Local man bikes across Canada to raise funds and bring awareness to Crohn’s disease

Stratford local Peter Meszaros cycled across Canada this summer to raise funds for Crohn’s Disease research.

Peter Meszaros thought to take an extended summer vacation now that he had graduated from university and wanted to make an impact with his time off before continuing his life journey. He decided to bike across the country, from Vancouver, B.C., to St. John’s, N. L., something that he had always wanted to do. He was inspired to raise funds by his family and chose a cause close to home, Crohn’s disease.

“Around September, when my family was visiting me in New Brunswick, I was telling my parents about (the trip), and my mom came up with the idea to tie in fundraising with it. It was right around the time that my brother Will was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and I figured that would be a great cause to fundraise along the way,” explained Meszaros. “In addition to Will, I have friends in school who suffer from Crohn’s. Even when I was on the road, my (maternal) grandfather was hospitalized and diagnosed with Crohn’s.”

On May 5, Meszaros set out on his bike from Vancouver, B.C, for 10,505 kilometres reaching St. John’s, or more specifically, Cape Spear, the easternmost point in Canada where when standing there, Ireland is closer than Toronto. The journey took 118 days which comprised 95 days of biking and rest days along the way. He gave himself a nice break in New Brunswick to visit with his girlfriend. He arrived at Cape Spear on Aug. 31.

Support throughout the trip came in the form of kindness from strangers, who provided snacks along the way, a place to stay, kind words or contributions to the cause.

“It was incredible how friendly random people along the way were. I received help in all sorts of forms. Once in Ontario an older fellow took me fishing and taught me how to fillet a fish and taught me how to cook the fillets, so I had a big fish dinner. A lot of people provided snacks and drinks along the way, which was very, very, nice and of course friendly words and people saying they would support the cause. Strangers were very kind,” shared Meszaros.

His strategy was not to set a mileage goal each day, because of variables such as weather and the terrain. He instead tried to bike between five and eight hours a day; the shortest day was two hours when his father, Joseph, had joined the ride and around the Georgian Bay area they had a really big day, so they took it easier the day following to pace themselves.

“I was really, really, impressed. Dad bought a gravel bike last October or so, because I kind of encouraged him to do so, so when he heard I was doing this he wanted in. I planned four days that we rode together, from Tobermory to Blue Mountain and honestly, I was so impressed with how much grit and tenacity he has. There were sections on our big day where I think, Lion’s Head to Owen Sound, which was around 111 kilometres, there were really rough moments where we were pushing our bikes along the Bruce Trail and wading through water up to our knees on really inundated parts of an ATV trail. But he took it like a champ and pushed through it all and did it all with a smile on his face. I was rally impressed.

“If I had been alone I would have been cursing the trail,” he confessed.

He tried to avoid the Trans Canada Highway as much as possible, although highway biking is faster, it just doesn’t have the same hidden gems found when veering off the most beaten path. The biking route Meszaros followed is the Great Northern Bike Packing Route (GNBR) which travels from the Pacific Coast of Canada to the Atlantic Coast. The GNBR is one of the longest and most adventurous contiguous bikepacking routes. 

“It’s very much a dirt trail focus that takes you off the beaten path and into the more remote areas where you can practice your self reliance skills, see some more beautiful sights and truly be alone in nature,” said Meszaros.

The most challenging part of the journey was bad weather and steep climbs. There were about five days in B.C. that rained non-stop and really wore down his spirit.

“It was so hard to stay motivated and wake up in the morning and want to get out there. Everything is soaking wet and you know you aren’t going to have the opportunity to dry off, but you just have to push through it. That was really, really, hard especially since I was still inexperienced riding in bad weather and it was the middle of May and it was cold and I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes,” said Meszaros.

The kindness of people along the way was surprising and took him aback. People were curious about where he was going and were kind, making him love Canada even more.

“There aren’t many other places in the world where you can do something like that and feel so safe, and feel so accepted,” said Meszaros.

And now that he is home, the lesson learned from such an undertaking is to be adaptable. No matter how much or how many times he tried to plan, something would come up to cause a change.

“Any time I tried to plan ahead, it seemed something always went wrong … I kept planning to a minimum. I had my route planned out, but I would really only try to plan camping spots just a night or two in advance.”

The GoFundMe fundraising for Crohn’s disease opened by Meszaros had an initial goal of $10,000 but has raised in excess of $24,000.

“That blew me away. My original goal was $10,000 and I didn’t know if that was a realistic goal or not, but it was really a community effort. So many friends and family members chipped in, Stratford businesses as well, so it felt like a really local effort with strangers along the way contributing, too,” he said.

Anyone wishing to contribute to this worthy cause can visit the GoFundMe page https://www.gofundme.com/f/biking-across-canada-to-raise-money-for-crohns-research.