For all my family and friends around the world and for all the great people I've met along the road this summer, here is a sneak preview of some of the photos from my 2001 Cross-Canada cycling trip. This is being put together while on the road so it's not up to my usual standards from a technical perspective. The scans aren't great quality and the image file sizes are a bit large. This page may load very slowly for some people. Click on any photo to see it in full size.

Well here I am geared up and ready to roll. Have you ever seen a bike so heavily loaded in your life? A full set of panniers (sidebags or saddlebags to non-cyclists) plus a loaded trailer in tow. I brought everything except the kitchen sink.

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For those of you that don't know the whole story, I am cycling across Canada during the summer of 2001. I started in the Yukon territory and will pass through every province on my way to St. John's, Newfoundland. Hence, I have decided to name my bike "Yukon St. John". It's a very dignified sounding name for a bike, don't you think? The trailer is just called Bob.

Of course, all vehicles pulling trailers must check into the weigh station for inspection. I tipped the scales at 150 kilograms. Yikes! That's 350 pounds total. I only weigh 140 pounds so the bike weighs more than 200 pounds with all the gear I have loaded on it.

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I have endeavoured to take the most northerly route possible while crossing western Canada. I figured there's a whole lot of our country that most people never see while living and vacationing in the southern 10 percent of the country. This often meant travelling on secondary roads rather than main highways, but I prefer the backroads when travelling. In many of the more remote areas of Canada, the backroads are not paved. Some of them don't even have dirt or gravel. Just look at this railway crossing.

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My route took me into the Northwest Territories via the Liard Trail. This is a rough dirt road which proved to be a bit too much for my narrow road tires. Here I am fixing my fourth flat in less than 24 hours.

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I had an unexpected visitor after putting the bike back together. It was a nice little surprise after the frustration of fixing another flat.

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Unfortunately, not all the insect life has been so beautiful. There's a giant mosquito on my hand right now. SWAT!!!

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Got him! Ughh, look at the mess. Oh well, it was my blood first. The mosquito just stole it from me.

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Look at the size of that bugger!

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I have encountered giant mosquitoes, black flies, horse flies, deer flies, sand flies, dragon flies, no-see-ums, and gnats. All the bug bites really add up. My legs are a mess.

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Bugs haven't been the only thorn in my side on this trip. I fell on a rosebush and actually did get a thorn in my side. No, just kidding about that one. But I have had lots of bad weather. Check out these storm clouds rolling in over a canola field in Alberta. I've never seen clouds so black. That's the kind of storm that brings tornados and there were a few twisters that touched down in that region while I was cycling through.

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I've been forced to camp out in the rain a lot. The tent resists water pretty well when erect but if you pack it up wet in the morning it will be completely saturated with water when you open it up again that night. To alleviate this problem, I bought a nice big tarp which I string up over a tree or whatever else is handy so my tent doesn't end up soaking wet.

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I sometimes go days without passing a town so I have to be pretty self-sufficient. I carry a lot of food with me and sometimes I'll enjoy the fruit of the land by picking wild berries. These wild cherries were plentiful but rather small and a bit sour.

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Although I camp out almost every night, it was nice to stay in a motel for a change when I got to Prince Albert. Oh my! Look at those tan lines. I guess it's true what they say about ultraviolet light passing right through clouds.

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That's it for now but of course there are many more photos to come. For every photo, there is a thousand words. When I get a chance, I'll write my thousand words about some of those photos so you can enjoy the story behind the pictures.