Join adventurer & expedition leader Oli France as he explores the epic wildlife of North America in this episode of Highs & Lows with Oli – featuring memories retold from the workshop whilst looking back on his amazing expeditions!
From meeting moose on the road, near-misses whilst wild camping, and coming face to face with a bear, this trip had it all.
Cycling, trekking, skiing and climbing through breathtaking scenery for the North American leg of The Ultimate Seven, this world-first endeavour sees Oli travelling from the lowest to the highest altitude in every continent completely by human-power.
The Ultimate Seven is Oli’s lifelong dream and multi-year project representing historic human endeavour, where he will navigate jungles, deserts, mountains, and polar regions around the world by cycling, walking, skiing, rowing and climbing.
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#animals #adventure #landscapes #scenery #travel #explore #vlog #travelvlog #TheUltimateSeven #NorthAmerica #Denali #California #bear #moose #wildcamping #closeencounter #wildlife #americanwildlife #bison
Just come across some bare prints about 50 yards from camp. Wild remote Canadian landscapes at their absolute best. Black bear. Okay, time to [Music] go. It is so good to be out here in the Canadian wilderness, the true Canadian wilderness. When I was cycling through North America, particularly once I hit northern British Columbia and the Yukon, I’m now entering an area known as the Serengeti of the North. You know, a huge expanse of pretty much untouched wilderness. So, it was a real privilege now to be cycling amongst bison, moose, black bears, brown bears, mountain lions, wolves, and having them all on the roadside. I definitely got my eyes peeled for some wildlife. Apparently, there are moose in this area. Wow. I saw moose on the roadside. Huge animals, almost like the size of a horse. They can be quite territorial and they are huge animals with great big antlers. I stopped my bike just 20 m from this animal and we almost had this standoff where it looked at me and it started to cross the road and it stopped and looked at me again and it’s now it’s got a clear run straight towards me if it wants to go for it. But actually, we just sort of looked at each other for a few seconds and it was this really special moment and then it turned its head and carried on into the forest. [Music] [Music] This is just pure wild remote Canadian landscapes at their absolute best. Every day as I’m cycling now, I start having these bison encounters. Welcome to Canadian Rush Hour. These bison are huge creatures which might weigh a couple of tons. Funnily, they were almost terrified of the bike and probably a novelty as this cyclist going through, you know, this remote region. They’re probably not actually having many human interactions. Trucks would fly past, they weren’t bothered. Cars would fly past, tourists would stop and take photos, they weren’t phased. And then I come past on my, you know, heavy expedition bike with the pedals squeaking. And the bison are terrified. [Music] And now they’re charging down the road. There was something about this bike which really seemed to unsettle them. I was only glad that they weren’t charging in my direction because they are quite huge animals. If I’m camping out there in the wilderness, I’ve got to be really aware that there’s going to be bears out there. Fortunately, one night I found sort of a very basic wooden shelter. It was all open around the sides, but I thought this is going to be my best form of defending myself against the bears that might be out there. It should provide some level of protection. So, I was just uh just falling to sleep in my cabin and I heard some footprints in this shelter. I barricaded the doors. I set my tent and as I was going to sleep that night, I heard this crunch crunch crunch in the snow outside. I don’t know if you can hear it. By the time I got my camera out, unfortunately, it had gone. But it just through the trees over there. Big animal, big footsteps. I opened up the zip, bear spraying hand, had a look outside, and staring back at me from 20 m away. There was a moose right there. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bear. But I must say, it was quite a restless night’s sleep after that. This is what it’s all about. Dog chasing me here. Been chased by a lot of dogs. Actually, it’s interesting when I think about a lot of my cycle journeys and particularly in North America and people ask me, “Well, which animals were the most dangerous?” Often my answer is dogs, which might surprise a lot of people. Of course, dogs are amazing, but there’s something about bikes which really seems to trigger dogs uh and gets them quite agitated. Very often I found myself cycling past remote ranches, remote buildings with fences, fortunately getting chased by all kinds of guard dogs. Sometimes they got out and they did get quite close which was a little scary. I started to hear the telltale signs of wolves and the howling and the yapping and and they’re moving as a pack through the mountains. They can’t have been more than a couple of hundred meters away from my camp. As I listened to them, it just really gave me the sense that I am in true North American wilderness here. Definitely the big thing that was on my mind was [Music] bears. I’m definitely on bear watch right now. Out there, they’ve got grizzlies. Huge predator, huge animal. Pretty terrifying. We were now on the ski section of our journey and we were skiing into base camp and we had eight days where we didn’t see any humans. But what we did know is that this place was alive with grizzlies and we crossed this freezing river. It was absolutely freezing. How was it Ryan? We got to the other side of the river. Set our [Music] camp. Just come across some bear prints about 50 yards from camp. We scoped out around it and found these huge grizzly bear prints which were sort of like a size of a dinner plate um within 20 m of our tent. And these were so fresh, these prints, that it can’t have left more than 30 minutes, maybe an hour before we got there, knowing that we were camped in prime bear country on our own, miles from civilization with very little to actually defend ourselves with. In the buildup to this expedition, I was really worried because I knew I’d be cycling through prime bear country in spring when they’re all coming out of hibernation. I’m feeling quite peckish and hoping I wouldn’t be a meal on wheels. And then one day, I remember in the Yukon, I’d had a pretty rough night. I got some food poisoning the day before. I got up the next morning. I had a long day to hit the Canadian border. Just seen my first bear. Can’t believe it. I’m all too aware this is bear country. I cross this um remote stretch of road up over a hill and I see the shape off to my left hand side. That’s the second one I’ve seen today. There’s a bear right there. black bear. This is now my fear that I’d had for months. I’m seeing it right in front in front of me. This huge black bear peering at me from over the verge. And suddenly my whole body goes tense. I’m looking at this thing dead in the eye. This thing, this animal must be five times the size of me. It could kill me in one swoop of its [Music] hand. I’m now 4 m away from this bear. And I watch it, you know, very closely as I cycle along the road and it watches my path. 100 yards away. Okay, time to As I got 50 m past it, my heart’s going like this. This bear is still watching me with its eyes very, very closely. There are no other humans around. There’s nowhere to hide. There’s nowhere to run. I know that if that bear starts to chase me, it can run at 35 mph. There’s no way I can outchase it. I can’t climb a tree. There will be nothing I can do. All I’ve got to hope for is that that bear doesn’t give chase and I stare back at it and it just stares at me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go for it. I get a quick video and I get out of there as soon as I can. So, I did put a bit of a spurt on just to get away from the lake, but I literally cycled within 4 5 m of that bear. And it was interesting because this creature which I’d spent so long fearing and having nightmares about and cold sweats about, now I look it in the eyes on the roadside as it watches me cycle past and it’s just a big fluffy animal with fluffy ears and a fluffy face and actually really not that interested in me. As I reflect now, it was really special encounter with that animal. I would say the black bear at close range um was probably my best animal encounter. [Music] As I’m journeying through there with no other humans around, we think about North America. We think of this commercialized builtup country. But actually, what I saw of it was the true wilderness that still exists in this part of the world. And for me, that’s the thing that we often forget about. So, one part of this journey which was a real highlight actually was all those wildlife encounters, all those animal encounters that I was having along the way.