Eleven degrees in 5 weeks with a 9 months old baby and bikes

We started talking about cycle touring this summer even before the arrival of our daughter. After some initial ideas of going to Iceland, we decided to spend some time exploring our new home, British Columbia. In his usual fashion Charlie got carried away and thought...Why don't we bike from home to Alaska, or even Whitehorse in the Yukon? He proved that it was possible by providing a detailed trip plan and I agreed to it. Our trip would cover over 1000 km by bike and just as much by ferry, eleven degrees in total, over a five week stint. Many people thought we were nuts and probably very bad parents. "A five week torture trip for a baby". Sign me up! I thought!

First section of the trip: leaving home, biking up Vancouver Island to Port Hardy where we caught a scenic ferry to Prince Rupert (fyi: this did take more than 40 h). Another ferry took us out to Haida Gwaii where we spent a week.

Preparations

You can't just head off cycle touring with a 9 months old baby without any preparations. in fact, we had months of preps. Firstly we made sure that Mylla was very used to spending lots of time in the chariot, the Mylla-mobile. Secondly we made sure that she was on a pretty regular napping schedule. We needed as much biking time as possible and we needed to know when she was ready to nap. Thankfully she has been a very good sleeper and we were still on three naps a day when the big journey commenced.

During May we had two practice weekends, one in Squamish in the rain with a grand total of 10 km each day and one sunny trip on Salt Spring Island and San Juan island in the U.S. These trips made us understand which gear to bring and confirmed that our plan was ambitious but possible. We were counting on covering 40-50 km per day. Cycle touring felt very familiar after we spent three months biking in Patagonia a couple of years ago. The only minor alteration was the addition of Mylla (very minor indeed). From experience we know that cycle touring is a lot of packing and unpacking. It was going to be a lot of gear faff, we knew that, but maybe not just how much extra a baby added into the mix. A weekend trip doesn't give you that understanding.

The preps were more about the gear than about Mylla. A baby changes so quickly. On our first practice weekend, Mylla could hardly sit up, on the second her reach was much bigger, but she was not yet crawling. At the time of the trip we had a fast crawling baby to deal with. Babies are literally moving targets.


Second section of the trip involved minimal pedalling: an overnight ferry journey up the Alaska Marine Highway to Juneau

Last section of trip: ferry journey from Juneau to Skagway where we climbed up to White Pass (1000 m) to our final destination, Whitehorse.

Keeping Mylla happy

The trip was only possible, or bearable, if we managed to keep our lovely daughter happy. A crying baby in a tent, around the camp or in a chariot, is pretty stressful, so we spent a lot of effort on making sure that she was content. She was very happy to nap three times a day (even when we weren't cycling) and she went down with minimal fuss. Once she was awake, she was happy playing with toys in the chariot for a while before we had to stop and let her out. We could buy a bit more time on the road by giving her rice crackers. Whatever works...

We found the hardest part of cycle touring with a baby was to pack up in the morning. Without Mylla it would take about two hours and with a wriggling baby it always took three! From her wake up time (5.30 - 6 am usually..no sleep ins), we had max three hours until she needed her first nap. Therefore we couldn't slack off and there was always a sense of urgency in the morning to get everything done. It was certainly the most stressful part of the trip. The solution was to sometimes stay two nights in one place or to stay in a cabin or motel.

A typical day looked like this:
6 - 9 am breakfast and packing
9-10.30 am biking during nap 1
10.30 - 12 pm wriggle time and lunch
12-1.30 pm biking during nap 2
1.30-2.30 wriggle and second lunch
2.30-4 pm biking during nap 3 to a place to camp/sleep

Ideally we wanted to get to a camp no later than five pm to give us enough time to set up before Mylla's bedtime. As you can tell, it was all centred around her.

Charlie was in charge of trip planning with a plan for every day, ideally with a couple of options if we wanted to do longer day (up to 70 km) or a shorter one (maybe 40 km). Any daily distance shorter than 30-40 km felt too short to go through the hassle of packing up in the morning.

Keeping Mylla happy

During our trip, Mylla turned into a little climbing monkey and from being happy to sit she wanted to always stand up. The chariot turned into a baby gym, especially if the ground was soaking wet or filled with rocks that we didn't want her to eat. She always seemed very happy to play and spend lots of time in her mobile.

We had a happy girl most of the time

Spa treatment every night

Every night (bar a couple when it was too cold) we bathed her. The newly purchased Ortlieb foldable wash-up bowl served as a fantastic bath. Mylla was certainly a lot cleaner than us two scuzzbags who only got a shower once in a blue moon.

