Saskatchewan

Today we rode into 50km/h headwinds gusting to 70. The forecast called for rain and strong winds coming from the east. They said it was going to rain, and we knew that we had to ride. We have to keep riding east to get to the coast on time.

Our goal for the day was to ride for as long as we could, and take breaks whenever we needed them. The wind was blowing in our faces, and there were dark clouds on the endless prairie horizon. We began our day at a swift pace, and tucked into the stretching rolling saskatchewanian land.

We wanted to reach Regina by a certain day, but sometimes its better not to ride in bad weather. This is what we've learned today. As we finally approached a small prairie town of 293 called Chaplin, we stopped into a restaurant for some real homecooked food.

Our bike started a conversation, and as we sat down to look at the menu, a man introduced himself and asked where we were staying. He told us that he had a small one bedroom down the road, yellow house, number 7, and that we were more than welcome to stay there. We thanked Keith very much for his offer, but replied that we had to be on our way to make it to Regina on time. Keith smiled and left.

We paid our bill and set out on the road. This time Ian sitting out and Ben Gulliver sitting in as 3 man. The boys set out down the wet rainy and wind blowing highway, as the van blazed the way close in front. About 9 km down the road, it started to rain. Terrential downpour. This was in combination with the 70km/h gusts. We had a quick team meeting, and turned back.

We knocked on Keith's door. There he was sitting on his couch watching the news. Keith was happy to see us, and was excited about what we were doing. He offered us his roof over our heads in a night of bad bad weather. On a windy rainy cold and shivery night, we have a roof over our heads. Tonight we are in a warm house in the middle of the prairies, because a perfect stranger is now a friend.

www.thetandemtour.com

Swift Current

The amount of support that The Tandem Tour receives never fails to amaze us. Strangers on the street have offered us their homes, and friends we have never met want to make us dinner. Helen in Medecine Hat invited us in at a moments notice, cooked us steak at 10 o'clock at night, and gave each of us a bed to sleep in. Or Linda in Cranbrook, who cooked us the biggest dinner we'd had in weeks, and treated us like family as soon as we met her. These people are the ones who make up this trip. We are six bearded men who bike a lot, and bathe seldom, and more often than not we'll ask to use your shower, but these rest nights are the ones that give us the energy to continue on our journey, and the people who take us in are a part of the fabric of what this trip is about.

And then there's the bike shops. We've been through many bike shops in the last few weeks, and every peddle-head gear junkie bike brake specialist wants to get a look at our bike, and some even work on it for us, but no one was as stoked to work on this bike as shane was in Calgary.

Shane works at the largest bike shop in Calgary, and he is a very sought after bike mechanic. His work is respected, and he knows more about bikes than anyone else in Canada. This guy is a legend.

When we rolled into Calgary with our mountain chewed bike, we needed shane's assistance. We found the bike shop, and on the saturday of all days, tried to get someone to work on it. There was a three day wait at the shop to get shane specifically to work on a bike, but he was the guy to fix our quad-tandy. Shane took one look at the bike, and another long look at Big Bear, and he found the time to work on the bike.

With Brent's hunger for knowledge, and Shane's enthusiasm for awesomeness, the two worked on the bike for about ten hours on Saturday. The two of them took the bike apart completely, and rebuilt it from the ground up. In the process, Brent learned a whole lot about bikes, and Shane learned a whole lot about Brent. The two had a bro down for one day, and Shane is now the official number 1 quad-tandem mechanic, and bike mechanic, in the world.

Today we are in Swift Current. The prairies are beautiful. They are slowly pushing us east. The wind is picking up right now, and not in the good direction, but we bike on.

Episode 2 is coming soon. very soon. And it's good. Ben Gulliver has done it again.

sincerely in sasktown

www.thetandemtour.com

Alberta is Not Flat

Contrary to popular tandem belief, Alberta is not flat. It is rolly. Very rolly. These rolling hills blend into the landscape, causing the unsuspecting quad-tandem rider to think that he is travelling on a level plane, when he is in fact, going uphill. When battling a headwind, this uphill climb can be much tougher than expected.

This morning we woke to a headwind coming directly from the east, our direction of travel. The climb began at 11:00 am this morning, and finished about an hour ago. Our destination was Medecine Hat, a 120km ride away. With a fair tailwind, travelling at a swift 40km/h, we thought we had it in the bag. Instead, we battled the wind and the endless endless pulsing landscape for 120kms.

