![]() The Rockies were brutal, and he was forced to detour from the Coquihalla due to yet another wildfire, near Merritt. Vicious headwinds and sweltering weather accompanied much of his journey through Western Canada. Wildfires in Northern Ontario dogged his steps. That’s not to say there weren’t other challenges. “There were days where I’m just riding down the roads and just literally crying,” he said.īut bit by bit, the gears felt lighter on his feet, and every day he would ride further until he was travelling 120 kilometres per day. “I could pedal for maybe 15 seconds and I would have to stop, and my legs would cramp up.”īut the real battle was in the mind, he said.Īubichon has bipolar disorder, depression, and chemically-induced anxiety disorder, which has cost him jobs, relationships, and housing. “Physically, I was only making it 15 or 20 kilometres a day,” he said. The initial days were the hardest, a constant fight against severe cramps, back spasms, and shoulder pains resulting from a life of smoking, drinking and neglect, he said. But his journey would be followed by thousands on social media, and even catch the eye of government ministers. His sister Jenn, initially skeptical of the whole ordeal, had only one request: that he document his journey, both the highs and the lows.Īubichon agreed, even though he thought that no one would care. He didn’t even inform his family until he was halfway to Fredericton. On May 11, Aubichon found a mountain bike that could hold his 320-pound frame, loaded it up with camping gear and started pedalling. “The man that can do that can surely be successful at school,” he said. ![]() “If I jumped on a plane and flew across the country, I’m going to be the same man that got there that left, and that man isn’t going to find success,” he said.īut someone who’s able to bike across most of Canada? It’s part of the reason why he chose to bike back to Nanaimo. “It doesn’t matter how badly you want to get up and go to work. His grandmother died of a drug overdose in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside after leaving residential school, he said.Īubichon said he has overcome his substance abuse and addiction issues, stemming from his upbringing, which involved experiences of sexual abuse in group homes.īut his mental health remains a persistent challenge, one that has cost him jobs, relationships, and housing. ![]() “She had her own demons,” he said, adding that her mother was born in a residential school. His mother, who is of Tla’amin descent, was raised by a white Catholic family and was part of the Sixties Scoop. The 44-year-old father of three reached the finish line at Bowen Park in Nanaimo on Friday evening, where he was greeted by a cheering group of supporters.Īfter 20 years living in Eastern Canada, he’s returning to finish his education, which he stopped pursuing at the age of 12.Īubichon, born in Prince George and raised in Nanaimo, is of mixed Indigenous and Metís heritage he was a ward of the court from the age of six to 18. Chris Aubichon has spent the past three months cycling across the country in a bid to raise awareness of post-foster-care life and men’s mental health - and to begin a second chapter of his own life. ![]()
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