Cycling around the world with Meaghan Hackinen
Meaghan Hackinen is a Canadian writer, ultra-endurance cyclist, and adventure-seeker.
She is a finisher in The NorthCape 4000, and the Paris-Brest_Paris circuit. Her first book,South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels has been nominated for two Canadian book awards and rave reviews. I talked to Meaghan about her life on two wheels, her adventures around the world and how anyone can explore new destinations on a bike.
I loved chatting to Meaghan, who is so modest about her incredible achievements! Meaghan started out as a cycling commuter, then started taking part in longer distance, non-competitive rides. She has cycled tens if not hundreds of thousands of miles around the world, and of her long distance solo rides, she says ‘camping, navigating unfamiliar territory, and negotiating the various social situation, are both exciting and uncomfortable’.
Since this interview took place, she has also set a new women’s FKT (fastest known time) and won the overall in the 2021 BC Epic 1000 - a 1000+ self-supported off-road bikepacking race across British Columbia, Canada that occurred during extreme heat dome conditions. In August she came place third (first female) in the AlbertaRockies700, a 700 km self-supported bikepacking race through the gorgeous, remote Rocky Mountains. Huge thanks to Meaghan for taking the time to talk to me.
“It was so cool, to see where we could go, just with the power of our own legs. We always found really interesting places to camp for the night, and after that I was completely hooked”
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