Hello and welcome to the sporadic chronicle of Emma and Benn’s summer adventure! We are bicycling across the true North, strong and free from Vancouver, BC, Canada, to end up in Benn’s hometown of Rochester Hills, Michigan (just north of Detroit). Updates will be whenever we can find internet, so apologies for a very late start. Also pictures will come… when they come. Thanks for your patience!!!

The adventure thus far:

June 13th-18th: We began with a pre-tour gear test up to my cabin on Hornby Island and back via Nanaimo. We had done this trip last year and so knew the route and the skill involved (not much- good thing too, as we both started under-shape). We made the 100km or so up to Hornby easily, which was very reassuring. We met up with Natalie in Buckley Bay (unfortunately missing a rendezvous with Erica :( ) and managed to pile our bikes on to and already-overflowing pickup to get across Denman Island to the Hornby Ferry.
We spent the next few days relaxing on Hornby before heading back to Vancouver. We sent two good days at Our Community Bikes doing last minute changes the gear test had revealed- namely, I changed my handlebars and Benn shortened his stem. Much more ergonomic for the both of us.

June 18th-20th: The trip truly began with our cycle out to Abbotsford where Benn and I participated in a Buddhist empowerment- a teaching and ritual where we received blessings from the Buddha of Compassion Avalokiteshvara. Not being so familiar with the tradition, it was a very moving and thought provoking experience for me. Afterwards we headed for our first night of camping at Cultus Lake Provincial Park.

June 21st-29th: Up and up and up and up…

Over the next few days we met our first challenging climb in Manning Park, and though tired we felt surprisingly good. We spent the next day resting in Manning and choosing our plan of attack. We thought we were in for a few easy days until and the infamous climb out of Osoyoos. Little did we know we were wrong. Immediately upon descending from Manning park, we started climbing inexplicably towards what we thought was just Princeton but turned out to be Sunday Summit. After about an 80 km day of lots of climbs we retired about 30km east of Princeton at Stemwinder Provincial Park. The next day we planned to stop in Keremeos for breakfast before heading to Osoyoos. While the ride to Keremeos through the Silkameen River Valley was totally breathtaking, we found- you guessed it- more unexpected climbs  between Keremeos and Osoyoos. The weather by this time was burning hot, and we finally made it into Osoyoos a little shell-shocked. All was well after a dip in the lake and some dinner, and we readied ourselves for the expected climb out of Osoyoos the next morning. We started bright and early and were out of it in a few hours- but very worn down from the procession of days. The real push at this point was our goal to get to Nelson within a few days so that we could take a day off- but we were getting tired. Leaving the next day from a provincial park near Greenwood, we stopped in Grand Forks where I (finally) called my parents to receive so very sad news: our beloved family dog, Uma, was going to be put down later that day due to worsening lung cancer. It was quite a shock and as you can imagine not the best condition to bike under. But I had to steel myself: We were fast approaching our final big climb before Nelson, a 40km battle up the Blueberry/Paulson Summit just before Castlegar. It took us close to 5 hours to get over the summit and to a campground part-ways down the descent, but as exhausted/saddened as we were we made it. The next day was a slow 60km into Nelson where we collapsed into a hostel, washed everything and enjoyed a meal that wasn’t boiled on our tiny stove. Despite the heat it was been a very relaxing few days and I am feeling excited to get going again across Kootney Lake and down to Creston.

As you’ve read, the journey thus far, albeit only the beginning, has been emotional, exciting, and rewarding. Despite complaints of sore legs and sunburns we’ve made our destination goals every day- and if things continue as they have, we should be Crowsnest pass and the Alberta border about 4 days from now- and a considerably straighter road from there on out. I have to say that cycling through BC has been extremely fulfilling, however, as I finally get to see my own province, and I can’t wait to have time to explore more. Just in this short time I’ve been through a land that becomes a completely different country every day, ferocious and magnificent and beautiful.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for updates, which should be around this time next week, if I have anything to say about it ;)

Hearts/Minds,

Emma & Benn

PS: In loving memory: