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.
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.
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