Episode 287: Vivien Lougheed

Vivien Lougheed, born in Winnipeg in 1943. Her family was troubled, so she learned early to huddle in safe places and read. They were also poor, so she was forced to steal books. One especially caught her eye — a travel book. It was a bit beyond her, but had pictures.

At the age of 8, she got a bike, and rode all the streets of the city until a tire went flat, something her stepfather was too busy to fix. At age 16 she quit school and used her recently acquired typing skills to get secretarial work and find a place to live.

On her first vacation, summer 1960, she boarded a Greyhound for Jasper. One glimpse of the mountains and her life’s purpose was clear. For a while, marriage, kids, training as a medical lab tech, and a job in the hospital tied her down. Now she was in Prince George, where husband #1 had a lucrative job on the BCR.

Soon the kids were old enough to give her the time, and her own job was lucrative enough to give her the money, to travel. She’d also found, in the lab, a partner in crime. This was Joanne Armstrong. Buried deeply beneath Joanne’s taciturn and cynical temperament, was a desire for adventure equal to Vivien’s.

It started with long distance trekking, cycling and canoeing: weeks in Quetico Park in Ontario, weeks in Banff and Jasper, weeks in the Nahanni, weeks in Europe etc.

The pattern was set. Back-pack travel. Cheap hotels, cheap transportation, and marketplace food with (if possible) red wine.

In the course of this, husband # 1 realized that Viv’s mind was elsewhere. Interestingly, Joanne’s husband arrived at a similar conclusion at the same time.

This resulted in a certain reallocation of financial resources, and a certain new freedom. At this time, they were taking canoe lessons so they could paddle the Nahanni River, and lobbying the Chinese government to travel freely in China. In the course of this, books came back into Viv’s life.

They arrived in the form of a bespectacled college English instructor, John Harris. John was a reluctant traveler and trekker, but had a nose for stories. He had an old school friend at the Citizen newspaper, a few connections with small-press publishers in Vancouver, and a small publishing operation of his own.

More importantly, he had a pension and a medical and dental plan. He deftly used these things to win Viv’s heart. With him, she could travel year-round and, using his connections and editorial assistance, become a travel writer.

And so it happened that Viv traveled the world, the dangerous places with Joanne, the safer ones with John. The self-published travel-guide Central America by Chickenbus (3 editions, 1988 – 93) led to a contract with Hunter Publishing in Miami for guides to Belize, western Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia.

A weekly column in the Citizen (1991 – 96) caught the attention of the Prince George publisher Cynthia Wilson, who ran Caitlin Press. Forbidden Mountains resulted.

It described a trip with Joanne through the areas of Tibet closed to travelers. Viv and Joanne hired Uyger truckers get them through Chinese border stops. A perceptive friend described this journey as “insane.” Caitlin also commissioned a guide to local hikes, From the Chilcoten to the Chilcoot (2005), and Caitlin’s associated press Harbour Publishing commissioned Understanding Bolivia: A Traveller’s History (2008)

So, Viv’s adventurous spirit and curiosity about the world came to be reflected in an extensive body of work, which includes over 10 books.

These books are known for their vivid storytelling and practical advice — practical even if you want to follow her into some wild places. She has also written about the history and geography of remote regions.

.Learn more about Vivien's books by visiting https://www.chickenbustales.com/