Bike Touring with Kids | Yukon4explore

A huge day for Sitka who won the Commissioner’s Award today for ‘Best in Fair’ at the Yukon Stikine Regional Science Fair. He will be representing the Yukon at the Canada Wide Science Fair in Fredericton this June! Sitka has been hard at work on his project since August, spending at least 5 hours a week testing ski waxes, learning to code with online courses at Stanford and University of Michigan, and building machine-learning algorithms to analyze his data. His best algorithm has a 90% predictive value for selecting the race wax of the day, and he is on track to have the algorithm ready for Team Canada at the 2026 Olympics. We often don’t understand what he is doing as we can’t keep up with his learning curve, but our little guy is on fire and it has been so much fun watching him explore and learn at lightning speed with help from mentors across Canada. What a journey already!

So much fun to be able to cheer on Heron and Sitka and their amazing Yukon teammates at the 2025 Ski Nationals in Canmore. Over 900 talented and determined (and crazy strong and fit) skiers from across Canada giving it all on distance races, sprints and relays. Incredible!

Couldn’t be prouder of Heron and Sitka this winter, who have been training non-stop to prepare for and qualify for Ski Nationals in Canmore in March, and launched their own ski-waxing business to pay for the costs of their competitions! Wax It to Win It grew out of Sitka’s ongoing work on his waxing algorithm, and evolved to also involve providing professional race waxing services. This weekend was their inaugural service weekend, providing race wax to the Canadian Masters Ski Championship. What an awesome community of skiers from @whitehorsenordic and beyond who supported their enterprise and continue to encourage both Heron and Sitka.
The race series was awesome (we got to race on skis waxed by Heron and Sitka and can attest that they were super fast!), and we are so proud of our boys’ creativity, resourcefulness and incredible hard work they put into everything they do. So awesome @heronlandgillis and @sitkalandgillis!

Full house tonight! Thank you everyone for joining us today for the book launch / celebration of Bike Touring With Kids! Stay tuned for a webinar version in the future for those out of Yukon:)

Happy Solstice! We kicked off our holidays and celebrated the shortest day of the year with a family bike relay at the 5 Hours of Light fat bike race (riding sunrise to sunset only takes 5 hours this time of year in Whitehorse!). Thanks @cmbcyukon for a super fun event - and now for the return of the light!
@brook.landmurphy @sitkalandgillis @heronlandgillis

Bike Touring With Kids: A Visual Story Ride for Winter in Whitehorse

Got kids?* Got bikes? Got dreams of exploring the world together and making unforgettable family memories?

Join us on January 26th at Mt. Mac’s cozy Grey Mountain Room for a Sunday afternoon virtual ride through the years and across continents with the Gillis-Land-Murphy family - Ed, Jocelyn, Heron and Sitka, who have cycled together from Cuba to New Zealand to Norway, from toddlers to teenagers - and are now celebrating the launch of our second book, Bike Touring with Kids: Europe Epic.

Gather with other Whitehorse bike families and cycling enthusiasts, to hear and see our stories from the road - and get inspired to plan your own active family adventure this summer and beyond!

Your ticket (available on www.yukon4explore.com) includes $5 off the purchase of Europe Epic at the event, signed by the author.

Activities for the kids, snacks and refreshments for a winter afternoon dreaming of your next family adventure!

*Having children not required - this event is for all cycling / travel enthusiasts irrespective of family status!

@sitkalandgillis @heronlandgillis @yukoncycling @icyclesports @cadencecycle
#whitehorse #yukon #biketouring #biketour #bikepacking

Congratulations to Sitka who found out today he is the recipient of the 2024 STEM Project Grant! The funds are going towards his fleet of test skis and waxes as he continues his work on Wax it to Win it: a Golden Algorithm for Team Canada. Many thanks to Alain Masson and Graham Nishikawa for their ongoing support and mentorship in his project of creating a machine-learning algorithm that can make automated wax recommendations based on a multitude of snow and weather conditions. He has been working hard on his online coding and machine-learning courses at Stanford and University of Michigan, and is so excited to start wax testing to gather data to train his algorithm. The eventual goal is to make the algorithm a useful tool for Team Canada for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
It’s a big project for a little guy and it has been so heart-warming to see all the encouragement and support from everyone he has reached out to. What a community!
@crosscountryyukonsquads @whitehorsenordic
#stem #yukonstikineregionalsciencefair #ownthepodium #crosscountryskiing #sciencefairfoundationbc

The window here between summer and winter is so very short! It’s been a flurry of fall fun and biking before the snow settles in, including super Canada Summer Games trials for both mountain biking and road cycling (Sitka is too young to attend the games but went out anyway for fun). We had the biggest CSG turnout for trials to date and it is so awesome to see so many talented and motivated young cyclists in the Yukon!
Meanwhile Jocelyn and Brook’s annual mountain biking getaway in Carcross got a bit foiled by snow at the higher elevations - here’s hoping we can get a bit of autumn back!!

