With Brody sidelined by his wobbly knee, I set out on my own Saturday to meet up with younger brother Clive on Highway 5.

I left about 9:30 a.m., and before noon I was in Mission. Although I had added a few more items to my packs, and also put two on the front which I hadn’t done for our little Vancouver Island diversion last week, the bike handled well.

While sporting my brand-new Jubilee Cycle jersey, I trundled along quite well over mostly flat terrain on a perfect day. As my new kilometre counter – expertly installed by former bike-shop expert Daniel late Friday night – got to 97 and I was buoyed by nearing 100 km, all of a sudden a hill emerged to put me and my lactic-acid filled legs in my place. It did not flatten out again until I hit that 100 milestone.

During that climb I encountered some randonneurs out for a leisurely 300-km weekend ride. One told me to do my best to avoid the big Great Bear snowshed when I’m climbing the Coquihalla suggesting I go on the outside if the snow is all gone. I’ll do my best to heed his advice. I may catch a ride with Brody and Noriko through the shed as they head north to meet me at the summit.

After taking a break at Agassiz at 2:30 I figured I might as well shoot for Hope. It was too early to call it quits and it was only about 35 km away. I tried to keep up a steady pace while trying not to turn my legs into putty. I had some success. There was only one 1-km hill the rest of the day, which of course, courtesy of the cycling numbers karma gods, came just as I was approaching the 125 kilometre mark.

I admit during the last few kilometres into Hope I felt a little lightheaded despite consuming two water bottles, a Super Big Gulp of Diet Coke and a can of calorie-free iced tea during the day with no washroom pit stops.

I rolled into Hope in time to find a motel, shower and watch the Vancouver Canucks get unlucky in the NHL Entry Draft. Again.

Hopefully a good night’s sleep will give me enough energy to conquer the Coquihalla. If nothing else, I’ll be mega-glad to reconnect with Brody as we make our way to meet up with Clive.

A pedal hasn’t been pushed, a brake applied or a concertina button depressed and there’s already been a bit of a setback to The 7Cs before it even turns a wheel east toward Halifax.

Last week, Brody and Grant set out on a trial ride. The plan was to take the ferry over to Vancouver Island and visit Brody’s uncle on his mom’s side, Blair Mennegozzo, in Campbell River before returning via the Sunshine Coast. Tagging along was Brody’s fiddling friend Noriko with her tiny, tiny super-cute doggie Yumemi securely perched in a bag on the back of her bike.

 

The journey started well. The bonus was Blair and his wife Carmen were camping in Nanaimo. They were there to support their daughter Sumner at Vancouver Island University’s interior design program’s final show.

Rendezvousing with them was a matter of riding out to Horseshoe Bay (with a stop at Troll’s for fish and chips while Noriko cheated and took the bus) and then a leisurely ride – including a sun-soaked gelato stop on the downtown Nanaimo waterfront – to their campground site at the south end of the city. We had a nice night of pizza and kibitzing around the fire.

That fun and frivolity was followed by my first sleep in a tent in about four decades, something that will take this sexegenarian some getting used to. Rolling off an air mattress and then climbing out of a claustrophobic pup tent a few times a night to do you-know-what is rough on the old body.

The goal the next day was to get about halfway or a little more to Campbell River, some 160 km or more to the north. But just as a lunch break in Parksville came to an end, the clouds let loose and it began to rain. We forged ahead anyway. The precipitation was never that hard but I was a little water-logged by the time I rolled into Buckley Bay a little more than two hours later.

The weather, however, did clear up as I waited for Brody and Noriko to catch up. That was the good news. The bad news was there wasn’t a campground anywhere to be found. So we decided to push on the final 20-plus kilometres into Courtenay where I sprung for a motel room so we could dry out and freshen up with a shower.

Noriko was excited and extremely pleased with herself when she learned we’d ridden about 115 km that day. But after we got to Campbell River the next day (Saturday) all was not peachy keen. Brody admitted his right knee was bothering him and the long ride Friday probably contributed to the discomfort. We rested Sunday, and left Monday to return to Courtenay to take a ferry to the Sunshine Coast.

However, we only went 15 km before Brody called a halt to our little convoy, and called Uncle Blair. He was kind enough to pick us up in his pickup and take us to Departure Bay in time for the 12:30 p.m. ferry back to the Lower Mainland. Many thanks to another nephew, Daniel (Brody’s cousin), for taking a break from his UBC final exam studies to meet us at Horseshoe Bay with his monster truck and take Brody and his recumbent bike back to Burnaby while I rode home.

Brody has been resting the knee this week and keeping his fingers crossed he’ll be ready to roll soon.

I begin this epic journey on Saturday. It should take five days to join Clive just north of Kamloops in Little Fort next week. Clive is begining his journey from his home in Williams Lake. (We’re travelling via Jasper so we can visit with Cheryl and Blair’s brother Brian in suburban Edmonton. It’s also less hilly than going the Trans-Canada via the Rogers Pass.) Clive and I figure we should be able to ride 100 km a day or more all the way to Halifax.

For me, the Hope to Merritt section of the Coquihalla Highway with its steep hills will be the most challenging part not just of the early going but the whole trip.

Brody’s strategy was to take it slow and in small bites while I plowed ahead and he’d catch up with us on the Prairies. But Noriko has come to the rescue. She’s offered to give him a ride to the Coquihalla Summit so his knee will be spared the agony of climbing that hill and I’ll hook up with him there, hopefully on Monday.

For all three of us, though, it’s time to push some pedals.

After Clive Granger’s oldest son Bryce headed to Halifax for love, Clive contemplated retirement. When he was positive he wanted to pull the plug on his electrical career he thought why not cycle across the country to visit Bryce and wife Breanna before they returned to B.C. for good? After all, he enjoyed his week-long bike excursions every autumn as well as cycling around Williams Lake and out at Rose Lake where the family cottage is located.

Second son Brody, an experienced bike tourer, wanted to tag along. Sure, said Dad, but get your engineering degree from UBC first. Clive’s older bro Grant heard about the grand plan and asked to tag along. Well the retirement is on and the degree looks to be in the bag, so the trio are set to head out May 1 – Clive from Williams Lake and Brody and Grant from Burnaby. Uncle and nephew will be doing a trial run to Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast the week before the cross-country caravan sets forth.

Grant thought it would be a good idea to keep family and friends up-to-date along the way by doing a blog. As well as being an engineer-in-the-making, Brody is an accordion player. That instrument is a bit on the heavy side so no way was he taking one of those. But he got a concertina as a gift so it’s going into the big bag on the back of the recumbent bike he plans on riding on the trip and he’ll make music along the way. Grant’s former incarnation as a warped tabloid headline writer – where the motto was “when in doubt alliterate” –  inspired him to create a kooky moniker for the blog: Clan of Clive’s Cross-Canada Cycling and Concertina Caravan. That’s a hefty handle so it will be called The 7Cs for short.

Enjoy your summer everyone. We certainly intend to make it one we’ll never forget!