A long trek to Hope

After a nice half-day of rest in North Delta, we took off along the Lougheed Highway, destination Hope, our gateway to the Rockies.

After the hilly passages through Vancouver Island, the relatively flat road to Hope was a nice change. There's only one problem: Hope is pretty far away from Vancouver, a solid 140km day. After an easy ride through North Delta and Surrey, across the Albion ferry, and along the Lougheed to Mission, we were met there for an early lunch by Jon's uncle John, aunt Mary Ann (Jon gave me the spelling...blame him if it's wrong), and cousin Lando. The best part was the huge banner they had along the side of the highway: "Jonathan go home." We took a picture with it and headed in to eat at the nearby ABC Country restaurant. We were hungry, so the food didn't last too long. The owner even gave us a donation! Out of gratitude we took a picture with their staff outside.

After lunch, we were scheduled to do some media with CTV. We were really excited because they're coast-to-coast. We spent a long time with them taking different shots. It's interesting to see how choreographed the footage is. They took shots of us getting ready, interviewed us all, then came out on the road with us to get some bike footage. They got some great shots of us, and we were on the air for the 6pm news. Everyone has told us it was really well done. Thanks CTV!

Despite how much fun the media was, it did set us back a bit. Thankfully the road to Hope is easy-going, because this was our first day with intense sun and heat. We had to stop frequently to hydrate and were constantly applying sunscreen. Despite this, it was a really nice change from the wet we weather we had been going through on the Island. We'll take it every time.

In the baking sun, the distance adding up, and the hour getting (relatively) late, we were determined to push on to Hope. The road seemed to go on forever, and the last 10km got really hard. When we finally arrived, we were hungry, and headed to the first thing we saw: Subway. We ordered 8 footlong subs and almost ate them all. Several people came by to talk to us, and we even got a donation out of it. Several people have been giving us donations randomly, and love talking with us. It's a great feeling.

After gorging on food, we have now settled in to the Coquihala Campground for the evening, and will be going to bed early tonight. We even have visitors! Friends of Mike, Pat, and I - Cam McCormack and Aria Kashefi - have stopped by to say hello on their way to Cam's cottage. We're going to head back to them now...wouldn't want to be rude hosts!

Given our hard pace the first few days, were going to tone it down through the Rockies. The next week or so will be a pure climb into the mountains, so we won't be able to span a lot of mileage, especially with all of our gear weighing us down. We'll take things as they come tomorrow and see how we feel.
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