Ontario, and the Prairies, and its landscape is reflective of that. Intermittent forests cross huge swaths of level plains/fields, giving it a mottled feeling to me.

West Ontario truly is lake country, being dotted all along with thousands of lakes both large and small. It was beautiful and cool, and it is with great sadness that I think about the amazing pictures I took of the area, which were of course lost when I dropped my camera. I consider West Ontario to be everything up to Thunder Bay, which was a beautiful town where I spent a very restful couple of days.

East Ontario was all about eating up the kilometers as fast as I could to get to Ottawa in time for Canada Day. The temperature was rising, and the hills rolling, so I was almost always covered in sweat, and often with many km between points where I could get water. It was exhilarating, though. I had many of my best days here in north/east Ontario. Arriving in Ottawa was an amazing feeling, a real culmination of everything I had been working for. The people were amazing, and I look forward to going back to visit!

Quebec was HOT. The landscape was farmer’s fields and many small towns dotted around the plains, each with a church in the centre. Lots of highways, crisscrossing all over the place, I was definitely glad to have bought a map book. Arriving in Quebec City was an amazing feeling, even though I got driven the last portion. I was lucky to have seen so much while there, too: waterfalls and the Old City and a free Cirque-du-Soleil show. Leaving Quebec City. I rode along the St. Lawrence, which eventually began to cool the surrounding area as I got to where it was wider. From Riviere-du-Loup, I pointed my forks south towards New Brunswick.

The Maritimes were so much hillier than I had expected! Plus the humidity made the riding almost unbearable at times. I was definitely coming to the end of what I could give, and my bike was suffering too. Tires were getting flat way more often, the chain was squeaking, I had no front brakes and barely any rear brakes. It was in definite need of a tune up. As we crested that last hill into Halifax however, I know I wasn’t thinking about mine or my bike's condition. All I was thinking was, “I made it, my God, I can’t believe I made it.” I still had lots to do however, and I set about preparing for my trip back home almost immediately. Boxing up my bike, selling or getting rid of what I wouldn’t be taking along, cleaning and pacing gear, all this had to be done before I could fly out of Halifax.

The last thing ahead of me was my homecoming leg, which I had decided to add back in Quebec. I arrived in Vancouver at 1 AM, and headed to my friend's house for the next day and night, then left on Saturday, July 17^th, intending to be home four days later, on Tuesday, July 20^th. This section (the Coastal Mountains) was familiar ground to me. I have biked both from Vancouver to Vernon and from Vernon to Vancouver before. However, this time around it was all different. The road seemed no less than half as long, and it was with ease that I crested each rise, positively flying over the mountains. I was euphoric; each km brought me closer to home. I made it to Penticton from Hope in ONE DAY, which allowed me to meet my amazing girlfriend in Kelowna the next day for a private welcome home. This was an amazing time, and it allowed Samantha and me the chance to see each other without everyone else there, so it would be easier to visit when I got home the next day. My arrival was….disappointing. I won’t say it wasn’t. The entire trip, I had been sure to prepare myself for the fact that no one would be waiting to cheer me across the finish line when I arrived in Halifax, but I had allowed myself to hope for that much when riding back into Vernon. I envisioned all my friends and family standing at the beach to welcome me back, so I was disappointed when there was next to no one there. It’s okay though, because I made it home safely, and with stories to tell to those that want to hear.

Like I said when I started this post, however, I wanted to say what I believe I accomplished. Well, the truth is that the greatest benefit from this trip is to me personally. I have always wanted to do my part for the planet, and I have been disgusted with myself for years at my procrastination habits and willingness to ignore the destruction of the natural world around me. So for me, this has been a sort of stepping out into what I want to be; someone who fights now and will fight to my last breath for the rights of all species to live in an environment that is healthy, happy, and whole. Yes, I think I changed a few minds about “hippies”, and yes I talked to everyone I could about the Sierra Club, and through all this, I am left with a feeling of fulfillment; I truly believe I did everything I could, both before and during the trip, to advance the Sierra Club of Canada. And to be honest, that is all I was looking for. So to those of you who have read my blog, I thank you, and I hope that every time you think something is to impossible to accomplish, just remember what I did on a whim in the summer of 2010, and realize that NOTHING is impossible.

Stay Safe

Sincerely

Liam Wacey