Pierre and Janick's excellent adventure

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Cyclist GO THE DISTANCE. MAY 2009 www.adventurecycling.org $4.95

photo essay:

Pierre & Janick’s Excellent Adventure

40,000 Miles +10 Years Pierre and Janick’s Excellent Adventure

Photos by Pierre Bouchard and Janick Lemieux 10 adventure cyclist may 2009 adventurecycling.org

After a decade and almost 40,000 miles of riding, intrepid velo-adventurers Pierre Bouchard and Janick Lemieux have completed their “cyclovolcanic quest” around the Pacific Ring of Fire. Starting and ending in Vancouver, the French Canadian couple set off in the spring of 1999 and pedaled their immensely loaded mountain bikes south to the tip of South America, exploring the continent’s volcanoes along the way.

After a six-month pause, they resumed their ride in the volcanic islands of Oceania and Southeast Asia in what they describe as a “sweet logistical nightmare” that included 55 boat riders, 12 flights, and 6,000 miles

of riding on 30 islands (and you thought your tour logistics were complicated). The third and final leg of their epic tour took them from Taiwan and Japan through the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Russian far east, back to North America for Alaska and British Columbia, before they finished their ride in style with two months in Hawaii.

The pair now reside (temporarily, to be sure) in Quebec, where they are working on a book and presentation series about their ride. You can see their two previous Adventure Cyclist photo essays at www. adventurecycling.org/cyclovolcanic.

Volcano riders. Janick and Pierre pedal Canada’s most recent lava flow on British Columbia’s Route 113, the Nisga’a Highway. July 2008. adventure cyclist may 2009 adventurecycling.org

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The Many Campsites Of Pierre And Janick

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1. Alaska Highway, Dry Creek, Yukon Territory. September 2008. 2. Elementary School off the Halsema Road, Northern Luzon highlands, Phillipines.

January 2006. 3. Beside a banua desa in the Mamasa Highlands, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. March 2006. 4. Takeshiba Ferry Terminal, in downtown Tokyo, Japan, sharing the sidewalk with local homeless. November 2007. 5. Finding shelter from a storm in a Gunma Prefecture road works shed. Japan. July 2006. 6. Socompa Lake, volcano, and pass. Argentina. April 2001. 7. Piilani Highway, Maui, Hawaii. November 2008.

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adventure cyclist may 2009 adventurecycling.org

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3 1. A wet ride on the island of Negros, Central Philippines. May 2006. 2. Hurrying along beneath the Tavurvur volcano, Rabaul, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. December 2003. 3. Visiting with a family at the foot of Savo volcano, Solomon Islands. October 2003. 4. Avachinsky and Koryaksky volcanoes basecamp, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. September 2007. 5. Roadside lunch break on British Columbia Route 37, the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. July 2008. 6. Heavily armed friends in the city of Pasto, Colombia. June 2000. 7. Daily chore on the west coast of Negros, Central Philippines. May 2006.

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3 1. Tomohon market. Northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. April 2006. 2. Crossing Tokyo metro. Japan. September 2006. 3. Heading towards Dog Creek and the mighty Fraser River across BC’s Cariboo Plateau. Western Canada. June 2008.

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4. On the West coast of Vella Lavella, bridges from the road built by U.S. soldiers during the War of the Pacific long gone, a dugout canoe carries Pierrre and Janick’s mounts and gear across crocodile-infested estuary. Solomon Islands. September 2003. 5. On a Kona Coast beach, Pierre and Janick celebrate the completion of the “cyclovolcanic” quest’s last mission. Hawaii. January 2009.

adventure cyclist may 2009 adventurecycling.org

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