Day 2,: Abbotsford to Hope

We had a great day of riding through the Fraser River Valley.  There was a big climb out of Abbotsford but otherwise it was mostly flat.  It was another beautiful ride next to the foothills of the mountains.  This seems to be dairy country along with many plant nurseries. I rode today with Rod Ledeboer and his brother, Chris.
 They are both from Prinsburg Mn which is also my hometown.  Chris is only riding with Sea to Sea for two days.  We stopped for lunch at the Agazzi Christian School.  I walked in the gym and saw posters of the Throughines that have at CCS.  This school uses the same "Teaching for Transformation " framework as CCS.



We had to cross a long bridge over the Fraiser River  which was abit scary as there was no shoulder and we had to ride in traffic and hope the vehicles behind us would slow down for us.  We camped on the grounds of the Hope Community School.   We camped under a beautiful snow capped mountain.  It was a windy night but my tent stayed up.

Day 1: White Rock to Abbotsford

After packing up all of our personal gear and the Sea to Sea gear, we headed out to White Rock to dip  our tires in the Pacific.

 We rode in our service teams for the entire day so we could get to know each other.  The tide was out when we got to White Rock so we had to take our bikes through the mud to get to the ocean waves.

  Many friends and relatives of riders who are from BC came out to cheer us off on our ride.   We were one of the first groups to leave White Rock and we headed for Abbotsford. We rode in Canada on Highway Zero.  This road is right along the United States border.  In fact there is a US road about five yards from the road we were on with only a small ditch in between.

 There are  many cameras along this route to watch that no one crosses over.   We rode east with snow capped Mount Baker visible to our right.

We rode past many beautiful farm homes along our route.  There are many Dutch names on the mailboxes.  The farm economy must be doing well here.  There are many large dairies in this valley.

We stayed at Gateway Community Church. A large, beautiful church building.  Bert Slofstra recently retired as the pastor of this church.  Bert is riding the entire sea to sea route and his wife is working as a support person on the ride.

Members of this church fed us a huge dinner.  We placed our tents on the grass near the church.   It got very cold during the night and I slept with my coat on.

Sunday, June 24. Trinity Western University

I arrived at Trinity Western yesterday afternoon around 3:00 pm.  We had no trouble crossing the border into Canada.  The agent at the border said he had a number of Sea to Sea riders passing through into Canada over the past few hours.

We are staying in the dorms at Trinity Western.  It was fun to see many familiar faces again from my past Sea to Sea rides.  The largest age group of riders is between 50 and 70 years of age.  The riders come from all over the United State and Canada.  We had an orientation meeting for several hours last night.  It is very warm here today but it is suppose to cool down tomorrow.

We had an inspiring worship service this morning with great singing.  The service was led by Pastor Peter Sloftra.  He recently retired from the ministry.  He and his wife are planning to ride the entire route on a tandem bike. Peter's brother, Bert. also a retired pastor, is also riding the entire route.

  We also heard from the Executive Director of World Renew and the Director of Parners World Wide.  These are organizations will be using the funds raised from our bike ride to provide poverty relief.  It was good to hear of the great things these organizations are doing.

This after knew we had more lessons on the rules of the road and did some practice drills.  We also met with our service teams who are also our group devotions team.  Our team is in charge of helping  set up dinner this week.  Tomorrow we will ride to the White Rock area and dip our back tires in the Pacific Ocean.  We then head for Abbotsford where we will spend the night.

Trinity Western has a nice campus.  In addition to Sea to Sea riders,  there are a number of women football teams staying here.   They are here for the World's Women Football Championship that are being played nearby.   Teams from Australia, Finland, Great Britain, and the US are staying here.  These teams play tackle football with helmets and pads.

Another Sea to Sea Adventure about to Begin

Sea to Sea 2017

I'm preparing to complete another bike ride with Sea to Sea.  This time I will be biking in Canada from Vancouver, British Columbia and going to Calgary, Alberta.   We will be covering this 720 mile journey from June 26 to July 8.  I will be flying to Seattle on Friday, June 23 and spend a day with my brother-in-law, Don Van Maanen.  Don is the elementary principal at Lynden Christian School.  Lynden is only a few miles from the Canadian border.    Don will take me up to Trinity Western University on Saturday where all of the Sea to Sea participants will be gathering.  I'm looking forward to seeing many of the Sea to Sea participants that I had met in 2013 and last summer at Ragbrai (trip across Iowa) and I am looking forward to meeting many new people as well.

We will be leaving on our bikes from Trinity Western University on Monday morning, June 26.  I will be one of 92 riders who have signed up to complete this first leg of the Sea to Sea trip.  I understand that 52 bikers are planning to do the entire 10 weeks of the ride, ending in Halifax, Nova Scotia.   You can learn more about the ride at Sea to Sea 2017.

 I am excited that approximately 1.2 million dollars has already been donated to Sea to Sea 2017 to support efforts to combat poverty.  If you would like to make a donation under my name, you can go to   the following link:  Fund Raising Page

I will be using the same bike that I used in 2013 and I am looking forward to seeing the Pacific Northwest from a bicycle seat.  I'll try to keep this blog updated throughout my trip.

Here are a couple of resources you may want to use.  You can track our daily route on with following site:  Route Map  You can click on the right column  under "Accommodations and Route Maps" and you can see the route map and the elevation climbs for that day.

Here is a Daily Devotional that has been published for our ride as well.