Day 46

We left Vancouver towards Mission for a night of rest and relaxation at Beth and Greg's place (Harrison's aunt and uncle). The route was relatively flat, but we got to see the beginnings of the Rocky Mountains. It gave us a glimpse of the amazing scenery to come. When we arrived in Mission we were greeted by Beth, Greg and Lindsay and had a great streak dinner. That night we caught the final game of the Stanley Cup which was a nice treat.
When we left Mission we were excited to start biking into the Rockies, and we after much deliberation and consulting countless experts and after doing science, we made the decision to take the Fraser Canyon (Highway 1) as opposed to the Coquihalla (Highway 5). The Frasier Canyon had fewer summits and better scenery but 70 extra kms. When we arrived in the town of Yale we were assured that we made the right decision as the view was unbelievable. We biked another 15 km and set up our tent near what appeared to be an abandoned house. About 2 hours after setting up our tent the owner of the house came by with a report of someone on his property. He was a nice guy though and didn't mind us camping on his property.

Check out the scenic Fraser Canyon River:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sycwQ1oztc&feature=youtu.be

The road along the canyon has a few tunnels. Cool!

After we left our campsite we started to get a taste of the mountains that were to come. We had a few 2-3 km hills, but nothing too major. We also had the wind at our back which was a huge help for the first day of serious hills. We met our first serious BC hill, one that many had warned us about, and we met it with ease because we happened to have heavy winds at our back. Here we are after accomplishing that first big hill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc3NIqxel68&feature=plcp.
Unfortunately the camera was turned off right before we were presented with the most prestigious award ever, in front of everyone, for biking up that hill.We graciously turned the award down though, because we're not done yet, and will bike up atleast one other hill as we cross the Rockies.

 Not a word of a lie. This is the name of the hill we biked. Pretty harsh.

That night we camped just outside of Spence's Bridge.

When we left our campsite we had about 1 bottle of water each knowing that in Spence's Bridge we would be able to fill them up. However, when we arrived every single shop/cafe/motel was out of business. Our next stop was about 50 km away and so we had to stretch the one bottle each for around 3 hours of biking. We managed, mostly because the sun went away and it started to rain. The rain wasn't terrible and after a quick stop in Cache Creek we set up camp close to Savona. Video of the campsite to be added later.

 Harry biked right by this gem-like scenery without even stopping to look at it. Thankfully Will is better than Harry at some things.

The last video depicts one of the more interesting aspects of our trek along the Fraser Canyon, the vegetation changes drastically, and the change is not subtle at all. it goes from a lush green rainforesty vegetation and climate to a more arid and desert-like setting. It's really a quick transition, and we've been told it changes back shortly after Kamloops.

Just can't get that timer function on the camera right

The next day we arrived in Kamloops. With pretty harsh head-winds, we were reminded just how difficult the hills can be when the wind doesn't go our way. But it was a sunny day and a relatively short day distance-whise so we would be able to arrive in Kamloops without too much of a problem. We also met 4 other cyclists that were touring across Canada. Cool. They were Swiss. Interesting.

Up next we head north to Jasper so that we can take the road along the Columbia Icefields from Jasper through Lake Louise to Banff. We could cut through from Kamloops to Lake Louise, but we think the detour up to Jasper will be worth it. We're pretty excited for it. Thank you again to Sarah and Josh for the amazing hospitality, a welcome change from the camping over the past 3 nights!

Day 41

The morning of May 28th we were lucky enough to be interviewed by the local radio station at Cheticamp, but that meant that we didn't start biking until around 12. That morning we had also decided to change our chains because we had already biked about 2200 kms. Right when we started biking Will's chain started to skip and so we spent 30 minutes fixing it which put us further behind schedule. 2 km down the road Harry's chain started to skip and Will's snapped in half. Excitement ensued. We didn't have any backup chains at this point because we had just used them, so we took the good old trial and error approach and actually managed to patch things up and travel 30 or so kilometers. However, at that point our chains decided to start skipping again and we had no option but to keep trialing and erring, but mostly erring. Eventually we decided that it was hopeless, and that we would need to get a new chain, but we were in the middle of Cape Breton, and the nearest town with a store that would sell bicycle chains was over a hundred kilometers away. That misfortune actually proved fortunate. People in Cape Breton are some of the kindest people you'll meet, and we actually managed to hitch a ride all the way to North Sydney from Rob (lobster fisherman) and his fiancee, just beside the town that would have the store and chains we needed, as well as the port for the ferry to Newfoundland.

