Day 1 - Happy Mothers Day!

Well, we finally got all of our gear together and hit the road.

We left Garret's house around 5:30-6:00 and began our journey east. Our plan was to bike 171km to Hope, BC. We quickly realized that probably wasn't going to be possible. Our trailer with all of our gear in it is like an anchor. On some hills we slowed down to about 10 km/h - good thing we aren't in a race. We are becoming rather worried about the Rockies, but I guess we'll just have to take the hills as they come.

Mid-Day Break

The ride this morning wasn't too eventful aside from Patricia and I bickering back and forth a couple times and a coyote looking for food at a dump. The roads weren't too busy and the drivers were pretty friendly - only a few people came a little close while speeding by. Hopefully, traffic doesn't get too much worse ... can't imagine that too many people will be commuting out here.

 Patricia's bike seat has been bothering her since our first ride on the tandem, but we've been trying to adjust it as we go in hopes of fixing it. We didn't succeed and began keeping our eyes peeled for bike shops today so we could get a new one. We saw two or three this morning, but being sunday, they didn't open until 11am and this was around 8:30. So, we kept biking and when we got to Mission, BC around 11 am we decided to wait until noon which was when the bike shop there opens.

The bike shop was called Wentings Cycle and they were really helpful. They let Patricia try out a few seats and we found one that was much more comfortable. They also threw in a part that I needed to fix my bike pump(which was needed since I broke it last night pumping the trailers tire up) - we were surprised they had such a specific part. As we were leaving they noticed that two of our water bottle holders were empty so they filled up two water bottles with water and gave them to us. And we were on our way again.

The new seat!

We kept on biking and had decided to stop at a campground we saw on google maps at Erroch Lake. When we were getting close we bought hotdogs from a gas station for a snack :D A few minutes later we realized we didn't have anything to light a fire to cook them so at the next gas station we bought some matches. While buying the matches the clerk said the campground was closed this year :(

We kept on biking and figured we'd at least check it out since it was right on our route. When we get there it was most certainly open. Its called "The! Campground" and the lady running it was very friendly. We got a tour of the facilities that included drinking water, free firewood and hot showers(with awesome water pressure) - a bike tourists heaven. The forests in this area are very tropical and there are some huge trees around the site. Also, many of the trees are covered in a very thick moss which looks really neat.

All set up and ready to cook some hot dawgs.

Shot of the sign as we left the next morning

Guess thats about it for today, we're off to bed soon and hitting the road bright and early tomorrow.

PS. Happy Mothers Day, Moms.