Thank you William Labarge and Pete Sandiford for the great CSG trials pics :)

Annual Labour Day adventure weekend in Carcross/Crag Lake - always our favourite first getaway after the school year has kicked in - we are so grateful to live in such a beautiful place!

Our favourite way to end a summer of adventuring is always cottage time :) Two weeks of sleeping in, cousins/Gillis family time, endless paper books and board games. On our way back to Yukon now after nine amazing weeks away!

Oh la la la la! Our final days in France, these 3rd and 4th days of the Olympics, were mind-blowingly awesome. Our ‘Tour des Olympiques’ by bicycle had us enjoying all the events and sights on our own two wheels from 8am to midnight both days - there was just so much to soak in! Heron planned in plenty of delicious stops mid-ride including a surprise for Sitka - a decadent gluten free bakery - and a super fun trip up the Eiffel Tower.
Our ticket resale sleuthing skills paid off with discount tickets to the track last night, including the unbelievable 100m men’s final and Canada’s gold in hammer throw. Heron’s city bike navigating skills also paid off with great spots to cheer on the women’s road cycling race yesterday and the team triathlon relay today (so impressive - perhaps the most jaw-dropping thing we have seen so far).
The bikes are now returned, our bags are packed, and tomorrow we fly back to Canada after a truly spectacular seven weeks of hiking and cheering on amazing Tour and Olympic athletes in France. This trip wasn’t what we had planned, but it sure was awesome!!

- lots of videos in this post, compliments of Heron

We didn’t think anything could top seeing the Tour de France in person this summer, but being here in Paris for the Olympics is truly incredible. We are on cloud nine, especially as we are back on bikes for the first time in two months since the arm fractures, able to whip around the city on virtually car-free streets from one awesome thing to the next (they added 60km of bike paths to their already amazing network of 240km of bike lanes, and have shut down much of the city to vehicle traffic for the games). Oh how we have all missed cycling! Heron is our city bike navigator and doing an awesome job :) It took us a while to find a rental company that stocked helmets - we’re not quite ready to do the European no-helmet thing - especially as keeping up with Heron on cobblestone is enough of a challenge!
At every turn there are people singing and dancing in the street in all different languages- so much joy and so much pride. Yesterday we caught Morocco’s awesome win against USA in the men’s soccer/football quarterfinals, and today was a mix of men’s road cycling (so amazing! and free!), and soaking in all the awesome energy at the Canada Olympic House for the women’s soccer quarterfinals and the amazing results in the pool. The city is buzzing and it’s a real experience to be part of it :)

A perfect final day in Bretagne. We happily left our backpacks at the campsite and practically skipped around it felt so amazing to be pack free! We took a boat tour out to the fascinating Chateau du Taureau which, amongst other things, served as an island prison where aristocrats could pay to have misbehaving male family members imprisoned without trial. From there it was off to the beach to soak in one last glorious swim in the Atlantic and to rent kayaks to continue exploring by boat. Then one last delicious galette food truck dinner and then off to a free beautiful backyard jazz concert down the street. We could easily spend many more weeks in Bretagne!
Tomorrow we are off to Paris for our final hurrah of catching some Olympics before heading back to Canada. What a trip so far!

#bretagne #france

Days 8 and 9 on the GR34 brought us through Locquirec and along the gorgeous coastline into the department de Finistère. Every day we spend on this trail, we love it even more, especially when we get a beach all to ourselves for snack break. As the GR34 is almost 2000km long we are only getting a slice of it, but what a beauty! We are meeting more and more cyclists at the campgrounds who are cycling the Bretagne Coast, but being able to be right on the coastline on this trail makes hauling around these backpacks worth it :)

#gr34 #france #bretagne #hiking #hikingfamily

Days 6 and 7 on the GR34 were quite different experiences - first, a long 26km hike along the Béguer River into Lannion and back out to the coast at Le Yaudet - an old Gaulois outpost that pre-dates the Romans (maybe even a stomping ground for Astérix and Obélix? We’ve seen a couple millennia-old menhirs!) Then today, a three-hour trek along the steep bluffs overlooking the rugged rocky shoreline meeting relentless ocean waves, into wide shallow beaches that grow longer by hundreds of metres as the tide flows out. Baguette vending machines and great food are also making us happy on this spectacular Breton coast - hard to believe we have just 3 days left to Morlaix!

