What could be better?

Isn't it a wonderful thing to be a cyclist and want to join in one of the many rides that are organized for a good cause or simply to have fun?  My nephew who is currently visiting us showed me a hat that he wears that commemorates a ride in his area.  While I don't know that part of the country well, I figure that according to the design on the hat, the ride goes from Northwest to Southeast across British California.  My reasoning is based on the fact that when my cycling buddy Roy and I cycled to Castlegar from Rock Creek a couple of summers ago, I recall seeing Terrace on one of our maps and it didn't appear to be far from Castlegar.  I once was in Prince George doing a shoot for CN Rail about a new locomotive that the railway had purchased and I knew it was somewhere up in the Northwest of the region.

Myself, I involve myself in two organized rides - both for the MS Society.  There is the 197 Km. Nisku to Camrose tour and the 90 Km. Hinton Mountain Tour.  Last year I read a magazine article about the "Tour De L'Alberta which looks like a fun jaunt which can be customized as to how much (or little) distance one would like to ride.

The bicycle commuters society that I belong to has a Tour De Perogy - a 140 klick ride out to the Ukrainian Village and back that starts at a diner on 99 Street.  Included, but not limited to is a tour of the village and all the perogies you want to scarf down.  If web postings are any indication, it would seem they had a bit of a slog into the wind on the way back into town.  I felt sorry for some of the novices who I knew would be hurting just to get to the village, let alone ride back fighting the wind.

There are gargantuan rides from Vancouver to Edmonton, tours to the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennesse and back (from somewhere in Tennesse and back - not from Alberty).  Nick Lees wrote an article about Le Tour of Hope, an eight day excursion exiting from Calgary and including the summit of the highest paved pass in Canada.  The Cancer Society also has a tour from Calgary into the foothills that has upwards of 2,000 riders (someone who took the ride told me 20,000 riders but I didn't believe her). 

Being a cyclist is a gratifying enough experience and when such an enjoyable diversion can be combined with raising funds for a worthwhile cause, I can't think of anything else I would rather do.