Yellowknife (July 23/04) - New Zealand was fun and Ireland was great, but cycling down the Mackenzie Highway was one trip Edith and Norman Mair have been planning for a while.

"I've always wanted to do it; leave from our back door," Edith says.

She and husband Norman walked out of their Yellowknife home May 24 and hopped on their Raleigh touring bikes. They rode into Edmonton 23 days later.

"This was the loneliest road we've cycled in our 20 years of cycling," Norman says.

This was the 13th biking trip for the couple, who celebrated their 73rd birthdays on a dusty stretch of highway. Since age 50, they have cycled more than 20,000 km, everywhere from France, to New Zealand, to Norway.

The trip down the Mackenzie Highway brought them across eight herds of bison, two bears and a lone wolf.

A few friendly truckers rounded out their route, as well.

"Everyone was kind of keeping track and watching out for us," Edith says.

One trucker stopped to offer the couple iced tea along the way. On a return run back to Edmonton, that same trucker stopped again and snapped a picture of them.

"The fact of what we're doing and our age, everyone is interested," Edith says.

She didn't realize just how interested until they pulled up to a motel in Twin Lakes, Alta., and found slices of pie and coffee waiting for them -- paid for by the friendly trucker.

"We'd never met this guy before," laughed Edith.

They lost track of the Alberta man after that, but found the picture and a card from him at their son's house in Edmonton.

Friendly people like him eased the vast spaces of nothingness along the way, Norman says.

"It's nothing but trees and rocks, so you get the same scene all the way," Edith says.

With 80 lb. of provisions on their bikes, they camped along the highway and ate their own food most of the way.

While the Mairs had no trouble biking the 1,860 km route, flooding in Edmonton almost stopped them from catching their flight home.