4 UNBC Life

Corbin Greening

UNBC student's coast-to-coast summer

Colin Slark
Team Member

his summer, UNBC Master’s student and TA Corbin Greening went on a 68-day coast-to-

coast bike trip starting at the Pacific Ocean in Prince Rupert, and ending at the Atlantic
Ocean in Halifax. By the time he had reached the other coast, he had ridden over 6000
kilometers and lost between 25 and 30 pounds.

How fast do you have to ride to get from Prince Rupert to Halifax in 68 days? Greening says
some days he rode up to 150 kilometers, and averaged about 100 kilometers a day, although
he did take some rest days along the way to see the sights and meet up with friends. You
might think that, being flat, the prairies would be easytto cross, but that’s not strictly

true. On a good day, powerful tailwinds would push him along and help him cover extra
distance. On bad days, strong headwinds would slow his progress by tens of kilometers.
Greening admits that by Saskatchewan he started to think he might not make it to the end.
He never wanted to give up completely, but he thought there might come a day where he
simply could not continue. On the other end of the scale, he found Quebec pleasant to ride
through as they have an extensive series of bicycle highways away from vehicular traffic.

Even though he had some doubts, Greening ultimately found his bike trip to be liberating,
both physically and mentally, saying that “One of the amazing things about doing a bike
trip is that you're so caught up in the moment. The relevant things are all momentary
things around you and it’s really freeing in a way. If you’re an anxious person, you lose

a lot of that [anxiety]. 1 started sleeping better because I was no longer preoccupied

with bills, school, and all sorts of other things. You really embrace the fact that you’re
just on a bike going across the country and you're a part of your environment.”

Greening had many memorable moments on his journey. In New Brunswick, he woke up
in the middle of the night to find a raccoon trying to get at the carrots he was keeping in
a bag.attached to his handlebars. When in Ontario, he discovered that it is in fact illegal
to ride bikes along parts of the Trans-Canada highway. In Quebec, he tried spruce beer,

a regional soft drink he describes as tasting like “Cream soda with a smack of tree.”

After his long trip that involved two months on the road, crossing through eight provinces,
and a trip to a New Brunswick hospital for dehydration, Corbin arrived back in Prince
George on September 10. 6 days later, he successfully defended his Master’s thesis.