KRAC Tour!

epiblog...

2010-08-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

The tour is over and I've had about a couple of weeks off to rest, process, and think about things. Overall I had an amazing time. I met incredible people, saw some absolutely stunning scenery, and ate very well (from time to time). I discovered that I really like the city of Regina and that there's nothing positive to report about the province of Manitoba other than the courtesy of the drivers there. I discovered that my body is capable of massive days as long as I get the appropriate rest, and that I don't actually require that much fuel on the road to keep going as long as I take care of the basics (sugar, salt, fat, protein). I traveled East of Montreal for the first time, but definitely not the last. Quebec City and Atlantic Canada will definitely be revisited several times.

I met some new friends, and a host of other really interesting people - almost all of them extremely friendly and helpful. I witnessed the triumph of new cyclists pushing the boundaries of what they thought possible and met and heard stories of other travelers who take the concept of "something different" to an entirely new level. (Specifically I'm talking about rickshaw dude and that Japanese guy who was pushing a shopping cart from Vancouver to NYC - no, I never met him but I saw the pictures and heard the stories).

I was reminded of the role that research and diligent preparedness has in life - my no flats in 7600km (6881 of them with a full touring load) is a testament to luck as well as planning, technology, and vigilance.

I had loads of time to reflect on life and dream up other potential adventures. I also discovered a real love for touring. Perhaps not the traditional sort, where the bulk of tourers lie - but then again I've never really fallen into that pool in life, either. :p I'll definitely tour again - perhaps staying in BC next summer, or down the West Coast to San Diego. I'd like to do a Canadian North-South tour, but I'm not sure of the feasibility of that given how remote Northern Canada tends to be. A paddling tour also crossed my mind...

Physically my body changed, as was apparent in many of the pictures. I lost a lot of lean muscle mass in addition to a good amount of fat and my musculature reshaped. I'm curious to see how permanent this change can be - both in terms of "fat" as well as musculature.

Mentally I'm not entirely sure how much has changed. I knew that something was different when about 2.5 weeks into the tour I started thinking of hilly 150km days as "easy days" - but it's not like I would have ever considered that beyond my reach. The "fatal flaw" of mine that I just tend to think of most things as "just not all that hard" served me well here, as did my obstinance.

I learned to lean on my friends a little bit. Remote support from Phil, Andy and Julian was indispensable, and it was such a MASSIVE pick-me-up to see Linda, Joe and LuAnne a week into the tour when they chased me down n Cranbrook. Email, text messages and blog/FB comments from everyone were great encouragement, and being able to share my experiences with all of you here made it all the more fun.

Apparently, I can survive for several days without ice cream, Snickers bars, chips, or Coke. I can also survive for weeks on primarily just those things. :p

Six weeks is a pretty long time to be gone, and I was ready to go home after that point. Eight weeks is a really long time. It's probably easier touring with someone else or a small group, but I do really like the flexibility that touring solo gives me. If I were to ever go on tour with other people, I'd have to be pretty careful about their selection. For most people I'd recommend a group of 2-4. It's a fair bit easier in a group, and one really has to enjoy spending A LOT of time alone to really enjoy touring solo. Camping and downtime is more fun with others as well.

The numbers that everyone have been waiting for are 23 and 155. That's a net loss of 23lbs, down to 155. There's still some room for me to lean out a bit, but I'm not sure how much desire is there. That would take a lot of effort, and I think it's going to take a fair amount just to stay where I am. But I do like where I am. :D

Overall I think everything went about as well as anyone could have hoped, and I'd definitely encourage most people who have an interest to try it. Maybe not solo, and maybe not unsupported. But try nonetheless. Even on a motorcycle, if pedal cycling isn't your bag. Just get out there and do something. As Shane McConkey would say: Just go down there and jump off something big, goddammit!

I've missed a few questions along the way so I'd be happy to do a Q&A if anyone has questions about my setup, route selection, touring in general, etc.

Day51 - it is finished...

2010-08-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

I was up quite early, as is the norm when camping - but it was really cold out so I stayed in the hammock and slept in 'til quite late (for camping). I finally rolled out of the hammock at ~08:00

Breakfast was an exercise in what do I have that's heavy, that I can eat so that I won't have to ditch it before getting on the plane? Seb has a thing for canned beans and Chef Boyardee, and while we were shopping together in Wawa I was convinced to buy a can as "emergency food". It makes some degree of sense - though heavy, it's extremely calorically dense, high in carbohydrates and salt, and also provides a fair amount of fat and protein. Pretty much exactly what one needs in a food emergency/bonk situation. I'd been carrying this blasted can for some 1500km at minimum - likely over 2000, and I was damned if I was going to toss it in St John's. (I was also in a mood that if I had been carrying something, I was going to USE it!) The backup stove came out to boil water for tea, and the Chef Boyardee went onto the main stove. While not a gourmet meal or something that I'd buy to consume at home, it was palatable and did the job. I packed up my gear and was rolling by ~10:30.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Gone was the oppressive humidity from days past, and it was sunny but still somewhat cool. Low 20's, I'd guess. Absolutely idea cycling weather. I got rolling and before long I was FLYING down the road. I'd picked up another map on the ferry - one that had quite a large scale map of Newfoundland. Because of the scale I was just screaming across the page - flying 1/2 a day's worth of travel on my old map in a matter of an hour or two. In truth I was actually moving pretty well, but the difference in scale magnified it to somewhat ridiculous proportions.

That can of Chef Boyardee, while a decent kickstart to the day, certainly doesn't go as far as a proper breakfast (and nothing ever went as far as the incredible breakfast that Bern and Ang sent me off with) - so I was hungry within an hour. A "rolling fuel stop" (Snickers bar) and I was back on form and feeling decent again. I kept up the rolling stops as necessary (every hour or two) until I found an ice cream stop for my first "real break". I don't recall exactly when that was but I'd guess somewhere in the 3-4hr mark, and at around 90k. I had a chocolate milkshake, a PowerAde, and a bag of chips - and was rolling again on my way to Petty Cove.

This is when it started to get hilly in earnest, and though still feeling good, I took notice of the terrain in addition to the incredible scenery. Not terribly long after Petty Cove comes Cape Spear. I had been told that there was some "significant climbing" on the way out to Cape Spear, with grades at ~20%. I rolled along wondering if this was an exaggeration, or if I just hadn't hit it yet. I crested the peak of a moderate climb and it looked like the road was going to drop all the way to the water. "Well that wasn't so bad... Hardly anything, really" Of course, just before the water the road hooked right and went STRAIGHT UP. This was (one of) the climb(s) I had been warned about. D'oh! Out of the saddle, grinding it out in my 32x32, I climbed several switchbacks that never seemed to end nor relent in pitch. Finally the pitch broke and I started to descend - only to go back up again. Finally a steep-ish descent to the water, and one last (moderate) climb back up to Cape Spear proper. Okay - so he wasn't kidding.

The other tourists at Cape Spear were all eager to help me take pictures, and asked a lot of questions about my journey, etc. One family had been "tracking" my progress as the kids in the back kept yelling to their dad "That guy on the bike is still behind us! There he is again! He's still coming!" They thought it was hilarious. Of course the real beauty of having climbed and descended into Cape Spear is that you have to turn around and climb out again. Then once you get back to the main road it's a fair climb over the rocky crags that make up the Nfld coastline, and a good amount more climbing until you reach St John's. Which is a city built on steep hills, much like San Francisco. As expected, my hostel was up a few of those as well.

Might as well end the ride memorably, right?

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7:45
Actual Ride Time: 6.22
Total Distance: 143.62km
Avg Speed: 22.5kph
Max Speed: 63.3kph

Total mileage - Vancouver to St John's - 6881.3 km

Newfoundland scenery

Cape Spear - the Easternmost point in North America...

The odometer reading

Actual pictures of Cape Spear (not just me with a sign)

St John's - this town reminds me a lot of San Francisco...

Day 49 - under pressure

2010-08-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

Stopping in Westville (New Glasgow area) to hang out with Anglea, Bernie, and the kids was great. I had a fantastic time with them and they were amazing hosts. Like most of my stops, it's a pity I wasn't able to spend more time there. As luck would have it however, they are going to be in Vancouver in September - so hopefully I'll get to see them again soon. The one minor "issue" with stopping in Westville was that it left me with a very big day today - >250k over very hilly terrain to the ferry terminal in North Sydney. Both Ang and Bern did offer me a ride, multiple times, but I figured I should probably do this the hard way. I didn't ride this far to get in a truck... :p

It had rained overnight, and was still raining a bit when I woke up - but by the time breakfast was done (an amazing spread of pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, juices, coffee... the works!) the rain had abated - leaving the air thick and heavy with humidity. It was going to be one of *those* days... I packed up, said my goodbyes, and headed off. There was a bit of a Westerly today, which was nice - finally, the wind is cooperating with my direction of travel. I made good time through Antigonish and stopped at ~3hrs and 74k for my first fuel break of the day. Back on the bike the hills were rolling - not terribly steep, and not terribly long - just consistently ever present. Highway 104 is a pretty nice road to ride. It's scenic in many parts with a great shoulder and is well paved. I met another cyclist from England who was wrapping up the final 3 weeks of his tour, and later on, a guy pulling a freaking RICKSHAW!!!!! This guy left Duncan, BC in Feb '09 and made it to Thunder Bay by Nov where he quit for the winter. He started up again in the spring, and was on his way back to Halifax from Nfld to finish his trip. I don't really know what to say about that other than I'm really glad that I met him. HARD CORE.

I was feeling good, rolling along and pounding out the miles in the sunshine. The sun had come out to play so the day was beautiful, if extremely hot. I kept an eye out looking for an nice looking ice cream stand and passed by a few towns in my search for "a good one". After the high quality options in BC, Quebec, and PEI, some of the roadside offerings look pretty sad in comparison. I finally found one - a good 4hrs after my last break and stopped for some fuel. There I met an older gentleman who offered some advice for my route and we chatted about cycling for a while. He worked as a bike courrier in Ottawa for a few years after he retired (fromer professor at McMaster), and now spends his time mostly surfing. He was trying to convince me to take a day off and go surfing - and if I had the time, I probably would have. Like my "real life" however, somehow the schedule seems to dictate all.

Back on the bike I made a quick stop at the visitor's center to use the washroom and to fill my bottles, and I was back on the road. This next hour was really hard. It felt super hot and humid (if someone had told me that it was 46degrees with the humidex, I'd have believed them) and I struggled over the hills. I stopped at a gas station at a reserve to cool off and get some electrolytes, and kept it rolling. Luckily my rough period only lasted about an hour and I was back to my "normal" self not terribly long thereafter. If you only have one bad spell that lasts an hour or so over the course of a day like today, that ain't too bad...

Back to rolling hills. They got steeper and longer as I got further East on the island of Cape Breton, but the scenery was magnificent. I'm a little disappointed that I have to miss the Glenora distillery while I'm out here - Canada's only single malt distillery, but I guess I'll just have to come back. I want to spend more time on PEI as well.

More hills, more hills, and more hills. About 50k shy of Sydney (based on the road sign - which can be horribly inaccurate) I noted that if I really pushed hard I could probably finish the day in under 12hrs total elapsed time. Hmmmm.... Then it dawned on me that 12hrs is just a stupid arbitrary goal, who's only real consequence would be thrashing my legs and making me wait at the ferry terminal for even longer. I took my foot off the gas, and coasted the rest of the way in. This turned out to be a good decision as the ferry terminal in North Sydney is significantly farther than Sydney, and I'd never have made my 12hr goal anyway.

It got dark and I rolled to the ferry in blackness - the road illuminated by my super awesome SuperNova E3 Triple headlamp, powered by my SON dynohub. I swear I'll never tour without one of these...

When I got to the ferry terminal I cheekily asked if they had shower facillities - and was shocked to discover that they do! A FREE shower in the restrooms! Well if that don't beat all... Cleaned up and feeling human again, I met some other touring cyclists who were also on the same boat, had a crummy dinner (ferry food is ferry food, it seems) and waited to get on the boat.

I had been really impressed with the ferry service from inside the terminal, but once on the boat it was the Keystone Kops meet the Three Stooges. The folks loading the boat had no idea what to do with cyclists (there were six of us, and we certainly can't have been the first) and kept having us move our bikes around. Finally I got my bike secured and went upstairs - where there was nobody on-hand to guide people and all of the passengers wandered around confused as to where they ought to be. Because this is such a long trip (~16hrs) most people opt for some sort of sleeping accomodation when they book their ticket. I had purchased a "dormitory bed" and it took a good while before I figured out the system. Nothing luxurious about it, but it was a bed. I wandered upstairs and talked the guy in the laundry into giving me some sheets (the beds come with a pillow and blanket only, on a plastic covered mattress) and settled in for what I hoped would be a decent night's rest.

We're scheduled to land in Argentia at ~17:00 tomorrow (the same day the ferry leaves, as it departs at 01:30 in the morning) so there won't be much riding tomorrow. Just enough to get away from the ferry terminal and find a decent campsite or motel.

For the record, that's the entire Canadian mainland, coast to coast (plus PEI) in seven weeks to the day - including about a week of not riding (slacker time).

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 13:30
Actual Ride Time: 11:50
Total Distance: 273.4km
Avg Speed: 23kph
Max Speed: ~~~ (electronic interference has my max speed over 150kph again...)

RICKSHAW DUDE!

Just prior to crossing over from the mainland of Nova Scotia to the island of Cape Breton

Fuel stop! It was so freakin' hot out that my ice cream melted on me - and I NEVER have ice cream melt on me!

Stunning Cape Breton scenery...

Lined up with all the other "bikes"...

5 star accomodation

I'm the only one with bedsheets :D

Day 50 - Sitting on a ferry

2010-08-12T02:13:00.000-07:00

Nothing terribly exciting today - we boarded the ferry at a little after midnight and I went to bed as soon as I could. Slept in, wrote some notes for the blog, had another crappy ferry food meal, and took a nap before disembarking in Argentia, NL.

The road out of the ferry terminal goes pretty much straight up (Welcome to the Rock!), and then rolls. The scenery is extremely beautiful and the highway isn't too bad. I was among the first off the boat and was a little tempted to just rock it straight into St John's - but I figured if I did that I'd miss out on actually getting to see Nfld as the light was fading. Keep pushing that hammerhead mentality down and chill.

I had pseudo-planned to stop in a little town shortly after Argentia, but I was enjoying riding and not paying too much attention - so I missed it. I ended up camping in pretty much the only option there is between the ferry and very close to St John's (not including stealth camping options).

A shower (this campsite has "shower times" - 2hrs in the AM and 2hrs in the PM. If you miss them the lights are off and there's very little water - but if you wait long enough it does eventually warm up. Very strange...), one last dinner of packet mee and assorted camp food, and I was off to bed.

The Rock!

"Welcome to Newfoundland" (I hope you like climbing)

Stunning scenery...

Camp - one last time (and yes, I'm aware that my tarp isn't taut - I fixed it before bed)

Day48- 8 provinces down, 2 to go

2010-08-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 06:30 to the sound of rainfall. Looking out the window confirmed it, and I flopped back into bed. Up at a little after 08:00, I wandered downstairs for breakfast and the rain had pretty much stopped. Score! I had a bagel, packed up my stuff, and was rolling by shortly after 10:00.

It was pretty warm, and very humid. It was also quite windy. I was happy for the wind today as it helped to mitigate the humidity. Rolling along at a halfway decent clip, I stopped at an ice cream stand at ~2hrs. I wanted to hit the Rossignol winery that's sort of near the ferry and didn't want to end up there with an empty stomach - so I had some food as well. That pushed the break longer than I typically like, and my food intake more than I typically like for a break as well - but there was purpose behind this stop so I dealt with the heaviness as I rolled on.

I was making okay time, and today was a short ride day anyway. I have friends in Westville, which is not too far from the far side of the ferry terminal - so I'll be spending the night there.

The Rossignol winery turned out to be very good, and the big lunch I had earlier served me well as I ended up sampling a lot of their offerings (they do a LOT of different stuff there!).

Back rolling toward the ferry and I made it with over an hour to spare for the 16:30 - so I headed to Crabby Joe's (a famous seafood shack). I was still too full from lunch to order the lobster that Phil and Andy had told me to get (3lb minimum), so I just had some clam chowder - which was kind of disappointing, really.

Onto the ferry, where I took a nap on the top deck and then was back on the bike after ~1:30 of chilling out. The wind was STRONG from the South, directly in my face. I came across another touring cyclist who had his bike upside down, and appeared to be truing his wheel. I stopped to check up on him and he showed me a small crack in his rim. He was wondering what to do, whether it was safe to ride, etc. After chatting a bit about his plans, load and riding style, I told him to press on for Halifax but to call a shop there at ~10:00 tomorrow morning so that they could get started on a new wheel for him. He's got a tight timeline, and can't afford to wait for a rebuild using his current hub.

Soon I was at Angela & Bernie's, and they fed me a fantastic meal while their 3yr old entertained me her ballet dancing, her stuffed dog, and other various things.

Off to bed soon - tomorrow's going to be a long, and likely hard day. >250k to North Sydney, with time pressure as the ferry leaves at 01:30 on Saturday morning. This ferry only sails every 3 days, and I can't imagine why it leaves at 01:30 in the morning - but that's the schedule, so I guess I'll stick to it. I figure ~15hrs total elapsed time (~12hrs riding) ought to do it.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 9:20 (incl ferry time, waiting for ferry time, etc)
Actual Ride Time: 4:58
Total Distance: 107.03 km
Avg Speed: 21.5 kph
Max Speed: 41.9 kph

The most excellent staff at the Charlottetown Backpacker's Inn

It's hard to see in the picture, but those boxes were swarming with bees! Apparently someone's honey operation is right by the side of the road. I guess you'd have to have the proper gear or be a damned fool to go in there...

The view from the ferry

Day47 - the Charlottetown Accord...

2010-08-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today was my day off in Charlottetown. Originally I had planned to take more time here, but the ferry to Argentia only runs every 3 days (and at 01:00/01:30 in the AM?!) - so I had to cut short my planned stay in PEI. As much as I wanted to take the other ferry and the long road 'round the Rock, the pressures of my 8 week schedule and the consequences of having enjoyed my slacker days earlier in the trip forced a rethink. I could have made it if I scheduled 1 day in Charlottetown, 1 day in St John's, and 4 or 5 back-to-back 200k days - racing 'round the Rock, as it were. That's not how I wanted to end my tour however, so I sucked it up and adjusted my schedule.