#gr34 #bretagne #hiking

Today, day 5 of GR34, was our favourite day on the Bretagne (Breizh) coast so far. Our fevers simultaneously broke overnight and what a relief! Today’s 24km hike around l’ile Grande had rugged coastline, long beaches, delicious gelato, a wonderful midday swim, and a much appreciated beach cafe supper. With the virus on its way out and appetites back in full swing, our current meal orders include 6 mains and 4 appies for the family (which earns many shocked looks) - good thing French cuisine on the North coast is so affordable!
#bretagne #france #gr34 #hiking #hikingfamilies

Days 3 and 4 on the GR34 were very different hikes - first, an endless series of steep climbs down into cozy ocean coves, then right back up again until we reached old-town Paimpol for delicious galettes (Pic 2 shows the “staircase” carved into the slope side). Then, we skipped ahead to the Côte de Granit Rose and its famous fields of pink boulders perched precariously along the rugged shoreline.
It would all be lovely if we weren’t all coughing and fevered from a full-family sickness - at least we’re mildly miserable together in a beautiful place that’s (finally) seeing some sunshine! So far all are keen to keep hiking as the ocean air feels good and the hiking is easy - we’ll stop if that changes - tbd!

#france #bretagne #hiking

Day 2 GR34 on the Bretagne coast! Another beauty day meandering along the coastline, up and down steep cliffs overlooking the rocky shore. The kilometres are flying by on this terrain so we have more time to do two of our favourite things - reading and eating :) A Bretagne speciality is “galettes” - delicious buckwheat crepes both savoury and sweet. As these are gluten-free, Sitka has made it his mission to eat as many as possible - breakfast, lunch and dinner if it was up to him! Our campground not only had a beautiful greenhouse pool, pétanque, mini putt, basketball and ping pong, but also a galette food truck with filling savoury crepes for €3.50 - the French sure know how to camp!
#france #gr34 #bretagne #hiking

Day 1 hiking on the GR34 was lovely and easy - we would be lying if we said we don’t miss the dramatic Alps landscapes, but the GR34 trail on the Bretagne coast certainly has its own charms that led it to be voted “Favourite Trail” by the French in 2017. It is wonderful to have the cool Atlantic ocean breeze especially after the oppressive heat in Nice, the trail is right on the cliff side, and our bellies are very happy to have Breton villages at regular intervals to treat ourselves to fresh produce, gelato and hot-from-the-oven boulangerie! Our bags are so much lighter, and we are looking forward to this change of pace and scenery :)

#gr34 #bretagne #france #hiking #hikingfamilies #activefamilies #activeholiday

Travel day through Paris en route to St Brieuc to get set up for our last big hike of this trip - 10 days on the GR34 in Bretagne! For our last big hike we are opting for some variety from the mountains with this Atlantic coast trail, also appealing due to daily availability of food (no more calorie rationing for us!).
Today’s highlights included spotting Tour riders at the airport in Nice, visiting some new spots in Paris that we didn’t get to when we were here in 2022 (including the tombs of famous French men and women in the Pantheon, and the Renaissance-era Parc du Luxembourg), finding some 2022 “desserts of Europe” favourites (macaron au framboise for Sitka lived up to the memories), and getting even more excited about coming back to Paris in two weeks to see the Olympics once we have finished our GR34!!
Also, Heron’s cast did not leave Nice with us - he is very pleased to be leaving it behind :) 89€ was all it took to get an X-ray, consult with orthopedic surgeon and nurse appointment for the cast removal, all within an hour - so much simpler than we were expecting!

#gr34 #paris #olympics #stillhiking

Wow wow wow - La Grande Arrivée du Tour du France in Nice did not disappoint! Three days in Nice soaking in the hype of the final stages of the Tour de France, including seeing the start of Stage 20 (mountain stage), the final time trial of stage 21, a rooftop beach dance party by DJ Ofenbach and an unbelievable fireworks and drone show over the bay (1500 drones making incredible art over the Mediterranean Sea - mind-blowing!). It’s been such an experience following the Tour while in France this summer, and being able to witness these incredible athletes push themselves to the limit every day. We are especially in awe of Biniam Girmay as the first black African to win a stage in the Tour (and he won the overall Green jersey!), Derek Gee from Canada who finished 9th overall and put himself out there time and again, and Jonas Vingegaard who we have loved since we biked through his home region in 2022. Hats off to all the Tour riders!!

