Titus, the Akita Biker

While driving east on the TransCanadaHighway the other day, I saw three obvious distance bikers ( as in pedal, not motor ) going towards the bridge to Prince Edward Island. I took a long glance at the first two, but the third one caused me to stop and talk. The man was from Toronto and said he'd travelled for three weeks to get this far. The bike was packed, front and back with camping gear and food and he pulled one of those buggies meant to carry a child.

Looking larger than life, Titus, a 90 pound Akita sat in princely fashion on a cushion in the child buggy, with a canister of dog treats beside him. He appeared to be up for the whole adventure. In fact, I'd say he was smiling. "It's not his first trip", said John. "He knows how to do this."

I had a lot of questions.

"Do you tie him in the buggy? " "No, only in suburbs where another dog might lunge out."

"Isn't the Akita a hunting dog? What about wildlife? I just saw a fox by the side of the road."

"He only responds to aggressive dogs." (Maybe it's because he's a Japanese breed, I thought. He looked very Zen-like)

"Where do you sleep?"

"Mostly under picnic tables, with a tarp on top."

"How far are you going?

"All around the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton. I'll work a bit in Halifax, then get back to Toronto by Fall."

I was talking to John by the entrance to the bridge . It's 8 miles long and is the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water ( not ice-covered now! ) Non-motorized vehicles and walkers aren't allowed to cross, so there's a shuttle. But John had a problem. The shuttle would take the bike rig and John, but not the dog.

I said I'd like to help him out, but I had my 25 pound Corgi in the car and even though Zen-like, and coming with good credentials from John, Titus looked like he could mistake Louie for lunch. I walked around the nearby nature center, looking for someone to help, but couldn't find anyone. If he'd arrived earlier, a couple of truck loads of mackerel fishermen could have taken man, rig and dog over, but they were long gone.

"Don't worry", said John , " I have three months, so I'll pick up the ferry at Pictou sometime. One way or another, I'll get to the Island. Then he sat on the picnic bench, stretched out his legs and looked to the sea.