The Spoked Traveller | 2012 March
Trails and advice cycling around the world as solo female cyclist and adventurer
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March 2012

B.C.'s unique mountain biking haven

melanie chambers

HORNBY ISLAND, B.C.— Special to The Globe and Mail
Published 
Last updated 
Island time is well known to residents of Hornby Island, B.C. It means slowing down long enough to enjoy the eagles, the ocean and the enormous cedars. It's also time well spent ripping it up on the mountain-bike trails. Loops and swerves are strung together in a convoluted network. Bikers meet at intersections, deciding on new paths. Hornby Island makes for some of Canada's sweetest mountain-biking, mixed in with countless other ways to while away the time.

Oh look, it’s troll toilet paper,” says the Icelandic travel guide pointing to the giant hay bales wrapped in white plastic. A survey last year revealed that 60 per cent of Icelanders believe in trolls. Construction crews will often build roads around bumps for fear of disturbing a “troll” house. At least this is what I discovered before visiting Iceland.

Canadians frustrated with long wait times for surgical procedures are heading overseas. Gina Littley didn't get to see many sites in India on her last visit, but she came back with something more lasting: After a surgery that fused part of her vertebrae, the 69-year-old British Columbian returned home almost pain-free for the first time in over 20 years. "(The surgery) has made it considerably better and I don't take any medication now," says Littley.

SOMEWHERE ON A BICYCLE IN SARDINIA—“Why you no marry, Bella?” asks the tiny Italian shepherd with no teeth.   As the first Canadian, and only woman on this ride (six Italian men and one Norwegian), I stand out. Called Transardinia, during this epic eight-day journey I will climb a total elevation of 11,000 metres—but for now--I can't stop thinking about that cow.

Close to their Ontario roots or up in the Arctic, the Drawnonward collective of artist-nomads share a reverence for the Canadian landscape By Melanie Chambers In the late 1990s, seven artists drove out west in three separate vehicles – a milk truck, a van and a Volkswagen Rabbit. One vehicle got separated. Unable to call one another – before cell-phone mania – everyone decided to take different routes. They assumed they'd just meet up in BC.

“The Bruce has theirs, this is ours,” says Tyler Hessel, owner of Outdoor Projects outtfitters www.outsideprojects.ca in Bayfield. He’s referring to the network of trails in Huron County; during my weekend, we mountain bike and...