Hayes Point Provincial Park Campsite 
Sean Neville is so much more athletic than the rest of us.
Scotty tried to climb it first and could not make it. Neville to the rescue.
Fixing Russ's tire. Russ was worrying!
Ry Mack getting lose again.
Fighting the Sasquatch for a case of Kokanee. Creston here we come.
Scotty and Russ's pouch off. 
Sleeping in Harry's garage
The biking god himself, the king of Concrete in Grand Forks "Harry"!
 
Scotty Mac back again. Sorry this is so long but we are using this as our day-to-day journal as well. Also with the jet leg I have been up at three am each morning so this is keeping me entertained.

 My version of Positives and Negatives so far this trip:

Positive: For the last couple of days Ryan and Ross have laid off of referring to me as the Old  Peter Pan from Hook and saying things like, “ Your doing it Peter, Your biking with us” and pinching my cheeks and saying “ Peter, is that really you?.

Negative: After finishing over a KM behind the boys going over Alison’s Pass and cramping up, they have changed my nickname to (For all you Disney Fans) Shadow, the wise, stubborn old dog from Homeward Bound whose body has failed him and just has no gas left in the tank. They spent 20KM today cycling behind me in tandem with Ryan in my left ear and Ross on my right, bouncing quotes from the movie off each other, with the amount of squealing and giggling, I assume it was quite entertaining for them.

Positive: Russ is hilarious. I admire his persistence. He has no problem throwing 10 terrible, unfunny jokes out there just to find the one that is solid gold. When he knows which one that is he recycles it until it is dead and then uses another 10 jokes to find his next winner. He has no fear of people not laughing and I admire that about him.

Negative: He talks to everything. We bike past a farmer’s field and Russ has a five minute dialogue with the cows, We see a mountain goat and Russ now has a best friend to throw ideas at for the next half an hour. One of my favorite moments so far this trip is when we were making the big decision to push through to Princeton from Manning Park. Russ obviously wiped, asked, “How his guys were doing:” I was facing the opposite direction and turned to answer Russ thinking he was asking the others and myself. Russ was bent over at the hips speaking with his thighs. We all died laughing. He now constantly references his quads as “his guys” and his hamstrings as “his girls”.

Positive: The neatest thing about the trip so far for all of us has been the chance to tell our story.  For the last 5 years I think all of us can agree that we have not talked about Baha and his meaning to us enough. It has been inspiring to get back to conversing about him not only with strangers but also with ourselves. People are so interested when we tell them about Baha’s two old bikes, and are quite impressed we are riding them across the country, as they are not the most “Gucci” bikes. Every person we talk to regarding Baha, we have started to hand out our Biking for Baha Pamphlets and stickers to. I think they appreciate this, I know Ryan does as he has been carrying them and they must weigh about 30 pounds.

Negative: We decided to be completely transparent about this trip. So sorry if this offends anyone. Yesterday when Ross was coming out of the shower we noticed a big bruise on his butt. For anyone that knows Russ he could possibly be the most worrisome person ever. For the last day all I have heard about is his butt and how he thinks something is seriously wrong. Obviously I kept telling Russ they were just saddle sores, but he was not having it. Finally he approached me shyly and asked me to I-Phone picture his butt so he could see it and get some peace of mind. I reluctantly agreed just so he would stop complaining. So in the Middle of our Haynes Point Campground, I was on my knees, I-Phone in hand, trying to get the right angle as Ross held up his cheeks, pants to his ankles chirping about how cold it was and how he hoped he wasn’t damaged permanently. When out of nowhere an elderly couple walked around the bend to within 20 feet of us, their eyes almost popped out of their heads! Russ shamelessly fired his pants on and fled into the bushes while I was left on the ground to wave and say hi, I-Phone in hand!

Positive: I now know why they call it beautiful BC. This place is spectacular. The vast diversity of landscapes is stunning. We are seriously lucky to be from such a gorgeous part of the world.

Negative: I have been skunked so far in the yellow jersey competition and this could possibly be the worst thing ever. I gave it a good go yesterday trying to get the jump start on Ryan but he came flying past me at the end with Neville on his tail and beat me by about 100 metres. This was quite demoralizing. As my brothers have failed to mention in previous blogs, I am riding Baha’s most chronologically gifted bike. It looks like a city cruiser and it turn makes it seem as though I am sitting up or running. “Run Scotty Run” (Forrest Gump) is a constant comment. Needless to say the bike is not built for speed. Anytime we go down a hill or hit wind, it feels as though I have taken 100 Mike Tyson body shots, Naturally Russ jumps in behind me and drafts, as I am the perfect shield. I am working twice as hard as them just to keep up and it is killing me.

