What was it that prompted you to go on your first multi-day tour?
How old were you at the time? What type of equipment did you use?
For me, it was the sense of adventure and the challenge of doing something just about
nobody my age was doing at the time. I was 14 when my school buddy and I, with our
parent's blessing, decided to ride from the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, up through
the Fraser and Thompson River Valleys into the Interior of the Province. We knew absolutely
nothing about bicycle touring, or how to prepare for one, but that didn't deter us. We wore
street clothes, including denim jeans, carried our possessions in canvas strapped packs on
our backs, and didn't know enough to bring along plenty of water, relying on the streams along
the way. My bike was an old 28" wheeled man's CCM and my buddy had a new 26" Raleigh
3 spd. Although we suffered from rashes from the jeans and canvas straps, we had a blast and
that trip hooked me into touring later on in life. Along the way we met many curious people that
wondered about us so far from home, had to use pebbles in our mouths to stimulate fluids when
we couldn't find safe water, and scrounged meals from construction crews....it was a lot of fun
and adventure for sure! That was in 1960.