Canadian man traveling 3,000 miles by unicycle

A Canadian man is traveling through the U.P. using a unique form of transportation to call attention to a political issue important to him.

Joseph Boutilier is from Victoria, British Columbia. He’s traveling from there to Ottawa, about 3,000 miles, on a unicycle! The route is taking him through the Upper Peninsula. Joseph is trying to make climate change a more important issue in the 2015 Canadian federal election.

“Canada used to be a leader in the environment, and right now, unfortunately, we’re obstructing international progress for climate change,” he said. “We’re the first and only nation to back out of the Kyoto protocol. We’ve continually said that we would kind of stay in lockstep with what the United States is doing, and now Obama’s made some pretty exciting strides.”

Joseph left his hometown on April 5th. He’s expecting to arrive in Ottawa on September 15th, when the Canadian government will get back to work after its summer break.

“(I’ve experienced) every imaginable weather, from snow to hail to windstorms and rainstorms,” he said. “I narrowly avoided state-of-emergency flooding throughout Manitoba and parts of the prairies.”

Joseph says he’s been averaging about 35 miles per day throughout his trip. He expects to be stopping for the night in Au Train, but he says he might be able to reach Munising if he’s lucky.

He was in Marquette all day Monday and stopped by Dead River Coffee for some energy before hitting the bike trails again Tuesday morning. If you want to follow Joseph’s unicycle journey online, you can do it by clicking here.