I need to win the Yellow Jersey soon. We are a very competitive group by nature as all brothers are. The advantage I have had over the years is I am the eldest, which means all the rest of them have always had older brother syndrome. For example I have been bigger, stronger and older for their entire lives and I have not let them forget that. Ryan and I have played furiously intense one on one basketball games since he was old enough to compete. He has been more athletic and a more talented player than me since he was a senior in high school, however because I beat it in to him when he was younger that I always won, that I was the winner, even to this day, I would somehow find a way to win as eventually in our games Ry’s mentality would resort to when he was in Grade 6 and I was in Grade 12. He would get older brother syndrome and convince himself I was better! With these first five losses in our trip, I have seen this begin to change in all of them, I need to change something soon and make sure these boys know they must respect their elders! Older Brother Syndrome must come back and it must come back soon. I NEED TO WIN! 

 
Sean Neville here to tell everyone the story of our fourth day into the wild. I’ll start by telling about how bad my body hurts from head to toe. I feel like a Thai kick boxer has been training day and night on both legs.  Scotty’s decision to push through to Princeton yesterday almost put me in a coma. We arrived in Princeton to another foot-long sub and booster juice, which we deserved! We came to the conclusion after dinner that we were going to walk our bikes to the camp ground as not one us were willing to get back on our seats. As we left Scotty disappeared across the street to come back five minutes later after weaseling his way into a forty-five dollar motel room.  We were all super pumped to be able to shower and share one queen bed between the four of us. Big thanks to the Villager Motel for being so friendly and hooking us up. We hit the pub to celebrate our arrival in an unlikely MacKinnon fashion, split a pitcher and were knocked out by 1130.

           

I woke up this morning nervous about what to expect after yesterday but the day started off good with complimentary breakfast. I don’t think the motel owners realized they were going to lose money because of our appetites as Russ and Ry devoured most of it. We hit the road which ended up all down hill at first which was new to us, Russ was singing, Scotty was up right on his bike as always which makes him look like he’s running not biking, Me and Ryan were laughing at him. We were on cloud nine! Scotty spotted two-mountain goat, standing on a rock face about 300 meters up from us. Instantly Russ was chanting at the goat to jump. Quote “Only one of us is walking out of here goat it’s either you or me”. It rained about an hour before noon then the sun started poking through the clouds. Scotty, Ryan and I were in our short and T’s but rusty would not take off he’s waterproof booty’s, pants which he had basketball shorts over top which made no sense to me at all. What a guy!

            We arrived in Hedley gold mining town which was so beautiful, had lunch then we pushed another 20km where we added to our international friends Emeric from France and girlfriend Sylviane. The Boys called him “Bizzaro” Sean because apparently we looked and acted alike?????????? They were relocating a camp van from Vancouver to Ottawa, which sounds unreal.  Awesome people, and adventurers who we hope to meet up with in Ottawa! They only have to pay hundred per week. What a deal!

            We finally arrived in Osoyoos at 5pm without any injures, fights, or bears.  It was really cool, as our Dad had mentioned that Baha used to being his entire family here for summer vacations to the same resort every year. (A reason we wanted to stop in Osoyoos), on the long descend to the Similkameen Valley was absolutely breath taking and we immediately realized why he did so. I was in my happy place! Our campsite was right on the lake so we decided to go down to the water to get some pictures of the sunset. While Ryan, Rusty and I were posing Ryan pulled my pants to my ankles as Scotty was taking the photo. I reached down to pulled up my pants and pulled my hammy.   Now I have a limp and am looking to get back at Ryan. Just another day in paradise! 

 
Boys killing the continental at the Village Inn. Russ ate his body weight in peanut butter.
Jumping Shot
Da boys in Similkameen Valley.
Neville finds his serenity
A-535 Russ's and Sean's new best friend
Ry and Scotty 
Let's go to Osoyoos.
Our French Friends: Emeric and Slyviane
Ry Mack getting loose. 
Ryan loving the scenary
Sunset 
Mountain goats
 
One word to explain today……… Wow.....

