Not being a morning person, UNBC professor Dennis Procter decided to participate in the North 400 by joining the cyclists traveling from Jasper to Prince George during the back half of the extreme one-day journey.
The 71-year-old will do the 208-kilometre McBride to Prince George leg of the Aug. 5 ride with the other 16 participants and make the trek in about nine hours and that's including a lunch and dinner break.
The North 400 is a pediatric cancer research fundraising event Procter supported in previous years by sponsoring Erin Reynolds, annual giving coordinator for the Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon Division, Northern Region.
He would offer her $1 a kilometre and each year donated the full amount.
This year he thought he'd better put his mettle to the pedal and sponsor himself.
"I'm still a relatively new cyclist," said Procter, who is a professor in UNBC's education program.
"I started riding in 2011-12, so I'm still very much a learner and still building up in distance and this will be the furthest I've ever ridden."
Procter has always had a competitive nature and likes being fit, he said. In his youth he was a competitive runner, sailor, ballroom dancer, and race walker.
This 208-kilometre bicycle trip is just the beginning.
"I'd like to have a rich old age," said Procter, a New Zealander and naturalized Canadian.
"I'm retiring at the end of this year and I'm thinking of the transition and the things I'm going to do, which includes taking a travel bike to different countries - just quick one-month visits and touring the countryside, not so much the cities."
He's got a number of countries that he'd like to tour including Costa Rica, Cuba, Columbia, Vietnam, Cambodia and for a very different experience probably Mongolia, said Procter. Those seem to appeal to the ecologist and educator in him.
"I'm not going to ride off into the sunset cold," said Procter.
"I would actually like to come out of my travels with the adoption of some Third World village and school where I can put my science education and perhaps work with ecotourism or something of that kind."
The North 400 riders will start the 18-hour trek at 4 a.m. in Jasper, stop at Mt. Robson at 8 a.m., McBride Farmers Market at noon, Purden Resort at 6 p.m. and arrive at the Prince George City Hall Veterans Plaza at about 9:30 p.m.
For more information or to donate www.north400.com or visit their Facebook page.
