Yellowknife (July 06/01) - An 18-day, 7,200-kilometre bicycle trip got under way Tuesday morning at 4 a.m. in front of the Eskimo Inn.

Arvid Loewen, of Winnipeg, is cycling to Point Pelee in Ontario, which is the southernmost point on the Canadian mainland.

Arvid Loewen, 44, will have to cycle about 16 to 18 hours a day.

"The idea is to connect the furthest populated point North accessible by road with the furthest point south accessible by road," Loewen said of Spoke 2001.

(Pelee Island is actually further south, in Lake Erie, but it is reachable only by boat.)

Loewen, who is married with three children, set off down the Dempster Highway.

His journey will take him into the Yukon, through northern British Columbia, and across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The trip is to raise funds for two Mennonite Central Committee water projects overseas, and Family Life Network, which is a church-based, non-profit international broadcast ministry.

The committee is the relief, development and service arm of the North American Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches. Loewen revealed he has a special reason to lend a hand to the committee, as in 1930 it helped his parents escape religious persecution in Russia and get a start in South America.

"I think the only thing they got was one ox and one wagon to share between a couple of families, and they were dumped into the middle of the bush," Loewen said.

"But that was enough to get them started."

Loewen, 44, will have to cycle about 16 to 18 hours a day, and average about 400 kilometres daily, to reach Point Pelee July 20. He expected that he wouldn't be able to achieve 400 kilometres a day while on the Dempster Highway.

Loewen has done ultra-marathons racing for six or seven years. He explained this usually means a distance of between 800 and 1,200 kilometres, straight through.

He expects "Spoke 2001" to be tough, mentally and physically. "It's almost like a mind game."

Loewen explained that while battling hills, weather, or plain fatigue, it can be difficult to keep one's spirits up.

"What happens to an ultra-marathon cyclist is the feeling, this variation, this range in extreme emotions -- it's what attracts us to do this over and over again. Because it is an incredible feeling when you overcome the lows," he said.

"I love a challenge -- how deep you can dig and still keep going, day after day."

Those interested in making donations or in tracking Loewen's progress, can look up his Web site: www.spoke2001.ca