We woke up in beautiful Hope to pouring rain and sore bodies from the previous day… Myself and Ryan were both on 5 hours of sleep after playing Charades all night with the Hope Firefighting crew that so graciously took us into their home(Tim and Phil are legends)… Scotty was named team captain of the day, as we anticipated his leadership would be crucial for us to conquer Alison’s pass, which is by far the most ruthless climb of the trip… In typical Scotty fashion, we had to spend 30 minutes at Timmy Ho’s prior to departure so that he could finish his Green Tea…

With the late departure due to Scotty demanding his green tea, we were off and biking approximately at 9:30… SO the grind known as Alison’s pass had begun…. After an initial 17KM steady climb, with me threatening to turn around and go back to Hope if I didn’t get my PowerBar fix, and festival Neville cruising at a pace of an 80 year old, we celebrated at what we thought was the summit of Alison’s pass.. We began high-fiving and taking way to many unnecessary pictures of something that ended up being a foothill compared to the real Alison’s pass. For the first time on the trip Ryan was dead quiet and didn’t say a word for a good 45 minutes. .

Morale was definitely down through parts of the ride, and I don’t think me singing: “We’re not going to make it” to a lovely tune was the best way of getting the boys inspired again…. The climbs were ruthless, but we were continuously astonished by the massive mountains, wildlife and in general the beauty that B.C has to offer. We even saw our first Black Bear of the trip, which was short-lived, as a tourist quickly pulled-over for a picture and scared it off …  However, this wasn’t our last run in with a bear.

About an hour later and halfway up Alison’s pass we had vehicles driving past us yelling that there was a bear about 2KM up… In typical Mackinnon fashion and with the aggressive team captain Scotty at the helm we decided to push forward. To our surprise a kilometer later we met a solo German cyclist who had been stuck on the side of the road for the last hour as passing motorists had warned him of the very large black bear 1KM around the corner as well. He quickly asked us experienced lumberjack Canadians for advice, Immediately Sean Neville informed him that “Black Bears were Harmless” and we ventured onwards. Somehow, no fault of our own the German tourist ended up leading us up the road towards the black bear. When we rounded the corner the bear was right along the side of the road we were riding on. The German now thinking black bears were harmless, rode slowly up to the bear with Scotty trailing close behind him. The German pulled up short about 20 feet from the bear, holding his knife in one hand, his bear spray cocked and loaded in the other and his bear whistle jammed between his teeth, when the bear noticed that the German was there it did nothing and resumed grazing. The German then began blowing profusely his bear whistle, and screaming “Hey Bear”, within seconds the clearly irritated bear had taken three to four aggressive, large, jumping steps and was within 7 feet off the German. Bearing his teeth and bouncing on his hind legs.

            In milliseconds, Captain Scotty who had been hiding behind our new German friend had sprinted with his bike across the highway, dodging through oncoming traffic and proceeded to lose one of his Panniers(bags attatched on our bikes). Our German friend had also scrambled down the hill with his whistle and bear spray in hand. Scotty was in the middle of the road fixing his Pannier, Neville had bolted across the street and uphill to take pictures and Ryan was 40 meters downhill trying to climb up a tree! As an onlooker I can honestly say seeing Scotty scurry across the road like a lost puppy made my life. After all of the commotion and the near Bear attack we continued up Alison’s pass laughing the whole way and mocking Scotty for his actions… This event might have saved us because we FINALLY made it up the 1342 meter summit and celebrated as we did 3 hours earlier!

As we made it down to Manning Park by about 4:00pm, Captain Scotty decided to use his Veto power and have us push another 80km to Princeton telling us it was all downhill… The worst decision of the day was not stripping Scotty of his Captainship and staying in Manning Park… We decided to push through and for the first 15 km it was downhill, we were laughing and telling stories and then all of a sudden the road flattened out… This is when the 15km incline began that Scotty forgot to mention… Neville did what he always does when he’s angry: swear, Ryan did what he always does when he is angry: not talk, and I pushed forward with my positive, fun-loving attitude… Let’s just say that my attitude quickly changed within 30 minutes of a steady climb.. After about another 45 minutes I had little energy left and was fading fast, just waiting for the next break to smash about 3 cliff bars… Finally, when Captain Scotty decided to break 20 minutes later I was running on nothing but fumes and was coasting to the peak of Sunday Summit when Neville, who was 100 meters ahead of me, was snapping pictures of us reaching the peak and proceeded to catch me in a happy state reaching the summit and then bailing off my bike milliseconds later… I can’t honestly tell you what hurt more, the crash off of the bike or the boys running around high-fiving and laughing hysterically!  I did however get my pay-back.  Around 15 km’s down the road we finally got the downhill slide to Princeton that Scotty promised.  During this final decline, after spotting a herd of deer in a field I yelled up to Ryan who was a couple hundred meters ahead to check them out.  Ryan astounded by these beautiful creatures glanced to his left and merged into a soft sandy shoulder where his tail slid out.  Ry ended up super-manning off the side of his bike and it was my time to laugh and high five.