The next morning we stocked up on new chains, replaced our embarassing old ones, and hopped on the overnight ferry to Newfoundland. Will would turn 23 years old on that ferry, and slept a sound 4 hours on the floor before we set out to tackle all 900 kms of newfoundland in 9 days.

NL 

Here's a video of some of the scenery kilometers after leaving the ferry in Newfoundland, narrated by Will and guest starring the Trans-Canada Highway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvgGnhj-fd4&feature=youtu.be

The road from Port-aux-Basques to St. John's is just that, one road, and at points it is quite barren. We went the first 200 kilometers and saw more moosen (4) than we had seen stores (2 gas stations). Another interesting fact is that if you were to draw a line directly from Port-aux-Basques to St. John's it would head directly East. Our first two days in Newfoundland, however, had us going directly north, which of course meant that we would have to spend that much time to get back south enough.

The moosen built this fence so that we wouldn't bike on their turf

The trek to St. John's also featured some really cold and wet weather. We did not see the sun at all while in Newfoundland, and would wake up most days to puddles of water inside of our shoes. The first 30 or so kilometers would be the hardest. Our feet and hands would go numb from being so wet and so cold, but we would eventually warm up and would still manage to average just under 100 kms a day.

The sunniest moment of Newfoundland (it was behind a mountain)

We would still take some time to take in the scenery though, as shown in this video of scenic Gambo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMLQgQrr9Jk&feature=youtu.be . Additionally, we had a day with excessive amounts of fog and it felt like we were on another planet, one with a lot of fog, but otherwise very similar to earth and specifically newfoundlandish. A very weird feeling indeed.

Breathtaking scenery

Newfoundland wasn't without its highlights though, as one day we ran into a couple of cyclists that had just started their trans-canada trek. Within minutes, a journalist for Maclean's spotted our bikes and took the opportunity to interview us about our journey. He's writing a book about the Trans Canada Highway, and his personal experience driving across it. We're not guaranteeing that we'll make it into the book, or on the front cover, but we've got a bit of a hunch that there's going to be an alternate book about just us, and a subsequent major motion picture. He is blogging for Maclean's almost daily, and he was sure to mention us. Here's a link: http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/06/05/day-2-on-the-trans-canada-gambo-nf/. Additionally, the two other cyclists have a blog at: www.trekking4transplants.ca 

One day, winds were in excess of 57 km per hour. This means that had it been near a school zone, the wind could have gotten a ticket for speeding and would be the recipient of many frowns from onlookers, not that either of us know what that's like, but we suspect the wind should be ashamed of itself for that. Nonetheless, we eventually made it to St john's and were lucky enough to camp in the backyard of Will's cousin Michelle's place while she was away in another part of Newfoundland. St. John's is a really nice city. From far it looks like its a really big town, but it has many of the same amenities you'd expect from a city, including a vibrant nightlife which we took the liberty of exploring. One street in particular, George street, is considered the street with the most amount of bars per square foot in all of either the world or North America, or Canada, or something. The point is there are a lot of bars that the newfies love to frequent and make the most of.

On June 9th, we packed our bikes up and flew to Vancouver. The flight, including a short layover in Toronto, took all of 10 hours. We covered the distance that is taking us 3 months by bike, in 10 hours by plane. We dont know what to make of that. When we arrived in Vancouver we were greeted by Brian and Audrey who welcomed us into their home. The showers, clean laundry, and home cooked meals were a welcome change from the cold tent-life in Newfoundland.

One box per bike and an additional box for our bags, tent, and air mattresses.

The following day we took some time to travel around the city of Vancouver on our bikes, but without all of our heavy bags. We were able to check out Stanley Park where we dipped our bikes in the Specific Ocean (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFSsXhyw6E0&feature=youtu.be), just a day after being right by the Atlanta Ocean. Note: Vancouver needs more coffee shops...could not find anything.

Will and Harry just about to bike through Stanley Park

We are now heading to potentially the most difficult, yet scenic portion of our trip...the world-famous Rock Mountains.