Keep Pedaling in Pikangikum
It all started when…
An OPP officer returning to Pikangikum for a court appearance saw an OPP sergeant loading bikes into a shipping container.
Constable Adam Belanger was intrigued by what Sergeant Chris Amell was doing with a set of 30 mountain bikes. As he learned, the bikes were used for a program called Project Journey, and Sergeant Amell was the program coordinator.
The project aimed to cover a range of topics such as building relationships, self image, capacity building, skill building and healthy choices. The objective was to increase opportunities for youth in the community to use local resources and pull people together to meet their needs. - Saymag.com
Belanger was a keen mountain biker and asked whether there were ways he could get involved to support the biking component of the program. With Amell’s blessing, Belanger pulled together a group of mountain bikers with experience repairing bikes, building trails and teaching skills. This group travelled to Pikangikum for the first time in 2016 and taught skills to youth in the community that were connected to Project Journey.
Youth in the community were excited to ride bikes and build new trails made specifically for mountain biking. In the fall of 2017, Belanger brought a group up and worked to build a pump track with rollers and banked turns where riders could practice their riding skills. It was during this visit that New Hope Community Bikes’ Executive Director, Andrew Hibma noticed that there seemed to be demand to ride bikes that went beyond the capacity of current volunteers and weekend programming. At this point, there were very few bikes in the community, other than the ones that belonged to Project Journey; and as a result biking could only take place when there was a leader to facilitate the program.
The idea of creating some sort of bike co-op/bike library seemed like it could really benefit the youth of the community by providing some sustainability for the bike program while also empowering youth with repair skills and bike skills. Hibma pitched this idea to Amell and Belanger, and together they moved forward with a shipping container based bike shop that would be the hub of bike programming in the community. In a matter of months, enough funds had been raised to purchase the container, outfit it with workbenches and tools and ship it north on the Ice Road into Pikangikum.
The container was delivered to Listowell, ON to be turned into a bike shop. Over the course of two weekends, Sid Slotegraaf, Tyler Gorr, Adam Belanger, Jakob and John Van Dorp and Hibma worked on the container, preparing it for the journey north.
In April 2018, team members travelled to Pikangikum to teach repair skills to youth that would operate the shipping container bike shop. Eight youth participated in 12 hours of trainning and learned how to adjust gears and brakes, rebuild bearing systems, true wheels and complete bicycle safety checks. They also took some time to watch the inspiring documentary: Shift, about the development of mountain biking as a major tourism industry in Carcross, YK and the role that youth have played in creating these trails.
The first summer for the shipping container bike shop was a huge success. Bikes were signed out over 400 times, 3km of new mountain bike trails were built and the youth took leadership to really make the program their own. They led group rides around the community and on the newly built mountain bike trails every morning and afternoon. They kept the bikes maintained throughout the season and began to fix the growing number of bikes that belonged to youth within the community. From 2017 to 2018, the number of bikes seen in the community grew as there were new places to ride and a place to maintain them.
The first year of the bike program was made possible by grant funding from the Province of Ontario, Jumpstart Foundation, and individuals who donated to make the shipping container shop a reality. After the success of the 2018 season, it was determined that the program should run again in the Summer of 2019. Severe forest fires made it difficult for Belanger and other volunteers to get into community in the spring, but a small window opened up at the beginning of July. Despite heavy smoke, new bikes were assembled and maintenance was done around the pump track to make it once again ready for riding. Summer student funding came through Right to Play and eight youth were once again employed to run the bike program.
an ice road challenge
Pikangikum has no year round road access. When planning for the delivery of the shipping container bike shop, it was important that everything arrived in Red Lake before the annual winter road closed for the season (beginning of April). After venturing out on the ice road while training youth in bike repairs in April 2018, the possibility of riding a bike on the ice road to Pikangikum, started to percolate in the minds of Belanger and others involved with the program. What better way to fundraise for the ongoing staffing and equipment needs of the bike program than to ride a bike in sub zero temperatures on ice thick enough to support transport trucks?
#IceRoadChallenge2020
The idea to host a fat tire bike ride from Red Lake to Pikangikum along the year round road and then across the winter road quickly became a reality with participants signing up from across Ontario. The cause and the adventure proved to be a major draw for those who signed up, each paid for their transportation costs and committed to fundraising a minimum of $500 for the bike program. The 40 available spots sold out in just 6 weeks, with members of the OPP making up about half of the registrants and the other half from mountain bike clubs and other cycle connections across the province.
Participants flew from Toronto to Thunder Bay and then boarded a coach bus for the 6 hour drive to Red Lake, and temperatures continued to plummet along the way. A reception was held in Red Lake with remarks from the mayor, the OPP and New Hope Bikes. Many local businesses and individuals continued to show their support by donating in person at the reception.
The morning of the ride was a frigid -35 degrees C, and the coach bus wouldn’t start. This meant some contingency planning to shorten the route and reduce the risk of exposure, this also provided an opportunity to ride more ice roads between Red Lake and the airport.