We were reminded of Baha’s countless falls and his always positive attitude!

We finally made it to the beautiful town of Princeton B.C at about 7:30pm after about 10 hours of biking and we are still alive! After some crashes, run ins with bears, Captain Scotty’s questionable decisions, and Ryan’s oddly quiet behaviour, we are positive that this will be the most difficult leg of the trip and it can only get better from here! Cheers from Brother Rusty!

 
Leaving Hope from superstars Tim and Phil's Place
Our bear fighting German dawg! 
Sean Neville flying! 
Russ before he fell.
Us high fiving when Russ fell as well as passing motorists giving him honks all in love! 
Good Omen! Michael J Fox paying us a call! 
Hope Slide
Alison Summit Pass
Our crazy aggressive bear! 
Russ don't like heights.
 
Scotty Mac here writing his first blog of the trip! 

First off lets talk about yesterday, it was not a breeze for me, it was not a ton of fun and my crows feet now might have crawled down to my chin. As I arrived from the Philippines the night before we left, I never had a chance to ride Baha's bicycle before we left! Adding to this, my complete inexperience with touring cycling, I arrived unbelievably unprepared. Luckily my lovely brothers Ross and Ryan were very compassionate and helped me out. Ryan and Ross decided that I should be the one to carry our 1000 Pamphlets and all of our electrical equipment,  which combined with Baha's old bike, my gear must have weighed about 50 pounds more than the rest of the boys. Before we left Ross and Ryan decided that it would be brilliant idea to play a practical joke on me by deflating my tires until they were half full. Being mechanically incapable and stubbornly proud, I just assumed it was the weight of the bike that was making me struggle. I didn't tell any of those boys for fear of being mocked relentlessly. Ha ha For 85 KM,  I  huff and puffed my way to Mission, I was a mess and was trying to devise a plan of how I was going to fight my way on this bike to Halifax. About 3/4's of the way to Mission, Ross slowed down to join me about 400 Meters behind Sean Neville(Who is a Beast) and Ryan. My plan went into action at that point. Within 45 minutes of riding with Russ, I had jedi-mind tricked him with numerous comments about the size of his butt and his pouch into believing that he was in as bad as shape as I was and that he should stay behind and ride at the back with me for most of the journey. I spent most of the night stressing about how I was going to finish this trip. 

In the morning My favorite brother the capable mechanic Sean noticed my bike and filled up the tires. Within Minutes I felt like a new man.

Day 2: 

Sean Neville woke up with Brother Russ whispering in his ear that "he was taking the yellow jersey from him today." Scotty woke up at 3am to Ryan's disgustingly loud snoring, something is seriously wrong with that kid. We left Mission on a serious mission(Nice play of words Neville) at about 9:30am after a satisfying peanut butter and banana breakfast. The weather called for rain so the lot of us were all geared up and ready for a down pour. Russ was voted team captain for the day and he started off by leading us in the completely wrong direction. Our first 30KM were a slow grind as Rusty needed to stop every 20 Minutes for his Power Bar fix. I have never seen a man eat so many power bars. He might be the first person in history who puts on weight crossing the country on a bike! We cycled in the drizzling rain for the majority of the day which was nice as it was not to hot and humid. Russ constantly mentioned putting on his water booties as he felt his  little toes might get wet. Every 30 seconds Russ would ride up beside one of us asking quickly if it was time for the "booties." 

We arrived at the Harrison Hot Springs/Hope fork and downed a jar of peanut butter (As Russ had eaten all the Power Bars) deciding between a stop over at the Hot Springs or pushing straight to Hope. Russ vetoed everyones vote and we ended up cycling into Harrison which was a great idea as it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL there. The massive, jagged mountains surround the lake and it is a really picturesque place. 

