Julia on a bike

Since the start of this trip across Canada, I’ve seen a lot of motorcyclists with pets: dogs, cats, horses, ducks and so on. But when it comes to motorcyclists who travel with them, and in a Ural with sidecar, there’s only one: Lyna. In April 2022, she took a year’s sabbatical to cross Canada with Monster Yogi Bear, a Shar Pei she had adopted two years earlier. An abused and malnourished puppy who, today, rushes into her sidecar at the mere mention of a motorcycle ride.

Lyna is an operator at the Bruce Power nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Huron, Ontario. Always looking for an adventure to explore the world around her, she used to travel with her husband, alone or with friends. This tour of Canada, with her four-legged companion, seemed an obvious choice. « I wanted to leave in the spring and come back in October, before the first snowflakes, » she explained. No need to dwell on the weather in Canada: the window of opportunity to travel safely on the roads (or without freezing to death) is generally six months, not much more.

On schedule. Lyna and Monster Yogi Bear set off on April 21, 2022 for a 156-day journey. They first headed for the eastern provinces before looping around Newfoundland and Labrador and heading west, passing through the Northern Territories. The duo covered 34,061 kilometers, crossed all provinces and territories except Nunavut, and swam in the three oceans that surround the country: Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific. And without a 5/7mm wetsuit!

With an average speed of 80km/h, several breaks to take Yogi Bear for a walk and to survey numerous sites, Lyna and Yogi rarely drove more than 200 kilometers a day: « I wanted to take my time on this trip with Yogi Bear. There was no rush, and I always wanted to stop before dusk to pitch my tent. » They discovered unique places, waking up in the morning fog in Ontario or admiring the sunset from Vancouver Island.

The twists and turns? What a question, of course there were some! Lyna and Yogi have had their share of breakdowns, like that double flat tire in Northern Ontario: « On the second puncture, I finally understood what was wrong. Fortunately, this time it wasn’t pouring down rain, unlike another time when I found myself doing repairs, lying under the bike, soaking wet and covered in grease« . Or the moment when, having arrived in Tuktuyaktuk with her luggage unpacked, she realized that she no longer had her smartphone: « There was only one road, so I was hoping to find it on the way back. Finally, when I rang it, I realized it was wedged between the side of the sidecar and my jerry can. Covered in mud, it was still working! »

But above all, Lyna has also witnessed the solidarity and mutual help of motorcyclists, whatever the stops on the side of the road, emergency repairs, parts orders and accommodation. Solidarity that works both ways. In turn, she’s offered lodging, rides, advice and help of all kinds to adventurous motorcyclists passing through Port Elgin. Later, I’ll tell you about her rockstrap tutorial for a ferry crossing – a very good tuto, but a very bad pupil.

Lyna is now thinking about her next big trip with Yogi Bear. Europe, perhaps? But in the meantime, she’s taking advantage of her days off to refurbish two 1983 and 1982 Yamaha bikes, travel to Ontario with Yogi Bear, for whom she’s just made a new sun visor, or get away from it all on her third bike, a cruiser this time, a 2017 Yamaha VStar Deluxe.