With fading light riders turned onto the final stretch of road to Pikangikum with 30km left to go with a full OPP escort in front and bringing up the rear. By 7pm everyone had arrived at Eenchokay Birchstik School in Pikangikum and were thawing out over a delicious community dinner. Celebrations continued with displays of traditional dancing, drumming and well deserved thank yous to all those involved.
Six of the fat bikes ridden on the ride, and 4 other youth bikes were purchased with funds raised and were delivered to the shipping container shop after a ride through the community and tour of the bike shop.
A big shout out to Josh White (Stay Wild Films), Brody White (Brody White Photo) and Brandon Canning (Brandon Canning Film) for capturing the epic journey from Toronto to Thunder Bay to Red Lake to Pikangikum and back.
Event Partners & Sponsors
We want to give a big “Thank You” to all of our partners and sponsors that have made the Ice Road Challenge possible! Because of your support and donations, the Pikangikum bike program will be a continuing success for years to come!
Gold $2,500+ Trek Bicycle Canada | Ontario Provincial Police | Superior Airways | Stay Wild Films | Garneau
Silver $1,000 - 2,499 Redtag.ca | Air Canada | Red Lake Marine | Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Bronze $500-999 Pikangikum First Nation | Eenchokay Birchstick School | Tisdale Bus Lines | 7Mesh Apparel | Tim Hortons Red Lake| The Thirsty Moose Red Lake | Howey Bay Restaurant Red Lake | Maunders Food Shop | Dr. Bette Brazier Psych Corp | Oatley Vigmond LLP | Pikangikum Northern Store | Super 8 by Wyndham | Balmertown Food Fair | Town of Red Lake
2020 PROGRAM UPDATE
COVID-19 stalled the launch of the bike program this summer, but as the province began to open up activities and travel, a plan came together
for a trip north to get staff into place and help start the bike program up again. Band Council gave permission for five people from the OPP and New Hope Community Bikes to fly north after receiving negative COVID tests results within 24 hours of leaving for Pikangikum.
On July 24, the group flew to Pikangikum and upon arrival found out that the pump track had been partially bulldozed for road construction.
The shipping containers that stored the bikes and functioned as a bike shop would also need to be relocated due to future building plans. Bee-mah-kee-way-bah-oo-dee-suun (Ojibway phonetic spelling of bicycle) After connecting with people at the school, public works, and the road construction contractor, we were able to put a plan in place to move the large shipping container bike shop to the back of the school. The
new location has better access to power, bathrooms and will hopefully allow better use of bikes throughout the school year.
Folks from OPP and New Hope before heading back to southern Ontario after a successful launch.
Five staff were selected and trained on procedures, safety checks and helmet fitting and right away started leading group rides through the community; lending out bikes to kids of all ages. Regular scheduled bike program hours commenced on July 28 and will continue throughout the month of August with staff wages covered by funds raised in the Ice Road Challenge.
There are two riding conditions in Pikangikum… STICKY MUDDY and DUST and the time in between is hours.
Rusty, lead the program when the container shop first arrived in 2017 and managed the program for August 2020.
Summer 2021
In the past, our partnership with the Ontario Provincial Police has allowed us to fly straight into Pikangikum, but things did not work out for flights this time. This provided a challenge and a great opportunity, to paddle a canoe from the end of the all-weather road into Pikangikum. The majority of this route we had ridden on fat bikes for the Ice Road Challenge in 2020 so it was great to see it from the water rather than the ice! What looked like 12-15km on a topographic map ended up being 19km of paddling so the paddle in took about 3 hours and 20 minutes, an overall rewarding experience. Thanks to Goldseekers Outfitters for providing us with an excellent, lightweight, Kevlar canoe that was a dream to paddle; think the ‘carbon road bike’ equivalent of canoes!
Once on the ground in Pikangikum, we headed to the shipping container shop and found Rusty had already got a head start on tidying things up and getting bikes ready for this season. We jumped in to help with tune ups and organizing, and made a list of parts, accessories, and tools to ship north to make things run even smoother. We were also able to connect with Public Works to get the second, smaller shipping container full of bikes moved over to live beside the bike shop.
With the bike shop and program in capable hands of Rusty and Tony (both have worked with the program before), we reloaded our canoe and paddled back to our parked van. This time we made the trip in under 3 hours, whether this was due to better navigation, a tail wind, or a determination to make it to Thunder Bay before we slept, no one will ever know, but Strava proves that it did happen.
Our trip to Pikangikum was extremely beneficial from a planning perspective as it provided face to face meetings with new partners and allowed us to connect with Rusty and Tony as summer staff for the Pikangikum bike program. Our fundraising efforts from the Ice Road Challenge in 2020 and a generous donation from the Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club will support these summer positions and provide continuity for the Pikangikum Bike Program. The Pikangikum band council through summer student employment have also provided two summer staff to the program giving the flexibility for some staff to remain at the bike shop while others head out for rides in the community and on local trails.