Home For A While 🍁
Elapsed time 10 d 02 h 54 m; Distance travelled 1830 km (1137 mi)
It’s Day 11, and Ashleigh is leaving Whitehorse and heading to her next sleep spot: Morley Lake. I know this because we had a quick exchange over text this morning, as she laid in bed thinking about coffee. The last few days have been tough, and I wanted to check in on her to make sure she was doing ok (she’s ok!). Day 8’s voice note recap was a bit bleaker than expected and I could sense from her retelling that she was questioning her decision to ride the Pan-Am. The solitude, lack of frequent food stops and freezing temps have been getting to her, but the real giveaway? Her longing for simple, slow moments - like watching people swim in a lake or seeing a woman quietly beading:
She was just chilling, like beading or something. I'm like, that is cool. I would love to do that right now, actually…
I think I'm just tired. It is fun to ride my bike. It is very fun to ride my bike. But I'm just quite tired. And when I see people doing things that are recreational and slow, I get a little jealous. Because I would like to do that. Because I could. But I also want to get out of the North and just be able to like, I don't know, go South and when I need to rest, stop at the gas station in the shade and cool down for a bit and then collect my thoughts and keep going instead of, yeah, having nowhere to stop.
(...)
Being able to connect with the outside world when you're in your head all the time is like really really necessary…
I asked Ashleigh how much of the lows I could share. I said, I don’t want to worry anyone, but I want to be real about what you’re experiencing in your day-to-day. She and I have talked before about famous bike-packers riding impressive distances and not showing a single crack in their resolve, and sometimes it’s hard to buy! You wonder, is their ass sore? Are they hungry, or grumpy or so tired they could cry? Knowing that Ashleigh feels all of these things, and gets back on her bike every morning anyways (in grizzly bear country no less!) makes us all the more proud and in awe. There’s something very inspiring about sharing the hard bits as well as the incredibly good stuff, and we’ll endeavour to do both for the blog. We agreed to find a balance.
Over the last few days things are looking up. Whitehorse was warm! I saw a high of 23°C as she was rolling into town. And the food stops are increasing in frequency. Though she’ll still see stretches of no service as she heads south through BC, and will be spending lots of nights outside, the conditions are steadily improving, and I would bet, her mood with it. My final word will be, keep an eye on the tracker. We had a good laugh when we noticed she had pre-planned a ride through the Whitehorse A&W drive through.. or was it Pizza Hut?
Follow My Challenge Easter Egg
Signing off for now (after I check her position one more time),
- Jessie
This ride is supported by:
Augustine House; Arkel Bike Bags; Fluent Frameworks ; Long Alley Bicycles; Anytime Fitness Halifax; Acadia Sport Therapy; Showerspass; Night of Adventure
Every person who's donated through the Go Fund Me page!
A strong support system: friends, family, and the outdoor community in Halifax.