NANAIMO — Pete Caljouw has worn many hats in his life.
He was a Navy man, a logger, a transit operator, a wildlife photographer and a minor league baseball coach.
Now 89 years old, Caljouw has added e-bike enthusiast to the list, making the switch to assisted pedalling to help navigate the steep terrain of the mid-Island as he photographed local wildlife.
“It started getting hard for me as I got older and older. I had to figure out how I was going to get up some of these hills and trails, especially over on Denman Island…it took me about half an hour to get up the hill walking, and then the next thing I know, it’s taken me an hour to get up the hill. I didn’t like that so much.”
Wildlife photography was the most recent venture for Caljouw, who moved to Nanaimo in the 1960s after a stint in the Navy.
From there, he worked as a logger, a local minor baseball coach, and then at BC Transit for the Regional District of Nanaimo for about 35 years before retiring, spending the last two decades photographing wildlife.
While he no longer takes pictures of eagles and bears, Caljouw is still an avid e-bike rider, at least when the sun is out and the Toronto Blue Jays aren’t playing.
“I try to get out every second day if the weather is good. We have some beautiful trails around here. I don’t go on some of the rougher trails anymore, but I still go on the paved roads and all over Nanaimo…I’m on all the trails, the E&N trail. There’s so many different trails around here, we’re really well off.”
Caljouw’s daily return involves morning coffee with friends, using his e-bike most days to get across Nanaimo. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)He purchased his e-bike, a black Rize Liberty, locally, with dozens of e-bike stores located across Nanaimo alone.
With the assisted peddling helping him navigate the sometimes steep terrain, Caljouw is happy to be able to get his daily exercise doing something he loves.
“It’s a really good thing for older people too. I started out riding road bikes. I was always the last one up the hill mountain biking, but I was one of the first ones down the hill. I just loved mountain biking, and I did that for quite a few years before I took up the e-bike…it was getting hard for me to do the regular bikes.”
He said when he first started on his e-bike, the local trails were not very busy, but that’s changed a lot in the last few years with more and more people opting for the electrical assist.
He’s also thrilled more people will be able to give them a try following the success of the blue Evolve e-bike program, recently celebrating one year of operation in Nanaimo.
“It’s really taken off, and I think it’ll keep going too. It’s not only just the exercise you’re going to get, it’s good for the atmosphere and the whole ball of wax. It’s getting another car off the road for a while.”
The e-bike allows Caljouw to stay active, get outdoors, and remain a part of the community, heading from his home in the Buttertubs area to the Starbucks at the Woodgrove Centre Chapters location to meet his friends for morning coffee.
“One of these days they’ll come along and take my license away because I got older, but I’m still able to drive. I’ve got a car still, and I do this more for recreation than anything else.”
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