Reasons to go on a bike tour
I am a 26 year old woman over halfway done my summer bike tour of cycling from Montreal to Halifax in Quebec Canada. Roughly 1200+ miles to complete in about 38 days of cycling solo. This ain’t my first rodeo (I’ve cycled across the U.S., from Atlanta to Baltimore, 10 countries in Western Europe, all of New Zealand and part of Australia), but it’s my first rodeo in about 2.5 years.
In the past 650+ miles, I’ve only had two official rest days. I’ve been pushing hard, not necessarily because I want to, but because this is how the adventure has shown itself to be.
I’ve been asking myself a lot “why am I here? Why am I on this bike tour?” As I sit charging my phone at a campsite by a river that some road angels brought me to (after rescuing me from a day of 30mph headwinds where I could barely stay up on my bike- they fed me coffee, a donut, pizza, salad and a cupcake, and we played some card games too as we awaited the sun after the rain), I’ve decided to write down all the reasons why I am on a bike tour, and why you, too, may want to go on a bike tour.
In no particular order, here are the reasons:
To see the trees dance in the wind
To escape politics at home (especially the U.S.)
To be outside even more than you already are.
To see new types of people and families living their ordinary life, which is far different from yours (but ultimately quite the same)
To see beautiful places and enjoy them for the brief moment you’re there
To feel the exposure of the outdoors, even if that makes you worry about having sun spots and “bad skin” when you’re older
To push your body really hard, because our bodies are amazing and we should see what we can do with them every once in a while.
To sleep on the ground more nights than in a bed because sometimes the ground just feels really nice
To be an outsider of another group of people
Because the timing and location of this whole adventure worked out
To experience the joy of a tailwind and a beach swim & nap on a hot day
To experience the hardship of 30mph headwinds and cold rainy days
The check in with yourself and ask “do I like myself?”
To see how much you’ve changed in recent years- from your last solo trip, last bike tour or bike ride, or if none of those, simply how different you are now from other periods of your life
To assess your identity and relationship with yourself, because even tho we exist as people in relation to others, sometimes we need to remember who we are when we aren’t around them
To escape wage slavery and the 9-5 for a little while
To live a simple life- a few outfits, 2 pairs of shoes, a tiny home (tent), one vehicle (tour bike), a tiny kitchen & pantry, and whatever other hobbies & things you can carry
To be alone with your thoughts and really get to know what your brain does in its idle time
To see how you stand in the face of extreme challenge
To talk to strangers
To go~with~the~flow
To trust the magic of humanity
To walk barefoot on grass and sand and rocks
To hear something other than city noise from where you live
To eat 6000 calories a day and all the sugar you want because you know it’s important to limit your sugar intake in normal life but here you’re biking 2-10 hours a day so you actually really need it
To see more sunsets and sunrises and magical skies
For lake showers after days of caked on dirt
To appreciate all the things you do have at home- the drama of your friendships and complexities of community.
To take a break from the impending feeling of death that is all across the news
To assess if you want to live in a certain country (I applied for Canadian citizenship, hence why I’m here)
To make sure that you have loads of epic stories and memories to reflect on rather than just churning in the hamster wheel of capitalist life and realizing life escaped you
To be dirty, like really dirty, and then appreciate the heavenly cleanliness after a thorough shower
To trust strangers and to trust your intuition.
To know that you can do hard things
To see as many natural wonders of the world before climate change ruins it all
To stop watching tv shows and movies when you’re bored and do something else like read a book or crochet a shirt
To experience life full of life
To let your mind wander
To see how far you’ve come- both on this trip and in life
To assess if you like being alone. To reevaluate what role in life aloneness plays for you.
To have an excuse to get a cappuccino every day (it’s for the free WiFi of course!)
To see how well you can take care of yourself
To get another pin to put on your handlebar bag to add some extra personality
To paint more often than you usually do
To look at rocks
To look at flowers
To look at rivers and oceans and hills and forests and animals and bugs and everything you can
To camp in weird places which can be quite magical
To intimately feel another culture
For coffee outside
Because this lowkey is your career path so you need to keep doing things like this
Because you restructured your entire life to be able to do trips like this!!
Because in the past bike tours helped you escape something bad and find yourself and now it just feels like it’s a part of who you are
To take a step back from the madness
For camping outside of a taco joint on the beach cuz you met the owner and he was really cool and said you could stay the night when the business closed
For eating a balanced diet of dirtbag food (peanut butter and bread sandwiches) and cultured delicious food (those Mexican beach tacos, Quebecois beer, mediocre poutine, fantastic veggiepate sandwiches)
So, why am I cycling 1200 miles from Montreal to Halifax? It’s for all the reasons above, and probably twice as many more.
It’s for the love of life. The love of being outside. The love of the magic of humanity. To escape the fascism at home. To escape the monotony of normal life. Because this is who I am. Because I want to remember who I am.