While many cyclists might dream of tackling the winding roads of Europe, Victor Emerson set his sights on a different kind of challenge this summer — one that kept him planted in his hometown of Ottawa.
Instead of his usual bike trip across Europe, Emerson decided to embark on a more local quest and travel to all 33 branches of the city’s public library system.
“We decided not to go during an Olympic year because of airfares, hotel bookings, all that sort of stuff. But normally, if we did go to Europe, we’d go for a couple of weeks, and we would do about 700 or 800 kilometres,” Emerson said on CBC Radio’s All In A Day last week.
“This year, I thought, well, what am I going to do in Ottawa?”
Not wanting to travel “aimlessly” around the city, and as someone who often uses the library, Emerson thought, “why not go to all the branches?”
Over the course of the summer, he planned out his routes, grouping nearby library locations into about nine different itineraries.
“I would only do one itinerary in a day, but I would do multiple branches. And it depended [on the weather],” Emerson said.
“I mean, sometimes the temperature was 35 C or higher, or sometimes it was pouring rain. So I didn’t do it every day.”
Munster branch his favourite
Armed with a simple booklet to collect stamps at each stop, he set out on his two-wheeled tour of the city’s literary landscape.
“I’ve lived in Ottawa for [about] 40 years … but I mean, I hadn’t been to most of the branches. I think my favourite branch was the Munster branch. It’s in a tiny, decommissioned church, vaulted ceiling. Nice art on the walls,” Emerson said.
“It is a charming place.”
Emerson completed his mission on Thursday, rolling up to the Beaverbrook Library to claim the final stamp in his booklet.
“The bonus for me was the librarians. Because when they found out what I was doing, they got so enthusiastic. And they said it’d be great to have … little booklets for kids or adults, and they can get a stamp, and there might be a capsule description for each branch and so on. Like a passport,” Emerson said.
While Emerson may have forgone his usual summer adventure, he said his quest left him with a newfound appreciation for the libraries in the city.
“It was nice to have completed that project,” Emerson said. “I didn’t find any bad libraries.”
8:52A month-long journey to bike to all 33 libraries across Ottawa
Local cyclist Victor Emerson challenged himself to bike to each branch of the Ottawa Public Library this summer. He tells us what got him pedaling.