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The ride that changed everything: A day with Jay Bearhead

The ride that changed everything: A day with Jay Bearhead

Jay Bearhead’s story of surviving residential school trauma, addiction and homelessness to finding healing through mountain biking Share on X (Twitter) Share on Facebook Share…

Thursday, Oct 03

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Jay Bearhead’s story of surviving residential school trauma, addiction and homelessness to finding healing through mountain biking

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In April of 2024, I found myself in Kamloops, B.C.—a place where mountain biking is more than a hobby. But in a town full of bike shops, there was only one guy renting mountain bikes. His name? Jay Bearhead. What started as a simple rental became a deep dive into an incredible story of resilience, transformation and the healing power of bikes. A ride like no other

My family and I spent the day riding with Jay on the trails at Harper Mountain. We did shuttle laps, weaving through Kamloops’s unique terrain, with Jay leading the way. Between runs, he shared bits of his story—how he’d been through the darkest of times and came out the other side stronger. At only 44-years-old, Jay has lived a life full of challenges. As a survivor of the residential school system, his early years were marked by trauma, which led him down a path of substance abuse, homelessness and struggle.

“I was placed into a residential school in Holbrook, Arizona,” Jay recalled. “It was tough being thousands of miles away from home and I went through trauma there. When I came back to Canada, I didn’t know how to process what happened. I was an angry teenager.” The healing power of two wheels

Jay’s connection to bikes began when a group home support […]

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