Gear, gear and more gear

Charlie pulled the heavy load. He had the tent, our mega tarp, all the tools and other odds and sods and Mylla of course. I took care of all the food and numerous diapers (yes I am Canadian now..no nappies here). It meant that my load was sometimes very light and other times super heavy.

In terms of baby gear, it didn't feel like we had to bring that much stuff. The majority of Mylla's gear fit nicely at the back of the chariot. We brought a carrier for walks, a couple of sleeping bags, an extra sleeping mat, and a fair bit of medication if the shit hit the fan (literally even).

Ahead of the trip, we ummed and ahed about what tarp we would bring and we finally settled for a MSR zing which is very impressive. It did a great job to keep rain away, and sun, but this wasn't as much of an issue. The first two weeks were generally warm and sunny and the last three were cooler with some rainy days. We only had a couple of days with heavy rain. Overall, I think we were pretty lucky with the weather.

Our set up

Our typical camp set-up. We had numerous people wanting a tarp like ours. 

 Bugged by bugs or bears?

We must have been lucky. It's been a dry spring and the bugs were OK. In some places they were a bit annoying, but thanks to the cage-like set-up it made cooking and eating more enjoyable. We found that the mosquitoes usually got worse once we had put Mylla to bed at 7 pm. She only got one single mosquito bite and a few temporary marks from noseeums (midges), but she didn't seem too bothered. The bugs seem to like her juicy parents way more. Well, as long as Mylla is happy, we were.

Me and my shark (aka mosquito) cage

The mosquitoes were the worst in Log Cabin in the Yukon. I wonder if they scared away many of the gold diggers back in the day?

We were also prepared for bears and had all the right gear: bear barrels for storing food, rope to tie any additional food up in the trees, bear spray, bangers and smoke in case we meet a curious bear. I was a bit worried about Mylla's clothes stinking of nice food. In the end there was nothing to worry about. We only saw one single bear in our five weeks on the road (Charlie saw a second black bear in the distance). No grizzlies at all. We never had any signs of bears going through our camp either. Charlie certainly was disappointed. I was quite relieved, however it would have been amazing to see them at a safe distance.

We were meant to take an adventurous route over to Whitehorse from Haines through Kluane National park. This would have meant an additional 200 km compared to the route from Skagway which we took. We decided to go over from Skagway to make the end of the trip more leisurely. It would have been too hard to clock up 60-70 km per day with wild camping for several days in a row. Our route choice felt like the right one when we met a German family who had encountered lots of grizzly bears during their visit to Kluane national park. Apparently everyone in the park had been strongly encouraged to sleep in their vehicles due to the bears. It would have been a bit of a tight squeeze to get into Mylla's chariot so I was quite pleased that we didn't take that route.

Staying sane, what were the tricks?

This easily could have been the divorce trip, the trip from hell, but we managed to keep it together. The first week was certainly the toughest since we were all getting into it and finding our routines and roles. Charlie and I had many silly arguments due to sleep deprivation. Over time Charlie and I developed very clear roles which reduced the number of arguments.

To make it all work, there were a number of things that I think were necessary to survive on the trip:

Breastfeeding - take away available 24/7! The picture shows a quick feeding stop about 5 minutes from the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. Mylla was screaming like there was no tomorrow and there was no waiting. We made the ferry to Nanaimo with a minute to spare. 

In general, Mylla was not eating that well and it was great to know that I could always fill her up even if she declined all food on offer. Being on tap has its down sides too. At night she would feed at least twice and up to four time just because I was so handy (and I wouldn't tolerate her screaming). Sleep training was a necessity when we got home to wean her off the night feeds.

Stopping when the time is right, not necessarily the scenery

Drinking nice beer after 7 pm when Mylla was asleep

Eating lots of junk. Charlie was stoked to find a stack of malt loaves, all for a dollar each (expired goods..perfectly fine for the desperate pom). 

We stopped at nearly all cafes that we came across.  I think that our calorie intake ended up in excess of the output. We both felt pretty nicely padded at the end of the trip.

Sleeping whenever we had a chance. We were incredibly tired the first week since Mylla kept on waking up at 5.30 am. The picture shows a collapsed father who didn't even wake up when his baby started screaming in the tent behind. 

Staying at places where Mylla could play with new toys. The biggest hit was the cabinet with VHS cassettes in one of the hotel apartments we stayed in. I don't think I have ever seen her that happy. 

Be silly or die. Having a baby gives you a license to make silly faces, omit sporadic farting noises (great!), wear random items on your head, sing miscellaneous songs about anything, and have tickle games.

Swing if everything else fails

The Road and the Journey

We covered 1,200 km over our 5 weeks with a total elevation gain of 9,000 meters.....Well done Mylla!!! We would not have made it that far if we didn't have such a tolerant baby.