I woke up very early, but I don't get up early on rest days - so I flopped back into bed and got up at a much more reasonable hour (~08:00). A continental breakfast is included at the hostel, so I had a bagel and some coffee and then thought about my day. It was overcast and drizzling very lighly. The staff and other guests there weren't too thrilled with the weather, but I'm a Vancouver boy - that ain't rain, it's just atmosphere! Out I went to explore the town.

You know you're getting old (or perhaps just a nerd) when one of the highlights of my trip was a visit to Province House - the site of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference: a meeting for the purposes of discussing Maritime Union that was crashed by John A Macdonald, George-Etienne Cartier, and others that led to the passing of the British North America act in 1867 and my dear country's Confederation.

I had a pretty darn good chowder and terrible service at a local bar, saw the Charlottetown art gallery, went on the Gahan House brewery tour, and had the finest meal I'd had in Atlantic Canada at the Pilot House. After dinner I went for a walk down by the pier and saw some local artists performing, and then headed back to the hostel where I played darts and went through the vinyl collection with some of the staff and another guest.

All in all, a solid day - but I'll definitely have to come back...

Province House

Can't you just smell the history?

Fresh mussels

and the requisite "schow-d'air"

Just because it's not a ride day doesn't mean that one can ignore one's nutrition - proper fuelling is essential!

The best meal I've had to date in Atlantic Canada...

Day46 - sayonara to NB, and I'll shed no tears...

2010-08-09T04:31:00.000-07:00

Day46

Today was a short, relatively easy day on paper. Less than 130km to Charlottetown, with a little break in the middle as I had to take a shuttle across the Confederation Bridge to PEI - cyclists and pedestrians are not allowed. I woke up at ~07:00 when a Harley started right outside my window (really?), and then got up by ~07:30. Breakfast was a slow affair and I know I'm tired because instead of just sitting there waiting for my coffee while the less than highly competent waitress struggled with a few tables, I sat there annoyed, thinking: "Where's my damned coffee?! Do I have to get it myself? Come on, lady!" etc. At least one other table was having similar issues, as I could see the growing annoyance on the face of the woman who was facing me. I guess us jerks from the city have unrealistic expectations of small resort towns. :p Breakfast finally arrived, and it was ok. Back to my room to pack up and I was on the road by 09:30 - one of my earlier starts of late. I figured on ~65k on each side of the bridge and was pretty close to spot on. The wind was coming from all directions today, but it was light - so it didn't have a significant impact on my progress. I wasn't feeling "on", but I wasn't feeling "bad" either - it was just another one day on the road. 7 weeks is a long time to be on the road, and I'm getting tired. I'm definitely ready to go home.

The road leading out to the bridge was pretty flat and I made it there by shortly past noon. Cyclists need to go to the info center and call for the shuttle, so I went in and the guy told me that he'd let the driver know. I called him back to ask for an ETA and he said "I don't know - I have to find him, first. He's somewhere on the island, so it will be at least 20min." There I go with my crazy big city expectations again... (though really I just wanted to know if I had time to check out the restaurant) It turned out that I had all the time in the world. The shuttle didn't show up for a good hour. In the meantime I ate a bunch of food figuring that I might as well take advantage of the downtime. I also cost Phil about $1.50 in text messages. :p When the driver arrived we decided that it would be best to unload the bike so that no-one got hurt trying to load it. I was the only one on the shuttle anyway. It turned out that this wasn't the regular shuttle driver - he's a bridge maintenance worker who was just filling in for the driver who had gone to lunch. He's a cyclist however, so I sat up front and we chatted about riding for the short duration of the trip. He told me that he had recently gotten a flat tyre and how he hated mini pumps as it's really difficult to get a decent amount of pressure with one. I mentioned how I was looking forward to hitting a bike shop in a big city so that I could borrow a floor pump to air up, as I was probably sitting at ~70psi. He in turn told me that he lived very close by and offerred to grab his floor pump for me to use! He dropped me off at the info center and took off in another truck to go get his pump while I reloaded the bags onto my bike. He was back very quickly, and mentioned that it was only ~1.5km for him to get home. We chatted a bit more about bikes and my specific build, I thanked him profusely for his generosity, and he was off to do whatever it is that he needed to get done. I mounted up and rode on.

On the PEI side the first thing one notices (after the little park and info center) is a McCain processing plant. Awesome. Shortly thereafter I noticed a potato stand. That rules. They've got varieties of potatoes of which I've never heard here, and apparently potato stands are as common here as blueberry stands in Northern ON. The road got hilly, as expected and the wind stronger - but it was mostly a cross, with a bit of head or tail mixed in depending on how the road was winding. I rolled into Charlottetown at ~16:00 and was at the hostel by 16:20. Probably my easiest day on the road yet. Definitely my easiest solo day.

I got my bed sorted, put away my bike, took a shower, and am now doing laundry at a local quik-e-mart/cafe/laundromat. Then it's off to the "Gahan House" - a local brewpub that Phil tells me has "the best fish 'n chips I've ever eaten". High praise indeed...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7:20 (incl 1:20 waiting for/riding the shuttle)
Actual Ride Time: 5:24
Total Distance: 123.28 km
Avg Speed: 22.7 kph
Max Speed: 67.1 kph

Days 44 & 45

2010-08-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

Day44

I awoke to the sound of a happy infant, babbling to herself. I dunno about you guys, but to me that's a pretty pleasant way to wake up. I got a very slow start to the day using the hostel internet access to TCB, so I got a very late start - rolling out by noon. Campbellton is right on the sea, and the old highway that follows the coast is quite nice. I ended up riding through a closed road where a parade was about to go through, the cop waiving me on as bicycles don't count as traffic - so I got to ride down a street lined with people waiting for a parade and not entirely sure what to make of me. :p Not a lot of hills, though there was one NASTY sucker that sneaks up on you as you make a 90degree right hand turn first, and don't see it until you're stopped at the signal - so there's no time to gear down.

It was WINDY. WINDY WINDY WINDY WINDY WINDY. Just think - in a couple of weeks you'll be back at work. Enjoy it, dammit! More wind, more wind, more wind. I love this. Truly, I do.

About 40k out of Miramichi it got hilly. Pretty significantly so, actually. It was dark again, so although I could see the road very well I had no real sense of perspective - but they were definitely hills, and not small ones. One just outside Miramichi I swear was a 10min climb - and that was me climbing well, not grinding.

I had made arrangements to stay at another hostel this morning. Hosteling gives me a different perspective than does hoteling/moteling, or camping. In this particular case the hostel was owned by a Donald Sutherland lookalike, who was very friendly and tried very hard. It turned out that I was one of two customers, and the only one he liked. :p The other, my roommate, was a drunk guy who got up on occasion to ramble and then would wander off - or pass out again. He's from Miramichi but was staying in a hostel for reasons unknown to me. Remember when I said that I was having a hard time understanding the French out here? Now I'm having difficulty with the English...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:40
Actual Ride Time: 9:47
Total Distance: 199.58 km
Avg Speed: 20.3 kph
Max Speed: 60.1 kph

Day45

Today should have been a very easy day. A large part of the route followed the coastal highway, so it shouldn't be terribly hilly. The wind is always a question, but there's not much one can do about that. It was windy, but the larger problem was me. I was just tired, and feeling like a Spanish Chevy ("no va"). There were some hills, but nothing significant. I had a couple of mediocre meals (disappointng, really given that I'm finally on the ocean again) but I was pretty happy to be on the ocean again. I'd been told that the beaches and camping in Shediac are fantastic, but when I got there I saw rows of trailers and campers spaced 4m apart, and tents about 1.5m apart. Mostly in fenced in fields. Maybe the campsites down by the water are much better, but that sucks if you ask me. I found a halfway decent motel and checked in hoping for an early night.

I was also fortunate that I spotted and resolved a fair sized scheduling issue before it royally messed things up for me.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:15
Actual Ride Time: 6:34
Total Distance: 136.49 km
Avg Speed: 20.7 kph
Max Speed: 39.7 kph

The last "round number" milestone...

Day43 - Just Rollin'

2010-08-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

I woke up very tired, to the sound of a baby crying in the room next to me. The very same child that had been crying the night before. Breakfast was a pretty weak buffet, but it was included in the price of the hotel - so I choked down what I could and after a slow pack was rolling by 11:20.

The winds weren't terribly strong, but it was a head/head cross. The interior of NB is extremely hilly. Some of them are moderate rolling hills. Others, steep and nasty. Others made me wonder if I was back in BC - they were LONG, not terribly steep (5-6%), and did I mention long? I was feeling decent. Not completely flat, but not peppy either. It was a fairly long day (especially given what time I'd started) and I wanted to move quickly but conserve as much energy as possible. The wind and hills weren't helping...

I passed the most awesome mailbox in the history of the free world, and stopped to take a picture. Some people across the street yelled at me in French, but I couldn't understand them. As I move farther from Quebec and deeper into NB, the French gets harder and harder to understand.

More rolling, and more people yelling at me from a lawn. I waived, and they yelled more - urgently. So I circled back to see what was up and a lady came down and addressed me in French. I didn't understand a damned thing she said. A couple of older guys from back up where they were all sitting yelled something unintelligible. She switched to English. They had guests from Ontario over and were roasting corn on the cob - and wondered if I wanted some. The guys up on the lawn had been yelling "ble d'inde", which aparently is French for corn on the cob. Corn sounded pretty awesome, but I had ~55k to go, less than an hour of daylight, and a lot of hills in front of me. I went up to chat with them anyhow, as they seemed so friendly and curious. A bunch of them took pictures of/with me, and they offerred me wine as well. I laughed and told them if I had wine I'd end up under one of their trees. In retrospect I'm sure they would have been happy to feed me and let me camp there - if not even offered me a bed. Sometimes "touring" still escapes me. :p They warned me about a big hill, the dangers of moose, and I was on my way.

The daylight was fading and I was getting cold. I stopped to put on my rain jacket and turn on my rear flashers. The headlight was already on. I hit the big hill that they had warned me about, and was surprised to find myself feathering my brakes. Normally I wouldn't touch them on a decent like this, but I was really tired, pretty cold, and not 100% confident about my "sharpness". Better safe than sorry. After the descent there's a long section of false flat that really sucks the life out of you, and then it's about an aeon into town. I rolled into town well after full darkness had hit, ever thankful for my super awesome headlight and dynohub. I've not made a tonne of use of this thing, but it's been well worth the cost and weight of the system.

I also saw another moose! It was standing near the side of the road, and I passed it at ~10m. I stopped a little farther than that (just in case) for a picture, and then continued on my way.

Once in town I spotted an area where I could stealth camp if I had to, but I really didn't want to camp tonight. I was cold, tired, and in need of warmth and comfort. There were four coaches parked outside the Quality Inn. Not a good sign. I rolled on and stopped at a gas station for chocolate milk, and to see what my options were. Quality Inn, Super 8, and a HoJo. Cool. I rolled to the HoJo and they were completely full. Damn. On to the Super8, which was also full. The guy working there wasn't terribly friendly or helpful, and told me that I should have made a reservation. "It's high season - you should have reserved. Everyone in town is completely sold out. There's nothing left. You need to reserve in advance." Yes, thanks for that buddy. Time for the pathetic cyclist angle. I pointed to the next town on my map and asked how far it was, and if there were hotels there. "About 15min, but they might be full as well - we've been turning people away for a long time now". "Hmmmm... 15min on the highway is 1, maybe 1.5hrs for me. Do you have a number for them?" He was surprised to learn that I had come by bicycle (all the way from Vancouver!) and all of a sudden got very helpful. He called the hotel in the next town and they were sold out. So he called a few other places that "he was keeping as backup" and they were also sold out. Then he told me: "There's a lighthouse..." "a lighthouse?" "Yes. They have a room there. Sometimes they'll let you sleep there." "Okay..." "A friend of mine used to work there. You have an inflatable bed? If you have nowhere else to go, come back here. You can sleep in one of the meeting rooms - somewhere inside." Score another one for the pathetic cyclist routine! Apparently (at least in NB), being on a bike makes one a target for sympathy. I'll take it. :D

The lighthouse turned out to be a hostel, (attached to the lighthouse), and I got a bed in a dorm for $25. But they had hot showers, internet access, laundry (though it was too late for me to care about that), and a kitchen. The room was also quite empty - just another guy and his 1yr old daughter in a crib. (mom was in the women's dorm, but baby was in the men's because it was pretty much empty).

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:40

Actual Ride Time: 9:50

Total Distance: 206.88 km

Avg Speed: 21.0 kph

Max Speed: 71.9 kph

My hostel - "The Lighthouse"

Moose #2:

The greatest mailbox ever!

Day42 - Leaving Quebec

2010-08-03T05:24:00.000-07:00

I was a bit confused this morning because the clock in my room was set incorrectly when I checked in, and in my fatigued state last night I set it to PST (my blackberry doesn't pick up local time from the transmitter - "World Edition" indeed). On the road and rolling by 10:00, yesterday's brief respite from the wind proved to be just that - brief. I slowly chugged along thinking: "Soon I'm going to make a 90 degree turn, which will turn this head/cross into a tail/cross". Apparently someone in the weather department didn't get the memo as to how these things are supposed to work. The wind stayed in my face, but rather than the more or less flat path that I had been following along the St Lawrence I was now faced with hills. The same sort of relentless rolling hills that I had the pleasure of battling all through Southern Ontario. I think that the rest of the trip will be more or like this, so I guess I'd better get used to it already.

Nothing terribly exciting to report about the majority of the ride. Climbing into a headwind, descending into a headwind, occasional blasts of side or tailwind when the road turned a bit; but for the most part it was a "grinder day". I stopped at a rest stop for some chips (I must say, the Province of Quebec does a really nice job with these), at a depanneur for some Powerade, and at a bar later for ice cream.

I crossed the border into New Brunswick with very little fanfare, and the rolling seemed to get steeper. Some of the hills in Quebec were a fair size - 5 or so steps. So far all of the ones I've found in NB haven't been overly large, but they have often been quite steep.

Some kid who appeared to be learning to drive in a home-built muscle car scared me enough to take refuge in a driveway while she spun all over the road for a bit, and an old man with similar throttle control problems put me on alert for a little while. But all in all, a halfway decent day on the road. Pat's right about the women here, though... quite the contrast from Quebec!

I ended up in Edmunston - a mill town (that smells like a mill town) that's apparently having some sort of big festival this weekend. All of the hotels in town were booked up. The gal at the check-in desk (the only attractive woman I've seen since entering NB) told me that there should be hotels in Grand Falls - "only about 40min down the highway". Then she took note of what I was wearing, and asked if I was on a bicycle. Yes. From where? Vancouver. She was pretty shocked at that (a common reaction) and called over to her coworker that I had ridden here from Vancouver. He told her to give me a room, and when she said that there weren't any, he hit a few keys on the computer and one magically appeared. He grinned at me and said "we usually keep a few in reserve just in case there are mix ups - or if we feel sorry for someone like you". She was happy to give me the gov't rate, and I'm thankfully on the side of the building facing away from the area where the grandstand/stage is set up for this weekend's festivities. It's loud enough to be heard for a ~12 block radius, but there's nothing to reflect the sound back from the North - so it's nice and quiet in my room. :D Well - except for the crying baby next door. Can't win 'em all...

In the movie "Leaving Las Vegas", Nicolas Cage goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. I sort of attempted that in QC with food; but it appears upon having left that fine city, that it was good food that has died. Dinner tonight was a "less than interesting" affair. Probably the most boring meal I've eaten since leaving Vancouver - including camp meals and just chocolate milk when I'm too tired to bother with finding real food. This place was recommended by the front desk, and in addition to the usual menu, purportedly has "the best Chinese food in town". It seems that nearly all of the restaurants in town append with "and Chinese". I can't imagine what sort of logic spawned such a movement, but even though it's been six weeks I'm not hard up enough to try it just yet (though strangely enough, I was daydreaming of laksa and curry maifun earlier today...). That turned out to be a good thing - another couple ordered from the Chinese menu and got massive plates of deep fried hell. I swear I'd do better at "Golden Panda" or whatever at the local mall... They seemed to enjoy it however, and in between bites the man boasted loudly to the restaurant about how important he was, etc etc, under the guise of talking to (at) hs wife. They appeared to be having a fine time. I ordered the grilled chicken and got a gigantic grilled chicken breast, with a leaf of iceberg and two sad looking tomato slices, and some mashed potatoes (my selection). My fault - I was thinking of "roasted chicken" as that's what's on all the menus in Quebec. I'll see if the hotel restaurant makes a decent breakfast tomorrow and then I'm out of here.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:40
Actual Ride Time: 7:52
Total Distance: 160.48 km
Avg Speed: 20.3 kph
Max Speed: 61.1 kph

Pretty much the only cool thing I saw all day. Cutting the grass is a boring chore, even with a riding mower. Many people alleviate the boredom by riding with a beer in hand. This guy took a somewhat different tack, which I think is awesome. Unknown father, I salute you.

Day41 - Back in the saddle again...

2010-08-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

As is sort of my MO, I got a late start again. I was up at 05:30 but certainly wasn't going to get up then - so back to sleep and the 07:30 alarm was not gentle with me at all. Up by 08:00, I wandered down into Old Town one last time (though it did cross my mind that I could very easily just extend my stay for another couple of days) and hit up Cafe Crepe Breton for petit dejeuner. Then a quick stop at Paillard for some road fuel, and I was headed back to my room by just after 09:00. The Old Town of Quebec City seems to get a bit of a late start, seemingly hung over each morning from the previous night's revelry. It's not quite shopkeepers hosing down the sidewalks to get rid of the vomit from last night's excess a la New Orleans, but there is a definite feeling of most stores opening late because the majority of customers simply don't show up early - preferring to stay out late instead. I walked right into a half-empty restaurant shortly after 08:00, but when I left a little before 09:00 there was a line out the door and down the sidewalk.

