Out Spokin': Chapter 23: Gaby's Story

The Quest of Parent

We met Gaby when he hosted us through the warmshowers.org website. He was looking forward to his own cycling adventure riding the mostly unpaved forestry roads north of Montreal. This is his story, which he graciously wrote in English. (French is the traditional language of Quebec.)

About 15 years ago, I went fishing with my father in a very isolated region of the province of Quebec which is called "La Haute-Mauricie." We went fishing nearby a small village named Parent. In this land of boreal forest and multiple lakes and rivers, in order to find the undiscovered perfect fishing spots, we followed old trails previously used by the forestry industry. In the comfort of an old pickup truck, I was always hit by the same idea, the same call of the challenge: Why not ride these trails on a bicycle?

Time has passed and as it has for a lot of us, our priorities have changed and my father and I have stopped going fishing. But the bicycling dream was still living in the bottom of myself.

I don't have a pretty long history of bike touring or even of road cycling. I did mountain bike when I was at University and I stopped it when I began to work. Three years ago, by a huge series of changes in my life, I bought an old touring bicycle (a Trek 520) and tried my first trip in Gaspesie, one of the most beautiful areas of Quebec [the Gaspee Peninsula]. As a lot of riders, I fell in love with this way of traveling. Once my first trip was done on paved road, my dream to ride on the forestry roads was awakened and I decided to prepare the project of riding a loop of 900 km.

The original planning was to make this trip in the summer 2016 with a partner, but it dramatically failed. Even all our motivations, our good intentions, even if my partner was a nice guy (and still is) the fit between us wasn’t right for this specific project. Also, we did not have the right bikes to ride on these gravel roads.

Next winter, I realized it was “my project” and it would have been difficult to find the right partner because my motivations to do it were deeply related to my own memories, my own story. So, I decided to try it again and this time it would be alone. As I had to upgrade my bike, I bought and rebuilt an old 90’s Giant mountain bike.

I tried the same test that I did with my partner the year before, which was to cycle until the first campground and get back to the car the next day. It was terrible! It was raining, windy, a lot of pick-up trucks going fishing and even though I had upgraded my bike, my average speed was about 10 km/h. Even if I was able to reach the campground, during this test, I decided to completely quit the project. It was much too difficult and painful.

But touring cyclists are not quitters. Even all difficulties met on this gravel road, even all the facts proving the hardship related to this trip, the dream was still burning in myself. As I am a cartesian and rational person, I hardly understood how to reconcile this desire with all the fears I had.

I realized this test allowed me to understand what I needed to adapt to increase my chance of success of this trip: to reduce my luggage weight and to better physically train myself. I had three weeks to do it and I made it. Even if I knew I was doing the right thing to improve the preparation of my trip, it rationally didn’t make sense to my engineer’s head.

To give you a perspective on where Gaby cycled, you can see Montreal in the lower right corner.

The day of my departure was a beautiful day; the weather was perfect. I was in top shape, motivated courageous, and focussed. My preparation was good because for everyone I met on my way, they did not understand why I was there with my bike (which was totally normal) and it did not impact me; I stayed focussed on my objective. I was the “crazy guy on a bike” in the middle of nowhere.

I have finally succeeded in reconciling my desire to do this adventure with my fears. No sophisticated mathematical equation was required, no theorem of the rocket science was required as well. In fact, it was pretty simple: I only had to accept. To accept the discomfort, to accept the pain, to accept the struggle and to accept the fear. I only had to be willing to feel these emotions, to face the issues, to be challenged and to leave a part of the control of this adventure to the Universe (or to the life, or to the God...). From this moment, instead of feeling a fight and a conflict within myself, I felt an unwavering confidence in my skills and in the trip itself.

All the trip was great, I rode 837 km in all and 482 of them were ridden on the forestry gravel roads. I met interesting people; I slept in a lumberjack camp, on an Indian camp and I defeated my fears, I have challenged and pushed myself further and finally I lived a dream. We all know the success of a trip is not about the destination, but the journey. For this specific adventure, it was about the preparation and specifically, my preparation.