A Kimberley man is set to begin a trans-Canada journey under his own pedal power.
Dave Podmoroff has been preparing for his trip for the last few months, which will begin on July 7th when he dips his rear tire into the Pacific Ocean at Spanish Banks beach in Vancouver.
From there, he’s hoping to make it all the way across Canada to Point Pleasant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by late September.
He’s hoping to make it to Hope on his first day, and up to Canmore by July 14 — where he grew up — to participate in Miners’ Day, an annual community celebration.
Much of the route will include sticking to the Trans Canada highway, however, he says he will have to deviate from the highway in some of the more congested areas such as the Lower Mainland or southern Ontario.
You can follow Podmoroff’s trip through his social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Podmoroff, who is recently retired after running a construction business in Edmonton for 20 years, has been planning the trip for the last month.
The passing of a close friend a month ago inspired him to go skydiving, which he did out of Golden. Soon after, he conceived the idea to ride across Canada both as a physical challenge and to raise awareness for mens issues such as testicular cancer, mental health and other issues that men are stereotypically uncomfortable talking about.
“These types of things that us tough guys don’t like to talk about; we’re too tough to talk about that stuff, but yet it needs to be talked about to raise awareness for the guys,” Podmoroff said.
His goal is to raise $1,000, but he’s hoping to get to the point where people pledge one dollar per kilometre.
And with roughly 6,500 kilometres to travel, that can provide a hefty chunk of change for his Men Matter Coast 2 Coast campaign that will go towards Testicular Cancer Canada.
Podmoroff is active, and cross country skis every day during the winter, while cycling Rails 2 Trails in the summer, along with yoga and other creative ventures such as learning how to play the pan flute.
In the past, he has also participated in trips to Guatemala and Morocco with dental teams as part of a charity organization called Kindness in Action, which provides needed dental care to areas that wouldn’t normally have access to first-world health care services.
