Sime’s Excellent Arctic Adventures on the North American Epic Cycling Expedition

 

Sime Baricevic, our Content Creator on the 2022 North American Epic Cycling Expedition, has had some time to reflect on his assignment and to create a longer form video about his experiences in the far north of Canada. As both the filmmaker and the narrator, Sime examines this unique landscape, its people and the cyclists who took part. His 2-part, 34 min video can be found at the end of this blog.

Even though having TDA Global Cycling as an employer puts you in a very adventurous, laid-back environment, there are still rules that exist and structures that need to be followed. With all that said, as a content creator, from the very first moment of my assignment, I never had the feeling that anyone would be keeping me from expanding my creativity beyond my assigned tasks.

It is quite hard as a ‘one man show’ to commit to long edits while on the road, especially on remote tours like the North American Epic where the internet and electricity are hard to come by. For that reason, most of the video content created during the tour ended up being limited to about 3 minutes in length.

This is why, when I finally completed my assignment, I decideed to put these two longer form videos together. The goal was to try and bring the real atmosphere of the tour closer to the average viewer.

One might watch the video of someone cycling 150 km per day with a smile on their face and be intimidated, thinking – wow, this must be a superhuman! But if they see the same person struggling with daily obstacles like mosquitos, dust, heat, cold, exhaustion… they might think – hey, I am no different than this person!

There are a few things that make Canadian North special. Being there during the high summer when the sun never sets is one weird and quite special feeling. Another thing is the remoteness. Surprisingly, on the Arctic Spirit section of the North American Epic, the least isolated feeling I got was at the furthest point, in Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik. Inuvik is a completely functioning town with a decent sized airport, well connected with the rest of Canada. It was the space between Inuvik and Whitehorse that actually seemed like the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t a single day where I didn’t look into the distance and wonder if anyone had ever stepped foot on that mountain or hill or if anyone had ever enjoyed a dip in one of the endless lakes.

For someone who’s thinking about cycling in the Canadian North, I would say, be prepared for the moments during the day when you, either alone, with your partner or in a group, find yourself surrounded by nothing but an empty landscape. It might seem like you’re the last person in the world at some point. If you do, take a deep breath and enjoy it as there are very few places left in the world where you’re still able to feel that way.

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