It’s sort of hard to see much wildlife with all these boys around, but we manage a little from time to time.  This Valley Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi) had the misfortune to get picked up by one of our guys.  He survived the encounter, luckily.

Our heroes, about to embark on the longest stage of the trip.  50km to Princeton.  Should be a cakewalk for these guys.

Oh, except that it might just be a walk for some.  Only a few km in, and we’ve got a serious mechanical.

That would be one busted-ass rear derailleur.  One of the harder trailside fixes, especially on a budget bike with something like 40km of sand yet to go today.

We tried making it a one speed, and lubed the chain with fish oil.  Stinky, but it sort of worked.  We had to walk a fair amount, and a couple of us pushed him for a few km, but we made it out in what would be an average time for this stage.

It was even sort of nice at the end of the day.

Leela got to ride with the rest of the boys while I brought in the stragglers.  We survived the long day, the rest of the trip is a cakewalk.

We don’t ride on the first day, as we only have time to set up camp and make food on Monday, so today is our first ride.  First we gotta get these guys packed up.  Again, they’re strangely way more together this year.  They seem to have a lot more fitness and organization this time around.  Either I’m getting this trip is getting more popular (unlikely), or the weather was so bad last year for these guys that the smart ones decided to try going inland instead of the West Coast.

It’s a shorter stage today, and the weather is AWESOME.   With only 20km to go, there’s no hurry today.  However, we seem to have a really tight group, and there’s no really slow riders.  In the past, we’ve had some guys ride an average of 5km/h, which is a walking pace.  These guys are doing more like 12km/h, and that includes stops.  Might have to reassess the ride plan if it’s going to be like this.

We had lots of time to hang out at Link Lake today, but I guess it was colder last night than many expected, as everyone had a good siesta when we rolled in to the camp mid-afternoon.  Our Saints staff member this year is the Head of Grade, which probably explains the level of organization and general good behaviour of our group.

Which is also why I’m a little bit conflicted about posting this pic of Phil eating marshmallows.  Sorry man, had to do it. 

These guys were to focussed on food to notice prime moments like that, though.

And Saroush is never going to forgive me for this one, but hey…

That’s a golden moment.  That first 20km was harder for some guys than others.  I wonder how tomorrow’s 50km will feel for Saroush?

Another year, another crew of Grade 10 boys to throw to the cougars in the BC wilderness.  Strangely they seemed much better prepared this year.  I must be mistaken, but we’ll see.

At least no one was bring the “Monger” on this trip.  I like the name, but that chain needs some love.

Camp #1 is a new site for us.  We’ll see how it works out, but they don’t even look nervous.  A bit of a change from last year, that’s for sure.