Back to my room to pack up and I was rolling shortly after 11:00. It was ~10min to the ferry terminal, where I bought a ticket and then had to wait for the 11:45 ferry. It's a short ride, and I was off the boat by ~noon. There were a lot of people with bikes on the boat. A few tourers, a few roadies, and what appeared to be some people just out for a ride. When I got off the boat all the people with bikes made a beeline for the bike path. Me being me, I naturally opted for the road and followed the signs to lead the cars to the highways. Here's a tip: if you find yourself in a new area with a lot of cyclists and NONE of them are going the same way that you are, there might be a reason for that. The street leading away from the ferry terminal goes straight up a very steep pitch. It levels off to a false flat for 15-20m, and then straight up again. The 30-odd pounds I gained in Quebec were probably laughing at me, but I couldn't hear anything over my desperate wheezing and the sound of my heart trying to rip through my chest. It was a nasty climb made even worse by my not having had any warmup (a 10min downhill/flat roll to the ferry terminal followed by ~50min of waiting around). I reached the top and it was a good 25min before I stopped trying to throw up a lung. Though definitely not recommended for people with a history of heart or lung problems, I'm pretty sure I got the most direct route of all the cyclists. :p

The wind was strong today, but from my hotel room I couldn't tell the direction - there were flags blowing in all directions depending on where in th city they were placed. As it turned out, it was a SouthWest. Nice! Finally some tailwind. I "made hay", hammering out ~70k in the first 2:40 or so. The road on the S side of the St Lawrence is really nice, and though it rolls a bit it isn't terribly hilly. I stopped for a drink and to use the restroom, but the depanneur that I chose didn't have any facillities - so I had to backtrack (about 50m) to a rest area. There I met a girl who was riding solo - so I went over to say hi (en Francais) and she paid me the best compliment I've had al tour - saying that she hadn't realized that I was an Anglophone. Well - for the first little while a least until she asked me a question that I didn't quite understand, I guessed at what she was asking, guessed wrong, and my answer to her made no sense whatsoever. :p Then she asked "parlez vous Anglais?" and it turns out that she's Anglophone as well - though her French seems to be excellent (she does live here). This is the kind of gal that Leo would absolutely flip his lid over: extremely cute, bright, very passionate about ecology, vegan (I assume - that's the vibe I got and she mentioned vegan food a couple of times in a very short span, which non vegans wouldn't likely do), confident, "earthy", and a little quirky. She's taking a course some 300km from Quebec and decided to ride there - just because she can. She is also growing a "bike garden" - something that she thinks she might have invented because she didn't find any Google hits on it. Essentially she puts some seeds in cheesecloth and wraps various parts of her bike with it. Then she waters it ~15x/day while touring, and the plants grow on the bike. Yep - toally Leo. We chatted a bit about routes, daily mileage, things to see along the way, etc, and then we parted company - me hammering on down the road and her doing her thing at a leisurely pace (her end goal for the day was ~25k away). We were going more or less in the same direction, but I just can't move at that pace.

Not terribly long after that the wind shifted (it always does), and I got hit with a cross/head/cross for most of the rest of the day. I stopped for ice cream (en Francais!), and carried on to St Pascal - the largest of the three towns clustered near the 150/180k mark. It had gotten cold and was threatening to rain, so I wanted to get off the road. St Pascal didn't seem to have much in the way of motel options, and as I neared the edge of the opposite side of town I was thinking that I might have to press on. I saw a car about to pull out of his driveway so I did a quick u-turn and asked (en Francais!) if there were any hotels in town. The two men in the car had a brief convcersation and decided to lead me to the motel "we'll go slow". They did go slow, in fact, and in fact I had to ride the brakes downhill :p - but I was very grateful for their generosity with their time. Checked in (en Francais!) and plan to make an early night of it. No internet might make that a bit easier for me. :p

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:20
Actual Ride Time: 6:28
Total Distance: 159 km
Avg Speed: 24.5 kph
Max Speed: 55.1 kph

Cafe Maison:

Crepe avec champignons, bacon, fromage mozzarella, et oignon

NED!!!

A few shots of the city from the ferry

After six weeks on tour on day on / day off rotation (and ~ 4 years of irregular use beforehand), my shorts are starting to die. Both pair.

Just doin' what comes naturally...

Aerodywhaaa? Salt: check. Caloric density: check. Recovery fuel: check. Emergency top-up: check.

Day40 - je suis parti mon coeur à Québec

2010-07-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

I made the decision to stick around for another day last night. Quebec City is just tool cool to rush away after only one day, and I've still got a lot to explore. Really, I could probably spend a full week here easily. I slept in, chatted with the concierge about what to see and do, and was off for a tres petit petit dejeuner. It was 11:00 already, and I didn't want to spoil my lunch. :p

I wandered down past the walled part of Old Town to Petit Champlain and Place Royale, and then out to Vieux Port. This part of town is pretty much all retail, but it's less of the "crappy tourist trinket" stuff and more of the "upscale artesianal" tourist stuff. Local artists hawking their wares, boutiques and galleries, loads of restaurants, etc. I had a goal for lunch - le buffet de l'Antiquaine. The concierge had told me that this was an inexpensive place where they served traditional Quebequois food - "like grandma would serve". Sounds good to me. He was also a big beer fan, and pointed out a few different options where I should stop for various brews. Lunch was decent. HUGE, and while not anything magnificent, all in all not bad. After lunch I found a really cool kitchen store that was actually two stores - a large, beautiful, open "traditional" type of store with pretty displays and overpriced celebrity branded junk, and a cramped, hot, sweaty, dusty "professional" store where restauranteurs go for supplies, etc. I spent a good chunk of time in the latter store and scored some great stuff for next to nothing. I'm sure such a place exists in Vancouver - I just have no idea where it might be. (and being in Vancouver, it's probably much pricier)

On to the Marche de Vieux Port where I picked up some other stuff to send home (I'm not going to carry all this stuff with me...), and then back to the post office - where I was reminded that off-the-cuff literal translations don't always go over. I asked the lady: "s'il vous plait, donnez mois une pistol ruban" and she looked at me as if I'd just asked her to change my diaper. So I switched to English, and she was happy to lend me a tape gun. :p I don't think it was purely a language barrier however, as when I went back and asked (in English) for scissors, the guy at the counter (another customer) had to help her understand what I meant - and it's the same damned word. By the time I had packed up my box and was ready, the gal from yesterday was there in her place - and she remembered me. She's a real sweetheart and asked (en Francais) if I hadn't just shipped a box yesterday. This was a little over my abilities en Francais, so she switched to English and I replied - "ah, ouis". Then she asked "en Englais, ou Francais"? I sort of shrugged and said "je parle un peu Francais, tres mal". To which she gave me a smile that could have convinced me to join the army and said "en Francais"! We continued the rest of the transaction en Francais, with only a little difficulty on my part. Pat mentioned that they ship all the ugly women in Trois Rivieres to New Brunswick, but this does not account for the rest of the province. I really can't understand what's going on here but (tourists aside - they're ugly everywhere) all of the women under 40 are at least somewhat attractive. It's really quite odd. I'm not complaining, but it's somewhat eerie... Anyway, no sonnets will be written about my unrequited love for this lovely post office agent - but she was extremely pretty, very friendly, and had an incredibly warm and engaging smile that could turn around anyone's day. C'est tout.

It was hot, humid, and raining - so I went back to the hotel to take a shower and relax for a bit before souper. This will very likely be my last night in town, so I left the "tourist district" and went down to "new Quebec" (where the locals hang out). On the recommendation of the concierge I hit up "Joe Smoked Meat" for the best smoked meat in Quebec City (remember that sad excuse for a smoked meat platter I had in ON? This was redemption. As Seb would say, it's like GoBots vs Transformers) - and then wandered down to a local microbrewery called Korrigane, for a couple of pints of their "biere noir" - a rich, heavily coffee flavoured stout. One last stop at a little depanneur that specilizes in microbrews for the road, and back to the hotel for a somewhat early night. Tomorrow I'll (try to) get up early for a nice breakfast and then hit the road at a reasonable hour. It's ~300km to Van Buren, Maine where Karen and Max are supposed to be spending the summer. If I can get hold of them I'll cross the border and hang out with them for a bit, otherwise I'll head North to Dalhousie and skirt the coast for the final leg of my journey. 2+ weeks and counting...

More buildings & stuff...

One bad-ass kitchen store... (yes, that is a wall of immersion blenders)

Tres petit, petit dejeuner

dejeuner

souper

gras - the ONLY way to order smoked meat!

la glace!

biere

Day39 - Je rentre en matières grasses!

2010-07-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

petit dejeuner

pain au chocolat
chausson pommes
biscuit trois chocolat
cafe Americano

dejeuner

soup a l'onion gratinee
tourtiere
tarte sirop d'erable
verre de vin

casse-croute

poutine dulton saucisses
root biere

souper

canard confit avec frites et salad
deux verres de vin
pain au beurre
cafe
les profiteroles

Oh yeah, I walked around and saw a bunch of buildings and stuff, too...

A row of defensive shooting positions...

The view from behind the musket

A sculpture, tucked in a random narrow alleyway...

people lined up for crepes

petit dejeuner (chez Paillard)

dejeuner (chez Anciens Canadienes)

caisse-croute (chez AshTon)

Souper (chez l'entrecote Saint-Jean)

Excessif? Vraiment. Beaucoup trop. Mais, excessiv a la perfection. :D

Day 38 - Slacktour

2010-07-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

I woke up luxuriously late. The room where I was sleeping is in the basement - so it was not only nice and cool, but dark as well. I had stirred a bit when Michelle and Dave were getting ready for work and leaving, but I didn't wake up until after 09:00 - and didn't actually wake up and get out of bed until well past 10:00. I lay there for a while pondering if I should take a day off, or press on to Quebec City. Trois Rivieres is a nice town, or so I'd heard. I had just taken a day off in Ottawa however, and even though I'm no longer time pressed, taking days off still makes me kind of antsy. I can't explain it - I just like to be moving.

I packed up my stuff and was rolling by 13:00. The nice thing about short easy days (~135km to QC) is that I can get away with stuff like leaving at 13:00. I hadn't eaten before I left, so I stopped at a little roadside casse-croute / bar laitier for a poutine and milkshake chocolat. Since entering the province, I've been trying to speak primarily French - only reverting to English if it's complicated (complicated being relative, of course). Ordering food, paying for stuff, etc can all be done pretty easily in French unless I need further explanation. Hell - I'm even getting decent at the "where are you from/where are you going" conversation en Francais. :p

I ordered a smoked meat poutine, moyenne, and a milkshake chocolat, grand. The shake wasn't that big but the poutine was massif! I threw down and polished all but a few lumps of curd (I swear there was more cheese curd and meat in that thing than there were fries), and it was delicious - but it sat like a lump of concrete in my stomach for the next 3.5hrs.

Back on the bike I was rolling "slowesque" - not exactly crawling along, but not the brisk pace to which I've become accustomed. I was feeling bloated and thirsty - but drinking was really hard due to how full I was. I also had a pretty nice head/cross for a good section of the way. I stopped a couple of times to buy Gatorade (incidentally, Gatorade seems to have a lock on the market in Quebec - I haven`t seen Powerade in any of the small depanneurs) and chatted with a few locals - many of whom had English skills that rivaled my French, and even one or two that made my French seem good by comparison. I was a little surprised, but I guess in many of the small towns there's simply no need for English.

I plugged away, just rolling, and the road was pretty flat until maybe 40km out of Quebec. Then it started to get a little hilly. Not big hills, but rollers. I passed the town limits sign at a little after 20:00 and thought that I had beaten my inital estimate of 21:00 by a good margin - but I was still a ways from Old Town. The airport is pretty far out. Rolling, rolling, rolling. I had a decent idea as to where I was going, but when a police car pulled in front of me and stopped at a red light, I figured I'd take the opportunity to verify.

(pointing up the road)
"Excuse, est centre ville dans la rue?"
"Oui. Ou allez vous?"
"Le Marriott, Courtyard"
"Ah... oui..."
>> very fast conversation with her partner
"Continuez dan la rue est a droit en la boul primiere..."
>> more fast conversation with her partner
>> very fast French (to me) that I didn't get entirely
at this point my eyes must have widened - I didn't say anything or make any gestures
"Do you speak English?"
"Yes"
"Do you have a map?"
"Yes"
"Let's pull over there" (pointing to an empty lot to the right)
In English, she told me that it was very easy in a car but that on a bicycle it was more complicated because I can't take the highway - but she showed me where to go on my map.

I thanked her and she was on her way. I looked at my map one more time and rolled on. It was a little more complicated than I had expected as I approached town, but it wan't all that bad. It was hilly though. I had forgotten that Quebec City was built as a fortress on a hill, and was expecting to roll down towards the water - like I would in Vancouver, Seattle, Boston, or any other town. Nope - up some STEEP hills to old town, where the Courtyard sign was shining like a beacon in the night. I crossed onto the sidewalk for the last two blocks because it looked like I couldn't turn left where I wanted to go, and scared the hell out of some poor girl who saw my lamp and thought a car was on the sidewalk. Have I mentioned how much I love this light? It RULES!!!

I checked in (en Francais), put my bike in my room and then went out wandering in search of chocolate milk. Back in the room I grabbed a shower, downed my milk and then headed out to explore the town. It was only 22:00, tomorrow is an off day, and this town looks way too cool to be holed up resting in my hotel.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 8hrs
Actual Ride Time: 6:27
Total Distance: 143.4km
Avg Speed: 22.1kph
Max Speed: 52.4kph

POUTINE!!!!! (that's a 7" or 8" round tray with the poutine piled a good 2.5-3" high)

Close-up:

Day37 - je t'adore la belle provence!

2010-07-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

Late start again today. I wanted to be on the road at a reasonable hour, but when you check in at midnight and still have a bunch of stuff to do (including blog updates and bike repair) those early starts just don`t seem to happen. Oh well - I`m ahead of schedule now and today was a "short day" - just ~160km to Trois Rivieres.

The girl at the front desk convinced me to take a different route than I had originally planned. She said that her dad rides this all the time, and I'm a sucker for a pretty girl with a nice smile - and Montreal is FULL of those. Actually, all of Quebec seems to be... The roads around the airport seem like they were all designed to put one on the highway - so the initial part of the route wasn't exactly optimal but it did get me out of the city and onto the 138 - which is what I wanted.

The winds were moderate today, blowing from the North/NorthEast early in the day, and then changing to a North/NorthWest. That made for a pretty good head, head/cross all day. The 138 is a really nice road to ride. The actual road itself isn't anything particularly great, but it passes through so many small towns and has fairly low traffic due its proximity to Hwy 40. I was passed by lots of motorcycles (and trikes - I saw more trikes than I think I've seen in the past 10 years combined) and there were plenty of short distance touring cylists, roadies, and other people on bikes. People were very friendly, and it seems that anyone who's in a hurry takes Hwy40 - leaving the 138 to those with time and who don't mind slowing down from time to time.

The road winds a little bit as it follows the river in a general NorthEast direction, and many of the small towns that dot the old highway are quite charming. Plenty of tourist activities like antique shops, ice cream, chip stands, etc. One doesn't need to stop often due to traffic lights or stop signs, but there are towns frequently enough that one could easily ride Montreal to Trois Rivieres with one bottle and no food (or just pockets). A welcome change from the vast expanses of nothing I found in the prairies and parts of Northern Ontario. This is what riding should be like!

I had been on the road for a little over 2:30 when I started thinking of lunch, and rolled by an amazing looking ice cream stand. Like a fool, I continued on as it didn't appear to have "food" - just ice cream, and I was focused on "real food". I stopped at a little boulangerie and then spent the rest of the day looking for an ice cream stand that looked as good as the one I passed up. A lesson from the road - never pass up an attractive ice cream option! I did find a place later on, but I don't think it was as good as the one that got away. :p

The day rolled by somewhat slowly as I was riding into a head, head/cross pretty much all day. Ken hooked me up with a friend of his in Trois Rivieres, so I had a place to stay - but I needed to nail my arrival. I sent her a text that I was looking at ~20:00.

The wind died down a bit toward the end of the day and I picked up a little time, rolling into town just before 19:30. Michelle and Dave have a beautiful home and offered me a place to stay for several days if I wanted to rest and relax. A tempting offer... A fantastic meal with great wine and company, laundry (you know you've been on the road a long time when laundry is a highlight), and in bed before midnight.

Not sure if I'll stick around for an extra day or push on to Quebec City tomorrow. I'll see how I feel in the AM.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:30 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 6:58 hrs
Total Distance: 154.19 km
Avg Speed: 22.1 kph
Max Speed: 38.9 kph

Days 34-36

2010-07-25T06:32:00.000-07:00

Day 34 - Ottawa or Bust!

I opened my eyes and noticed that Seb was already sitting up in bed, checking his phone. "Man... what time is it?" It was still relatively early, so I flopped back down and passed out for a little whil longer. Finally out of bed and packed up, we made a quick breakfast stop @ Timmy's and another at a gas station for road fuel and were rolling by 10:00. It was "Ottawa or Bust" day ~220km with a few hills, but mostly flat.

The wind was good to us for the first few hours, and we made Pembroke in just over 2hrs where we stopped for a quick fuel break. The gas station had an attached restaurant that looked pretty good, but it was too early for lunch so we just grabbed milkshakes and kept rolling.

Rolling along well, we were making good time and enjoying a nice tailwind for a change. It was pretty warm out, but one can't complain about sunshine after all the rain we'd just been through. We stopped in a little hamlet for lunch at ~4:30 and had a surprisingly good meal - HUGE sandwiches that were very well made and delicious, but entirely too much food that sadly would not travel well on the bike.

Back on the bikes and rolling, we just kept kicking over the pedals until the highway turned into a major highway and we had to exit. That's where things got a little more confusing, as we weren't exactly certain how to get into the city from there. We had an idea, but there was a lot of construction and all of the small highways have alternate names - so we were looking for Hwy20 but it was called "North Whatever Hill Rd". Stopped at a few gas stations for directions and we finally made our way to Carp, and then eventually to North Kanata - where S had a pretty decent idea as to where we needed to go. We ended up on a multi-use bike path that goes along the river just as the sun was setting. It was a fantastic view, but by this point we were just hammering the home stretch into town. Once darkness fell the awesomeness of my SON dynohub and E3 Triple headlamp came into play. I was blasting along the unlit path, able to see very well. S wasn't so fortunate as the batteries in his headlamp had died so he fell off the back a few times and I had to stop and wait on several occasions. I haven't done much night riding on this trip but those last few kilometers on the bike path really showed how well this system works.

Once in town Seb's wheel finally started to blow up. It had been making weird noises since AB, and we figured it would get him home - which it did, although just barely. It pretty much failed as it approached the finish line - still holding together, but definitely no longer true and losing integrity by the minute. We limped it in to the market where I went to the hotel where Paul and Terry were staying, and S went down to a bar to meet up w/ some friends.

Day off tomorrow with a massage planned, some bike work required, and hanging out w/ the guys.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 11:45
Actual Ride Time: 9:00
Total Distance: 213.13km
Avg Speed: 23.6kph
Max Speed: 57.1kph

Day 35 - off day

p/u Amex
AWESOME massage
Bike shop
Out w/ boys
Bye to Seb

Day36 - back to rollin' solo...

