Jen Stelzer has been passionate about biking ever since she quit her job at 25 to bike from Vancouver to Mexico with her then-boyfriend, who she later ended up marrying.

“It was a 3,600 kilometre trip. We camped and basically slept outside most of the time, I had about three pairs of underwear, one T-shirt and two pairs of shorts, so pretty light packing,” she remembered with a laugh. Her six-week cycling trip is what inspired her to pursue a career as the coordinator of sustainable transportation for Envirocentre where she encourages Ottawa citizens to bike to work.

Twenty years since her first trip, she’s biked all around the world – from London to Scotland as well as around New York City and Los Angeles. “My favorite place I’ve biked is New York City because I was so surprised! I thought it would be an awful place to ride my bike but it was a great place to ride my bike”. She has fond memories of the amazing people she’s met and places she’s seen, explaining that “[the trip] made me realize that that’s the way I want to see the world. In a car you see something cool and then it’s gone but on a bike you can stop wherever, whenever”.

Author: Laura Atherton