No Wins in Winnipeg! Got My Gear Stolen!

Arrived in Winnipeg 2 days ago. Had been looking forward to it since leaving Regina. With little to see on the prairies the capital cities of the provinces are normally a highlight, particularly because I had new gear from Amazon waiting to be picked up. However, there is a lot to be said for the smaller towns in between which I definitely learnt the hard way. The first night in Winnipeg was torrential rain and gale force winds, something I have become use to on the flatlands. Found a canopy near to the city center to take shelter and camp. After a long day cycling with aggressive head winds, I was soaked and frozen, so I had an early night. I decided to camp on top of a picnic table to keep off the wet ground and rested my bike with all the panniers against the table. I would normally put the bags in the tent but with the 2 new panniers I had picked up that day room was a little tighter and even more so because I was on top of the small picnic table. Clearly very tired and not making sensible decisions.

I woke in the middle of the night to some noise but just thought it was the wind and rain beating off the tent and quickly fell back asleep. I woke again an hour later to more noise, this time i could heard noise through the noise of the storm. I decide to look out my tent to see if everything was okay and noticed all the bags had been taken off of my bike. I jump out of my tent in my bare feet and boxers only to see a guy fleeing with my 2 yellow panniers on his bike ( the 2 black ones were nowhere to be seen). Without thinking I jumped on my bike and chased. He dropped one bag in the panic but still had one. I chased him for about 20 mins before I lost him. It was 4am and pitch black, by the time he was out of site the adrenaline had worn off and I noticed I was pretty much wearing nothing, it was 3 degrees and everything was numb. I had no idea where I was and how to get back. After a while I eventually found my way back and remember I had a GPS tracker in the bag. I went straight to a WiFi source and checked the gps location but he had already turned it off. I cycled around the area for a while but had to come to the terms that they were gone. He got 3 full panniers of gear but I still had my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping matt and bike. It was such a knock back, my whole life was in those bags. I found a McDonald’s and done some damage control, wrote down everything that was stolen, everything that I still had and everything I need to get in order to make it to Toronto. I booked into a hotel had a nap and then trekked around Winnipeg and gather all the gear I needed. Luckily it all happened in a city where I could get new gear but it definitely wasn’t cheap. After a couple of hours and lots 💵💵 I was happy I had everything I needed to finish the trip. Really sucks, I have only had good encounters on my journey but I think that made me a little complacent in the big cities and began to neglect protecting everything from theft. Got back on the road the next day a lot lighter then before 😁, which is always good! 3500km done and just over 2000km to go.