Riding into the wind is physically and mentally exausting. You push through the burning burning in your legs to get there faster, but "there" is still 100kms away, and you're not getting there any faster. Because of the wind speed, the faster you push into the wind, the harder it pushes back. What should be a fast cruise through the flats, turns into an uphill battle. Our average speed riding into the wind on a flat was 12kms an hour. Our average speed going up the largest pass we've crossed so far, was 10kms an hour.

Downhills usually provide a small break for the rider to lift his butt off the seat, and get a quick break. On the flat into the wind, there are no breaks. Without the constant motion peddling, the wind quickly slows the bike down. Sitting in a bike seat for 11 hours in one day is very very painful. Every time you lift your butt off the seat, the searing pain escapes for just a moment, until you sit back down, and the pain sinks back in. Your bruised sit bones beg for some relief, but the land is endless, and the wind is strong.

The mental battle is just as bad. The road stretches in front to no end, and the weather looms on every horizon. In combination, these make for a wall of defeat being built in the quad-tandem rider's helmeted head. The bike and the weather seem to push and push until you are up against that wall, not wanting to push back.

But today we pushed and pushed and pushed, until the pains in our butts ceased, and the horizon got a little closer. Tonight we sleep in Medecine Hat. Bruised but not battered, with warm beds and full tummys...and sore asses.

www.thetandemtour.com

Calgary Cows Flatlands, Tailwinds and waiting waiting waiting

Calgary is the flatland. The foothills to the Mountains. The plateau to Canada. At 3438 feet above sea level, we rest...and party.

Our reception in Calgary was one of the highest saddle. Global Calgary met us outside the city limits and interviewed us as we peddled up the hill towards cowtown. They filmed our faces and put them on tv, spreading The Tandem word.

The first night in Calgary, we reunited with family and friends. In Calgary, each of us has friends that we treat like family, and family that we treat like friends, and we've been enjoying the love in Calgary.

We had a successful fundraiser at Richmond Pub the other night, and o man did we rest and relax. We met up with new friends, and everyone at the bar celebrated the night. Some of the Tandem Souls jumped up on stage and played a few songs, much to the celebration of the crowd. Ben, Mat and Ian, joined by drummer Mark Seamone, grooved the night away, while The Firm Handshake closed the night out with some bluesy tunes.

Today...we get going...try to get going...we will get going...by this afternoon. We move. This afternoon we move...just have to get the bike tuned up first. Brent is madly working his Big Bear Magic on the bike, and we ship our this evening.

we will miss all our Cal fam, mark, Kass, Jo, Joanie, Uncle John and Aunty Janice, all warshawskis, my seester, Brad, Kris, Ashlene, Kaelin, Mike, Mark, Buddy, Luke, Jeff, Aunty Paula, All Fords

thanks for the love and support

we roll out on two tandem wheels tonight.

www.thetandemtour.com

Mountains and Plains

The Rocky Mountain divide is the point at which North America is divided in two. The Mountains here seem to explode out of the earth's crust, running like a spine dividing the continent into two halves. The faulted and folded rock crags through the landscape, creating a jagged and impressive landscape. We have crossed our last pass through the rockies, and we are now on flat land.

In Fernie, BC these mountains are at their most impressive. The peaks rising above the little mountain town are daunting and incredible. As the peaks around the town crumble and fall, Fernie stands strong as "the gateway to British Columbia".

As soon as we entered Fernie, some locals offered us a place to stay, and the chef at the pub opened up the kitchen, and cooked us a meal. We gratefully accepted. We ate very well, and we slept very well, nestled in the generosity of new friendship.

Next was the crowsnest pass. The last wall of rock between us and Calgary. Water that falls on the westside of the pass will end up in the pacific ocean. Water that falls on the eastside will end up in Hudson Bay. We snaked through the rock, rising higher, until we got one last view of the crumbling rockies from within them.

Today, we are going North toward Calgary. We will be there tomorrow. Tonight, we rest, sleep eat, have fun and be merry at Aunty Pauls in Okotoks.

with tandem love,

www.thetandemtour.com

a little snag...

Fully loaded, the quad-tandem bike weighs about 800 pounds. Going up steep hills, or mountains, it is very slow. Going down steep hills, or mountains, it is very fast.

As a quad-tandem bike gains speed going down a mountain, several factors are working against it...and it's riders.

The intermittent braking causes the disc on the disc brake to get very hot. The other night, as we ripped down Blueberry-Paulson pass, our disc got so hot, that it melted all the plastic components of the brake.