Day 11 of the GTM - our final day on la Grande Traversée du Mercantour! Today’s heat almost did us in - 22km and 1900m of descent into the very hot valley of Sospel. Our 14L of water disappeared all too fast and with no water or streams on today’s stage, we were counting down the metres before the town of Sospel finally arrived (complete with grocery store and ice cream!) as our final destination of this trek.

What an amazing hike the GTM has been - an entirely last minute decision to head south due to the low snow line this summer - but such a great plan C!! The Maritime Alps are stunning - our 11 stages (154km and 8817m total ascent) of the GTM traversed France’s Parc National du Mercantour, criss-crossing occasionally into the Parco delle Alpi Marittime on the Italian side. Together these two gorgeous parks cover 1700 square km and hold 600km of hiking trails - we could have happily spent the entire summer in the Maritime Alps!

Next step for us is a break for the feet and the backs to catch the final stages of the Tour de France in Nice, and to get Heron’s cast removed- the adventures continue!

—-

A side note on foot care, as concerns about feet are secondary only to concerns about food it seems! On the TMB Jocelyn and Ed both got bad blisters, despite wearing hiking boots that had been reliably blister-free for years (incidentally, the boys who opted for trail runners this year have had no issues at all!). Jocelyn’s unfortunately got so bad she needed a course of oral antibiotics to clear the infected blisters and get her feet ready for the GTM (the pain of walking on infected blisters is excruciating).

On GTM Jocelyn was on a foot-care regime to prevent that from happening again:
- “boots off” break every hour to change socks and let feet cool off
- six pairs of socks to rotate through the day (two “double layered” socks, two lightweight merino, two lightweight synthetic)
- second-skin (“compeed”) on any potential hot spots
- any open skin/open blisters disinfected, covered with polysporin/gauze/tape
- bare feet/sandals when not hiking

Happy to report no significant feet issues on the GTM!!

Day 10 GTM had us moving from the high Alps to the « medium Alps » with our final big summit over Le Pas du Diable into a series of beautiful ridges and valleys. Despite the heat as we approached the sea, Ed was in his happy history place walking amongst the military ruins at Authion - relics of the Napoleonic era and the Second World War.
We were already nostalgic camping at our last refuge of this route and sharing our last communal dinner of the GTM with one final long stage to do day 11 - what an amazing trip it has been!

A side note for those thinking of doing hut-to-hut hikes themselves and wondering about the tenting option, here are some pros of bringing a tent:
1. More affordable (prices ranged from free to 9€ at the most expensive - typically just 2€ to have a hot solar shower at the refuge)
2. More flexible - no reservations needed - in France especially easy to “bivouac” in most places from 7pm to 7am with no issue - on the GTM we camped every night right near the refuges with the refuges permission
3. Better sleep quality - not sharing a dorm with others who may be snoring, waking up to pee, etc
4. No risk of bed bugs
5. Still able to partake in the community aspect of the hikes with shared meals at the refuges

Cons of bringing a tent:
1 Weight in the backpack - we brought an MSR 2person Hubba tent (1.54kg) and an MSR 3person Hubba for the boys and the gear(2.07kg) - and 4 Therm-a-Rest ProLite Apex (620g each) - sleeping bags you would have to bring regardless if staying in the dorms/refuges - for us this was worth it but every extra kilo of weight in the packs does make the experience more difficult!

#gtm #france #mercantour #hiking

Day 9 on the GTM was one of the nicest so far, passing up and over the highest summit of the hike (La Baisse du Basto at 2700m - crampons were helpful yet again!), and then into the famous Vallée des Merveilles. This protected UNESCO site is home to over 40,000 rock engravings and was a treat to explore. The trail is getting a little busier each day as we approach the coast/Nice but it doesn’t feel over-crowded. With the shared meals every night we have gotten to know so many of the people doing this route or variants of it, and it feels like a celebration every afternoon at arrival to the refuges. French is the common language (the GTM is still a fairly well-kept secret outside of France), and we are very grateful to be so comfortable in this language.

