He says his policy is “no pain, no gain.”
By that motto, Yuki Sekiguchi has no problem sleeping in a tent at the side of the road during the coldest time of the year as he cycles from Norway House to Great Bear Lake, NWT.
The 30-year-old cyclist from Japan is taking five Canadian winters to travel the thousands of kilometres from Winnipeg to Resolute, NU, crossing highways, frozen lakes, ice roads and oceans, and he’s doing it all on his own.
“My policy is just manpower, and solo,” said Sekiguchi during a rest day in Flin Flon, where he found plenty of northern hospitality.
Sekiguchi is in his second winter of the excursion. In 2017 he travelled from Winnipeg to Norway House on foot. This winter, he plans to pedal nearly 4,000 km to Great Bear Lake, NWT. It took him eight days to cycle from Norway House to Flin Flon, and he expects to make his final destination of the year by the end of March. Sekiguchi travels about 50 km a day with all of his gear and provisions strapped to his bike.
“My other policy is freedom,” he said, and that freedom is what inspires him to take on intense physical challenges and extreme isolation.
“I enjoy biking but this is a challenge for my limit. I choose [the] most hard time in the winter.”
Sekiguchi’s bike has studded tires, giving him traction on ice roads and snow-covered highways, but it can prove to be more difficult in other conditions.
“If the road is hard ice I can ride easy. If the road has deep snow, riding is too difficult or I can’t ride, so [I] just push. This winter I’ll cross the Great Slave Lake and then there is just ice road. Here to Great Slave Lake is highway, but after that there is no more highway, so riding is difficult, or I’ll just push.”
This isn’t Sekiguchi’s first foray into long, manpowered trips. When he was 19, he travelled around Japan. When he was 21, he travelled by bike around the coast of Australia. He’s crossed deserts at their peak heat, and faced frostbite in Alaska. Of all the places his legs have taken him, Sekiguchi said the Arctic is his favourite.
“I like a good challenge, and the Arctic was a good challenge,” he said, adding the isolation of his northern adventures doesn’t bother him.
“In this case [of a previous trip] for one month there was nobody, and of course no shop. I have to carry food for one month. It was very hard. But I didn’t feel lonely, because I love just nature. There was nothing, but there is great nature.”
Being his mother’s only child, Sekiguchi said his mother worries about him, but respects his ambitions.
“I keep in touch if I can get Wi-Fi [to tell her] I’m alive now,” he said.
“Of course, she worried about me, but she realized about my dream. She understands me, so she never said stop it, don’t do it.”
When spring arrives, Sekiguchi plans to fly out of his end destination or hitch a ride with a trucker. He plans to return next winter to carry on his journey. During the time he isn’t travelling, Sekiguchi does promotions for his sponsors and speaks to children in Japan.
“[My message is] believe in yourself. Sometimes I can’t succeed, but it’s not important. The important thing is just challenge and honest for my heart, what I do.”
Sekiguchi has no plans of slowing down once he reaches Resolute.
“In the future, I will go to the North Pole, just by myself. Just manpower.”