I got a late start. Had breakfast with Paul & Terry at the hotel, they left, and I went to pack up my stuff. I didn't get rolling until just after 11am. It was very hot, very humid, and a pretty "blah" kind of day. Getting out of the city was pretty easy, though it did take close to an hour. After that I spent a very short period of time enjoying a really nice country road before being dumped back onto Hwy17. Hwy17's an okay road - it's just that there isn't anything particularly nice about it.

I had been told to take a detour to "Old Hwy17" and then a bunch of other stuff for the best route into Montreal, so I tried it - but the road was so brutal that after less than 5km of it I cyclocrossed my way back onto Hwy17 and rode it out to Plantaganet. I stopped there for lunch and proved that just because one is far enough East in ON that the default language is French, DOES NOT mean that they know how to make smoked meat. Bah. At the restaurant I met some touring cyclists who were doing an Ottawa-Quebec City run. They were checking into the motel, finished for the day. They plan on making Montreal in 3 days, and QC in 7. Now that's touring speed... We discussed route options and they shared their maps with me as I had some confusion about my final approach into the city. Back on the bike I must have either misheard them or misunderstood what they said, but I missed my turn and wasted about an hour and a half noodling around, trying to find my way back. It didn't help that the signage out in Eastern ON is terrible, and that now that I'm in in flat farm country, there are lots of options. From Hope to just outside Ottawa it's really straightforward. Now I have to pay attention. :p

I had lost what little motivation I had going into the day with the unplanned detour, and the wind had been hitting me with a head head/cross pretty much all day. It was also spitting a bit. Never full on rain (yet), but enough to be threatening. I just kept rolling along, wondering how far I'd make it. Fueling was pretty easy, but it was also a bit forced. There was no joy in fueling today - just ensuring that I was taking on enough calories to keep rolling. When you don't get any joy from eating Snickers bars, there's something wrong...

Finally I crossed into Quebec (see ya later, ON!) and my mood picked up. It was a little after 20:00. I had made plans to stay with a friend of a friend in the Western suburbs of Montreal, but knew that he had to be out the door at 07:15 tomorrow morning. I called him just before 20:30 to let him know that I was going to be pretty late, and that I didn't want to keep him up - so that I'd find other accomodations whenever I decided to stop. He was mostly concerned about the fading daylight and my not having anywhere to spend the night, but I assured him that I was very well lit and that I'd be fine. He told me "not to be shy" about calling if I changed my mind, and thanked me for letting him know. Still ~60k from his neighbourhood, I didn't want to be rolling in at 23:00 and waking the guy up - nor was I sure that I wanted to be rolling at 23:00 period. We'll see what the road gives us. A common theme...

It got dark and I turned on my lights. That headlight is so kickass that it brings me a ridiculous amount of joy to see it light up an otherwise pitch black street. I can ride at pretty close to full speed with that thing. Barreling down a hill, all of a sudden the shoulder disappeared and I was on very loose gravel. Glancing over to the street, it was all broken to hell as well. Great - no option but to ride it out. Thanks to my cat-like reflexes and super awesome ninja skilz, I cleaned the section without a hitch - but I did slow down a bit afterwards. The road was crap anyway, so there was no point in trying to go fast. Somewhere along the way my front derailleur (that the guys at the bike shop in Ottawa just bent back into shape for me) decided to try to commit suicide again - for the 4th time this trip. Then it started to rain. Great. Let's see... Dark. Mechanical issues. Crappy roads. Rain. I'll happily deal with any one or two of those issues. Three might be pushing it. But all four? Forget this - I'm getting off the road. Unfortunately, that proved to be a little more difficult than one might think. I was ~10km from the nearest town, so I had to at least ride there. Okay, no problem.

Dorion, the next town, has lots of motels. Frightening looking motels. I rolled by a good half dozen of them and then came to a bridge. Does the town span the river, or is this it? Is this really it? Do I want to stop badly enough to go back and stay in one of those ratholes? I crossed the bridge and was pleased to discover that there was indeed life on the other side. Suburban type of life. Canadian Tyre. Subway. Tim Horton's. The kind of life that compliments a Best Western, Super8, Travelodge, or some such chain of motel. Sweet. Or was it? I didn't see anything, so I went into Timmy's and asked the staff there. They seemed hung up on ym use of the term "decent" - as in "are there any decent motels in town"? Okay... I went outside and called Phil, but he didn't answer. I called Julian, who was at home studying - he looked up a bunch of stuff and it looked like that I had one option that might be decent. While we were on the line Phil had been trying to call me back, and as I hung up I noticed text messages from both him and Andy just checking to see if I was okay. As I was in the middle of replying, he called back again so I explained the situation. Phil used to live in Montreal, and convinced me that my best option was to continue on to the airport. At least there I'd have several options. There was also the carrot of a Marriot at the airport - though it's right at the terminal, so sort of a pain to get to. Still, a carrot is a carrot.

Back on the bike and the rain had stopped. Sweet! I made good time over the bridge into the city, and then hopped back on the highway - which was now a freeway, and apparently somewhere where cyclists aren't supposed to be. I did what any person in my position probably wouldn't do and decided that the best option was just to drill it. The less time I'm on this road, the lower the odds of a problem. :D I got a lot of honks and some yelling, but really there's a wide shoulder and I wasn't in anyone's way - so I guess they were just yelling for the sake of yelling. Riding a Montreal freeway is trully exhilarating. I was fully jacked, cranking away at over 33kph with no assistance from any wind, up a moderate grade with Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" blasting on the Khaipod. (For those unfamilliar with the term, the "Khaipod" is not an actual device and I don't ride with earbuds - it's the broken music player in my head that I have very little control over, which dictates the soundtrack to my life. Sometimes it tortures me, and sometimes it nails it with absolute perfection) It was pure, visceral, animalistic, hedonism. A combination of the feeling of immense power, and fear from being hunted at the same time. I think I used up my supply of adrenaline for the month. I've never really been an adrenaline junkie, and even though I've dabbled in what many might label as "extreme sports", I was never in it for the rush. This showed me why they do it in a way that for the very first time, made sense to me.

A large truck pulled up right behind me, so I moved over as much as I could and waved him through. He hit the jake and scared the living crap out of me. Then he followed me, honking for a few kilometers. Finally he pulled up beside me and told me that I had to get off at the next exit - and proceded to "escort" me off the highway. Some might say "pushed". :p Anyway, I got off the highway. But I wasn't at the airport yet. So I called Phil back, and he and Andy worked out my route options as well as a few hotel options. It's good to have support. :)

Blowing a tonne of points on a "full" Marriott when I'm checking in at midnight just doesn't make much sense - plus it's a pain to get to - so I went for the Travelodge. Rather, I tried to. I got to a point where I could see it, but the only way I could see to get there was going back on the highway. I figured that I'd loop around the back and try another route. That's when I noticed a Fairfield Inn. The Fairfield is another Marriott property, but a "lower ranking" one. So it costs a lot fewer points to stay there. Plus is was relatively easy to get to. Nothing is really easy to get to near the airport without taking the highway in Montreal...

I have to say, I was really blown away by the quality of service at this hotel. The check-in staff were very good and the nighttime cleaner offered to open up the pool for me so that I could relax after my long ride. He was so excited to do something special for me that I had to oblige. If this place was downtown I'd stay an extra day just because I like the staff so much. It's a nice hotel, too - better than a lot of "full" Marriott's where I've stayed in the past...

On the road again tomorrow, headed for Trois Rivieres. It should be a relatively easy day at ~165k, but I'll try to get an earlier start than I did today. The plan is to stay with friends of a friend again, so I don't want to arrive too late.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 13 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 9:01 hrs
Total Distance: 203.72 km
Avg Speed: 22.5 kph
Max Speed: 52.8 kph

For Quina: (this was actually before Ottawa)

Looks MUCH better than it was...

I've never seen one of these before...

Oh yeah - a milestone

Day33 - The Weather Report

2010-07-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

It had rained last night, and when I awoke the skies were somewhat dark and foreboding. As I packed up my stuff, thunder pealed loudly - it's boom signaling the weather's intent for the day. A few moments later the rain was CHUCKING down. Fantastic. By the time I was ready to roll however, the rain had stopped.

It was hot and very humid. Not ideal weather for me, but not atypical for Ontario. S & I rolled out of town, stopping at Timmy's for a quick breakfast and hitting the road proper by 10:00. There was very little wind; perhaps even a slight tail - but the road was pretty rolly. It started out just "wavy", and then got properly hilly. After about 1:30 we made a quick fuel stop and continued on - the weather still very warm and humid, but sunny.

The highlight of my day came while working up a moderate climb. Sebastian was just behind me, and I was looking at the road. "Moose" "What's that?" "Moose - down and to the right" I looked down into the marsh/forest and lo and behold, a moose was standing there! I've seen deer, mule deer, marmot, hundreds if not thousands of prairie dogs, coyotes, a bear, more birds than I can imagine, and all sorts of other wildlife on this trip - but I had yet to see a moose. Antonella had told me that when she and Vanessa had driven across the country she wanted to see a moose but hadn't - so I've been looking. I wasn't quick enough to get a decent shot, but Seb - ever the pro, was. He's carrying an SLR and is actually a good photographer - so his pics are way better anyway. :P

We had been told that there was "a big hill - about 2 miles" somewhere along the route, so we were on the lookout. We found it. It started out fairly simply - a 3 step hill with the last being a little guy. Then it turned the corner and went up again. Then up again. Then down a bit, and up again. Seb was getting pissed off, and I was laughing every time we discovered that it kept going up. I think that it went up about seven steps in total, and I'm not convinced that it's any smaller than Montreal River Hill - supposedly the largest hill in ON. Luckily the weather had cooled off so I was pretty comfortable while climbing, and for some reason every turn and "next stage" in the hill widened my grin. I can't explain why I thought it was so funny - it just was. We'd been climbing all day through rolling terrain, and it was just kind of ridiculous, I guess. It's not that I'm a "climber", that's for sure.

We kept rolling and noticed that it had cooled off. The humidity was no longer oppressive. Looking back, the skies were dark and threatening. Hoping to outrun the storm to the next town, we picked up the pace. It started to rain. Lightly at first, then a little more. We passed a sign for a campground that advertised a cafe, and made a run for the turnoff. It was down a steep, dirt & gravel road that was quickly turning into a rocky mudslide. Not gonna happen. We had just past the townline sign for a small town, so we figured that we'd try there instead. With the delay we missed our window to find shelter before the hardest part of the storm hit, and were getting soaked by crazy hard rain. Within 5 seconds I was so completely and thoroughly soaked that I might as well have jumped in a pool. "Town" turned out to be 2 abandoned stores, across the street from one another. One had a 6x6 awning, so we took shelter under that to wait out the worst of the storm. We were getting cold, so we pulled on rain gear even though we were already soaked and under shelter. After maybe 15min, the worst of it had subsided - so we headed out.

Soon it was warm and sunny again. Rain gear off. Still nowhere to stop for fuel, and the counter was running ~2:30 since our last stop. I like to refuel every 2hrs, give or take. Looking at the map, it was still quite a ways to the next "town". We were both carrying fuel, but were still holding out hope for a nice cafe or something. We still had fuel in the tank, so we kept rolling through the hills toward the next town. Seb said "look back" and as I did, noted that the sky was once again black. Looks like round 2 was on it's way. Round two struck faster than the first, and we attempted to take shelter under some trees at the top of a hill. Rain gear back on, we stood in the downpour taking on what fuel we had. It had been 3hrs since our last fuel stop, and we needed to get the tanks filled. I'm really gla that I had company today. I was in a pretty jovial mood despite the weather, but had I been solo I think I'd have been A LOT less entertained by all of this. It was windy and cold. This time the rain wasn't quite as hard, but it looked like it was going to rain for a lot longer. I was getting cold, and worried about siezing up. We talked it over and decided to ride on - at least the effort would provide some warmth. All lights flashing, we remounted and hit the road once more. We rode through the downpour for another 45min or so, and then pulled into a gas station to replenish our supplies. Originally we had discussed trying to make Pembroke, but given the harsh conditions we'd had, the hilliness of the terrain, and the current time, we figured that Deep River would be it. Not bad, considering... Back on the road it finally it cleared up again so we made one last stop to ditch the rain gear - then it was the final push to Deep River.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:30 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 8:20 hrs
Total Distance: 174.96 km
Avg Speed: 20.9 kph
Max Speed: 64.5 kph

Cool shot from a "real photographer"

Rain - pt I

Moose!

Day32 - Sleepless in Sudbury

2010-07-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

I had a great evening with Mike last night. He's an awesome dude that's training for Ultraman Canada in a few short weeks, and was kind enough to offer me a bed last night. We made a kickass meal, talked about athletics, moments of darkness and light (in sport), and life in general - but we ended up staying up until 02:30. Morning came far too quickly and even though it was a somewhat late start (rolling by ~10:00) it was still pretty painful. On the upside, the weather had cleared and it was sunny with blue skies. No weird atmospheric pressure systems apparent, and my knees felt pretty good.

Seb had rolled pretty hard after we parted company, making Sturgeon Falls - so he was pretty close to North Bay in the morning and I wasn't sure if he had plans to have a quick lunch with his dad and then press on, or if he was going to chill. I started the day off by pushing pretty hard and after the first hour had to settle it down a bit or risk burning the motor too hot. Mike had told me that "it's pretty flat" - but I had to climb out of Sudbury and then spent the first hour and a half in rolling hills. After that it did indeed flatten out quite a bit.

The wind was weird. At first it was very still, then it swirled around and hit me from pretty much every direction - with the overall trend being more of a headwind than anything else. I kept the pace as high as I felt that I could realistically keep it without blowing up or digging a hole from which I'd have too hard of a time emerging later. I stopped in Hagar after around 12:30 for fuel, and sent Seb a text that I expected to be in North Bay by ~16:00 (~77k away). Rolling solo for the first time in a while was kind of weird, but it felt good to be able to just do my own thing - making tempo changes whenever I felt like it and not having to consider how anyone else might be feeling. Seb's pretty strong on the bike, so I don't really have to "worry" about him being able to keep pace - but a seemingly random change in pace can wreck havoc on someone's groove, so it's still a consideration. Luckily his rhythm and natural break schedule jives pretty well with mine - so it hasn't been a problem. Still, when I fell into a momentary funk and slowed a lot for a few minutes, then smacked myself out of it with a long section of standing hammering, it was easier to deal with solo than it would have been in a group.

I was tired, but kept pushing the pace as much as possible as I still wasn't sure what Seb was up to - so if I had to chase him past North Bay, I wanted to keep the gap as small as possible. My timing was good and I rolled into North Bay pretty much right on time. I got hold of Seb and he was just chilling out, relaxing in his dad's hotel room with plans of spending the night. My body had held up very well today with only minimal ankle pain - but I wanted to stay on top of things so I made the decision to get a hotel and ice bath my legs again. I pfaffed around for about an hour, rolling around the "downtown core" checking out my options, and then decided to look for the hotel who's restaurant Courtney had told me I needed to try. Seb and I had looked it up earlier and based on the website it looked pretty nice. I decided I might as well check out the hotel. Let's just say that the website really shows it's best side. Sort of like how with enough Photoshop, I look like Bruce Lee. To add insult to injury, the restaurant is closed for renovations (actually much of the hotel is under renovation) - so my raison d'etre (here) was all for naught. Bummer.

Oh well - an reasonably early night tonight and we'll roll on toward Ottawa in the morning. If things go well we might hit Deep River or Petawawa tomorrow night, and Ottawa by Thursday night. As always, we'll have to see what Mother Nature gives us. The road definitely rolls more than it did today, so it won't be an easy ride - but it might be a lot harder than it has to be. :p

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7hrs
Actual Ride Time: 6.02
Total Distance: 141.28 km
Avg Speed: 23.3kph
Max Speed: 50.4kph

The only really interesting thing I saw all day...

Day31 - Take THAT, Tonya!

2010-07-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

I went to bed last night feeling like Nancy Kerrigan. My knees were killing me and I wasn't sure if it was just the weird atmospheric pressure or if the cleat change I had made in an effort to alleviate my ankle pain somehow created or contributed to the knee problem. I just can't see why moving my cleats back would cause knee pain; especially right on the top 3rd of the patella - but that's primarily where they hurt. Further confusing matters is that this position is essentially where they were when started the tour, and I never had the slightest bit of knee pain until I hit AB - some 10 days in. I also raised my saddle a touch, and it's higher than ever - but the backs of my knees (where I'd expect discomfort if the saddle was too high) feel great. So weird...

The plan for today was to try to make North Bay for dinner. Courtney had given me a tip on a restaurant (& dish) I simply mustn't miss, so that was the goal. The backup plan if things went sideways was to get close, and roll in for lunch tomorrow. Completely out of the blue, a guy from Slowtwitch emailed me saying that he had been following my GPS tracker and that he lived in Sudbury - and offered me a bed/shower. Sudbury was about 1/2way to the goal and I hadn't planned on stopping there other than perhaps for lunch - but I figured I'd let my body decide.

When dawn broke my knees were no longer screaming. They hurt, yes, but not to the point where I was about to give up the Caramilk secret. I guess the combination of pulling the plug early yesterday, icing, and a healthy dose of vitamin I helped a fair bit. Rolling by ~09:00, the day was grey, cloudy, and threatening to rain. Again. Very high humidity and weird wind from all directions. The road wasn't kicking yet, but we both knew that the hills would come soon enough. The first 50k to the Espanola turnoff went smoothly enough, though I started to think that with the hills (and wind) that were on their way, a stop in Sudbury (for the night) was probably the smarter plan for me. Seb wasn't sure what he was going to do as his dad is in North Bay for work, and he wanted to see him. We figured that we'd make the call a little later in the day.