The pressure on the rims from the speed and the weight combined, is enough to cause the rims to buckle...sort of like a pancake. Since our bike is very unique, there is not a huge market for rims that can support 800 pounds of man and bike. As a result, we are stuck in Cranbrook with 2 cracked rims, and no replacements.

With a lot of help from the people of Cranbrook, we will be able to get back on the road tomorrow. Since we will be riding out of here on heavy duty rims built for a single person mountain bike, and not a four man road bike, we will have to be very, very careful.

Because of that, we can't go through Banff to meet our friends at lululemon. This is something we were very very excited for, and feel sorry that we can't ride up through Kootenay National Park, through hot springs and glaciers, and then down the rolling highway riding the quad-tandem into Calgary. Instead, we will attack it from the bottom up, taking the number 3 highway through the crowsnest pass, and then north towards Calgary. We are on a mission to be in Calgary for a fundraiser on the 20th, and we will get there.

Riding through the mountains on this bike has been an adventure. There was no way we could have predicted the kind of difficulty that we were to face. Actually, no one could have predicted the kind of difficulty we were to face. No one has ever done this before.

www.thetandemtour.com

Nelson and Beyond and Episode1

We've spent the last few days in Nelson. Nelson is a town in the Kootenays. In the 60s and 70s, there was an influx of draft dodgers and hippies alike into Nelson. Most of them are still there.

Jeff's uncle Gill lives in Nelson, where he runs the local Mexican Restaurant El Taco. El Taco is perched on the hillside overlooking downtown Nelson, and the patio sits on the streetside facing the sunshine. This is where we spent thursday afternoon.

The relaxtion was much needed. 2 nights previous we had descended Blueberry-Paulson Pass (Bonanza Pass), just before castlegar. The 4 hour ascent, and 40 minute descent had drained the team riders. We also cracked our rear rim.

The next day, we arrived in Nelson. As we dealt with the shipping of the rim from the US, we basked in Nelson's glowing afternoon. We ate burritos, enchiladas and taquitos, as Gill told us the history of Nelson.

After a night of well deserved tequila drinking, waterfall jamming, music blaring, silly dancing, and friendship making, we cycled our weary selves down the highway beside Kootenay Lake towards the Kootenay Lake Ferry.

The Kootenay Lake Ferry is the longest free ferry in North America, and maybe even the world. It comes every 2 hours, and takes car and passenger down one of the most beauiful lakes in the world. The sun was banking off the water as the ferry drifted us down the lake. More filming. more fun.

On the other side of the water, the road bumps and bounces along the lake for 70km towards Creston. This road is rated one of the top 10 rides in the world. For us it is number one.

We regained our momentum as the slow rollers of the hill glided us towards Creston, and deeper into the Kootenay mountains. The quad-tandem bike acts like a roller-coaster as the momentum of one hill carries you up the other. It was early evening, and we were cruising in on the most beautiful road in the world.

Today, we will try to ride the 140km to Cranbrook. Rolling hills in the sunshine on a quad-tandem.

ANNNNNNND Episode one of Tandem TV is up!!!!! we are very very excited about it. You can watch the movie online at www.thetandemtour.com

with tandem love.

www.thetandemtour.com

One more thing...

I left off yesterday talking about Greenwood BC. But there are a few more things to note about this place.

Greenwood was one of the 8 Japanese internment camps in BC during World War II. As the Japanese empire expanded across the Pacific, all Japanese-Canadians in BC were sent inland, and many of them ended up in Greenwood. The buildings along the main street in town, now shops catering to tourists, is where most of the Japanese families lived. 200 people lived on the second floor above the ice-cream shop with only a small wood burning stove. One of these 200 people was a man named Tiki. Yesterday was Tiki's birthday, and we met him.

Tiki turned 90 years old yesterday, yet his small stature still remains strong. He doesn't look a day past 60. Tiki spent 45 years driving trucks throughout BC. As we greeted him in the morning light, he recalled his days of living in Greenwood. The winters were cold, he remembers. He remembered how the street was lined with people every labour day for the annual parade. There is still a strong Japanese community in Greenwood to this day.

After our morning ride out of Greenwood, we descended into Christina Lake. We decided to get a quick swim in the lake before conquering Bonanza pass, a 1,535 m (5,036 ft) summit. The road climbs out of Christina Lake, and keeps going up...and up...and up. We peddled for 4 hours up hill. all up hill.

The strain in your legs at this point is brutal. It seems as though the lower half of your body goes numb, and your brain just keeps firing signals t peddle up and down, up and down. At about 8pm, we reached the summit. Then we had to g down the other side.

