Riding North/Shot Chasers

Hey Gang,

It's been a while since our last post, we have been busy transcoding and logging our footage for "Riding North". Things have been moving a little slower than anticipated but we still have confidence the film will be released in 2011. Look for a teaser sometime around December which will be released with a series of bike tour videos from Dirty T-Shirt Productions.

"Shot Chasers" our latest effort is officially released today. It was shot last month in Brandon, Manitoba with the original P•Fat crew and we hope you enjoy watching.

Also, we have created a new youtube page which we will be posting our videos on (as well as Vimeo and our website). So the fabioso page for those of you who new about it is now a thing of the past. Make sure to go to our new page on youtube and subscribe to our videos.

We are hoping to release a few projects before Christmas and update you more consistently on the progress of Riding North. Stay tuned...

Happy Canada Day from Yellowknife

Well, we made it. On time too! The last 900 kms are full of stories that are going to last a life time. From 500 kms of gravel full of rain and mud, late night visits from bears and lynx, to aggressive wood bison threatening our lives, the last few weeks have challenged us in ways we never thought possible.

With a goal of arriving in Yellowknife yesterday, we woke up more than 110 kms away. The way that things had been going we knew it was within reach but a stiff head wind had other ideas. We battled hard all day through thunder storms and extreme winds arriving in Yellowknife late last night after one of our most difficult days on the road.

Bike touring and film making has been difficult, but very rewarding. We have shot nearly 750 GB of footage and captured content we never thought possible. Canada's North is truly unique to this country and exploring it at 20 kms an hour, working for every inch has been a life changing experience.

We could not have made it without the help of the local people on the Liard Highway, the support and hospitality they showed was so refreshing and appreciated. Whether it was a bottle of water or a tip on a good place to camp, their knowledge and kindness made our trek through the gravel easier and much more enjoyable. So props to everyone from Fort Liard to Fort Providence!

And again, thank-you to everyone who gave us a push along the way, this project has been brewing for a long time and every stage of production has been full of ups and downs. But here we are, we made it!

Going through our footage and creating a film about travelling by bicycle is going to be so much fun. We look forward to sharing our experience with you. Stay tuned.

Chris & Ryan Mitchell

Northern Bound

We arrived in Fort Nelson on time yesterday after a 550 km trek from Watson Lake. The Mountains were tough but not as bad as we thought. They ended with a 25 km down hill that we were able to bomb at about 60 kmph. We actually went a stretch of about 300 km with no bike problems for the first time on our trip which makes things easier.

We have two days off in Fort Nelson before we head north to Yellowknife on Friday. We estimate that their will be around 500 km of gravel road along the way and a couple of large stretches with no services. We will be taking the Liard Highway following the Liard River most of the way which will be our main water source.

Days are getting longer each day and heading North for the summer solstice will probably mean we will have a couple of days with nearly 24 hours of light. wildlife seems to be more common than people, we have seen many bison, bears, moose and mountain goat. Two days ago we spotted a black bear cub in a tree and found ourselves in between the cub and its mother, so we got out of that scene quickly.

We are going to run out of internet and phone service fast as we head north so just incase we want to say happy birthday to our mom and happy fathers day to our dad. We are excited to hit the road for the last part of our trip, 900 km in 13 days and then one big party in Yellowknife for Canada Day. Happy summer solstice everyone. This photo was taken after our last big climb in the Northern Rockies.

Up Hill Battle

Just a quick update today. We are at Muncho Lake Provincial Park in Northern BC after a day off at the amazing Liard River hot springs. We are currently just under 300 kms from Fort Nelson and hope to be there by Tuesday. The only thing that stands in our way is a wicked head wind and the Canadian Rockies. The climbs keep getting bigger and bigger and are taking a lot of energy out of us. The biggest problem we are having right now is eating enough calories and drinking enough water to get us through the day.

More bike problems as well. In 2 weeks 4 de-railers have been broken, we have had chains brake, tubes blow and many bent axels. We have seen many Bison on the road and from our understanding there are going to be more and more as we go. Making as film on top of bike touring has been a lot of fun but very challenging and draining. We look forward to a couple of days off in Fort Nelson to regroup and head off on the last leg of our trip.

Into the Wind

We are sitting in Watson Lake enjoying a well deserved day off to regroup, dump footage and charge batteries. Yesterday we caught a nice tail wind and made up for lost time by cycling 140km and pitching our tent after a very long day on the road. We encountered more bike problems along the way but it is to be expected at this stage in the trip.

We went and dropped some money on groceries today which will hopefully be enough to last us nearly 500 kms. We have a long week coming up and will be climbing some big hills. Our endurance seems to be getting better everyday but it will be getting a huge test soon going through the mountain's on our way to Fort Nelson BC. Our buddy Dave is a master at finding Wi-Fi hot spots so we hope to update as much as possible. Send us an email or comment on our posts, we love hearing from everybody.

Cheers

Faster, Stronger, Better.

Day five was full of ups and downs... as far as the terrain went. There were plenty of long downhill stretches that felt very rewarding after the extremely long and sometimes excruciating climbs that we endured. But we are both feeling much stronger and faster than previous days. Today was a long 100km bike ride through some very breathtaking scenery. The two of us were cycling along side each other when all of the sudden, no more than 15 feet in front of us, an enormous grizzly bear dashed out of the bushes and sprinted across the road. We both stopped and waited a moment before we continued, it was a wild experience. Later on we were climbing a steep hill and spotted a black bear eating dandelions next to us over the railing. We were able to whip out the camera and get some pretty sweet footage of it. It's great because Dave, the fella who is tagging along with the four of us, is a computer hacker and can hack into and RV wireless connection in a matter of minutes making it much easier for us to keep you updated! Tomorrow's journey is going to be approx. 116km (about 10 or 11 hours including stopping to eat from time to time as well as filming) so we'd best hit the sack. Adios for now!

My Bum is Sore!

We would love to tell you that our trip started smoothly but that would be a big fat lie. Pretty much everything that could have went wrong did. Everything from broken bikes to hitch-hiking happened in the first 20 kms. Day 2 started very much the same . More bike problems set us back a couple of hours but once we got past that we were able to travel 100 kms and set up camp around 10:30 pm. Daylight lasts until about 1:00 a.m. so it makes it pretty easy to shoot all hours of the day but has also kept us awake depriving us of sleep. Last night was the first good sleep we had and it was well deserved. the aches and pains of biking will hopefully wear off in the next couple of days.

Yukon is a pretty amazing place. We have seen lots of terrain and even a few bears. We're in grizzly country and are hauling food with us so that is a big concern. So far the backs of garbage bins in campgrounds has been a safe place to stash bags of food. Other than that we have some rope and will have to tie food up in a tree. We have a few hundred kms to go before we get to our day off destination in Watson Lake. After that its the Rocky Mountains in Northern BC. Gonna be a crazy month. Stay tuned..........