My office-bedroom view for the last 6 weeks… with the fog horn blaring in the distance.

If you follow us on Instagram, you know that there has been A LOT of baking in our life lately, now that we are connected to the grid while we shelter in place (and own a crappy toaster oven).

Our beautiful green, lush and mossy backyard.

Historians have already said that this period in history will later be referred to as The Great Confinement.

You would have told me a few months ago that I would not leave our campground for over a month and it would have felt like a major hardship. But here we are. I’ve done it. Granted, there are beautiful trails around, the view from our site is wonderful and my amazing partner has been doing the necessary errands, but it still feels like an accomplishment that is very out of character for me. And yet, I feel good.

Part of it is luck (and privilege, yes).

I could tell you how going through dark times of depression and debilitating anxiety has helped me prepare for tough times. How I know to check with myself daily to assess how I’m feeling, what my needs are and all this... But that would be (mostly) bullshit.

Right now, if I didn’t have a somewhat meaningful (paid) job to do, a wonderful partner and teenagers that are self-motivated and just all-around great to be around (and who were already doing all their classes online), I would very likely go batshit crazy.

But life has been very good. Quiet and peaceful for a change. And honestly, there is nothing like translating dog food bags to make you feel like the world keeps on turning (and yes, that is not exactly literary translation, but I really like my job).

Cooking dinner in a rest stop is a great way to save money on campings on long drives. We stop in a (free) beautiful spot to stretch our legs and cook dinner and keep driving. After that, it doesn’t matter much where we spend the night.

Exploring a beautiful free campsite just outside of Lake Superior Provincial Park

The start of the Cadet expert girls at Horseshoe. Mara got stuck at the very back…

So, how do we deal with the heat when relying mostly on solar? Even with 750 Watts of panels, we can’t run the AC in the bus. We could pay for a 55$+ campsite, but we try to find public beaches where we can spend the day and sleep in free spots. We haven’t paid for a campsite since we left the Yukon. Actually, we very rarely pay for campsites anymore since it is so easy to find free camping spots, and since at this time of year you need to make reservations in advance to have a good campsite (and in our book, if you pay for a campsite, it better be a good one).

When we cover a lot of ground like we are doing this summer, our go-to strategy is to stop during the day (and often for dinner) at beautiful spots along the way, stretch our legs, bike, swim, and keep driving afterwards. By then, it’s dark and it doesn’t matter much where we spend the night as long as it’s not too noisy. It allows us to save money (since we are spending a lot on gas during this time) and not worry about making reservations in advance.

In Canada, iOverlander is the best app to use to find free camping spots. Be aware that most users are in vans or 4 x 4 vehicles, so scout out the recommended spots in advance if there is no information about vehicle length in the comments to avoid bad surprises.

The XCO Mountain Biking National Championship was a bit of a bust. Aïsha crashed during her first preride and got a concussion, so there was no racing for her. She is still healing and focusing on the Western Summer Canada Games at the beginning of August. Mara felt strong and ready, but the crazy hot weather at 42 C with humidex was really rough for a Yukon kid. She battled hard, but crashed near the finish and lost 3 positions, finishing 14th over 21 strong girls. It was not the results she was hoping for and she was quite disappointed.

Mathilde is still too young to compete at National level, but took part in the Ontario Cup the next day. The weather was a bit cooler, but there was A LOT of traffic on the course. She’s still quite happy with her race.

The girls are now on Instagram and they will share their own race reviews (and lots more) there. Give them a follow if you want:
@aisha.roldan
@mathilde.roldan
@mara.roldan.mtb