That was all the equipment problems we had. From what I read, and hear about, this is very minor. We have a great protector looking out for us.
We will keep the site updated whenever we can.
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| Cycle Odyssey 2001 | |||||||||
| Winnipeg to Inuvik | |||||||||
| First half completed ahead of schedule A short recap by Jerry Zaste | |||||||||
| Our first 3 � weeks were the most arduous cycling I had ever done. The constant head winds between 50-90 kilometers per hour, rain, ice crystals, road washouts, muddy roads had caused route changes, short distances with longer days that I had ever experienced. | |||||||||
| Regardless of these hardships, Lesly and I were able to catch up to our schedule by making longer days by not taking the scheduled two days off each week. | |||||||||
| Roads, except for the first few weeks, were hard top making for smooth riding. Manitoba has rough gravel shoulders, some very small, Saskatchewan on back roads were similar to Manitoba, but generally, had great hard surface shoulders. Alberta was the same, great! The North West Territories, where paved, had good shoulders, but where gravel, there are very steep drop offs, which makes it a little scary when vehicles are passing both ways at the same time. | |||||||||
| Our longest single day distance was 202 km in 12 hours from High Level, Alberta to the border campground in the NWT. This day we had a South wind, smooth road, and 3 bear sightings to spur us on. The next morning, we were just packed up and checking our site for anything we forgot, that a very large black bear moved into our campsite. Since the bikes and gear, weighing 150 kg each, do not move very fast at first, Lesly yelled at the bear while I tried to see if this was the wounded bear we were warned about the previous night and get the air horn. A few tense moments later, Lesly still yelling and me sounding the air horn in short blasts, the bear moved away from our site and we left for the information center to report the sighting. | |||||||||
| We camped in churchyards, gravel pits, back yards, bush, along roads, some regular campgrounds and when conditions are bad or just totally beat, we would book into a motel for showers and crash. It was some site with our bikes and trailers emptied in a small motel room. | |||||||||
| Bird watching afforded us a few moments of relaxation along the way. We recorded most that we identified. Some were of the never seen before never to be seen again variety. | |||||||||
| My brother, just returning to Ft. Simpson from Vancouver, met us at the NWT information center. We made arrangements to meet again along the way and possible Orville and Jeannine would join us for the final 3 days into Ft. Simpson. We did meet on our day off at Sambaa Deh Falls Campground. (Trout River) and enjoyed another day off exploring, visiting, taking pictures and trying to identify a shy bird that sounds like treet - treet - treet, deep - deep -deep - deep (a little higher) dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee .It likes the poplar/spruce area and is in the same area every morning. Any suggestions? | |||||||||
| Arrival at Ft. Simpson on the MacKenzie River was a great thrill. This was a dream for a few years by Lesly to cycle to Ft. Simpson to meet up with her friend Jeannine Gaulin (Macauly). I joined up with Lesly to do this trip, but I had extended it to Inuvik. We never dreamed that we would actually complete this part of the journey and still survive. | |||||||||
| The trip again changed by the addition of Jeannine and my brother Orville joining us to Inuvik, NWT. My other brother Cliff and his wife Dianne were also supposed to join us as well, but circumstances prevented them from joining us. | |||||||||
| This Phase Two - Cycle Odyssey 2001 - is a totally new trip. Although still the same cycle trip, the route makes it a completely new and challenging trip. This is now a foursome group and each has equal ownership of the trip. This is no longer Lesly and Jerry's trip. | |||||||||
| Equipment problems enroute: | |||||||||
| In the first 2 weeks, we had 3 flat tires. The super tubes, in Lesly's bike had the valves torn nearly off on smooth roads. These were replaced with other super tubes, which the third valve also tore off. The last super tube had a legitimate flat, a piece of glass cut through the tire and tube. I had one slow leak that wasn't noticed for 2 days and we decided to take a day of because my knees were hurting so bad. Changed that tube and all was good but had to buy more regular tubes. | |||||||||
| We had a surprising problem; Lesly's rear wheel rim split about 3 inches lengthwise and caused a bulge on the rim. I got it back in, but when adding air pressure, bulged out again so we disconnected the rear breaks and headed for High Prairie, nothing there, so went to Peace River where we ordered a new rim from Edmonton and off we went. | |||||||||
| My hands have been hurting more as the trip progressed. The problem is that the front handlebar stem is too far forward and too low. This was the way it was when I purchased the bike, but never made a long trip like this. I ordered a new stem from Yellowknife. My rear shifter is also so tight to get it into the low gear that my right hand aches all the time. It was always tight, but on this trip of constantly shifting to low gears the problem became apparent. All adjustments appear ok and had isolated each area, derailer, cable and shifter, Each is free, collectively, not good on the low gears. I have to clear this problem before continuing. | |||||||||
| We purchased new tires in Peace River that will make traveling on the many remaining smooth roads a lot easier and a seat for Lesly. My handlebar riser just arrived from Yellowknife. Lesly is out washing the bikes right now. That was all the equipment problems we had. From what I read, and hear about, this is very minor. We have a great protector looking out for us. We will keep the site updated whenever we can. |
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