This prize-winning speech by Lucy Schick (Elphinstone Grade 9, aged 14, in 2015) is part two of a four-part series from Coast Reporter and TraC (Transportation Choices) concerning commuter cycling on the Sunshine Coast during the annual Bike to Work and School Week of May 30 to June 5.
I ride to school on the most beautiful trail in the world. I ride through the bright green and the deep brown, the pouring rain and the scorching hot sun. Each season brings something new.
Riding Inglis Trail has made me appreciate our beautiful forests. When I ride my bike to school, I get to listen to the little chirpy birds and Todd Clark’s peacocks up on Gospel Rock, and if I am lucky I get to eat a few salmon berries on the way.
Riding to school has made me realize how lucky we are to live in a free country. Here on the Sunshine Coast, we are able to walk, bike or drive anywhere we want, where as in some developing countries people are fleeing their homes to find safer grounds.
Also, here on the Coast we are so close to the forest and trails. I have to walk for about two minutes before I am enclosed by big Douglas fir trees and spider webs. Riding to school has made me realize what a small world we live in. I don’t think I have ever ridden to school and not seen someone I know. I love how I can just say “hi” to the person on the other side of the street and then turn my head and see someone else I know. I get to know locals like Robert, a senior citizen who walks one of the local trails every morning. That’s something I love about Gibsons.
I have made Inglis Trail my own. Since I’ve ridden this trail so many times I have broken the trail down into four stages. The first stage is not very hard and it’s a warm up. The second stage is stairs so I have to walk my bike up, and then there’s the third stage which I find is the hardest. It’s steep and slippery and I can only ride it if I don’t have a heavy backpack. After stage three I always think I’m done, but wait, there is one more little grunt until you’re at the top. Once stage four is over you’re on the home run.
Inglis Trail always looks really discouraging. The trail is quite steep but there are two things that make me keep going upward. Number one is that there’s not very many other ways to get to Upper Gibsons without going far out of the way. I could ride up school hill but that’s about twice as long, and steep the whole way up. I would also have to reconfigure my stages. Number two is that all I have to do is bike up four stages of trail and then it’s flat and easy for the rest of the way.
I have the opportunity to ride to school up a cement road or through paradise. How could I resist the forest route? Riding to school has made me realize how lucky we are to live in “Beautiful British Columbia” where we can bike almost everywhere we want and, it has made me realize what a small world we live in. I have personalized Inglis Trail and found ways to motivate myself up the hill even when it’s the last thing I want to do. Whenever I ride to school, I think about the top. I think about the top of the hill in front of me, I think about the top of Mt. Elphinstone, the top of Mt. Everest, the top anything, and the top is good.
