Day T-6

Looking back at 50, I can still feel the visceral mix of anxiety and adrenaline that kept me awake until 11:00 PM the night before we left. I was still packing, still wondering if I had forgotten some vital piece of gear, and waking up a dozen times in the grip of a realization: I was actually going to try to cycle across Canada. It felt like a grandiose, beautiful kind of insanity.

I insisted on taking the train out West. I wanted to see the scale of what we were about to attempt, and I wanted to see Edmonton and Jasper—places our cycling route wouldn't touch. What I didn't fully account for was the reality of 60+ hours in a fake-leather economy seat. About three hours in, it hit me: this blue fabric chair was my home for the next three days. It wasn't really as bad as it could have been because you can always get up and walk to the observation deck and of course there are people to talk to.

Wendy gets high marks for the first confirmed sighting of big wildlife... unless you count the VIA groupie Shayne saw at the side of the tracks. A black bear was standing watching the train go by. I still haven't seen anything I'm sure was a moose yet.

I did some quick "train-math" today: every hour we spend rolling past these trees translates to roughly one full day of cycling on the way back. Every mile brings the start line closer, and despite the nerves, I feel more ready by the minute.

It feels like I am leading a different life now. At 7:00a this morning, I detached myself from my Toronto life and begin this life. And in ten weeks or so, I will resume my old life. This trip already has a surreal feel to it. The immensity of our voyage starts to sink in around 6:00p when I notice that the landscape passing by the window essentially has not changed in the past eight hours. An obvious conclusion: Canada is large and I am still in Ontario. Blue makes an interesting, and possibly quite accurate, remark: every hour on the train will translate into a day of cycling. But I am not worried or concerned about the distance. This trip already seems like it will just be a series of events or tasks strung together without much conscious thought going into the details. Put your head down and go.

We arrive at Union Station in Toronto by 7:30a with expectations of boarding the train to begin at 7:45a when in fact we finally board around 8:30a. A friend of Wendy's will be flying out to Victoria to join us in a few days. We manage to get four seats to ourselves. Around 12:30p we pass through Parry Sound and I think to myself how I have never been further west in Canada. We stop in Capreol around 4:30p and briefly detrain to stretch our legs. The weather is now sunny and in the mid-twenties compared to the cool, overcast conditions that we left behind in Toronto.

I am very pleased we chose to take the train. As repetitive as some of the scenery seems, this is what I have wanted to see. There is the freedom of not having to concentrate on driving and the ability to walk around and sit in the observation deck not possible when flying. During supper we sit with a man born in Newfoundland, living in London, and traveling to Fort McMurray to spend the summer logging. I am sure there will be plenty of interesting conversations over the next couple days.

I am trying my best to stay awake on only a couple hours of sleep from the previous night doing last minute packing. I have napped for an hour this afternoon so I should hopefully sleep well tonight despite the unconventional sleeping arrangements.