This is the shared blog of the EPIC Riders Team. EPIC is helping [E]xploited [P]eople [I]n [C]ambodia by cycling across Canada during the summer of 2013 in support of Ratanak. Visit www.epicriders.org for lots of info!
Sunny with light clouds, high UV, high 20s in the day.
Today was a long day. I'll let Evan tell you about it...
So between a 50 km climb, 8 flats, and lots of heat, it was a long day, and discouraging at the end. We had Subway for dinner and after fixing some tire tubes, we were able to relax for the night. About 15km from Merritt, I had to go pick up Dave as it was getting late, and he'd blown a tire and tube. Since he had no replacements on him, and there'd been several flats already that day between the guys, it was just easier to pick him up and get him to the town. We're sitting in a Tim Horton's in Kamloops, eating lunch and keeping out of the heat. We're on our way to Chase, where we'll load up the bikes and drive out a bit to stay with some relatives of Evan's. Click here for pictures from Day 2 Thanks for all the prayers and support! More photos and videos will be uploaded tomorrow, hopefully, so look out for that. Enjoy your long weekend, and Happy Canada Day! Ben
Day 1 of the EPIC Ride: Richmond, BC - Hope, BC Distance: 176km Avg. speed: probably about 25 km/h Max speed: Evan - approx. 84 km/h Weather: Overcast, grey, a few drops of rain. Low 20s (Celsius) So the first day of the ride was yesterday! Dave, Luke, and Evan left the Dylla's (our hosts while in Vancouver) and rode a couple km to the Olympic Oval, where we got a few pictures..
...then they left from there to go through Vancouver and out to Hwy 7, which they took all the way to Hope. Hwy 7 was a good ride; mostly flat, but there were some hills about 2/3 of the way through the trip, and on towards Hope. They started at 8am, and got to our hosts' house in Hope at about 5pm. This 9-hour trip also included 2 lunch breaks and a flat tire. Our hosts, Karyn & Darrin, and Emma Bonikowsky, gave us a couple large rooms to use for the night, made some really great spaghetti & meatballs for dinner, and let us use their Jeep! We took it down to see the Othello Tunnels...
...and the Othello* River.
Interestingly, Hope was the area that the movie, Rambo, was filmed in, and we were at the river near a place that was used in the film!
After we got back to the Bonikowsky's, we relaxed a bit, the guys talked a bit about the day's riding, and then we all went to bed!
As I write this post, the Riders are on the Coquihalla Hwy, going from Hope to Merritt! They have 50km of climbing to do today, and as I understand it, they finished a 6km climb about 40 minutes ago!
Check back here tomorrow for a post about today's ride!
EPIC!
-Ben
*Thanks to Karyn Bonikowsky for correcting me; it was the Othello River, not the Fraser River
Friday, 28 June 2013
Ben Looby here...
So this is our first official post on the EPIC Riders Team blog. We'll write more up-to-date posts tomorrow and afterwards, but I just wanted to get these posts started and see how to best set them up. Typing a whole bunch of stuff is not something the guys want to do at the end of a long day, so vlogging (video-blogging) is going to be our primary avenue of sharing each day with you guys.
That being said, I'll be doing my best to give a written breakdown of each day, and I'll also embed the day's vlog into the corresponding post.
We've been pretty busy over the past few days with driving out West and getting set up here.
Sunday we left Forward (our home church) in Cambridge, made a couple quick stops, and hit the highway at 3:20pm (EST).
We drove non-stop all the way to Vancouver, BC (with some gas and food stops), and arrived at 8:20 pm (EST) Tuesday night; so did over 4,400 km in 53 hours. It was a looooong drive.
Watch this vlog post from Evan, posted after we got to Richmond, BC:
We are staying at Paul Dylla's house right now, and have been since Tuesday night. The Dyllas have been very hospitable and have given lots of food, a large room, and whatever else we've needed. Thanks to them for hosting us for 3 nights! Paul is involved with Ratanak as an area representative, and heads up Ratanak's involvement with Ride For Refuge.
Yesterday and today we did some errands and the rest of the team toured Vancouver with Paul while I did admin stuff. Today the guys set up their bikes for riding and we also visited the Ratanak staff at their office in Burnaby.
It was really cool to meet Brian McConaghy and the rest of the staff and to be prayed for by them.
We are leaving tomorrow for the first day of riding: Richmond - Hope. Should be about 160km for the guys, and we're leaving at about 8.
Watch this post, just uploaded a few minutes ago by Evan:
So yeah, keep sharing and liking all the EPIC stuff on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. www.epicriders.org has all the links. If you'd like our daily blog posts emailed to you, send us your email address to epicridersteam@gmail.com and we'll get you added!
Keep telling people about us and about what we're doing for Ratanak and the people of Cambodia!
Keep praying for us too; team unity, safety, good weather, and that we'd be able to share with lots of people about how Jesus' love saves the girls in Cambodia, and saves each one of us!
