Pemberton: Slow Food Bike Ride Goes Even Slower

Slow is good. Why do we need to rush through life? When you move slowly you observe more, experience things differently, and enjoy the moment. This is why I love cycling, because when you ride you move slower.

Last Sunday we joined hundreds of other cyclists for the Annual Slow Food Cycle Sunday around Pemberton. The Slow Food Movement believes that food should be “good, clean and fair”, and mostly grown locally in farms or ranches. As opposed to fast food, it has more character, it’s tastier, and healthier – not that it’s a tough competition.

The combination of a nice bike ride and good food always appeals to me, and in addition cycling on the beautiful Pemberton Meadows Road, a road that we often drive on our way to and from hiking trips, was definitely a bonus.

My brother Ilan was visiting, and Gili managed to fit all three bikes and three people into the car (we have a station wagon). We headed to Pemberton, where we hooked up with Pascale and Ignacio who got married there only a few months ago.

Then we started our very slow ride, stopping every few kilometers to stock up on food. The variety of food was quite amazing – from fresh produce such as tomatoes and blueberries to cooked food such as perogies, meat pies, and burgers (from Pemberton Meadows grass fed beef, of course), as well as baked goods, fruit popsicles, delicious gelato, fresh lemonade and much more.

At one point I felt that our progress was so slow that we were spending more time at the food stops than actually riding, so I decided that we’ll ride for a little while and actually work up an appetite before our next stop. It was great seeing the road taken over by cyclists, in an absolute world this is how every day would look like.

We rode all the way to the end of the route (25 km), before turning back, but I must admit that the last stop was very disappointing – there was not much there. It would have been nice if they would give out fresh cold watermelon there, or at least sell some popsicles, but alas, all we found was a small vegetable stand, an apple tree and a hose to cool off (this option was very popular as it was a hot day).

On the way back we made a few more food stops. By then we were quite exhausted and hot, so when we saw a stop advertising “shade!”, we stopped and collapsed on the grass, taking a nice nap. Another thing that slowed us down quite considerably was the fact that Pascale got three flat tires, all in the same tire. Many different methods were used on how to fix it, and eventually she managed to ride back.

Despite all of our efforts to be super slow and to get back to the cars late (we were the last of the riders) we still managed to hit traffic on the way to Vancouver. On summer Sundays late is not late enough it seems. Also, a TV crew was shooting an episode of the new series Rush on our block (yes, Vancouver is the new Hollywood) so we couldn’t find parking easily. So many advantages to cycling, it’s quite amazing.