This Yellowknife woman biked 1,000 kilometres along WW1's front lines

A Yellowknife woman recently spent five weeks visiting First World War sites on a bike she bought from a grocery store in France. 

Stephanie Yuill originally wanted to walk the trail, called the Western Front Way, which follows the trenches and front lines of the war. But foot pain led her to make a last-minute decision to bike it instead.

She also raised money for Red Cross efforts in Ukraine along the way. 

Yuill said she has many connections to the war: her grandmother was a war bride who came over from the United Kingdom in 1946, and her grandfather was part of the army that liberated Holland. 

Yuill started her trip on September 11. She left from a town at the French-Swiss border and travelled about 1,000 kilometres north to Nieuwpoort, Belgium. She said the front lines in some areas were about 30 kilometres wide, and she would regularly veer off to visit sites. 

"I'd bike, I'd stop, I'd take pictures, I'd look," she said. 

Yuill said her family was in her thoughts throughout the trip.

"I had my grandmother's wedding ring on so she was with my everyday," she said. 

Though taxing, Yuill said the trip taught her something like a world war should never be allowed to happen again. As many as ten million soldiers were killed during the First World War and many millions of casualties died too. 

"I know we can't always get along with everyone, but it doesn't mean we can't try to be patient, be respectful," she said. 

On Remembrance Day, Yuill hopes people reflect on something they can do to take action. 

"I think we owe it to generations before us to remember, to educate and to continue to have calls to action."