We stopped for ice cream at this little stand and I was amazed by the incredible laziness and selfish attitude of some people. A car pulled up and parked right beside the patio, in the middle of the thoroughfare (the actual parking stalls were ~10m away). The family got out and waddled in for ice cream (okay - in fairness only the mother waddled - the father seemed to move okay and the kids were still pretty skinny). I had noticed that there were no garbage cans outside, so I went inside to throw out our trash. When I came back outside the elder of the two kids had finished his cone, and happily placed his used napkin on the table (with great flair) and wandered off. Okay... maybe he's just waiting for the others. I idly wondered if mom was going to tell him to throw it away properly before it blew away. Then the mother finished and did the same. Hmmmm - I guess not. The younger child finished what he wanted, and looked around for a place to throw away the rest of his cone and napkin. "just put it on the table" his brother told him. So he did. Then the family got up and waddled back to their car. As they passed, I mentioned (rather loudly) "there's a garbage can right inside" but the mother ignored me and the kids weren't paying attention. Into their car and away. I'm pretty impressed with myself for not smacking anyone. Seb was fixing a flat, so mumbling the Sonnenschein curse under my breath, I sighed, cleaned up their mess, and went inside - where I told the lady working that they needed a garbage can outside as I was having to clean up after lazy bastards. She thanked me, and was gone. Upon exiting the store I noticed a sign that explained the lack of garbge cans outside. No, not bears. Apparently the local dump closed because it was full; so the store is trying to "go green" and encourage people to create less waste by making it a pain in the ass to throw stuff away (my interpretation). There's a Timmy's/Wendy's right across the parking lot, so they're asking people to throw Timmy's/Wendy's garbage away there, and saying that they will only accept their own garbage (spoons, cups, napkins, etc) inside. Okay - I get it. But a terrible plan/execution.

Back on the bikes, we kept rolling. It got hilly. Then it got windy. Then the road got rough. Surprisingly, my knee wasn't feeling too bad - but 'm trying to be smart(er) here so I arranged to end my day in Sudbury anyway. I've still got lots of time to make St John's, and this body needs all the help I can give it. Seb pressed on to get closer to North Bay, with a plan of meeting his dad for an early lunch. I'll try to catch him there. If I'm feeling good, that shouldn't be too difficult. He's a strong rider but my natural pace is slightly faster - and more importantly, a lot more consistent.

I took a bit of a wrong turn entering Sudbury and tacked on another 20min and a little off-roading to my day before finally arriving at Mike's place. Surprisingly, he was home (he had told me that he wouldn't be but to just make myself at home) and gave me the grand tour before taking off. A shower, some laundry (yes, I just did laundry last night - but a "rule of the road" is to never turn down a good opportunity to do laundry), and ice time. Ahhhh - ice time. The bailing wire that, along with the duct tape that is ibuprofen, keeps this old and decrepit body together.

===
I should also add a few notes from previous days when I was just too bagged to write any detail. Northern Ontario is STUNNING. I'd forgotten how much I really do like Northern Ontario (in the Summer). One could easily spend a week just between Wawa and the Sault, stopping at different beaches to hang out, hike, etc. If one were interested in a tour of "just the nice parts" of Canada I'd say to ride from Hope to Crow's Nest Pass (AB), and then skip on to Kenora and ride Kenora to the Sault. From there one can skip on to somewhere between Ottawa and Quebec City, and continue East. The's really nothing to see in the prairies (maybe stop in Regina for a day or two - but riding there sure isn't necessary) and the road past Sault isn't terribly scintillating.

As for the group, I'm pretty sure that the girls and Guillome took a rest day in Sault. Jamie probably hooked up with some of the French guys, whose touring style more closely matches his (up early and rolling, slower pace, stop early, no big days). Seb and I should reconnect tomorrow in North Bay and then roll into Ottawa together. He'll be done his tour there, and I'll press on solo.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7.5 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 5:54
Total Distance: 122.39 km
Avg Speed: 20.7 kph
Max Speed: 54.9 kph

Random Scenery Shots...

Outside the Voyageur (redux) motel and restaurant in Batchawana Bay

This is how Seb gets all those awesome shots...

Perhaps the most interesting sign/building I've seen thus far...

Fuel for a cold, wet, and windy day...

Days 27-30. 4 weeks and counting...

2010-07-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

Day27

I awoke to light rain and by the time we packed up it was raining pretty hard. We went for a long breakfast and used the internet access from the motel across the street - so the blogs got updated and pictures uploaded, etc. By the time we were done it was nice and sunny out. :) We made a quick stop at the Winnie the Pooh gift shop (which sucked), grabbed some fuel for the road at the Husky, and were on our way.

Today was a short hop to Wawa. <100k, I figured it would be an easy chill day. It was for the most part. There were some pretty awesome swirling winds that seemed to shift around every 50m, but the terrain was just "rolly" and the weather turned out to be pretty good. Guillome was really tired from a poor night's sleep, so he took off down the road to make it to Wawa so he could get some rest. Ania claimed to be exhaused and feeling like crap, and Kasia wasn't feeling it either - so they said that they were going to roll on their own. I rolled with Seb, and James did his own thing as usual. Seb and I roll at a pretty similar pace, so we just chilled out and had a good time enjoying the sun and roads. The girls ended up riding really well, just killing it down the road. The last 20k were into a brutal headwind, and my chill day pretty much went out the window. I was pedaling moderately hard downhill, barely maintaining 20kph. We finally rolled into town shortly after 16:00 and met up with Guillome at Timmy's. Then it was off to the beach for a spell. Seb, and I are going to make a run for the Sault tomorrow, so we decided that an early start would be much easier from a motel. The girls and Guillome are going for a later start and a shorter day, but they got a lot of sun so a motel worked for them as well. Off to dinner at a pretty weak restaurant where Kasia (who's a vegetarian) was served meat again - for the third time this trip. I told her it was the universe telling her that it was time to start eating meat, but that pretty much killed the meal for her. Early-ish night tonight, and a hopefully early start tomorrow. ~220km to the Sault over some of the most challenging terrain ON has to offer - including what I'm told is the biggest hill in the province.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 5:30
Actual Ride Time: 4:32
Total Distance: 98.51 km
Avg Speed: 21.6 kph
Max Speed: 48.4 kph

Day28

Today Seb and I had a plan to try and make the Sault. It's "only" ~225km, but the terrain is extremely hilly. Whether or not we made it would depend heavily on the weather. Jamie had a plan to try and stick with us, with a fallback plan of spending the night in Pancake Bay. The girls were planning on a much shorter day, and a late start. Thus fractured the group. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it's always a little sad when good groups part company. Seb and rolled out fairly strongly into a wicked headwind with James tailing behind. We fought that blasted headwind all day - having to push hard downhill to maintain 18kph and occasionally getting blown to a complete standstill by heavy gusts while climbing. The terrain was challenging as well - unrelenting rollers with some longer climbs thrown into the mix, and a fair amount of heat.

Just after lunch things went South for me. My stomach turned inside out and pretty soon I had to make a pit stop. After about 3hrs in the can at a rest stop things were "slightly better". Not good, but better. I also had some issues with my front derailleur and had to stop a couple of times to fix it. That was kind of annoying... Who has front derailleur problems? A little while later my ankle decided to quit on me and I was left limping along one one leg with a stomach that refused food. Still into a wicked headwind. AWESOME.

Seb tried his best to help me out, going to the front to break the wind and by slowing the pace to something that I was able to hold on one leg. Eventually the ankle worked itself out as it typically does, and my stomach recovered enough to allow me to eat once more. By this time however it was nearly 18:30 and we were still ~75k out of the Sault. With the killer headwinds still blowing, we had to take a serious look at our options. We were both pretty tired, and knew that we'd likely pull into the Sault at ~22:00. We ended up at a hotel a little past Pancake Bay, right across the street from a nice beach on Lake Superior. Seb relaxed while I "iced" my legs in the lake, and then we hit the restaurant for a pretty decent dinner. Somewhere between the Sault and Sudbury tomorrow - wind, weather and body dependent.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10.5
Actual Ride Time: 8.02
Total Distance: 165.09 km
Avg Speed: 20.5kph
Max Speed: 63.1kph

Day29

S & I got a very late start, having had our legs chopped off earlier in the morning so we didn't hit the road until just after noon. Another day of killer headwinds, relentless rolling hills, and pounding out mileage head to head with Mother Nature. Funny thing about doing battle with her - you never win. We made it to the Sault and played a little "Cloak & Dagger", had lunch at a sad excuse for a BBQ joint (only one item of actual BBQ on the menu, and they were out!) and then rolled on - finally pulling the plug in Bruce Mines when we ran out of daylight. Not a high mileage day, but not bad given the conditions. Pushing on toward Sudbury in the AM.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 9hrs
Actual Ride Time: 5.51hrs
Total Distance: 140.82 km
Avg Speed: 24kph
Max Speed: N/A (overridden by high tension power lines, it read 155kph)

Day30

Up kind of late last night, we didn't hit the road until after 11. The winds weren't brutal today but it was cool and raining for the better part of the day. Very humid, the weird atmospheric pressure was bothering my knee (though the ankle seemed to hold up with only minimal complaints). Seb and I battled the cold and rain moreso than the wind today, and the roads weren't terribly unkind. Neither of us was feeling particularly good however, and after a brief stop in Spanish to use the restroom and refuel we both groaned in pain upon remounting - and decided to pull the plug on the day. Completely soaked to the bone, we took refuge in the only hotel in town - Vance's Motor Inn. I asked the lady about in-house laundry facillities or a laundromat in town that might possibly be open late on a Sunday and she said that there was one, but that it was closed. Then she did the completely unexpected and called her boss/owner and asked if she could do our laundry using the hotel facilities. I told her that I didn't want her to have to deal with our nasty laundry so she told me to come by and get her whenever we were ready. She unlocked the room and showed me the machines, and left me to use them. Another example of how awesome so many people that I've met on this trip have been... We didn't make Sudbury, but it was a halfway decent day given the challenging conditions. ~230 to North Bay tomorrow. That might be pushing it - we'll see what the weather gives, and if the body holds up.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7hrs
Actual Ride Time: 5:29
Total Distance: 126.26 km
Avg Speed: 23 kph
Max Speed: 50 kph

Days 23-26: I get by with a little help from my friends, "rolling rest days", and the meaning of "touring"

2010-07-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Day23

I had a really good night's sleep in the hostel and woke up at 07:00. Nope. Closed my eyes and woke up again at 08:00. One more time. Back to sleep, and woke up at 09:00. Ok this time you really do need to get up. I dragged myself out of bed but I was moving slowly and was definitely tired. The hostel had food for sale with somewhat odd, but very low rates. 30c for an egg, 35c for a slice of toast, etc - all self serve. I made myself some eggs and toast and had a glass of OJ - a fine breakfast for the princely sum of $2.50.

Rolling by 10:30 but I wasn't going anywhere fast. The initial plan had been for a ~200k day to Terrace Bay - but rolling out at 10:30, and especially feeling like I was, that just wasn't happenning. Adjusted the plan to a rolling recovery day and planned an easy roll to Nipigon ~100km down the road.

Just as I got rolling I passed a group of touring cyclists. My brain hadn't fully turned on however, so I just said "good morning" and went on. I was really dragging, so after about an hour I pulled into a gas station for some fuel. Just as I was packing up to leave, the group arrived - so I went over to say hi. Not being in any sort of a rush, I opted to hang out with them while they had their break. It started to rain, so we went inside the restaurant to wait it out over coffee. This is a cool group that came together on the road - 2 sisters from Windsor, 2 Law students from Ottawa, and a French Canadian.

They had been on the road for a while longer than me - 2 of them having left Vancouver over seven weeks ago. We ended up riding together all day. We took a detour to Eagle Ridge Canyon, where they have the longest zipline in Canada. It ended up being a 14k detour, over some clay roads that turned to mud in the rain. When we got there we were greeted by a woman with all the charm and grace of the woman in MB who owned that snack stand. The price for the canyon walk (~20min) was $20, and the zipline $60 - on top of the $20 for the walk. We opted to pass, and it started to rain hard - so we took shelter under the awning of the building. Then another guy came out and told us that we had to leave. "If you aren't buying tickets, you're trespassing - you need to vacate the property NOW" Another charming small business proprieter. He started to get agitated and went off about "forcibly removing us" and blah blah blah... We took our time leaving, but did get out of there. I thanked him for his kindness and told him that I trusted that it would not go unrewarded.

Back onto the main highway. I had been hoping to find a bar along the way where we could stop for lunch and watch the World Cup final, and we passed a sign outside Dorion that advertised a hotel with a tavern. Sweet! We rolled up and found a burned down building. D'oh! Across the street there was a gas station with a chip wagon in the parking lot. I guess that's lunch. A decent burger and some fries and a coke went down and it started to rain again. Awesome.

We got rolling again and it rained on and off - alternating between beautiful sunny skies and warmth with cold rain. One stop for repairs (thankfully in the sunshine) and we were rolling again. More rain. More sun. The group fractured a bit as we made the final push as one of that girl's knees blew up and she had to limp it in on one leg. We stopped at a gas station in Nipigon to regroup and the guy there was kind enough to let us use his boat wash station to clean the mud and crap off our bikes. Dinner at the Husky (with another charming waitress) and then we crashed. There was some sort of Dept of Oceans and Fisheries convention in town so we all ended up in one hotel room with 3 double beds. Sweet...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 9hrs
Actual Ride Time: 4:39
Total Distance: 100.64km
Avg Speed: 21.6kph
Max Speed: 49.3kph

Day24

Up at 07:00, we packed up and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Too bad we hadn't realized that was an option when we ate diner at the Husky. Breakfast was good, and then the group split up a bit - one heading to the drugstore, another to Canadian Tire, and the rest of us to a grocery store. Jamie went ahead because he wanted to get a bit of a headstart "being slow" and the rest of us rolled out in small groups - eventually hooking up further on down the road.

It was a gorgeous day - sunny with some clouds, warm but not too hot, and some of the best scenery since leaving BC. It was also really great to be riding with other people. We weren't sure how far we were going to make it today with a couple of injuries and some mechanical issues, but we knew that there were plenty of options for both shorter and longer days. It ended up being a very short riding day distance wise, though we were on the road for a LONG time. Lots of rest stops, mechanicals, food stops, picture stops, and a ~2hr break on Lake Superior just chilling out on some awesome granite slab.

We only made ~85k to a campsite in Rainbow Falls, but it was an amazing day on the road. Perhaps this is what "touring" is all about...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:15 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 4:20 hrs
Total Distance: 86.17 km
Avg Speed: 19.8 kph
Max Speed: 71.3 kph

Day25

I awoke fairly early, but didn't feel like getting up - so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Finally deciding to get up at ~ 06:30 I slowly started to prepare for the day with the others rising shortly after hearing me up and about. We took our time breaking camp and then went for a walk to explore Rainbow Falls. More pictures and messing around, and we didn't leave the campsite until 11:20.

We rolled for ~14k and then stopped in Schreiber for breakfast. Well - we tried to stop for breakfast. We pulled into what we thought was the only restaurant in town, and waited ~25min before being able to get a table. Then after about 10min some of the locals told us that if we wanted coffee, that we should just get it ourselves - that's what they all do. Another 15min went by before someone came by to take our order, but then informed us that they were out of eggs. And bacon. Well that's not going to work... We finished our coffee and got out of there having wasted a little over an hour in total. Not more than 100m down the road we came across another restaurant with a lot of motorcycles in front. This was a much larger place, (with supplies!) and had a fantastic meal. They make all of their pasta in house, and had made an amazing cream of broccoli soup. One tiny fly in the ointment was that the girls (who both don't eat meat) accidentally got a "spinach shell" with beef in it, which kind of killed the meal for her. That kind of sucks, as it was a really good meal.

Finally rolling at ~14:20, we were on our way - well overstuffed with and all with massive food babies. Rolling slowly, we made halfway decent time - stopping occasionally to take pictures and to let everyone regroup. It was a challenging day, with lots of climbing and longer, more sustained rollers. The girls' folks were planning to meet up with us in Marathon, so they were stopping trying to get cell service every once in a while with not much luck. Their parents found us and told us that they had also found Jamie - who had taken off on us the day before and never come back. They took everyone's bags (I kept all mine "for purity" and Seb kept two) and told us where the campground was. The girls and Guillome took off on their newly unladen bikes like a flash, and Seb and I rolled out the rest of the way. Seb was feeling the effects of his leg infection and the antibiotics, so he was feeling pretty rough. We just took it easy and rolled it in to the campsite just before 21:00. There the girls' folks plied us with food, drink, and fantastic hospitality. We also met up with Jamie again.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:00
Actual Ride Time: 5.39
Total Distance: 114.88 km
Avg Speed: 20.3 kph
Max Speed: 66kph

Day26

I was up fairly early again, but not moving particularly quickly - go figure. Today was scheduled to be a pretty short day. Between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie there are decent towns about 100km apart - and pretty much nothing in between. Combined with fairly challenging terrain, a larger group, and various injuries, that sets the distance pretty well for us at ~100k/day for several days. Because of this "luxury", we can roll late and take our time.

We didn't get going until 10:00, and then went pretty much less than a kilometer to town as Guilommne had to look for supplies. The rest of us went to a coffee shop. Groceries, and we were on our way by ~11:00. Rolling reasonably well, we stopped several times for fuel, pictures, more fuel, nature breaks, etc and made White River by 19:30. This is the home of the original Winnie the Pooh (where it all started) and they have a super friendly attitude toward camping and cyclists. We set up a "tent city" on the (covered) deck of their Welcome Center (with me hanging in the trees nearby). As we were rolling into town a guy had yelled and waived to us from a motel - so I waived back. While taking pictures with the Winnie the Pooh statue, he came over and introduced himself. He's also a cyclist, on tour from Indiana. He used to camp but now stays in motels, and offered us the use of his shower "it'll cost you a story". We chatted for awhile over at his place and it turns out that he's done a lot of touring, an crews for RAAM every year. A really cool guy who's done a LOT. He also told us where he'd be staying tomorrow night, and offered us the same deal. What a great guy - I am consistently impressed with the most excellent people that I've met on this trip.

Tho mosquitoes came out in force, driving everyone into their tents fairly early.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 9:30
Actual Ride Time: 4.59
Total Distance: 100.23 km
Avg Speed: 20.0 kph
Max Speed: 54.1 kph

The crew, riding in the rain

Somehow they always manage to string up powerlines in EVERY scenic view...

That was actually pretty steep...

The gang, minus Jamie

Sebastian imitating Jesus...

For Courtney - "icing" in Lake Superior

(apparently), THIS is touring...

Rainbow Falls

You wouldn't expect much from a restaurant likt this, but it was AWESOME!

Kickass soup

Chicken parm with house-made pasta

Peloton!

Sebastian's "soul popsicle"
Quote: I feel like I got beat up by Jesus. That's how bad I hurt...

Support!

Coffee & ice cream - the post breakfast snack of champions!

Marathon

Manitouwadge

White River - the original home town of Winnie the Pooh

Day22 - new adventures in holding it together...

