WELLINGTON COUNTY – Water Cycles Expeditions is throwing a Water Cycles Bikes and Blues Festival on Sept. 9 in Belwood.
The event features free community bike rides for all different types and levels of riders, with a 15km, 50km and 90km trail.
The rides will be followed by a benefit concert supporting the Waterloo-Wellington Groundwater Festival, which serves thousands of area school children annually.
Water Cycles Expeditions
Water Cycles Expeditions is a social enterprise focused on reconnecting people and water through cycling, says Dustin Garrick, co-founder of the enterprise and also a professor at the University of Waterloo.
“[Water Cycles Expeditions’] goal is to reconnect people in water through cycling,” said Garrick.
“It started, and remains as, part of my research group based at University of Waterloo and University of Oxford, where we specialize in water policy and community development.”
He added Water Cycles also wants to use cycling through different activities (including tours, events and festivals) to bring the community together.
The group wants to bring the community closer to water issues and to build a network of what Garrick calls “water cyclists.”
The professor said there is a personal component to his ambition with Water Cycles, being that he has both worked as a professor and researched water issues for the better part of 20 years.
He first began in the southwest U.S. in the Colorado River Basin. The professor said he has worked all over the world and still participates in projects and partnerships in Australia, East Africa and the Americas.
He previously lived in England before moving to Belwood last August.
“I was sitting at my desk as we were packing up, and I was starting to reflect and said, ‘Okay, how can I unite these two passions: water and cycling,’” he said.
Garrick added he kept saying the two words together aloud until the light bulb switched on.
“The water cycle. It’s that primary school concept that we all learn. But it’s this coincidence that I think can be powerful.”
Garrick followed up with the Advertiser over email stating that the goal from the beginning is to build and benefit the community.
Bikes and Blues
According to the Water Cycles co-founder, a water cycle is defined as a bike ride that tells a story about water.
“It has to be a story about water that helps to reconnect people and bring these issues to the forum,” he said.
The Water Cycles Bikes and Blues Festival is a water cycle meant for the community of the Upper Grand. It is combined with a music festival to give all riders, and those who choose not to ride, a chance to get involved.
After the morning bike rides, the event will kick off with a children’s bike parade, which is followed by the blues concert. Booths will also be available for participants to learn more about different groups active in the Upper Grand area.
“And we’ll be sharing some opportunities for people to get involved after as we’re planning our first camps and some future expeditions,” Garrick stated.
“Building on momentum, we see this as the beginning of the beginning rather than the just the end of a summer of water cycling.”
For more information, to get tickets and a detailed schedule of the day, visit bluerangelabs.org/water-cycles-expeditions.