Up one side of the mountain, then down the other side.

The 26 km up takes a long time. The 26km down the other side, doesn't take so long. Except when you get a flat tire. And we did.

Once again, our entrusted captain, Brent Seamone, took the reigns, and changed the tire at the side of the highway, and then continued to pilot the bike into Castlegar. He has been at the helm of this bike for every Km so far.

The strain on the captain, mentally and physically, is exausting. Yesterday we rode over 140km. 60km of it was uphill.

Today, we rest. In Nelson.

www.thetandemtour.com

Sunny Days

i write this to you from the corner of the Dairy Queen in Grand Forks BC. We have just risen from the Osoyoos Valley, and the boys spent a grueling day yesterday climbing the Anarchist Pass out of Osoyoos. It lives up to it's name.

After the 2 hour morning climb yesterday, we breaked briefly for some rations. The sun was hot and the road long, so after a brief hiatus, the boys carried on down the road.

After several more passes, and one long ascent out of the desert, it seemed as though the landscape was once again making a dramatic turn. We have come from the arid desert of the lower Okanagan, and are now making our way towards the Kootney Mountains of Nelson, BC.

Yesterdays arduous climb was rewarded in the most unexpected of places. Greenwood, BC. This little town's claim of being "the smallest city in Canada" made us feel right at home. Once again, the hospitality of small town BC amazed us. This little town, population 630, greeted us warmly down their main street, where we were met by the editor of the town newspaper and the owner of the best Ice cream shop in Canada. No lie. They gave each us an ice cream come of our choice, atop a freshly made waffle cone. We inhaled them.

Now, we are on our lunch break in Grand Forks, and the Tandem Team is telling me to get back on the bike, so we can make the 98km to castlegar by tonight. One mountain pass ahead this afternoon. Many more to go after that. Peddle hard.

www.thetandemtour.com

Similkameen Valley

Today we travelled down the beautiful Similkameen Valley. From Princeton, the road follows the river all the way down the valley until the US Border. It is one big downhill.

Today is also the day that we hit our all time fastest speed. 75 km/hour.

Once again, today was perfect quad-tandeming weather. We had all three key ingredients: a quad-tandem bike, a sunny smile, and friendship.

We followed the number 3 highway as it slowly rolled in a downward pitch for 120kms into Osoyoos. The views of the valley are breathtaking. Small vineyards create a patchwork landscape of watered countryside, while disintegrating peaks crumble down valley walls. The river cuts through the middle, where abandoned trading posts remain from a bygone era.

Everyday we get a few honks from passersby. Usually it's a friendly honk, or a fistpump out a car window. Both are encouraging as we struggle up a hill. Sometimes people have heard of who we are and what we're doing, and want to stop and have a chat, or donate to the cause. Often, all we need to get us up that hill is a little bit of encouragement.

Today we were treated to some of the best kind of encouragement that we could have hoped for, and it came in a little town outside of Osoyoos called Kermeos. There, Colleen Christensen who works at the Keremeos tourism info booth, cheered us on as we rolled into town. She put a sign that read "Welcome Tandem Tour Group Ian, Ben, Brent and JefF" on a big billboard outside the tourism centre. There were also some people from the town there to cheer us on. As our tired bodies peddled into town, Colleen and the others treated us like family.

Colleen then treated the whole team to a delicious lunch of beer and roast beef sandwiches at The Crowbar Pub. Once again, we all inhaled our meals, while Colleen phoned ahead to Osoyoos to try to find us a place with a hot-tub for the night. She was so proud of us, and her hospitality and generosity made us feel at home.

The good weather has been following us across the country, and there are only more sunny days ahead. Tomorrow we climb the walls of Osoyoos, and continue making our way to Banff, and then Calgary. Oh ya, and tonight we are sleeping in beds. real beds. and we are happy.

www.thetandemtour.com

Into the Mountains...Hope-Princeton

Tandem day factoaloids:

Saturday May 8: Agassiz to Manning Park

Distance Cycled 85.32 km

Cycling Time: 4 hrs. 39 mins

Avg. 18.3

61.34

Sunday May 9: Manning Park to Princeton

Distance Cycled: 89.65 kms

Cycling Time: 4 hrs 45 mins

Avg. Speed: 31.78

Max Speed: 61.92 km/h

We have just emerged from the mountains. The tall leg smashing mountains.

