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