Photo from https://twitter.com/bikewander/status/1439900254061608962
One night, I was setting up camp on the shores of the Río Barrancos, about 45km south of the town of Cochrane. Three Chilean cyclists pulled in for a break. They had been on the road for about three months, and one of them, Javier, was preparing for an epic ride to Alaska. We got to chatting about bicycle touring, and I asked them if they knew the Bike Wanderer. Javier smiled, and we began discussing, toasting, and mourning a shared source of inspiration.
The Bike Wanderer was Iohan Gueorguiev, a Bulgarian-Canadian bicycle tourist who died by suicide in August after a years-long battle with insomnia caused by obstructive sleep apnea. He was 33.
I heard the news in November. I can’t remember having been so moved by the death of someone I had never met. Having logged so many hours watching his videos, I felt like I really did know him personally.
Photo from https://bikepacking.com/plog/iohan-gueorguiev-1988-2021/
In April 2014, Iohan flew from Toronto to Whitehorse, hitchhiked up to the Arctic Ocean, and started his solo bike journey to Argentina. For the next six years, he meandered south through the most beautiful, challenging, remote locations. He shared his adventures through gentle, graceful, slow-moving video documentaries, which he narrated with sparse, thoughtful prose. Along the way, he touched thousands and thousands of viewers. We were enthralled by his eagerness to push his comfort boundaries, and moved by the heartfelt connections to the humans and animals he befriended along the way. He inspired countless numbers of people to pick up a bicycle and hit the road.
Iohan called his video series See the World. In the first episode, he showed us the message he taped to his handlebars: “I want to see the world. Follow a map to its edges and keep going. Forgo the plans. Trust my instincts. Let curiosity be my guide. I want to change hemispheres. Sleep with unfamiliar stars. And let the journey unfold before me.”
He stayed true to his manifesto. With his camera turned outward, he focused on the places, people, and creatures the journey offered up. He was simply the one telling the story.
Photo from https://www.cyclingabout.com/tribute-to-iohan-gueorguiev-bike-wanderer/
Iohan’s journey was wild. In Episode #1, we watched him cycle through the wind on an ice road on the Arctic sea. In Panama, he spent days pushing his bike through the muddy and mountainous backroads, accompanied by curious locals on horseback. When it came time to cross the Darien Gap from Panama to Colombia, Iohan found himself a packraft and set off on a mazy adventure through the islands. No matter the situation, Iohan seemed to embrace each experience with patience, wit, appreciation, and good humour.
In March 2020, Iohan found himself in Chile, on the Carretera Austral, with a broken-down bicycle. Since he still needed to pedal 2,500km to reach Ushuaia (the southern tip of Argentina), Iohan decided the best and only option was to fly to the United States to get the specific bicycle parts he needed, and return to Chile five days later.
Photo from https://www.cyclingabout.com/tribute-to-iohan-gueorguiev-bike-wanderer/
But then COVID crashed the party, shutting down borders and grounding airplanes. Iohan found himself trapped in North America. He headed to Canada, where he stayed with friends and explored the remote parts of British Columbia and Alberta. Most of his final months were spent at the home of close friends in Cranbrook, B.C.
The pandemic obviously hit Iohan hard. Already fighting insomnia (a torturous affliction we only learned about after his death), his six-year odyssey to Ushuaia was put on indefinite hold. His nomadic lifestyle, where he would spend unplanned and intimate time with a range of strangers, was no longer feasible. He must have felt stuck. Iohan continued to travel by bicycle, but his updates became less frequent, and perhaps a bit less cheerful.
I found the news of Iohan’s death particularly jarring because he was quite obviously someone moved by living on this planet. His joie-de-vivre was evident to everyone he met on the trail, and everyone watching his videos. Iohan rarely revealed psychological hardship on camera, evidently choosing to keep those tough times – those cold, wet, lonely, hungry, sleepless moments of solo travel – to himself. The physical and logistical challenges he seemed to relish were obvious to viewers, but we never really got a sense of those internal demons no human being really manages to avoid.
Much of Iohan’s story will forever remain a mystery. Close friends of Iohan said he didn’t speak much about the circumstances leading to him coming alone to Canada at 15 to live with his uncle. We’ll never know how his early life influenced the choices he made as an adult. Why did Iohan take on these challenges? Why did he keep seeking out the most remote locations? Why did he choose to spend so much time alone? Why did he keep on moving? These questions will remain unanswered.
The outpouring of sadness and tributes from cyclists, travellers, and fans in the wake of Iohan’s death underlined the magnitude of his influence on so many of us. I’m thankful his videos will live on to tell his special story. As I travel the same roads as Iohan did, I’ll keep thinking about the beautiful human who kept on pedalling until he couldn’t anymore.
Gilbert Coyle 
Gilbert thanks so much for this heartfelt eulogy to a man who inspired you so deeply. It was very contagious I will follow some of his episodes for sure. You take care of yourself in this adventure and let it be all that it can be Judith
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Hi Judith, thanks so much for your kind words. I hope you’re doing well in Toronto. See you at some point, whenever that may be!