Dedicated to slowly exploring the world on two wheels, Pierre Bouchard and Janick Lemieux have covered more than 250,000 km by bike and spent 14 years in the saddle since 1990.
The Slow Lane retraces the story of these two nomadic Canadian cyclists who have ventured from the Pacific Ring of Fire to the African continent to a bikepacking trip in Quebec’s wilderness. This is a story of adventure, friendship, love and dedication to a sport that embodies their philosophy and lifestyle as they immerse themselves in unspoiled landscapes.
“Between overseas expeditions and when at home in Charlevoix, we strive to seize every opportunity to explore La Belle Province on our bikes,” Bouchard recently told Bikepacking.com. “The region is perfect for all types of outdoor adventures and, of course, bikepacking. We had been back from a 21-month and 21,000-kilometer ride stretching from Norway to Tanzania, the first leg of a more ambitious cycling odyssey we came to call NOMADS².
After sharing our adventures in lecture series across Canada, we were supposed to return to Africa in September 2020. Some microbes ruined our plans like everyone else, so we focused on projects close to home instead. Initiatives aimed to develop access to the region for off-road cycling, including trail-building and many bikepacking routes.
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Back in December 2022, when we met with the director Alexa Fay, we were already working on one of these bikepacking routes. One was a 300 km ride through the Laurentians wilderness between Chambord, near Lake St.-John, and Rivière-à-Pierre, in the Portneuf region, connected by the Montreal-Jonquière passenger VIA train. The idea was to drive to Chambord, ride in the woods to Rivière-à-Pierre for a week, and board the train back to our van: Quebec Bikepacking Xpress! This was a perfect opportunity for Alexa, Paul, and Simon to capture photos and video of us in our element.”
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