In just a few short days, educational institutions in Powell River and across the country will open their doors for a new semester. Many younger students are already initialing their school supplies in preparation for September 6 while older students gas up their vehicles and make sure their ‘N’ still bears its magnetic charge.
Post-secondary students are gearing up as well, many of them racing to cram the rest of their belongings into moving vans, truck cabs and backpacks before life’s newest chapter begins next week.
Alyssa Stapleton began packing in mid July for a bit of a head start. That’s because the recent Brooks Secondary School graduate wasn’t packing her belongings into any of the above. Her chosen method of transport was a set of panniers, her chosen method of transportation was a bicycle and her chosen school was Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, a nearly 6,600 kilometre trek across the country.
After participating in the Otesha project earlier this summer, a cycling and community outreach tour in Ontario that took her from Kitchener to Ottawa performing and offering workshops along the way, Stapleton was inspired. When she returned home, she began plotting a far more ambitious excursion. It wasn’t until she and companion James McCargar were making a trip from Powell River to Victoria moving some items out of storage when she finally decided to go for it.
“I was getting jealous of all the cyclists [we kept seeing],” she said. “Just as a joke, I said ‘hey, we should cycle across the whole country, James.’” Ever the adventurous type, he agreed and before they knew it, they were on their way.
Stapleton and McCargar left Powell River on Monday, July 18 and arrived in New Brunswick just a few days ago. Originally intending to bike about 4,600 kilometres of the journey, knee trouble and the looming threat of being late for school forced the duo to travel briefly by car and finish the final leg from Quebec City to Halifax by train before cycling the rest of the way to Sackville. Their bikes are still getting plenty of use, however, as there is much exploring to be done both on and off campus before classes begin on Tuesday.
Over the course of their trip, the duo not only saw many parts of the country, but “made all sorts of connections with people” as well, said Stapleton. She and McCargar divided their accommodations between camping, couch-surfing and staying with family and friends. They also met several hosts though www.warmshowers.org, a website geared specifically toward hospitality for touring cyclists.
“We gained new perspectives everywhere we stayed because the people... were so unique and different from the last person we stayed with and the person before that.”
Throughout their trip, Stapleton and McCargar posted frequent blog entries on their website, www.pedals4peace.org. “We thought, how can we include other people in our journey,” said McCargar. “When we first started talking about it with our friends, they wanted to keep updated and see what was going on with us.”
The duo created Pedals 4 Peace to be not just a blog but a society as well, with the intention of promoting environmental sustainability and a reduced carbon footprint through projects like their own cross-Canada cycling trip. “We thought it would be a good opportunity to lay this framework for something...that would help people share their experiences and to advocate carbon-free transportation as a new way to combat greenhouse gas,” said McCargar.
“I’m thinking hopefully in the future that we’ll be able to do other projects under that canopy of work. It’s a good foundation on which to build other projects,” added Stapleton, who’s program of choice this September is environmental studies.
Meanwhile, both their society and their journey has attracted much attention from both the media and many individuals they have met along the way. Several newspapers in New Brunswick picked up the story, along with CBC’s regional news station. The message board on the Pedals 4 Peace website even displays well-wishes from Mount Allison University president Robert Campbell, clearly interested in the rather unorthodox arrival method of one of his institution’s newest students.
Still, the interviews and interest of the press seem to have taken Stapleton by surprise. “It really wasn’t a trip we planned to attract media attention,” she said. “We just wanted to bring awareness to alternatives of...how to get to your next destination and improve your connection with the natural environment.”
After all, they say it’s not where you’re going but how you get there.
