A cross-Canada biker marked the final leg of his journey during an overnight stay in Port Elgin last week.
Armand Belliveau, a long-time resident of Shediac, was a half day’s ride shy of his cross-country goal when he pulled into the Victorian Verandah Bed & Breakfast last Wednesday. The biker, who celebrated his 70th birthday on June 26, along the TransCanada Highway somewhere in the prairies, said at the time that he was glad to be completing the journey.
“It was a good trip, but now it’s good to be coming home,” he said.
Belliveau made his living as a woodworker, launching Glenwood Kitchens in Shediac many years ago, a company he operated until his retirement in 2001. A change of diet and fitness routine in 2008 resulted in an improvement in his overall health and well-being, he noted.
“I changed my diet and I just started to feel so much better. About every 10 years I seem to want to do something out-of-the-ordinary so I thought it would be a good challenge for me to bike across Canada,” he explained, adding that he trained about 10 months for the 6,500 kilometre tour.
He asked long-time friend Keith Anderson of Dieppe, and his brother Lysle of Kentville, N.S. to accompany him on the trip and in May Belliveau and the two Port Elgin natives drove across Canada to begin their cross-country tour at Victoria, on Vancouver Island.
The first day of the return trip was inauspicious, to say the least.
“It rained hard that first day but we kept going all day. Then it rained for three more days straight and it was just miserable. After that we said ‘no more driving in the rain’ because it was just too hard to keep going,” he recalled.
After the initial inclement weather, many sunny days followed as the trio kept up their steady pace through the western provinces and into Ontario. However, a heat wave in Quebec lashed the bikers with blazing 35 -40 degrees Celsius temperatures.
“The thermometer on my bike said 108 degrees Fahrenheit and I just couldn’t do anymore in that kind of heat, so we had to slow the pace some,” Belliveau said.
Most days, however, he biked for eight to 10 hours, usually travelling more than 150 kilometres; however, on his 70th birthday he logged his personal best, 208 kilometres.
Belliveau had much praise for his tour companions, but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond their control, the Andersons were forced to abandon the tour in Quebec, at which point Belliveau was joined by Louis LeBlanc and Jeanne Boudreau, of Haute Aboujagane.
“Keith and Lysle were just excellent. Keith biked alongside me a lot of the time and Lysle followed, driving the camper that we used for our home base. I can’t say enough about the two of them. Lysle is absolutely the most patient man on this earth and I’m extremely grateful for the time that we all spent together on the trip. I’m also appreciative for Louis and Jeanne taking time to be with me during the final portion of the trip,” he said.
Belliveau noted that although much of the trip was a blur of biking, he was pleased with the reception he received from Canadians all across the country.
“The people were nice, and I have to say the transport truck drivers were very respectful of me as a biker, almost always pulling out around me along the highway,” he noted.
Once he’d returned to New Brunswick Belliveau decided to travel to Newfoundland to cross that province, making it a truly cross-country tour and it was on the return trip from Cape Breton that Belliveau stopped in Port Elgin for his last night on the road before the end of the journey. The final day brought heavy rains, but he managed to complete the final 50 kilometres in weather just like that of the first day.
“I guess it’s fitting. I started in the rain and I’m finishing in the rain,” he said.
