Over the mountains and through the woods

Okay, maybe they're not actually to the woods yet, but there was definately mountainous terrain to be traversed on Rem and his dad's first day of biking from Vernon to Edmonton. They made it safely to Kamloops on schedule, with some minor difficulties.

It seems Clare's cycle had been repaired by a slightly potheaded bike mechanic who evidently felt that aligning derailleurs fell on the optional side of maintenance so Clare spent the day manually helping his gears to shift. Fortunately, he's riding a recumbent tricycle with a plastic tube chain guard and the chain in easy reach so this is actually possible. He and Rem spent some time this evening realigning everything. Hopefully their work will solve the problem and tomorrow will be an easier pedal.

Of course, the two large bags o' stuff that Clare's abandoning with a friend in Kamloops will probably also help. After hauling a whole lot of weight up some pretty steep climbs, the benefits of packing very lightly have become a whole lot more real. Abandoned items include: an electric razor, a large flashlight, and bear spray. Although I like the idea of their having some defense against a bear, it seems unlikely that the bear will be courteous enough to wait while the bear spray is dug out of the panniers. I guess they'd just best keep moving through bear country!

So that's the news at 11...