2010-07-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

My eyes snapped open at ~05:00, but after looking at the time I refused to get up. This cycle repeated until ~06:45, when I allowed myself to get out of bed. Breakfast started at 07:00. Slowly crammed in an English muffin, 4 Eggo waffles, 2 cups of OJ and 2 cups of coffee. I knew there was a town ~50km from English River, but after that I had no idea if there would be anything until Thunder Bay. Best to head out with a full tank. I took my time getting ready and was rolling by 08:55.

The road had opened up some since entering ON, and there was enough clearing beside the road for the wind to now be a factor. I started my day with a healthy sidewind to complement the rollers - which were becoming longer and more wavy. The body didn't feel good, but it didn't feel bad - it just was. I had woken up with a slightly sore left knee, which is new, and yesterday my left ankle had started to bother me a bit as well (also new). The right ankle, which has been the main problem from the first week didn't feel good, but it didn't hurt that badly. Yet.

I rolled along making decent time and soon hit Upsala - the only town I was sure existed along the way, at ~50km. Upsala has three stores, all in a row. First there's the general store, then a mini mart/camping supply, and finally a gas station with a restaurant attached. I pulled into the 3rd option. They had home-baked goodies there, and I sampled one of their butter tarts. I wouldn't say that the ladies at Tartine will be waking up in a cold sweat because of these guys, but it was far better than 90% of the buttertarts you're likely to sample anywhere. Tartine is safe because theirs are still better, and because hey - this was in Upsala. I grabbed another for the road. It wasn't until after I had fueled up that I noticed a rack of pies on the far side of the restaurant. Slice of Pie and coffee: $4.95 DAMN - I have to pay more attention when doing my initial scan - I had only noticed the close rack of baked goods. Oh well - can't win 'em all. Upon leaving I asked the clerk about other towns/fuel options and he mentioned a gas station about 25km from Upsala, and another town ~75km from Upsala, of similar size. Perfect, I thought to myself. 3hrs of riding and then lunch. He also mentioned (as had the guy at the hotel earlier) that the road was about to get pretty hilly. Okay - we'll have to see what they mean by that.

The road continued to roll for about 20 or 30 km and then it did indeed get hilly. Very hilly. These hills were longer, steeper, and less twisty than earlier, though just as relentless. The sidewind also turned into a wicked headwind. I don't really mind climbing into a headwind as it keeps me cool. I'm not super fond of descending into a headwind however, and really quite dislike powering into a headwind on the flats. Seeing that speedometer sit at ~19kph given the amount of work I'm doing just bugs me. Nothing to do about it but work away however, so I kept pushing. "Luckily" I got to do a lot of climbing into that wind. :p

As I crossed the Continental Divide, it was like a switch went on. The oven switch. It got significantly hotter, and more humid. It wasn't brutal weather like they're reporting in Toronto right now (45deg and 95% humidity), but it was easily in the low 30s. Good thing I had plenty of headwind to keep cool! :p

After a good while longer than I had planned, I finally reached the second town - Shabaqua. I had been hoping for another restaurant like the one in Upsala, with fresh, home-baked goodies. What I got was a convenience store with a fridge containing some pre-made sandwiches that one could heat up. Great. I don't trust fridge sandwiches in North America (in England I'd buy one in a heartbeat - Boots sandwiches are great, and if there's a Pret a Manger around I'm just thrilled). "Lunch" consisted of an ice cream bar, a bottle of Gatorade, and a stick of elk jerky. The upside was that I was back on the road fairly quickly...

Back to climbing. At some point shortly after this, my ankle decided to hurt. A lot. It felt as if someone was stabbing me through the achilles with an awl. It sucked. The pain would subside for the most part relatively quickly, but always be there in the background - ready to strike again. And strike it did. Perhaps not "frequently", but enough such that I lost track of the number of times it happenned. This made climbing more challenging and I was reduced to limping along rather than my usual uphill struggle. Now I'm no natural born climber. No-one's ever mistaken me for Alexi Grewal, and unless we're talking about a short, steep, "power climb", I'm typically one of the last ones up. But this reduced my normal climbing "prowess" to something far sadder still. Well, sometimes life kicks ya.

Not too far out from Tbay I noticed a snack stand mid-climb - so I pulled off down the road to investigate. I knew that I didn't want to eat anything as the climb was still going up and it was still pretty warm out - but I could have gone for a cold drink. I bought a pop and knocked my bag over, popping open my chips - so I ate those too. Then it was back on the road, climbing ever so slowly and tentatively, waiting for the pain to strike again. It didn't disappoint.

Finally I made it to town and after a quick Safeway stop for some recovery fuel, I had a choice to make: follow the highway East and find a hotel on the way out, or head downtown to see what Tbay is all about. Naturally I went downtown. I wasted about an hour and a half, noodling about town looking for an option that wasn't totally sketchy. As in, $50 motels with cars on blocks in the parking lot sketchy. Finally I pulled the plug on my search and decided to get back on the highway. I really wanted an ice bath, and a Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Quality Inn, or some other national brand would likely have a bathtub I wouldn't be terrified to sit down in. After rolling around looking for the way back to the highway, a couple of friendly locals flagged me down and informed me that the route I was on would indeed take me back to the highway - but that there were some "significant hills" if I went that way. The pointed me down another road that runs parallell to the lake, which would also join up with the highway. I thanked them and took their advice. I didn't need to be limping up any more hills on a busted ankle.

This new road took me by some absolutely stunning properties (right on the lake - go figure), and judging by the massive stacks of firewood that many of them had, one can infer that the winters here are extremely long and cold. I rolled along, running out of water and wondering where I would end up staying. No water meant that "stealth camping" was out... One of the locals had told me that there was a hotel on Hwy17 just after Lakeshore Drive joined up with it - but that "it used to be a normal hotel, and then someone bought it and has redone it". I wasn't expecting Opus or the Waldorf Astoria, but my hopes for a nicer hotel were buoyed.

What I got was a hotel that was still under construction, and closed. I consulted my map and there was nothing East for at least 40-60km. The next town of significance was 80km. It was after 21:00, and I had been on the road for over 12hrs. I was not about to roll another 4. I had passed a hostel not too far back, so I turned around and tried them out. It's run by a very nice couple who charged me $20 for a single room (shared bathrooms). Okay, so no ice bath tonight. But at least I have somewhere to stay.

STATS:

Total Elapsed Time: 12:30
Actual Ride Time: 10:00
Total Distance: 219.62km
Avg Speed: 21.9kph
Max Speed: 57.7kph

A pretty darned good buttertart:

Hills, hills, and more hills...

The Continental Divide

And the other side of the sign...

Day21 - Maybe let's reign that in a little...

2010-07-10T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an AWESOME riding day. I was excited to be in Ontario, thrilled with the terrain and road conditions, and nothing hurt. I may have gone a little too hard. :p Yes, I didn't push on past my goal of Dryden and it was a relatively short day at ~150km - but I think I may have been a little exuberant in my riding, and paid the price for that today.

I woke up tired. Nothing hurt, but I was definitely not feeling "rested". Took my time getting going, had a crappy breakfast, and was on the road a few minutes prior to 10:00. Definitely no "snap" in the legs today. I was rolling along okay - still making decent time, but it felt like work. Typically I like to stop for a fuel break at ~2hrs, and hoped to find a gas station or something where I could buy a drink. Nothing doing. I settled for a Snickers bar at ~2:30, and figured that I'd make Ignace in ~4/4:30 for lunch.

The ankle was bothering me slightly but I was still making decent progress. Certainly not "inspired" riding, but not a slog, either. I just kept rolling along. Just outside of Ignace the weather turned cool and I felt a single drop of rain. "Come on, man - just give me 10min" I pressed on, pushing a little harder - but I didn't have a hammer to drop even if I had wanted to. More raindrops. Still spaced out, but definitely increasing in frequency. Ignace showed, and I pulled into a little burger shack. Stashed my bike sort of under the awning, and took a seat outside under the covered patio. There I met a large family (extended) who were all road tripping from various points in the prairies to a wedding in Thunder Bay. Lots of kids running around, and one very talkative six year old who came over to tell me all about his little brother. I ordered a burger, fries & gravy and a chocolate shake, and chatted with the kid while his parents got the rest of the family ready to leave. The shake was good, the fries & gravy great, but the burger left a lot to be desired. Oh well - can't win 'em all.

Back on the road with ~50km to English River and ~100km to Upsala. I figured I'd make the call at English River depending on how I felt. I wasn't sure I had 4+ hrs in me, but I figured that I could knock out 50k without too much difficulty. I rolled along feeling pretty decent, but not great. I was still pretty tired. The ankle was annoying but not really painful - but my forearms were starting to tweak a little again. About 10km out of English River I realized how tired I truly was and made the decision to get off the road. There's one motel in this town and a general store that was closed. There was also a park where I could camp, but it was pretty early and I figured I'd get more, and better quality rest inside. The motel was also really cheap (and surprisingly nice). They run on EST here even though the official time change isn't until just outside of T-Bay, so an early night and start tomorrow shouldn't be that hard to pull off. ~190k to Tbay!

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7:40
Actual Ride Time: 6:36
Total Distance: 165.43km
Avg Speed: 25kph
Max Speed: 51.2kph

Lunch - a somewhat sad burger accompanied by great (fresh cut) fries & gravy, and a kickass chocolate shake:

Ontario wetlands...

English River:

Day20 - Feelin' Groovy...

2010-07-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Slow down, you move too fast
You've got to make the moment last...

~Paul Simon, 59th Street Bridge~

I'm slowly learning how *not* to be a hammerhead. It's funny, as I'm pretty sure that no-one who knows me would ever describe me as a typical "Type A" person - but apparently when I'm on the road, my natural inclination is to GET DOWN THE ROAD. As far as possible, and in as little time as possible. There's no prize to be won for shaving time, or any sort of meaningful reason as to why ending up in St John's in 7 weeks would be any better than 8. In the beginning I wasn't totally certain that I'd make it all the way; so sure - there was a little bit of pressure to get some miles down. But riding through BC was tough enough to make me pace the days, I had next to no fitness, and the scenery is sufficiently stunning so as to force me to stop from time to time. With the exception of the fine city of Regina, there's pretty much nothing to see from Central AB to the Ontario border - so it makes sense to maximize the tailwind and hammer. But now that I'm in rolling shield country, is there really any rush? This is the question I find myself asking as I decide whether to push on (well) past a given day's predetermined goal simply because I've achieved the mileage quickly.

I had a leisurely start to the day, getting out of bed after 08:00 and hitting the road at 10:05 after a brilliant breakfast at HoJoes - the coffee shop I'd visited the afternoon prior. A solid cup of ambrosia and a made to order grilled panini with a delightfully fluffy egg, cheddar cheese, bacon and tomato. Damn - if I could start every day like that (or with sausage rolls from the Crowsnest Bakery in Keremeos), I'd be flying. Or weigh 300lbs. Either way, I'd be plenty happy.

The highway East out of Kenora is under significant construction. I had to stop ~4x for alternating traffic, and there were at least half a dozen unpaved/gravel sections. That made things fun and interesting because it wasn't the same type of gravel. One needs to vary the technique used to ride across different types of terrain based on how it looks upon approach, and sometimes make changes mid-patch. Some of the sections were rough, very hard, and deeply rutted. You need to hit this stuff with speed, and then coast the bike as lightly as possible over it - sort of like how the one-day Classics racers approach pave (cobbles). Other gravel is soft and sandy, with mostly little pieces and then the odd large chunk. In this stuff one needs to maintain as close to constant wheel velocity as possible, and just keep rolling smoothly. No changes in direction, speed, and for Shiva's sake don't stop! Sometimes it's hard to tell as you approach and you guess wrong - then things start to wash out sideways and you get to test your balance (and counterbalance) skills. And on a couple of occasions it was just large, loose chunky gravel going uphill - so you need to maintain a balance between "just enough" power to keep rolling through it and too much power - which will cause you to spin out (and potentially crash). Okay - so riding through gravel in construction areas isn't anyone's idea of "ideal riding conditions" - but it keeps me engaged and entertained, and I'll take it over the crappy jackhammering pavement of MB any day.

It was a perfect riding day. Cool (21-ish), sunny with a few clouds, and classic Northern Ontario terrain. I LOVE Ontario terrain. It suits my riding style perfectly, which makes a lot of sense as Ontario is where I made the transition from "a kid on a bike" to "a cyclist". My folks moved the family from Vancouver to ON the summer before I turned 9, and at around 13 I bought my first road bike from the father of one of the guys in my cycling club - a club I had joined because there were people available to give rides to the trails. I was primarily a mountain biker at the time, and the rides through the club opened up terrain options that were otherwise inaccessible (too far). There in the club a few of the Masters racers were kind enough to take me under their wing and teach me how to ride - how to be a roadie. Jim Adams, Leon Hawes, Jay, Joe (unfortunately I can't remember everyone's full name) and a few others took a kid with a bike and turned him into a cyclist. They taught me race tactics, riding technique, fueling, how to interpret wind and weather conditions, how to drink deeply from the well and embrace the pain... everything. And for that I am forever in their debt. The roads in Ontario are twisty and ever changing. They roll constantly - not gradually like in SK, nor do they rise up massively like in BC - they're pumpy, often steep, and relentless. It's pure power riding. Wind direction becomes esentially irrelevant. I could spend the entire day standing if I wasn't certain that it would cause my feet to come totally unglued. Not that standing, stomping out massive amounts of power is the fastest or most optimal way to ride these conditions - if I were racing here I'd ride very differently. But this sort of terrain allows me to ride with massive power spikes, eschewing finesse and optimal efficiency. There are enough descents to recover from the muscular effort and there are no points or positions on the line. It's pure joyous riding - Khai style. I blasted along, thoroughly enjoying being in my element and was making good time. I stopped at a little after 2hrs for fuel, and then again for lunch at ~4:30 when I came across "Buster's Barbecue" in Vermillion Bay. This is the sort of thing that more or less arrests me in my tracks, and forces a stop. I had <50k to Dryden (the day's end goal) and even if a pain-filled post lunch roll took 3.5hrs rather than the ~2 it ought to take, I still had plenty of time. I stopped and went in.

Looking at the menu, I sensed trouble. It all sounded really good... Pulled pork? Brisket? Ribs? Wings? This could be a bad idea. Those of you who knew Simon know what comes next: "How bad could it be?" I ordered the 1/2 rack of ribs and 1/4 chicken combo, which comes with three sides, and a Coke. Luckily, it wasn't a MidWestern portion. :p Still, it was plenty huge and I attacked it with gusto. The chicken was moist, tender, and succulent. The ribs, very, very good. The baked beans were among the best I've had anywhere. It was awesome. And the sauce... They've won numerous prizes for their homemade blueberry barbecue sauce. It's the sort of thing that wouldn't normally occur to me, but it was incredible. Discretion being the better part of valour, I didn't kill myself to finish it - I still had to ride. So I cheated, got a takeout box, and packed up a few ribs for dinner. :)

I was actually really surprised that I was able to ride after that lunch. I wasn't riding like a demon posessed, off the front and attacking at every opportunity - but I was able to ride. As I approached within 20km of Dryden I noted that it wasn't even yet 16:00. "Hmmmm... If push it I could make another 100k, maybe 120. That would mean that I could make Thunder Bay tomorrow with another big (~260k) day". Then: "Hold on - what the hell... I'm trying to relax and not hammer here. Why thrash myself to get to T-Bay a day early? Would that undo all the rehab I've been doing? My body's barely holding together here with bailing wire and duct tape and now you want to crush out huge back-to-backs just because?" Apparently, this lesson isn't going to come easily. I pulled the plug in Dryden and rolled around the town for a good 20min looking for a decent option. I could have sworn Ying said that she liked this town, but I can't for the life of me see why. I must be missing the good part. I tried to call her but I wasn't getting any cell coverage. Eventually I settled for another Best Western where I discovered that having signed up for their club in Kenora and matching status does indeed make a difference. Nice.

I should also pass on this tip that I've discovered: every hotel that I've encountered during this trip has a "government rate", which is better than any other discounted rate commonly available (corporate/CAA/AAA, etc). If you ask for it, they'll generally give it to you. Today the gal asked if I had my government ID with me (first time I've been asked) and I told her "no, not on me". She just said "ok" and gave me the rate anyway.

I'm looking at ~350km to T-Bay from here, so 2 days of riding. Tomorrow I'll go until I find a nice place to stop after the tripmeter rolls over 160 or better, and then then I'll make it the rest of the way on Saturday. I'd still like to see if I can find a place to watch the game on Sunday, too. Hmmm.....

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 7:15
Total Ride Time 5:43
Total Mileage: 144.1
Avg Speed: 25.1
Max Speed: 57.1

Breakfast of Champions...

Chicken

Ribs

Beans

Day19 - Exploring Kenora on my 2nd full rest day

2010-07-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 05:30, which is somewhat unusual for a hotel - especially one as comfortable as this one. When I checked in the hotel was pretty full and my room had a really loud air duct - so they moved me into a "Business Suite" at no charge. I rolled over and went back to bed after fully closing the blinds. I awoke again about an hour later, rolled over once more, and then the phone rang at 06:42. It was Vince, who is driving across to Ottawa. His phone hasn't worked since early SK, (great work there, Telus) so we missed connecting last night - but I had sent him a message about breakfast. We made plans to meet at a local bakery I had looked up that appeared promising. I had been lying in bed wondering if I should roll on to Dreyden (a relatively easy day at ~150km) or take a day off to rest and recuperate. I figured I still had lots of time to decide with an 08:00 breakfast and an 11:00 checkout. Funny how one's perspective changes - now a hilly 150km day is considered "easy". :p

Kenora apparently has North and South versions of several streets, and the bakery website didn't specify which one - so I ended up walking 2-3km too far as I went to the wrong 2nd Street. :p That would later come back to bite me in the ass as I ended up getting a blister from my flip flops (perhaps not the best choice of footwear either). Finally I found the right place and met up with Vince for breakfast - which sadly, was not very good. The company was, however, and we had an enjoyable catch-up. Vince was kind enough to swing by the hotel to lend me his floor pump, which was great because I had been a little concerned about my tyre pressure - especially over those really rough MB roads. My frame pump is decent enough to get me going if I need to change a flat, but it's hard to get a nice high(ish) pressure with a mini pump. My rear was almost down to 70PSI, so it's a good thing I was able to air up properly. I've managed to avoid tyre trouble thus far, and would like the keep it that way. Vince hit the road and I made the decision to stick around and chill out for the day. I was feeling relatively good, but still very tired.

