Floating over your rocky spine....

Wow, I did not expect that I would not update my blog once during Tour Pacific, but that's how things turned out! I've been quite busy in the last few weeks as I travelled over Canada's rocky spine. Things started off in Fort Langley with an orientation day and a dinner of chicken paprikash as made by yours truly. Our riders were a crew of 14 consisting of some very diverse individuals. We had a pair of psychologists from Toronto, a pair of brothers (the Holy Rollers) one of whom was a PHD in theology and the other who is an episcopalian priest, a lovely Australian couple and several other lovely characters. The day after orientation the crew dipped their tires in the pacific ocean and began their journey out east.

Cooking on the stove



Who's that handsome fella?
Ol' blue, my commuter bike that I built out of my dad's old racing bike

Part of the Tour Pacific 2010 riding crew

The crew in its entirety before heading east

Our time in BC was actually rather uneventful. We travelled up the Coquihalla highway passing through the BC interior on our way to the icefield's parkway in Alberta. Along the way things went rather smoothly and my partner and I got to know the riders. We had a rather lovely rest day in Kamloops where I found a Scotiabank, slept in a real bed and ate out at real restaurant! What a day! I also got to see Toy Story 3 which was pretty decent. My glasses exploded this day however and I have yet to get them fixed. Thank God form y prescription sunglasses.

Our first real glimpse of the rockies (on this trip at least!)

Young Anna (FROM GUELPH!!!) celebrates her 32nd birthday with a cake provided by the lovely staff

Can't remember where I took this, but it's real pretty!

We then crossed into Alberta where things took an interesting turn. One of our major stops on the icefield's parkway was Jasper. We had a rest day scheduled here. On the night leading into the rest day (my only day to sleep in) my air mattress broke in the middle of the night! The following morning was teeming with rain which continued all day. I spent my day off in Jasper checking out the local laundromat/internet cafe. I managed to buy a therm-a-rest which was on the best decisions I made in my life. It may be thin, but it sure is comfy! The following morning was just awful. I awoke to heavy, heavy freezing rain and temperatures hovering around 0. As we packed up the galley in the downpour the rain began to slush and quickly turned to wet, cold-packed snow. Now, I like a good fluffy white snow, but this snow was basically like getting pelted with a 7-11 slurpee. As this is a DIY tour except for food and a campsite, the riders bravely set out into the frost. Most of them made it about 10km, but a few made it for longer. A bus was called in to pick everyone up and take them to the icefields center where they spent the night. However, us staff needed to tend to our duties and stay at the proscribed campsite and had to set up camp with our soaked gear in the -5 temps and camp the night!! I slept in the back of the truck while my manager and my partner slept in their tents in a shelter next to a woodstove.

TURN BACK KEVIN!!!

A view from the road

Gelbin and I 'chilling' at the campsite for the night

We eventually survived this ordeal and headed out for Banff where we had a lovely, sunny stay. We then descended into Calgary over a scenic and lovely couple of days where the tour sadly ended. There are no pictures of the going away party as I went to bed right away! This job really is working me quite well.

The water everywhere is so green. It's eerie

Some more mountains

Sad that all these are from the truck, isn't it?

Tomorrow I'll be doing orientation for Tour Arctic and then the following day we begin to head north! Things are moving really, really quickly.

I miss you all terribly.