Arriving in Hope we all killed a footlong sub as our appetizer, laughed until we cried as we realized we had to cycle 20KM uphill tomorrow at Alison Pass, before joining Tim and the legendary forest fire fighters from Hope who served us a gourmet dinner and put us up for the night. It is really quite amazing how hungry we are all. Tim and the crew were so generous we cannot thank them enough.

Russ took home the yellow jersey today as Sean got jobbed by Scotty and Ryan boxing him in. Ross proceeded to ride no handed, hands in the air, waving to all his imaginary supporters through Main Hope. 

Anyways, I am in pain and sore and tired of Ross and Ryan quoting the movie Hook and referring to me as the old Peter Pan. If I hear " You can do it Peter" one more time I might lose it. 

We truly are having a great time though and have not stopped laughing since we started.





 
The Boys saying Cheers to Day 1
All Canadian Ryan Mackinnon after he lost the free throw shooting challenge to do the dishes. Sean Neville was clutch.
HUGE thanks to Tim, Cody, Matt, Britney and Phil for the place to stay and unreal food in Hope, B.C.! 
Hughy Mac would be proud of this meal
Brother Rusty found his calling! 
Harrison Hot Springs
 
Day 1- Ryan here throwing down the first blog post of the trip.
Today was hilarious, full of emotional ups and downs, random run-ins, basketball bets, almost bails and foreshadowing for the future. Last night we had an unbelievable BBQ with almost all of the Munro Clan, friends and our Uncle Rob came to chow down on some classy Uncle Mike cuisine.  This morning, in typical MacKinnon fashion we scrambled to get ready.  A pre-planned departure of 11:30 Am, ended up being a 1:00PM crawl through East Van and Burnaby.  Our family was unbelievable as the Smiths, Kathie Mack, Kathryn and David, Abbie and Lucas and Maya sent us off from the Munro's old house on Osler Street.  Just prior to take off Sean dropped his bike and completely snapped off his left mirror off of his bike.  Sean, often known for his casual and easy-going personality dropped a swear word starting in F and ending in K.  Because of Sean, we are probably never allowed back to Osler Street.  We crawled through the busy streets of Van with Sean violating every road rule cutting through traffic and navigating with his I-Phone to get us moving.  Scotty had planned to go a completely other route but Sean vetoed that and we went on every random back alley street into Burnaby.

The best part about it all was that we randomly came across the Michael J Fox Theatre as we were weaving in and out during Sean's random navigating.  If you take a look at pictures below you can see we got bored real fast.  Decided to do every type of picture, jump shots, shirts off shots and flexing shots.  We eventually ended in just our spandex being confronted by the manager of the MJFOX theatre.  He eventually realized as we scrambled to throw on our TEAM FOX shirts that we weren't some random Burnaby hoodlums causing a raucous. 

We pushed on through Pitt Meadows and eventually into the outskirts of Mission where Sean raced to a first place finish and the first yellow jersey for the trip.  We arrived around 70 km later at the Rainbow Trout Valley Lake-Pond something rather campsite around 6.  Conveniently we found a basketball court, played a few games and had Ross nearly in tears with cuts and bruises by the end of it.

Overall,  Day 1 was a breeze.  We had fresh legs, good prepared meals and it was our first full day together.  Lets just say it is going to be a long sixty days. Rusty jokes are slowly getting old, Scotty's body is being held together by the six different types of spandex he has and Sean is already missing the comfy confines of trendy Main Street. I'm excited to see what happens in the next few days as our tempers flare.  Anyways, sad news to end the trip we didn't end up seeing Carly Rae Jepsen the big singing sensation from Mission today.  Heartbreaking but I still believe I have a chance with her.  We will update soon...... To Hope tomorrow.  Ryan!
 
Leaving from Baha's old house!
Our amazing family giving us some love.
In front of Michael J Fox Theatre, Burnaby, B.C.
Jumping Shot 1: Russ didn't make it the first time. 
Russ looking jacked! 
Da boys fired up! 
Festival Neville Breaks his mirror before we leave.
Baha Store one block from Sean Neville's place, we have never seen it before today. Good Omen! 
Jumping shot 2
Right before we met the manager of the theatre Jim Dobbs, not the best first impression. 

     Mackinnon Brothers

    With this blog The Mackinnon Boys hope to keep sponsors, friends, family and anyone interested updated on our travels, experiences and thoughts. All four boys will be making entries as well as our father Mr. Hugh Mackinnon who will be accompanying us for parts of the trip in his 1967 VW van.

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