#france #gtm #mercantour #valleedesmerveilles #hiking

Day 8 TMB from Madone de la Fenestre to Refuge de Nice was a beauty! We had been warned not to underestimate this short 6km day as it was full of boulders, snow and scree so the going was slow, but still a great day. Broken arms didn’t slow down the boys over the Pas du Mont Colomb, and the arrival at Refuge de Nice perched above the lake made it all worth it. We took advantage of the afternoon off to laze away in the sunny grass and read until communal supper was ready for 7pm. We’ve grown quite fond of hut-to-hut hiking!

#france #refugedenice #mercantour #hikingfamilies

Bonus post about food for those who are curious! Despite our attempts to bring enough food, it seems that we are constantly hungry. We are carrying enough food for 3,000 calories per person per day plus supper at the refuges which we hope is another additional 1,000 per person - but still so hungry! Both boys are growing (Sitka especially who on the daily has an « oops I ate more than my quarter-share » moment) and the exercise is quite intense - food is on our minds constantly :) As we are vegetarian and Sitka and Jocelyn are gluten-free we emailed the refuges in advance to confirm that we could camp there and that gluten-free vegetarian suppers would be possible - amazingly all said yes! These mountain refuges get a helicopter drop of food once per month and do a great job turning out massive meals for hungry hikers - always a soup, then a vegetarian main (could be pasta, polenta, ratatouille, daal, eggs/cheese) and a dessert. The meals are eaten together in long tables in the refuges with big shared bowls and are lots of fun!

Here’s what we brought for daily rations:

Breakfast: 392g, 1660 calories, 107g protein
2 cups dried quick oats (160g, 600 calories, 20g protein)
1 cup cranberry trail mix (150g, 720 calories, 27g protein)
Vega protein powder (82g, 340 calories, 60g protein)

Second breakfast: 977g, 4268 calories, 161.9g protein
1/2 package rice cakes (75g, 288 calories, 6.6g protein)
4 tortillas (232g, 700 calories, 21.2g protein)
Cheese (300g, 1206 calories, 75g protein)
1/2 jar Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) (200g, 1046 calories, 13.4 g protein)
1/2 jar peanut butter (170g, 1028 calories, 45.7g protein)

Lunch: 256g, 1074 calories, 37 G protein
2 freeze-dried meals (256g, 1074 calories, 37g protein)

Snacks: 1216g, 4702 calories, 185.8 G protein
Hazelnut chocolate bar (200g, 1162 calories, 19.8 g protein)
Dried apricots (200g, 420 calories, 6g protein)
12 protein bars - Clif and others (816g, 3120 calories, 160g protein)

Totals:
2841 g (6.25lbs) food weight to carry per day (44lbs for 7 days!!)
11,704 calories (2,926 per person per day - plus dinner at the refuges)
491.7 g protein per day (123 g per person per day - plus dinner at the refuges)

Another stunning day on the GTM - day 7 brought us straight back up into the glacial moraines and over the pass at Pas des Ladres before heading down into the Fenestre valley (see video by Heron for what it’s like to descend the switchbacks in the Alps!). The highlights today were definitely all the rest stops - second breakfast at a waterfall, cool lemonades on the deck of Refuge du Cougourde, swim and lunch at Lac des Trécolpas, and a summit stop surrounded by charming chamois (European mountain goats) on the Fenestre side. Another surreal day! Only four more stages left on this hike and we aren’t ready for it to end…

#france #hiking #mercantour

Day 6 GTM was Sitka’s favorite hiking day yet - 22km of trekking over two summits above 2600m to arrive back into France - complete with families of very relaxed ibex, glacier lakes and rocky spires in all directions. The day ended with 1000m of descent into the Vésubie valley with deep green spruce and fir forest with a carpet of ferns and wildflowers, and finally another absolutely delicious communal meal at Gîte du Boréon where we are happily camped for the night. The diversity of the Mercantour continues to amaze us!

#gtm #grandetraverseemercantour #france #hiking

Day 4 and 5 on the Grande Traversée du Mercantour were spectacular. Day 4 was over the Col de la Lombarde back into France for a half-day into Isola 2000 (food! so much food! the grocery store had everything we were dreaming of so we bought it all… then spent our entire afternoon off consuming it until we could consume no more). Day 5 despite rain and some hail was one of our favorite hikes yet over the Baisse du Druos back into Italy. Our packs were heavy with 7 days of supplies but the scenery was so jaw-dropping that the weight was ignorable. Our tent sites right in the rocky cirque at the Refugio Questa were a little freaky in the storm but one of the most stunning views to wake up to. We are in love with the GTM!
#italy #gtm #grandetraverseemercantour

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32,236

km cycled and hiked to date

Countries explored

Canadian provinces and territories

Family members

Flat tires

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