First Day in the Mountains

Distance: 114km
Time: 5hr

We woke up this morning to the sound of rain outside the tent trailer. Because we were all warm inside sleeping bags the thought of getting up to start our first day in the Mountains was less than appealing. Stepping outside the tent-trailer though the rain was not as bad as it sounded and by late morning we were through the light rain and fog having risen above it. With all three boys not having trained together this was the first real test to see how we would do. As it turns out AJ is the King of the Hill when it comes to hill climbs! Adam and I are not sure how, but AJ seemed to be able to put the pedal down (literally:) when it came to climbing the hills. AJ seems to think it was all of his spinner workouts. We met up with some other cyclists who had just started their journey from Surrey, BC to St. John's. They were doing the trek unassisted with all of their gear on their bikes. Going up those mountains has given us boys a new found respect for anyone doing this on their own with all of their gear. We made it to Merritt in record time so we went for some Starbucks and Tim Hortons before heading over to the van Hemmen's for the night. The van Hemmens treated us like Kings and Queens as they not only fed us a great meal but ice cream sundaes too and to top it all off let us use their hot tube to rest our weary bones.