The Long Ride

The end came as a surprise.

Of course, I could see how many kilometres I had ahead of me after each day, when I plugged my numbers into The Conqueror Virtual Challenges app, but I tend to focus on how far I've come, not how far there is to go. But as the percentage of completion hit the mid 90s, I could see that the end was near.

After 136 days and 3,513.1 kilometres (that point-one is important!), I finally crossed the finish line in my virtual Great Wall challenge. This was the second-longest trek that I've taken in these virtual tours but somehow felt like it was the longest. Perhaps it's because there weren't many Google street views along the journey and it would seem like a long period between sites that I could actually see where I was.

It would have been nice to see some of the towns, villages, mountains, and desert landscapes along the way. The satellite images often weren't very clear when I zoomed in and I could rarely see the actual wall from above.

And I thought you could see it from space!

When I learned, on the last day of the challenge, that I only had to complete 32.8 kilometres, I was surprised that it was such a short way. So far, this year, I've been typically riding my bike for 42 kms or longer. For the past few weeks, I've been walking for about eight to 10 kms each day, usually marching on the spot, in front of my desk, during office meetings.

Finishing the final stretch was easy; though, when I finished my walk, after a short spin bike ride, and plugged in my numbers, I found that I was 100 metres shy of the finish line and had to walk some more.

This challenge was my eighth since I started them, in January of 2021. In total, these eight challenges represent 12,773.1 kms (again, the point-one matters!) of travel by bike, on foot, by swimming, and by kayak.

And I'm not done.

The very next day, I started my next virtual challenge. It's a short one, at only 299.4 kms, and is a trail that DW and I have actually taken: the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton Island.

We didn't cycle it but we did hike along a few trails. We also visited the Alexander Graham Bell historic site, which is the starting point for this challenge. For the most part, we drove it in our 1980 Datsun 200SX. On the way, we had to fix a broken muffler, loosen a seized brake, and pull over and wait for an RCMP police car to turn around and catch us (I'll share that story soon. Maybe, when I reach that same point along the virtual trail).

I've also been on part of the Cabot Trail when I was in grade 10, as part of a band trip.

I've planned for 14 days to complete this trek but given the pace that I kept for the Great Wall, I could be done in a week. Stay tuned.