I called several massage places and discovered that there are only 5 RMTs in this town. One appeared to be on vacation and the others were either all booked up or not answering. Oh well - I guess an easy day of relaxing, football watching and ice therapy will have to do. Per Lu's instruction, I got some quality stretching in as well. Watched Germany fall to Spain, and then went out for a brief turn about town.

Kenora is a lovely old town with some beautiful buildings, ideally situated on a very nice lake. Unfortunately like many older small towns, the industry of its origins have ceased to be relevant and it's struggling somewhat. Still, there are some nice little businesse and they're trying hard to become a tourist destination.

I came back and prepared another ice bath - the main reason for my being in a hotel. I decided that since my forearms had been complaining earlier yesterday that I ought to ice them as well. This turned out to be an interesting decision, and not something that I'll do again - at least simultaneously with the legs. I was fine in the bath itself, but then spent the next 25min completely incapacitated - shivering uncontrollably wrapped in a robe and blankets. Once the shivering stopped it still took another 35min to get most of my body functioning properly again - with my hands still frozen and stiff. It seems that the combination of all four limbs was a little too much. Oh well - this is how you learn stuff, right? :p

Bedtime soon, and back on the road tomorrow. Hopefully the effects of the rest, stretching, and ice therapy will have me in better form come the morn. Just as side note, the distance between towns can get pretty significant in Northern ON, so the blog updates might be fewer and farther between. Dryden's not too far, but then it's 2 days to Thunder Bay and then 3 or 4 to the Sault...

Local Coffee Shop

A very pleasant way to pass a little time...

Only in Canada...

A closer look:

My hotel

Gotta love those '70's buildings...

Day18 - Ontari-ari-o!

2010-07-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Not a great night of sleep. The hotel was overrun with kids attending some diving competition, and their chaperones weren't terribly interested in reigning them in. I decided *not* to be an ogre, and after moving rooms from a floor completely full of kids to one just half full, I resigned myself to it. I wonder if the body processes sound differently when you can't understand what's being said? The kids on my new floor were all French speaking, and really they weren't anywhere near as loud as the others - but for some reason it seemed like they were louder. I wonder if my brain was "tuning in" because it wasn't easily recognizable? Whatever.

Up at 06:00 but moving slowly, I finally rolled out at 09:00. That brutal South wind from yesterday was back, but stronger. Awesome. Rollin' rollin' rollin'... Took a brief detour South to Ste Anne for fuel and I swear that 1.5km jog South took me 15min. Bought a pile of stuff as I wasn't sure what was up the road, and then flew back to Hwy1 on the back of that South wind. Yep, it was a strong one...

They're redoing Hwy1 East out of Winnipeg, which is good because all the roads suck - so this is a much needed improvement. It didn't change the wind, but at least I wasn't getting jackhammered. The first 70km were HARD. It probably took me ~3:30 to cover that 70km. I was leaning heavily into that sidewind, which my lower back and forearms didn't exactly love. Ah well - you gotta do that sometimes.

There is a wood carving place called Gepetto's that also has a snack bar with lovely looking gazebos covering picnic tables. I pulled in to have a drink and to fuel up and met some other cyclists - two older French Canadian guys rolling towards Quebec. We chatted for a bit and then I sat down to eat. That's where I met a lady with all the charm and grace of a teething gorilla with hemmeroids. A hatchet-faced woman, she came waddling over barking about how I was not going to eat anything there, that this was not a rest stop, that "you don't take food to a restaurant", and on and on and on (and on and on)... I was quite taken aback, and told her that I had planned to eat something and then buy some stuff from her snack stand but she didn't care - she just kept going on and on. So I thanked her for her hospitality and wished her well. She continued to grouse as I took my stuff and walked over to the highway (off her property) to finish my meal. I was pretty surprised, and am really curioius as to how her business is in general. She certainly can't be helping things... I guess I can't wish her any ill will though as she's pretty miserable as it is.

Shortly after I left the terrain changed from open fields of canola and nothing, to both sides of the highway lined with trees. This created somewhat of a wind tunnel effect, blocking out the nasty sidewinds and giving me a resultant tailwind. I rode that bad boy for as long as I could, "making hay" as it were.

Another fuel stop (where I was charged for water!) and then back on the bike with a little over 100k to go. The last section of the day wasn't fast, but it wasn't hard - it just was. Soon the forests gave way to Shield, and then the road started to roll. I started to anticipate the border, very eager to be done with MB and into ON. I really haven't taken a fancy to Manitoba (quite the opposite, really) - but unlike most Canadians who don't live there, I really do like Ontario. Rolling shield, rolling shield, rolling shield. Trees. Short steep hills. Rocks. Frogs and turtles as roadkill rather than prairie dogs, coyotes and badgers. Many, many small lakes with gorgeous cottages. Also, GREAT road! As soon as I crossed the border the crappy, unmaintained and brutally hacked up roadway gave way to newish ashphalt. Even when the new stuff ran out the old road was still pretty nice.

I rolled into the Welcome Center (great place to fill bottles and use the can), and stopped for one last fuel break. Finally I made my final approach toward Kenora. The signage was kind of inconsistent, and it was hard to get a good feeling for how much further I had to go. The road to Kenora dragged on and on. Finally I got close and was treated to a very pretty little town on a lake. Kenora is really nice! I was impressed. My ankle, low back and right calf were kind of sore, and my forearms had been thrashed earlier in the day - so I checked into a hotel for some ice therapy. The Best Western chain has a "stay 2 nights, get one free" deal so I went in to check it out. With the number of hotels I've stayed in this trip, it only makes sense if there's one available. Funny how perspective changes - I can only find them in "big towns"... :p

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:30
Actual Ride Time: 8:45
Total Distance: 221.37km
Avg Speed: 25.2kph
Max Speed: 57.0kph

The "Longitudinal Midpoint" of the country...

SHIELD! Rolling shield!

Lokit that road... like butta

Probably the only time I won't be worried about the fuzz...

Lest people wonder, this is what I mean by "recovery fuel"

And this is why: (per 250ml)

Kenora...

Day17 - waitasecond... THAT's a reward?

2010-07-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

I awoke early, as is the norm when camping. Too early. Still dark. Back to sleep. Repeat. Finally it looked sort of light, so I turned on the BB to see what time it was. 05:45 Nope - not gonna do it. Back to sleep. Finally I just got up and started to break camp. The mosquitos were back out, so I didn't exactly take my time and hit the road by 07:55.

Pop tarts on the road for breakfast, though I had my reservations as to how long they'd last (I was right - they didn't last long). The glorious tailwind from the day before had swung 'round to a vicious sidewind coming from the South - meaning that all the little jogs South that Hwy2 takes as it meanders towards Winnipeg put me into a brutal headwind. Oh well - can't have a tailwind everyday... I plugged away and pounded out the kilometers, slowly passing mile after mile. I wasn't getting anywhere in a hurry, and knew that Winnipeg would be ~11hrs away. There's a reward for busting ass for 11hrs... Freakin' Winnipeg.

I pulled into a little lunch stop hoping for a good meal to fuel the rest of my ride, and ordered peirogies as well as a small order of fries & gravy. Let's just say that like most of the province, it left a lot to be desired.

One interesting thing about MB is that there are virtually no shoulders on the roads. On areas where they've recently redone the road there is sometimes a shoulder - but most of the time it goes 2 lane highway (1 lane in each direction), rough edge of ashphalt dropping ~4" to sand and gravel. The flip side to this is that nearly ALL of the drivers are absolutely amazing when it comes to sharing the road. Well over 90% of the cars and trucks that passed me today put ALL FOUR WHEELS in the other lane as they went by. I'm just blown away by this.

At some point I looked up and my blue skies were only blue in front of me. From all other directions the sky was black and foreboding. Hmmmm... I wonder if I can outrace the storm to the 'Peg? With ~4+hrs on my clock I figured not, but I might as well give it a shot. The road itself was utter crap, with huge expansion cracks perpendicular to the roadway - sometimes as close as every 2" and at other times as far apart as ~12". This jackhammer effect on my butt was most assuredly not appreciated nor was the fact that it lasted for well over 30km during the worst section.

I got a brief reprieve from the sidewind that I'd been battling all day, and got a bit of a tailwind - so I cranked it up and tried to outrun the storm. That worked for maybe 30-40min and then the storm hit. BIG TIME. I pulled over and got my rain kit on just in time to greet a monsoon. I turned on all my lights, and rode standing so as to present the largest possible outline. In my bright orange rain jacket with reflective stripes, 4LED flasher on my helmet, yellow burrito bag, red panniers with reflective strips and the brightest rear flasher known to mankind, I didn't think anyone would miss me - but I was having difficulty seeing, so it's best to be as big as possible. The monsoon lasted less than an hour and oddly, it improved my spirits. I had been quite ornery for most of the day, slogging away into a nasty side/head wind and generally displeased with the province of Manitoba. For some reason the rain made me feel better. I can't explain why.

Less than an hour after the rain stopped the skies were once again blue and it was warm out, so I took off my rain kit and fought my way to Winnipeg into the sidewind that had returned. My ankle hurt something fierce, my low back was bothering me, that knot in my right calf had returned, and my neck and shoulders were starting to ache. Well, I made it, anyway. If I wasn't in Winnipeg, I'd consider taking another day off...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 11:20
Actual Ride Time: 10:10
Total Distance: 248.53km
Avg Speed: 24.7kph
Max Speed: 57.5kph

This is pretty much MB:

A lone tree in the middle of a Canola field...

My sad lunch

Day16 - Leaving Saskatchewan...

2010-07-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

I awoke later than I would have thought given my sleep circumstances, and was not sorry to check out. I did have breakfast in the hotel however; was was treated to quite a show as the locals stopped by for breakfast or their morning coffee. There was one pair in particular - a man perhaps in his late 50s and another in what I'd guess to be his mid eighties. The younger of the two was having breakfast and the elder was drinking an enormous amount of coffee, just looking around pleased as can be. I can't imagine why the elder gentleman was so thrilled to be sitting there drinking coffee, but his joy was certainly evident and it put a more positive spin on my morning - which given where I woken up, hadn't exactly been all roses thus far.

I booked it out with intentions of making it as far into MB as possible. I knew that I wouldn't be able to hit the 'Peg, but I was hoping to get close. After a couple of hours I stopped at a gas station for some fuel and struck up a conversdation with the clerk who had offerred to fill my bottles. She lived in MB, about 120km down the road. She said that if I hadn't made her town by the time she got off work and she passed me on the road, she'd throw me a tow rope. :p

I had been riding a pretty good tailwind for most of the day, and my ankle was mostly just "background noise" - with the odd flare up. The lower back was also making minor noises in the background. Fuel had been decent, but I was tired for some reason. Maybe it was the lack of interesting scenery?

I pulled into Souris at ~ 17:00 (having lost an hour when I crossed over into MB as SK doesn't do Daylight Savings Time) and stopped for a "Nestea Slush" (a little on the sweet side, but tasty). Pulled out my map and saw another 75, maybe 80km to the place I had been looking at as a target. I wasn't too keen on another 3hrs in the saddle at that point, so I figured I'd scout the area for a suitable campsite - if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I'm not too much of a mosquito wuss to camp. :p I found an RV campsite and pulled in amongst all the 5th wheel trailers and set up my hammock. Yeah, I got some looks...

Pseudo "stealth" camping. Not true "stealth camping", but I was able to get away with hanging in between a couple of trees that weren't a proper RV pad. Quick shower, dinner, and hit the hay.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 6:20
Actual Ride Time: 5:22
Total Distance: 157.4km
Avg Speed: 29.3kph
Max Speed: 45.6kph

Day15 - Still in SK!

2010-07-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

I awoke a little later than I would have liked, but given the previous night`s activities I can`t say that I was terribly surprised. Down to breakfast and the room was jam-packed with some highschool team. The food looked kind of scary so I downed a couple of glasses of OJ (look Ying, Vitamin C!) and then went back upstairs to pack up. I had heard that there was a farmers market in town, and figured that I might get something good there. I packed up my gear, cleaned my drivetrain (finally!) and relubed, and was on the road a little after 10:00.

The farmer`s market was disappointing, so I rolled out figuring I`d just find a bakery or a cafe as I left town. The route I had selected didn`t cooperate too well so I ducked into an A&W for a quick breakfast before I hit the highway - Hwy33 SE to Hwy13E - back on the Redcoat Trail.

The day had dawned cool and overcast, with favourable winds. I made good time, and the rest day really had helped. My ankle was still bothering me (though not extremely so), but my butt felt AWESOME and my overall energy level was the highest it had been in recent memory. Stranglely, my lower back was kind of sore. That's new (for this ride) and I had a knot in the upper middle of my right calf. Oh well... I rolled along enjoying a hearty tailwind and stopped a few times for fuel - but never did find a good place to eat a proper lunch. The funny thing about a lot of these tiny prairie towns is that they shut down completely for long weekends. I think I was lucky to find a fuel stop in what was described to me as "a big town - they've got a thousand people there". I was also offerred a ride to said "big town", where the driver I had stopped to chat with told me there was going to be "a big party with a beer garden and everything". I politely declined, though thanked him for the offer and was once again on my way.

My tailwind disappeared in the latter part of the afternoon and I realized that I was farther than I had thought from the MB border. There's also precious little right near the border. I decided to pull the plug in Carlyle. I was eyeing up a potential campsite in a park near a church by a small creek and decided to stop at the gas station for some recovery fuel. Before I had a chance to swing a leg over I was ambushed by vampires. I knew the bugs would get worse as I got closer to MB but I hadn't been expecting them to be this aggressive! I was on a concrete pad, far away from any grass, trees or water. With that I knew that my spotted campsite would leave me a litre short come the morning, so I took refuge in the only motel in town (the Bates Motel).

I'll roll across the border in the morning and see how far into MB my legs can take me.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:30
Actual Ride Time: 7:36
Distance Traveled: 204.92km
Avg Speed: 26.9kph
Max Speed: 38.7kph

I've never bought a Klondike "Giant Cookie" before, but DAMN - this thing is a meal!

These things are everywhere. I assume they're pumping water, but I don't really know...

Day14 - Pret-a-Porter

2010-07-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Pret-a-porter, or "ready to wear", is a term used in the fashion world. Designers make one-offs of their latest no-holds barred creations and models strut them on the catwalk before a bedazzled group of industry peers and extremely wealthy fashionistas. After being shown and reviewed, these pieces generally go for tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. I had brought with me one "nice" pair of pants (Quina's suggestion) and had been wearing them around town whenever I went out. They have started to get loose, to the point
where they no longer stay up on their own - especially when I have stuff in the pockets. I discovered the full extent of this as I went out and about on my day off - and resolved the situation late in the evening with a stroke of beerliance (that's beer-insipred brilliance). My own bit of inspiration making my pants once again, pret-a-porter.

Today was a full rest day. No cycling, no forward progress. I woke up still very tired and though the RMT that had been recommended to me was all booked up, I managed to get an appointment with a different one. I had breakfast, took a short nap, and then walked out to the RMT's office - handily only a few kilometers away. While I had my legs worked on I chatted with the therapist about Regina and asked her what I shouldn't miss while in town. She recommended an ice cream shop that I absolutely HAD to check out (you know... if you're into ice cream) and so after my session I wandered over there. It wasn't that far from my hotel in the other direction. I have to say, that was probably the best soft-serve I've ever had. It was rich and creamy in a way that soft serve typically isn't - more like frozen custard than ice cream. It was awesome! It was also really hot out, so if you don't eat ice cream quickly you'd have lost a lot of it. Luckily, I had no such problem.

Back to the hotel where I chilled out watching "Rio Bravo" and then it was back to the Bushwakker for a planned early dinner and then an early night. Well... the early dinner part happenned. I ordered the 1/2 plate of nachos and a platter big enough to feed four of me appeared. I asked "this is the half?" and my waitress just laughed - obviously used to this reaction. Yes, this was indeed the half. I attacked it valliantly, but like Don Quiote, had no real chance of success from the get go. Shortly after the platter was whisked away (and if it had been rearranged nicely and re-topped with cheese, could still have been served as the full order at many pubs I've visited) I recieved a tap on the shoulder. It was my server from last night, with a few other employees and locals inviting me to join them at their table. Well it would be rude to turn them down... Magically another beer appeared - courtesy of one of the locals. On the first Friday of each month they have "First Firkin Friday" where they parade a firkin of specially brewed beer out with a piper and then have one of the patrons tap the keg - typically resulting in a beer soaking. I had missed the parade, but was presented with a pint of the special First Firkin Friday beer for the month - a double version of the extremely tasty beer that I had sampled the night before (and was drinking once again). Delicious. I have to say, I remain extremely impressed with this brewpub - it's definitely the Jewel of the Queen City and may in fact may be the very best man made thing between the borders of BC and Ontario.

They were a great group, full of suggestions for my trip (skip Northern Ontario and spend that time on the Cabot Trail) and generally a lot of fun. My early night slipped away from me but I did manage to keep it somewhat reigned in, leaving by ~ 22:00. I went for a brief walk to enjoy the evening on my way back to the hotel and then got caught up watching Wall Street before finally knocking off at around midnight.

Fare the well, Regina - you've treated me like family and I've come away with a new appreciation for your fine city.

Regina's best kept secret?

ICE CREAM!!!!!

Pret-a-Porter

Day 13 - a "rest day"

2010-07-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

During the Grand Tours and other multi-stage bicycle races, the organizers will often schedule rest days - that is to say, days when they do not race. It's a chance for the riders (and support crew) to sleep in a bit and relax, catch up on other things and to get ready and focused on the days ahead. Of course the racers all ride - they have to. The legs start to sieze up and won' turn over properly if they took the day completely off. "Active recovery" is the term generally used to describe it. Today was my rest day and the plan was to sleep in, take my time getting ready and then enjoy a nice easy spin for a few hours - 75km to Regina.

I did sleep in. Woke up at 08:30, and didn't rush to get out of bed. Had breakfast, updated the blog, did some other stuff online, and then took a nap after arranging for a late checkout. I was still feeling pretty tired, but was on the road by 12:45.

The weather forecast had been for thundershowers, and the sky was cloudy and grey. I felt a solitary drop of rain as I set out, but that was it. The tailwinds that had pushed me along so well yesterday had changed however. They had swung around and were now blowing directly in my face. Rather than "cruising" in the mid 30s I was working to maintain 19kph. This was not going to be the easy day that I had planned. Oh well - at least I hadn't planned a big day!

