Stop in Perth-Andover during Vancouver-Halifax trip

B4

By Robert LaFrance

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One look at Mave Paterson and Penny Weir is enough to see that these two Scottish women, each 70 years of age, are somewhat fit and energetic. They started biking from Vancouver, B.C. on May 21 and ‘at tea-time' on Saturday, August 16, arrived at Perth-Andover and Baird's Campground, on their way to Halifax and a September 4 flight back to Scotland. Once they heard about Scotch Colony, they decided to stay an extra day, see the historic places there, and buy a copy of "History of the Scotch Colony".

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Robert LaFrance photo

Mavis (Mave) Paterson, left, and Penny Weir left their Scottish homes in mid-May, flew to Vancouver, and started biking east across Canada - no Trans Canada Highway - on May 21. They stopped in Perth-Andover and Baird’s Campground on August 16 and 17 and visited historic sites in the Scotch Colony. They are seen here near Kincardine’s Melville United Church (built in 1878). During the journey, Penny Weir had to make a quick trip to Scotland and have a Pacemaker installed and was gone four weeks while Mave biked on alone. From Perth-Andover, they planned to continue their bike trip (each bike carrying about 60 pounds of equipment) to Halifax and catch a flight back to Scotland on September 4.

A second look would cement the impression that anyone who had the temerity to call either Mave or Penny ‘elderly' had better own a Ferrari and have it running at the time. Mave Paterson is from Auchenmalg, Scotland, in Galloway Downs, near the Mull of Galloway, at the southwestern corner of the country. Penny Weir hails from the central Highlands of Scotland, in the Spey Valley on the north side of the Cairngorm Mountains, near Aviemore, Invernesshire.

"Everybody asks that," Mave Paterson said in reply to the indiscreet but inevitable question about their ages. "The reason we're doing this is because we both celebrated our seventieth birthdays this year and we thought: what a nice way to get out of Scotland, away from the party scene and just go on our bikes across Canada. I had relatives I had never met before in Canada, so I met them in Vancouver," she continued. "Friends left Troon, in Scotland, where I was brought up and I've met them."

"We're also raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support and flying the flag for the people aged 70 and over, because when you've reached this age people think you can't hear, you can't walk and you can't talk. Younger people say to other people: ‘does she take sugar and milk in her tea' as if we can't talk for ourselves so we're flying the flag."

They left Glasgow on the eighteen of May, flew to Vancouver and started cycling on May 21 from that city. Penny Weir joked that Mave had twisted her arm to come on the trip, but she said that she had been an enthusiastic biker for a dozen years and had already biked across the United States. "All my kids had left home and I decided I wanted to do a long bike ride," she said.

Although Scotland is a small country compared to Canada - Mave Paterson had once cycled across Scotland in one day - there is still some distance between the homes of the two women. Penny Weir said they had gotten acquainted in a rather unusual way. "I did the United States trip because I had heard Mave talking on the radio about her trip that she had done a few years earlier across the United States and all around the world, so I got in touch with the radio station and said I needed to meet this lady. And that's how we met, and that was how I got biking. I did that ride and thought: this has changed my life, thanks very much. I also did some other long-distance bike rides on my own."

"We read a book by a woman named Janice Kenyon who had cycled across Canada when she was about 66,' said Mave, "and we thought we'd follow her twisting route. The book is called ‘Bike Ride With a Twist'. She was getting off the main roads. We travelled mostly down right along the (U.S.) border on Highway 17, the Redcoat Trail. The Mounties used that (1300 km) trail in Saskatchewan. I prayed one day for one to come along and take me off my bike and let me ride on his horse." Early on Penny had to interrupt her journey to fly back to Scotland to have a Pacemaker put in, but four weeks after she left Mave she was back with her fellow biker.

"I didn't know what to do," said Mave, "whether to go back to Scotland or not, because I'm not a solo cyclist. I'm a sociable person, so I wasn't sure how I'd react to being alone but I was fine. I wasn't happy all the time; it was pretty desolate sometimes. Places in Saskatchewan were ghastly."

They tried to make sure they had food stocked up, and ate some berries and other wild food along the way. "I had a wee stove," said Mave, "and I managed to cook things. We had granola bars and other healthy food. Lots of drinks and cinnamon rolls, icy buns."

Asked which was her favourite province (not counting New Brunswick), Mave said that B.C. was lovely as were parts of Alberta, Quebec, and east.

She said that originally they had planned to end their trip at St. John's, Newfoundland, but decided on finishing in Halifax. She said that during the journey she was amazed at the hospitality of Canadians.

"All across Canada people were wonderful. We had a marvelous breakfast this morning. We camped last night at Baird's and told Scott O'Brien, Heidi Baird and others that we were going to have cinnamon buns for breakfast and they said you can't do that. They made delicious omelettes for us."