The scenery was stunning in many places and pretty boring in others. Unfortunately with a bay you have to camp at every 50-70 km and we ended up camping at places which we probably wouldn't have chosen without Mylla. They were more functional stops, rather than scenic. We pitched the tent, fed and bathed M and once she was asleep we could prepare our dinner. Bed time was pretty early after a day on the road. When we stayed at a particularly nice spot we often stayed two nights so that we had once day to do some sleeping and walking and enjoy the absence of packing. 

Vancouver Island had some beautiful sections. We especially enjoyed our time at Nimpkish Lake, the windsurfer's Mecca, which is located south of Port McNeill on the northern end of the island. People were incredibly friendly and we felt like one with the locals after a rest day there. 

Haida Gwaii is famous for its mystical forest and amazing wilderness. Unfortunately we were limited to the well travelled roads which only stretched 130 km from Queen Charlotte city up to the northern end of Graham Island to Tow Hill. There are many logging roads which could have taken us to more adventurous places but many of them would be rough enough to give Mylla a few whiplashes. We still saw some beautiful places, but not what we would call wilderness. Next time we go back, when the time is right, we'll be back equipped with canoes or kayaks for sure. 

Yeah, let's celebrate the first puncture! We had two in the end (all mine in fact)

Checking out the pier in Port Clements where logs were loaded onto the barge 

Views from Tow Hill, Haida Gwaii. 

There were many signs on Haida Gwaii showing the dislike for the oil developments

Enbridge has a lot of opposition on Haida Gwaii. Their $6.5 billon project involves sending oil from the tar sands in Alberta almost 1,200 km (as far as we biked during our trip) to Kitimat on the west coast. Once the bitumen has reached the coast it would be transported by huge tankers through the narrow channels and unspoilt coast line passed Haida Gwaii  to access Asian markets. Apparently it will be all done very environmentally responsible (yeah right!). I would like to see that money being invested in innovation and development of renewable energy instead. 

Haida Gwaii is still vibrant with Haida art. 

We had a three day stop in Juneau where we visited the Mendenhall Glacier

We camped on the shore of the Mendenhall lake with great views of the massive glacier. I woke up one night from the ground moving and I quickly woke up Charlie. "There's an earth quake!". It felt really big and I got lots of flashback feelings from Christchurch. I automatically envisioned huge chunks of the glacier peeling off into the lake and creating a tsunami that would flood our camp. It took some convincing from Charlie that everything was fine and that we didn't need to seek higher ground. Later we heard that it was a quake with magnitude of 5.9, luckily with an epicentre more than 100 miles from our location. It had severed the fibre optic cable to Juneau and took out the internet for three days.  

The views along the Alaska Marine Highway from Juneau to Skagway were truly impressive

The views once we came over White Pass from a rainy Skagway. All of a sudden we had great tailwind, the sun was shining and the landscape almost instantly transformed from a lush rain forest to a barren windswept open landscape. It was probably our most enjoyable day on the bikes!

The Yukon with its many oil railways which were built during the gold rush

Stunning views along quiet roads

I'm beached as bro

Wild camping in the Yukon, just outside Carcross

We made it!!!

Of the whole trip we enjoyed our stay in the Yukon the most. The scenery was amazing and we found some perfect wild camping spots, thanks to detailed instructions from Paul in the bike store in Skagway, who was very excited to hear about our plan. Although we met incredibly friendly people everywhere (a cute baby attracts people), Whitehorse took the prize. One moment we were offered food and fire wood at the camp ground, the next moment a woman offered her condo and car for a few days. We were happy camping. In the end we took up the offer from another local, Jeannie, who gave us a drive around tour of the city and the surrounds for a few hours. How sweet!

After 5 weeks on the road, we made it to Whitehorse in one piece (three in fact). Time to fly back to Vancouver. No more cycle touring for a while. We were both getting home sick the last week and kept on talking about the stuff we missed from home: toast, the pool, endless showers, running and mountain biking! Vancouver had about 25-30 degrees which also attracted us. One morning in Whitehorse we had 2 degrees Celsius! Mylla was not impressed.

Generally we all enjoyed the trip. Mylla cried very little overall and she always gave us a big smile when we opened up the chariot after her nap. When she was awake, we stopped and played with her, giving her our full attention, unlike at home when there are always dishes to put away or washing to do etc. However, camping has some parts that are less baby friendly and it was hard work to constantly check what random items she engulfed. At home we realized how nice it was to be able to leave Mylla to roam free without having to constantly guard her like on the trip.

My final conclusion is: Cycle touring with a baby is really fun if you allow enough time, have some flexibility and if you can work well as a team.