The Drive

Packing 6 bikes into a converted GMC Savana is not the easiest task. The Savana is equipped with a bedroom and kitchen area but it also boasts a modest garage. Utilizing the skills of a Tetris master, FX has managed to fit all of our bikes, wheels, and tires into the garage, protecting our precious cargo from the elements. 

The Family

With 2 downhill bikes, 2 enduro bikes, a dirt jumper and a BMX we were well equipped to start our adventure… or so we thought. Riding 6 bikes is easy, maintaining 6 bikes is another story. The month leading up to our departure was filled with broken shocks, broken brakes, broken pedals, a broken helmet, crushed bearings, forks that needed to be serviced, and the routine replacements of brake pads, tires, fluids, and cables. We ride hard and our bikes show it. We need to send a huge thank you to our favourite bike shops, friends, and random folks who’ve helped to keep us going along the way. 

The drive was long but a few unexpected detours kept us wide awake and always finding new, adventurous solutions to the challenges presented by van life.  

Riding Mountain Provincial Park

Although the drive through Ontario was lengthy and the mosquitoes were absolutely horrendous we discovered the stunning shores of Lake Superior and swam in the frigid water. Taking a break from the road, we rested the van at a tiny lakeside campsite, cooked dal with rice, and slept with what felt like a million mosquitos biting before making our exit out of the province. 

While jumping into Lyons Lake in Manitoba was the only the way to escape the enormous mosquitoes, sleeping at Lyons Lake is not recommended. Living in a van has meant that we have become fairly sufficient at scouring the web for free campsite apps and perusing map topography for spots that might contain free campsites. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. After getting evicted from our first site we checked a few apps and travelled to a site that looked promising. With flashing lights approaching behind us as we stopped on the side of a dusty unmaintained road we knew we weren’t going to secure a restful sleep in Manitoba. As the lights turned out to be an ambulance on route to a call from a quad, we turned back to the highway and hoped for a better spot. We did get to see a large black bear in the centre of the road so the detour wasn’t a total loss, as detours never are. 

Everyone says Saskatchewan is flat – it is, but it does finish with green rolling hills that are beautifully endless and the province provided a very tranquil sleep right along the TransCanada highway. While the scenery in Saskatchewan is far from challenging, finding water certainly was. The Savana is equipped with a sink and water that runs with a battery operated pump. We have 2x 23 litre tanks. The tanks are desert-style, tall and thin. They fit perfectly under the van’s sink area but they are impossible to fill with a standard kitchen tap. Driving through Saskatchewan over the long weekend meant finding water was extra challenging. After asking at a few gas stations, an aquatic centre, a community centre, and driving through campgrounds with non-potable only water, we started to get desperate. We stopped at a roadside motel. The kind of motel that tends to rent long-term… or very very short-term. With pink carpets from the 80’s and the usual highway charm, we were incredibly thankful to the owner who let us fill our water tanks – in the motel – in a room – from the bathtub! 

The drive through Alberta was filled with cows, oil rigs, prairie dogs, and a desire to press on and spend our night sleeping in BC. Anxious to cross the provincial border, we ate steak in Canmore, passed through Banff, rushed the crowds to get a photo of Lake Louise, and spent the night with the van resting along side the Kicking Horse River. We made it. We slept soundly, breathing in the raw mountain air and dreaming of the following day’s ride. Early the next morning we drove the short trek to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and pulled our downhill bikes out of the van for some epically gorgeous trail views… but that’s a story for another day.