Claudia Bastien is an Indigenous storyteller, endurance athlete, and outdoor wellness facilitator whose life is guided by land, movement, and deep presence. A proud member of Kebaowek First Nation, she is based on the unceded lands of the Squamish Nation, where she lives a life shaped by the seasons, self-propelled travel, and somatic connection.
In 2023, Claudia walked away from a successful career in medical school recruitment to pursue something slower, deeper, and more aligned with her spirit. Since then, she has spent months bikepacking across continents, sailing along the Pacific coast, and hosting breathwork and cold exposure experiences that help others reconnect with their bodies and the land.
With a background in ski touring, ice climbing, mountaineering, and long-distance hiking, Claudia’s relationship with the outdoors is as multifaceted as it is meaningful. These days, you’ll find her pedaling gravel roads across remote regions, learning the rhythms of life at sea, facilitating somatic experiences outdoors, and sharing honest stories about all of it along the way.
Her work centers vulnerability, Indigenous presence, nervous system awareness, and the transformative power of choosing the long road, especially when it leads you somewhere completely unexpected.
In 2024, Claudia Bastien set out on a solo, unsupported bikepacking journey from the Canadian Rockies to the border of Mexico. Nearly 5,000 kilometers of remote gravel roads, small-town encounters, mechanical failures, and moments of quiet wonder.
“Home on the Gravel Road” is a raw and reflective story about what happens when you leave behind comfort, certainty, and routine, and choose to live from the saddle instead. For months, the road was home. A tent was enough. Meals were whatever she could carry. And the days were long, slow, and often brutally honest.
Rather than taking the direct route, Claudia chose the long way. Riding the Icefields Parkway through the towering peaks of the Rockies, descending into the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, then weaving through Montana, Utah, Arizona, and California before finally reaching the border of Mexico. It was a scenic, soul-shaping path that offered as much inner transformation as outer challenge.
An Indigenous endurance athlete and storyteller, Claudia shares how this ride cracked her open, revealing not just the strength it takes to bike across a continent, but the vulnerability it takes to sit with yourself day after day. Woven into the solitude were the faces and generosity of strangers, people who offered water, a meal, a warm place to sleep, and sometimes simply a conversation that shifted everything. These moments reminded her that even on the loneliest roads, we are never truly alone.
This presentation is for anyone curious about going long, going solo, and finding a sense of home in the most unlikely places. Like the shoulder of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere, or the kindness of someone you’ll never forget.
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