ConnecTour Chronicles: Warmshowers hosts have equally warm spirits

Troy Media publisher Doug Firby and Travel editor Lisa Monforton are part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. Starting in May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and our sense of community. Watch for their reports on Troy Media. More information on the cycling tour is available at ConnecTour.ca. To help them meet their goal, click here.

Ross Bond in his workshop

Ross and Brenda Bond live on a small farm they bought in 1975 about an hour’s drive west of Winnipeg near the hamlet of Poplar Point.

It’s an idyllic piece of tree-lined property located about a kilometre south of the highway. With all the green cover, passersby would never even know it was there.

The old wood-frame farmhouse, which has grown through several additions, is tucked against the berm that used to protect the house from the once-raging Oxbow River. Although it breached its banks just 10 years ago, these days the Oxbow, which feeds the Assiniboine, has dried up in the drought that’s plaguing much of Western Canada.

Even the beavers have had to take refuge in a pond on the property. Their new home, however, is a source of ongoing consternation to Ross because they’re chewing through the trees and burrowing into the berm.

Ross and Brenda Bond

Of the many shady trees that keep the property cool, one stands out. It’s a mature elm that has managed to avoid the Dutch elm disease that has virtually rendered the species extinct in Eastern Canada. Last year, Ross ponied up $800 to have the tree treated in the hopes of keeping it healthy.

Not far from the house is an old frame one-storey building that was once a church and, Ross has been told, served as a barracks for Japanese Canadians detained during the Second World War.

He bought it decades ago for $500, and today it’s filled with saws, planes, drills and a cornucopia of woodworking tools that Ross uses to ply his craft as a carpenter, making beautiful cabinets and furniture. He’s soft-spoken and modest but does let slip that he once did work for a member of Winnipeg’s Richardson family, whose juggernaut company built its wealth over a century-and-a-half in the grain, agri-food, energy, real estate, finance and transportation industries.

Right now, Ross is working on an old wood-frame church up the road.

Though past retirement age, Brenda still works part-time in Winnipeg hospitals, providing spiritual counselling to patients.

The ConnecTour team met the Bonds through an organization called Warmshowers.org. Members offer their homes as places for touring cyclists to pitch their tents and grab a shower at the end of the day. The Bonds joined Warmshowers last year after their daughter Muriel rode her bicycle from Montreal to Manitoba and relied on these hosts whenever she could. Mom and dad thought they should return the favour, and started to offer their place last year.

Warmshowers hosts are like that: People like Jan and Zack Zacharias, who hosted us on their beautiful property in Creston, B.C. Or Angela Hurd and her partner Doug, who own a stunning out-of-the-way piece of ranchland in Wycliffe, B.C., down a winding country road about an hour’s drive north of Cranbrook.

The workshop, left, has the sign from the now-closed United Church.

Although cyclists are self-sufficient, hosts often share meals, tools and beer. In exchange, all these hosts are looking for is an evening of entertaining conversation. Ross and Brenda will admit that it sometimes gets pretty quiet on the farm.

We ask about wildlife in the area and Ross tells us there are feral pigs. Years ago, some of the animals escaped from a neighbour’s farm, and they’ve not only survived the frigid winters but multiplied. Ross says one person claimed to have killed a 400-pound pig. Ross felled a 100-pound animal. Many more are still on the loose.

The couple’s only daughter, Muriel, lives in Montreal. She would like to move back to Manitoba but fears she couldn’t make a good living making and selling pottery. If she has her father’s artistic bent, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Our night at the Bonds ended with a trip to Ross’s hand-built sauna, heated to a searing temperature by a wood-fired stove. He uses it all winter and is happy to share it with his guests. It’s a perfect end to a visit with the sort of fascinating, engaging and generous Canadians we have encountered across the country.

After a short layover in Winnipeg, the ConnecTour crew will head to northern Ontario in the coming days. Watch for more adventures from the road.

Veteran political commentator Doug Firby is president of Troy Media Digital Solutions and publisher of Troy Media. For interview requests, click here.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the authors’ alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.

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