Larry Griffiths is keeping active in retirement by doing more than an occasional walk around the block.
Griffiths, from British Columbia, is riding his bike from Saskatoon to Vancouver along the Trans-Canada Trail.
The bike ride is about 3,000 kms of mostly backroads, Griffiths said, with paved roads between Edmonton and Calgary. In southern B.C., the route winds through the Rockies.
“I like that kind of travel adventure,” Griffiths told the News-Optimist on the weekend.
Griffiths flew to Saskatoon. It took him two and a half days to get from Saskatoon to North Battleford. He said the trip would have been shorter if not for wind and rain.
He recommends cycling west to east rather than the other way around.
“It’s even better to bike with the wind at one’s back,” he said.
The route he chose between Saskatoon and North Battleford “isn’t the most direct or the flattest,” but he said he enjoyed it nonetheless, meeting some nice locals near Marcelin and Duck Lake.
On the trail, Griffiths mainly sleeps in a tent set up somewhere with a view of “something that’s kind of pretty.” He plans to sleep every few nights in a hotel because, he said, washing underwear is important on such a trip. Unlike B.C., which has many streams, in Saskatchewan, the duck ponds can be scummy.
Griffiths has made long bike trips before, including one in Western Australia when he was younger.
Now years later, biking has a fashionable culture all of its own. Bikes have a variety of names, and “raconteurs” involve long trips, nature and local culture.
Along the trail, Griffiths said he expects to meet people doing similar trips. He’s heard of a woman who walked the Trans-Canada Trail, taking approximately 400 days.
Griffiths said he’s gained a sense of Canada’s massive scale, and encourages everyone, including locals, to make trips around the province without a vehicle.
