trans-canada, prevailing winds & solo travels questions

hi! new member, first post, and already i have a question or several:

next year i'm planning a solo trans-canadian trip, and i've been getting conflicting advice from various people about the best direction - vancouver to newfoundland or vice versa? i know that, what with riding across a whole continent, i'm going to suffer headwinds no matter what, but is there a generally agreed "better" direction? last year i did part of the pacific coast route, seattle to san francisco, and i had previously read up and found that south was best there for reasons of prevailing winds and road shoulders.

my other question is - well. i did my last (and first) big trip solo, and on the whole i loved it, but even camping in the state parks there was the odd night where the horror stories and dire warnings of friends who felt travelling solo & female on a bike was clearly suicidal rather got to me. (especially at the hiker biker site where no-one else showed up and suddenly the thick bushes and the fact the rest of the campsite was half a mile away felt a little... eeky. i am not too proud to say i went and found a big stick and slept with it next to my sleeping bag...) i expect that on the trans-canadian trip i'll have to camp away from official campgrounds a fair amount of the time, and i guess i'm going prepared to be scared from time to time, but i would welcome any tips from other women who've done similar trips.

it's people i worry about (though my mother is more concerned that i'll get eaten by bears). so far my tentative plans are:

#1. find a place to camp relatively early so i don't get stuck pitching the tent wherever because daylight/energy is running out.

#2. listen to my gut: if someone/somewhere is seriously creeping me out, pack up and look for a new camping site - don't second guess my instincts (though this involves distinguishing between genuine creepiness and overcaution - easier said than done)

#3. asking people who don't trip my dubious-radar to recommend places to camp

#4. knocking on doors in the countryside - if the people who answer give me bad vibes, i'll ask directions, if they don't i'll ask if they would mind if i camped on their land (i am not sure about this last one: am i likely to get met with a shotgun? farmers hereabouts - northern ireland - can be a little... grumpy. some of them get angry if you even turn into their driveway.)

any and all advice/suggestions/tips welcome. (i plan to train HARD in the months before i go, so hopefully fitness won't be an issue.) i'm from the uk, and i have been to canada once, for ten days (vancouver/sunshine coast/vancouver island) so to a certain extent canada is a BIG new world for me. thanks in advance!

Welcome.

Good that you are planning cross-Canada cycling trip this year...to be done next years. Especially when you are not familiar with Canada's diverse terrain and climate zones.

You don't need to apologize to a group of cycling women here, for sleeping with a big hitting stick while camping solo in the wilderness.

By the way, there is an annual group ride that you can pay..to cycle across the whole length of Canada. They've been doing it for a long time.

www.tourducanada.com/

There's sag support.

No, I haven't cycled across Canada. But my dearie partner has done it twice from Vancouver to Toronto by himself.

I also personally know a woman after she retired from work at 65 yrs., she cycled across Canada with a blend of camping and motels.

The general consensus for these people that I know PLUS the Canadian cycling company that does that group ride annually...it is best to cycle from Vancouver eastward to "reduce" (abit) headwinds.

The individuals that I've known, tend to cycle on or close to the TransCanada highway (highway 1). Please study a detailed road map of Canada...Canada is huge and in some provinces there aren't many decent highways (with shoulders) to choose for route planning.

Hope you start your trip from Vancouver in around late May (not earlier) and onward. And end whole trip no later than approx. end of Sept. Some of us have experienced a bit of snow during the Canadian Thanksgiving in early October. (more in mountains, eastern coastal Canada, etc.)

Do you plan on camping the whole way?

thanks for the link to the tourducanada - i have thought about joining a group but for some reason (possibly sheer bloodymindedness) i would really like to haul my own gear and do it all myself...

east-west is starting to sound like the best direction - thank you!

The individuals that I've known, tend to cycle on or close to the TransCanada highway (highway 1). Please study a detailed road map of Canada...Canada is huge and in some provinces there aren't many decent highways (with shoulders) to choose for route planning.

my plan was to do general route-planning from this side of the atlantic (i am not sure what people did before google maps - and their "terrain" option!) but i thought i might do the actual map-buying in vancouver - i think there are at least two dedicated travel bookstores/mapstores (so says my guidebook, anyway) as the only readily available maps of canada in the uk are whole-country ones.

i was hoping to leave in june (probably late june) and make it across in under 3 months. i think i'll be camping most of the way for financial reasons - though i will be budgeting for stays in hostels, when they're to be found, and student accommodation if available, and i plan to keep some money back so i can stay in motels from time to time if need be.

thanks for your advice. much appreciated!