We spent most of yesterday and today climbing the roads rising out of the Fraser Valley, and into the interior plateau. As the road gains in elevation, the weather gets colder. The road climbs the mountains out of hope, and keeps going until Manning Park. This is where we have been cycling.

After climbing and climbing, our legs would begin to burn. each of us consumed more calories in a day than we thought possible. As we rose each pass, the weather would begin to change. We battled through the lactic acid and muscle tear butt pain of all time, and then coast down the other side of the pass, gaining lost time like a freewheelin mountain smashing quad-tandem bike.

We geared each other up, and encouraged the tandem man behind him to keep pushing. The downhills are our reward.

We have cycled more in the past 2 days than i ever thought i would cycle in one trip. And we did it together on one bike.

tomorrow, down the valley ahead and into the desert of Osoyoos. feelin good.

www.thetandemtour.com

Langley to Agassiz

Tandem Day Factoids: May 7

Rode: 97.63 kms

Cycling Time: 3 hours 45 mins

Avg Speed: 25.98 km/h

Max Speed: 54.02 km/h

Today we are feeling good. Very good. As we rode through the beautiful Fraser Valley, an overwhelming sense of freedom came over the Tandem Team. We finally said goodbye to the City, Family, Friends, Girlfriends (we love you) and a usual pace of life. As the sun beat down warmly on our heads, our legs pushed us a little further across Canada.

2 days ago we left Mile 0. From there, our friends and family cheered us off as we peddled down the start line of the trans-Canada highway, but we weren't alone. Some friends rode with us to the ferry (thanks you guys, Pete, Hillis, and Dustin!), and from the other side, Martina (from the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation) and Bill Markvoort peddled alongside for the trip into Langley.

That night we had a killer fundraiser at the Fort Pub in Fort Langley. It was unreal. the support we have received from the Langley community has blown us away. The whole community came into the bar, and treated us like family. They are hugely supportive of our trip, and weren't afraid to show it. We had some burgers and beer, raised some money and auctioned off some snowboards. epic.

Now before we rode off on our trusty quad-tandy steed, there was one issue that we needed to address. The Trailer. Built buy Big Bear Brent Seamone himself, we had high hopes for the Tandem Trailer, but alas, she didn't make it past the quality control of the Langley Dads. Not due to shotty construction, Big Bear is a man of the highest calibre, but because of shotty wheel construction.

Once again the Langley dads stepped up to the plate, and batted it out of the park. They bought us a brand new cargo trailer. Now, the Tandem Tour support van can go over 80kms an hour, haul the musical instruments, and carry the camera equipment. These guys are incredible.

So we rode over the mighty Golden ears bridge, and into the beating sun. We were sad to leave Kathy Miller's cooking, morning smoothies, coffee, late night chili, and endless hospitality, but it was time to carry on. Today we rode almost 100kms, with Ben Gully at our side on his single bike, and rode into the mountains of beautiful British Columbia.

Now, as we stare into the soon to be rocky mountains, there is nothing buy joy. pure tandem joy.

www.thetandemtour.com

Global Morning News and A channel News!!

It's been a crazy few days, but we are now right into our journey. For the past 4 days, all 6 of us have been running on full steam trying to get all the things done that we needed to get done.

On Monday we night we took the late ferry back to Van, because on tuesday morning we were on the GLobal Morning News! ...not Breakfast television like we had thought, and told so many people...sorry to all the friends who spent about an hour watching Breakfast Television...Luke. SOrry Big Guy.

So we made it to Burnaby by 8am, and patiently waited in the parking lot. We were a tad nervous as this was pretty big news for us! We assembled the bike, and waited until someone gave us instruction. I was hoping Tony Parsons was gonna be there, but alas, no Tony.

At about 8:20, Lynn Collier came out, and gave us some instruction. She asked us a few questions, and then bam, the camera went on and we were on the air.

you can watch the interview here:

http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/index.html?releasePID=eJL9DBsXT0Ro0TeU_vo_2pmW9Qm_U07q

we're on at 15:20 into the video.

You may notice how Big Bear has been replaced by a homeless fellow. Well that's no ordinary squeegee man, that's our good friend Mat Murray! He has been traveling in the bowels of SOuth AMerica and the jungles of Ecudor for a few months, and only got home a few days ago to join the Tandem Tour. He was a little caught off guard when they stuck the camera in his face. As he so eloquently put it on BC Television, "I am the Spare Tire."

More to come soon. We'll post some pictures from Day 1 later today.

with freewheelin love

www.thetandemtour.com