During his ride through northern B.C., Bob Fletcher said he’s run into more bears and moose than any other time he’s cycled through the area.

It’s been 30 years since Bob Fletcher last came through Prince George — long enough to forget what it was like in the early ’90’s.

“I hadn’t realized how big it was,” the retired educator from Edmonton told thePrince George Post from his car Tuesday evening. One of the standout takeaways from a ride around town, he said, was that “the Mounties have the most beautiful building in town.”

Fletcher, who’s edging up on 80 years this summer, passed through Prince George last week for a three-day stop on a cross-continent cycling trip that saw him start near the Arctic Circle and will end in him finishing all the way in Panama City, Panama. Travelling with fellow Edmonton cyclist Wayne Grover, he’s completing the trip entirely by e-bike while Grover rides alongside on a road bike.

It’s what he hopes will be a world record for the longest journey on an e-bike in history, with plans to finish what he’s calling the “Octogenarian Odyssey” in 155 days.

Still quite a ways from his final destination in South America — well over six thousand kilometres, to be exact — Fletcher has already run into experiences his didn’t expect. Having cycled in northern B.C. before, he said he didn’t run into a single bear or moose on his previous ride. This time, he’s already lost count of the number of bears the group have seen.

“Lots of people have said, ‘Aren’t you afraid of cycling through Mexico, places like that?” he said. “I tell them, ‘No, I’m more afraid of the bears up in Yukon, Alaska, northern British Columbia than I am of the cartels in Mexico.”

Heading into the trip, the life-long cyclist was confident he’d be able to complete the journey. What stretched him, he said, was the planning and execution process. Within the year-long planning process, he was given a free e-bike by Evelo Electric Bicycles and is having 50 per cent of his accommodation costs covered by Airbnb.

Staying with locals was one of Fletcher’s priorities going into the adventure, having no desire to stay at a hotel “where the only person you see is the receptionist.” On his way out of Prince George, having spent three nights near University Hospital, he said living with people from town gave him a significantly better feel for the city.

On an e-bike, the challenge of days spent in the saddle is different than it used to be. His bike has multiple settings that offer different levels of assistance, which he likes to primarily use on hills — a luxury Grover, his travel companion, doesn’t have.

“(Grover) is sweating and perspiring, and going quite slowly. I go by him, I’m not perspiring, I’m not having sweat dripping in my eyes or anything like that, and I wait at the top of the hill for him to Summit,” Fletcher said.

“His saying is, ‘Jesus, Bob, it’s like I’m going up the stairs and you got on the escalator.’”

Leaning up on his eightieth birthday, Fletcher’s ride isn’t just a new adventure. When he set out from the Arctic Circle, he was also embarking on a mission to show that people his age are capable of more than they’re often given credit for.

“Media lots of times portrays people in their seventies as kind of a useless generation … it’s kind of a stereotype I want to break through and break down,” he said.

But he’s not just trying to encourage older people, nor is he saying they have to cycle an entire continent from north to south.

“Particularly I want to encourage older folks, but (also) anybody — to get off the sofa, get outside, get some activity … just to know that you can do that.”

Taken from Prince George Post