Shootingstar was actually suggesting West to East, not East to West.

This being said, I'm originally from Montreal, Quebec, and I know many people that rode from Montreal to Vancouver (thus East to West) and who thought it was "nicer" because the most spectacular and (to them) least familiar scenery was at the end. They also had a chance to train for the bigger climb. Prevailing winds are from West to East, but it's not as significant a factor as it is going from B.C. to California (where you really MUST do it from North to South).

Some bits of southern Ontario and Quebec can be a little industrial, and would make a less-exciting end-of-trip. On the other hand, assuming you'll end in the Atlantic provinces if you start in Vancouver, that can also be quite beautiful... and there are serious climbs (although shorter) there, too.

Have a great trip!!

er. good point! (i meant west to east, i think my brain was just... absent when i wrote that!)

i quite fancy ending up in newfoundland - i have been looking at pictures, and: pretty.

thanks

WOW ! ! ! congratulations on planning this undertaking! I have never come close to even considering a trip like that but I would like to offer my advice.

I am originally from Saskatchewan. I know wind. The weather today is described as "partly cloudy and breezy" "Breezy" is NW winds sustained at 23 mph w/ 37mph gusts

Since last night the wind was up to sustained 36 mph w/ gusts up to 46 mph.

The prevailing winds are from the west so I would strongly advise a West to east route or you will be cursing the prairies. There is NOTHING to block the wind and it never ends. As experienced cross country riders have said "When you climb a mountain pass you know you will eventually come to the top and get to come back down, but wind never ends"

Your prairie ride will cover over 1/2 of Alberta, all of Saskatchewan and most of Manitoba - trust me you don't want to be bucking the wind all the way.

If I remember correctly all of Hwy #1 is 4 lane now in Saskatchewan. If anyone recommends Hwy #13 really check it out. It has VERY low traffic but spots are under construction - if you choose to do #13 let me know - my sister lives on it and so do my parents. I bet they would put you up for the night! My aunt lives on #1 and would do the same

Good luck and keep us posted!

Quote:

Originally Posted by eclectic

WOW ! ! ! congratulations on planning this undertaking! I have never come close to even considering a trip like that but I would like to offer my advice.

I am originally from Saskatchewan. I know wind. The weather today is described as "partly cloudy and breezy" "Breezy" is NW winds sustained at 23 mph w/ 37mph gusts

Since last night the wind was up to sustained 36 mph w/ gusts up to 46 mph.

The prevailing winds are from the west so I would strongly advise a West to east route or you will be cursing the prairies. There is NOTHING to block the wind and it never ends. As experienced cross country riders have said "When you climb a mountain pass you know you will eventually come to the top and get to come back down, but wind never ends"

Your prairie ride will cover over 1/2 of Alberta, all of Saskatchewan and most of Manitoba - trust me you don't want to be bucking the wind all the way.

If I remember correctly all of Hwy #1 is 4 lane now in Saskatchewan. If anyone recommends Hwy #13 really check it out. It has VERY low traffic but spots are under construction - if you choose to do #13 let me know - my sister lives on it and so do my parents. I bet they would put you up for the night! My aunt lives on #1 and would do the same

Good luck and keep us posted!

thank you! and, sorry for the very late reply - i was away on holiday (on the bike, in scotland) and then work decided to take over every spare moment so i wasn't lurking around the forums! i will absolutely look into #13 - i'm still at the early planning stages (lots of googling, looking for books, assuring my mother i know what to do if bears try to snack on me - she has quite the conviction that canada is THICK with cyclist-eating bears!)

also, it is very kind of you to offer your relatives as staging posts. *g* i will hang around the forums a bit more and you can decide if you actually *really* want to inflict a stranger on them based on that!

i have definitely decided on west to east! agreed that wind is way worse than hills (though hills with a headwind may be the worst thing ever invented....)

i have noticed that everyone i tell about my plans looks at me like i'm crazed. i just figure - if i put it off, it won't get any easier, so why not get stuck in now? life might get too busy the year after next, or i might break a leg or something. it is slightly terrifying at times, but nothing ventured nothing gained, right?