It started to rain. Slowly at first. Just a drop, here or there. Then another. Soon it was coming down harder than I cared to ignore, and I had to stop to pull on my rain gear. Of course the rain slowed considerably after that - just spitting enough to make me hesitate in pulling over to take of the rain kit, But the vents were all the way open and I was roasting. I met a cyclist - the first I've met since leaving BC. That isn't entirely true as I did meet two people touring yesterday - one French Canadian heading West, and another guy who had been on the road for 2 months and would eventually find his way East. But no "real" cyclists. This guy was on a new Cervelo S2 and was riding to Regina for the football game. We chatted for a while and then he went on ahead, having to be there in ~1.5hrs (that was with ~55km to go, into a stiff headwind). I laboured on, fighting the wind and wondering what had become of my "rest day". The ankle was "tweaky" - not significant pain, but enough to be ever present.

I was losing my sense of humour, and realized that my timing had been pretty poor. After breakfast at ~09:00, I hadn't eaten before rolling out at 12:45. I stopped and had some chips, and stopped again for a Snickers. I also stopped to remove my rain kit at some point. Still no decent small towns on the highway, and after being burned in the past with forays off the Trans Canada to a town that was supposed to not suck, I opted to stay the course.

Finally I made Regina in ~4:30, and stopped at Canadian Tire for some WD-40 and then at Sobeys for some chocolate milk. On a recommendation, I had Google mapped a local brewpub called the Bushwakker and rode there to scope it out. Then I found a hotel fairly closeby. Apparently the local government sets the hotel rates on Riders' game days at $160/night. All the hotels charge that or more. I managed to talk the guy into giving me the Government rate (ironic, no?) and checked in. Another ice bath, and I was on to the Bushwakker to sample its wares. (WELL worth it! If you find yourself in or near Regina, definitely check it out.) I watched the Riders come back to win in OT over Montreal, which was cool as the locals were really jacked up.

I have a line on a good massage therapist in town so if I can get an appointment I might stick around for another day. We'll see when they open in the morning. If not I'm going to hightail it out of here and see if I can't make MB by nightfall. That's another hefty day, but if the winds are with me it should be doable.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 4:30hrs
Actual Ride Time: 3:52
Distance Traveled: 80.9km
Avg Speed: 20.8kph
Max Speed: 40.4kph

Apparently Robin Hood hides out in BFN, SK

BEER! Local beer! And a damned tasty one at that... (a Bombay IPA)

Food! The "Saskatchewan Hot Plate" - how could I resist? (cabbage roll, smoked sausage, pierogies, sauerkraut, and beer bread)

Dessert! House made (from scratch) Chocolate Stout Cake

2nd ice bath of the day (the socks REALLY help)

Day12 - The Return of the Diesel...

2010-07-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Dawn broke early - or maybe it was the train rumbling through with its whistle blowing. At any rate, I was up and so were the mosquitos - so I packed up quickly and hit the road. A new trip record for me, I was rolling by 07:35.

Not a lot of wind to help push me along this early, so I was moving a little slower than I had been for the past few days. Relatively unimpressed with what I'd seen of smalltown SK, I opted to stay on Hwy1 rather than my initial plan of heading South on 37 to 13 to avoid traffic. The shoulders had been great thus far anyway and I wanted to see if Swift Current had anything to offer.

My ankle was bugging me again and I was really tired. Nothing in the legs, and my overall energy level was really low. Oh, so it's going to be one of those days, is it? I crawled along and made Swift Current (slogan: Where Life Makes Sense) in ~3:20. Not bad for 80k... I found a nice coffee shop (hey - this DOES make sense!) and sat down with a snack and a cup of ambrosia. Chatted with Phil & Julian online for a bit and posted Day9. I was considering calling it a day right there and then as there really isn't all that much between Swift Current and Moose Jaw - a few small towns spread out over 170km. On top of the 80km I'd already covered, that would make for a pretty long day. Finally I decided that I'd better get moving so I packed it up, made 2 quick stops for fuel, and hit it.

By now the winds had picked up, and unlike yesterday there was some cloud cover - so it felt much cooler. I was making pretty good time and figured I'd just play things by feel. I was feeling decent so I kept rolling and finally realized that I could make Moose Jaw with just a bit of a push. Again, I figured I'd just keep rolling until I was done. Stopped for ice cream and met a family moving to Lethbridge with truck issues, and we chatted for a bit. Then back on the bike for more. One thing I've noted about SK is that the road signs are pretty sparse - both in quantity as well as information. As you leave each town you get a sign telling you how far the next town is - but no information about any other towns along the way, nor anything in between. That's kind of annoying, but I guess it's less of an issue when you can cross the entire province in a matter of hours by car. I was doing a time based countdown, assuming that I'd make Moose Jaw by ~20:30, maybe 21:00. I tried to stop in podunkville for a Coke on a couple of occasions but was stymied by a "town" of nothing but a few solitary houses and gravel roads. I finally found a gas station in CaronPort and got my Coke. I was also finally down to the last 21k to Moose Jaw. The wind died down for my final push, and I had to jack up the effort in order to keep moving at a good clip. I was done with being on the bike, and just wanted off. I don't think I could have ever expected to be as happy as I was to finally see the Moose Jaw city limits. I very briefly consdered heading to the heart of downtown to see what options I had, as I'd heard about some sort of mineral springs here - but instead I opted for one of the first motels I saw. Laundry, shower, ice bath, pizza (in the tub!) and some checking in on email, etc.

Tomorrow I might take an "easy day" and just roll into Regina. We'll see...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 13.5hrs
Actual Ride Time: 9:49
Distance Traveled: 260.12km
Avg Speed: 26.4kph
Max Speed: 55.3kph

12 day total: 1808.4km
12 day avg: 150.67km/day

Exactly...

My favourite time of day - the sun is just starting to go down and it's cooling off...

This is the sort of rolling terrain I've seen all throughout SK - but the shoulder hasn't always been this good...

Days 10 & 11... starting to melt together...

2010-06-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Day10

Up at ~08:30 but moving slowly, on the road by ~10:00 in search of breakfast. 2 forgettable sausage rolls and a decent cup of coffee and I was ready to go. Decent winds blowing more or less Westerly, so the first hour rolled by pretty well. Then the knee started to hurt again. Dammit. The ankle was bugging me as well, but one can ride through most types of ankle pain without too much difficulty. Knee pain makes riding extremely difficult. I had moved the cleat on my right shoe a bit last night in the hope that that might fix it, and it did feel better - but it wasn't quite right. I can't see what it looks like from the side. I limped into Lethbridge and stopped at the visitor's center to ask about bike shops. There are three in town, and the lady kindly mapped them out for me.

The first was one of those all-in-one sports stores that also sells bikes. I rolled by. The second had a whitewater kayak in the window and something about skis on their sign. I kept going in the hope that the third would be a real bike shop. Bingo! Ascent Cycles - an actual honest-to-goodness bike shop that sells bikes and only bikes. Road, mountain, bmx, cruisers... a little bit of everything - but all of them bikes. I talked to one of the guys behind the counter for a while and then another guy came over to give me a hand. He took a quick look at how I was set up and then rotated my right cleat a little bit. Back on the road and it felt weird, but that's to be expected when a change like that is made. I stopped for a quick lunch and was rolling again.

Incredible blue skies out in central AB. Again, the scenery is vastly different from Western AB. The mountains and foothills are gone, as is most of the "roll" (at least that's what today's been like thus far). I saw a combine deploying its arms which was pretty awesome (just like a Transformer - Ronco would have lost his mind :p) and I swear to Vishnu, a dead prairie dog with a fresh white road line painted over its head. I didn't get a picture as I was moving pretty well when I saw it, and it took me a few seconds to process what I'd seen. By the time traffic cleared enough for me to turn around it was a good ways back.

It's hot out here, and there are precious few trees - and even fewer opportunites to find shade. Beautiful country. Unforgiving, but beautiful.

Stopped short of Medicine Hat in Bow Island - again, I needed ice. No decent camping options, either. I don't know what it's normally like but that flood sure hasn't helped things. Flooded fields and standing water everywhere. I don't need any help attracting mosquitos...

STATS:

Total Elapsed Time: 8:45
Actual Ride Time: 6:20
Total Distance: 164.2km
Avg Speed: 25.8kph
Max Speed: 67.1kph

Day 11

I had a plan. Up early (for me), roll out HARD to take advantage of the tailwinds and then stop at a nice cafe for a few hours to kill the hottest part of the day. Then back on the bike and roll 'till evening as the day cooled off. This plan would have worked in BC. Probably in ON and QC. Not so in Eastern AB / Western SK. The small towns that dot the highway are few and far between, and there's no such thing as a nice cafe in any of them. I was lucky to find a general store that sold cold drinks and snacks (Irvine, AB). These towns are barely scratching survival and the floods that hit recently have done a lot of damage. Farmers can't plant this year, loads of property damage, even the highway was fully washed out for several days. I overheard two locals talking about the impact and one was saying that everyone around him (including him) was selling and getting out. My (unasked) question was, who's buying? In light of all this, I guess my plight of not being able to find a nice coffee shop to spend a few hours midday isn't all that bad. :p

The knee was feeling better but the ankle was on and off, cycling from "perfectly normal" to "I should get off my bike and get on a plane - NOW". Mostly it was annoying background noise - not terribly bad, but ever present.

Western SK is like a green moonscape. Nothing but barren rolling hills of green, with no signs of civilization as far as the eye can see (road and fences notwithstanding). It was HOT, humid, and the sun beat down on me mercilessly from its throne up high in the sky. The winds were decent - not awesome, but providing at least some assistance a good portion of the day. SK is hillier than I would have expected too - it really isn't flat the way we all think it is. Sure there are no "major" climbs, but it rolls endlessly.

I crossed over the area where the highway had been washed out and the entire Westbound section was missing. They had rerouted traffic to share the Eastbound lanes and were working on rebuilding the Westbound side. Rolled along forever and ever and ever, looking for a decent option to pull the plug on a long and hot day. Finally I settled for a campsite in Tompkins - more out of exhaustion than any other reason. At least they had taps with potable water... I was treated to a wicked lightning show and huge winds, but not that much rain. Oh, and lots of mosquitos...

STATS:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:20
Actual Ride Time: 8:50
Total Distance: 203.31km
Avg Speed: 23kph
Max Speed: 52.7kph

Day10 breakfast:

This must be what the locals do in the evenings...

A tanker train being loaded with grain

That's supposed to be a pasture, not a pond...

It should have said "Welcome to Green Hell"

Proof that SK has both hills and trees (no thermometer to prove that it was 36 + humidex)

Day9 - holding on...

2010-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Today I was back to riding solo. Joe, Lu and Linda took off for Vancouver at around 08:30 and my plan was to give my phone a quick charge while I packed up. Instead I discovered internet access and got distracted, not leaving until after 11. By the time I rolled into Sparwood proper, had breakfast and hit the road it was nearly noon. Oh well.

The last push to get out of BC was BRUTAL. Nasty headwinds, no legs, no energy, and low motivation. Funny how quickly I got used to riding with company. I was a little worried about the last pass as my maps didn't show an actual pass, but there is a marking called "Crowsnest Pass". Was it one of those "unofficial" passes that all the locals know about but cartographers refuse to acknowlege? How bad was it? Apparently there's a municipality called "Crowsnest Pass" that encompasses several small towns - the actual road does rise a few times, but there wasn't any sort of a "pass" per se. I fought the road, the wind, my bike, the heat, my body and my demons pretty much from the get-go right to the Alberta border. I swore I was going to text everyone as soon as I crossed: "I made it to AB - can I come home now?".

The change in scenery when you cross over is remarkable. It's as marked as the boundary between the different regions in BC, which makes me wonder if this is how they decided where to draw the lines on the map. The pictures below do NOT do justice to the amazing colour of Crowsnest Lake. It has an amazing azure quality to it and it just glows. The winds were strong but the way the road winds it's never constantly in one direction. The road snakes along following the river, which changes the wind direction (relative to you) from headwind to side to tail. AB is also a lot "rollier" than I had anticipated. I knew it wasn't going to be pancake flat, but barring one descent before Elko, it was hillier than the route from Creston to Sparwood.

I took advantage of the strong tailwind in sections, pushing the pace as much as possible. This may have proven to be a tactical mistake as my ankle had been bothering me initially during the day but somewhere before Pincher Creek my right knee started to hurt. A lot. I wondered if I was compensating for my ankle in some manner that made my knee hurt? I limped into Pincher Creek and stopped for lunch and ibuprofen. Normally I don't like to medicate during a ride as if something doesn't feel right, I want to know - but I did know, and knew that I wasn't going to be able to continue riding on one leg. Not without screwing up my body.

My knee felt a little better after lunch, and I made the decision to spin more and "crush" less. Normally I like to mix it up a bit - spinning at times and pushing a bigger gear seated at others, standing often and at different cadences. After lunch it was all about being light on the pedals. Of course, this means heavier on my butt. Well, you can't have it all. :p

I pushed on into Fort McLeod, with my knee starting to bother me again about 15k out. I'd have liked to keep rolling, but I needed to get some ice on it. Both of them, actually. And my ankle. And some other maintenance. There weren't any decent camping options nearby so I settled for another night in a motel. Not what I wanted, but it's what I've got. :p

Hoping for an early-ish start tomorrow, decent joints, and good winds. The good news is that I've heard that Hwy1 is open now - at least one lane. I probably won't quite make Medicine Hat tomorrow unless something special happens for my physically, which gives them another day to work on the washed out road.

Stats:

Total Ride Time: 6:30
Actual Ride Time: 5:44
Total Distance: 140.55km
Avg Speed: 24.5kph
Max Speed: 63.3kph

Breakfast

The main attraction in Sparwood - mine tours

Finally made the border...

Crowsnest Lake

Amazing views in Western AB...

Albertans know how to make a road friendly to cyclists... (that shoulder is almost a full lane wide and perfectly maintained - and the drivers STILL move over as they pass - AWESOME!!!)

Want to talk about WIND?

Wind farms, wind farms, wind farms...

I remember learning about this place in grade school...

Day8 - Entourage

2010-06-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Today I had company all day. LuAnne rode out with me from Cranbrook, and Joe and Linda were going to drive ahead, park the cars and get settled further up the road in Sparwood or Hazel and then ride back to meet up with us. We rolled out at ~09:45 and were once again treated to an absolutely STUNNING day. I have to say, I've been really fortunate with just incredible weather thus far. Lu was riding really well, and I did my best to keep up.

Before they left Vancouver, Linda had dispatched Julian to get some proper chamois cream for me and he picked up a jar of Assos. I've used most products in this genre before - Chamois Butt'r, Bag Balm, George's, Udder Butter, a variety of hand creams and lotions, even diaper rash cream - but this stuff was something entirely different. Something remarkable. It's pure gold. My butt was the closest to happy it's been since Day1 of the trip. That is significant given it's current state. My legs weren't there, but I wasn't really expecting them to be. My ankle was bothering me again, and would continue to bother me all day. It was definitely the weak link in the chain.

I've enjoyed rolling along solo for the great majority of the past week, but it was really nice to have familiar company. Lu and I rolled along, stopping for fuel when necessary and making decent time. I had to fight a bit to stay with her at times, but that was good because it helped to take the focus away from my ankle.

Lu hasn't been on her bike much this year and I was feeling pretty gassed - so at about 30k out from Fernie I sent a text to Joe and Linda to see where they were - hoping that they had opted for a shorter endpoint rather than trying to push for the AB border. They had gone as far as Sparwood, and were rolling out to meet us. ~60k to go. Ok. No problem. I can handle that. We rolled out and were treated to some more amazing views. It really is incredible seeing the country this way.

Joe and Linda met us just outside of Fernie and we all rolled back together. Well - Lu had had enough of being on the bike, so she took off down the road to get it over with quickly. The rest of us rolled back together. :p

Showers in Sparwood, I did some laundry at a proper laundromat and got a massage from Lu while Joe and Linda walked the dogs and found some beef jerky, and then we were off to dinner in Fernie.

Fernie is a really cool town. It's almost completely surrounded by mountains, and has an amazing feel about it. I want to come back in the winter to ski. Joe called it "Classy Hope". Dinner was massive, and then we came back and crashed. The three of them have a ~10hr drive to get back to Vancouver, and I'll continue to plod East. Word is that Hwy1 is washed out between Medicine Hat and Swift Current, so I'll have to see what my options are when I get further into AB.

Stats:

Total Ride Time: 7:10
Actual Ride Time: 5:31
Total Distance: 126.22
Avg Speed: 22.8kph
Max Speed: 55.5kph

Interesting road sign (I didn't realize that I had crossed into WI)

Southeastern BC scenery

Fernie, BC

Day7 - Week One in the books

2010-06-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

The awesome thing about camping in the non-desert is that I don't wake up 600 times throughout the night to drink. The less awesome part is that the kit I hung out to dry overnight wasn't. The thunderstorm that forced me to seek shelter put enough moisture in the air that things were still damp. Oh well - if that's the worst thing to happen to me I'm doing pretty well.

I tend to wake up really early when I'm camping. I don't really know why - it just happens. So after "sleeping in" until "really late" I finally looked at the time and it was 05:30. Well that ain't gonna happen. Back to sleep until 07:30 - a much more reasonable hour. I took my time making with breakfast, enjoying "the best campsite on the lake" and was rolling at ~ 09:20. If I thought the way out yesterday had been hilly then today was something else indeed. Lots of climbing. Lots of descending. Nothing too long, but constant hills. Steep ones, too. After about an hour I was passed by a van belonging to the National Biathlon team. I waved, but I don't know that they saw me. Shortly thereafter I passed it as it had pulled over, and recognized the coach - Geret Coyne in the driver's seat. A little while later I was passed by a group of about 8 athletes on road bikes. I didn't get a gopod look at them but I assume them to have been the National Team as they didn't look like cyclists to me. They were all young and fit, but they were obviously cross training - not roadies. I passed them again when they had pulled over for a nature break but didn't try to make out who they were because I only really recognize the women, and well - they were "busy". They soon passed me once more, and I played leapfrog with the team van a few times until they were well out of range.

I continued rolling along and made Creston in about 3hrs, give or take (I forgot to make note of the time). Had a nice leisurely lunch in a nice little cafe called Buffalo Coffee of something like that, and then got moving again. Joe, Lu and Linda were chasing me down driving from Vancouver today, and I figured the catch would happen ~30km out of Cranbrook. I had to get moving. Hwy3 from Creston out of the rest of BC has been described as "the worst of the climbs are over" - which isn't terribly descriptive, but leads one to believe that there aren't any more major passes to cross. That was certainly the case to Cranbrook. It rolled, much more gently than the Nelson detour, with some headwinds, false flats, and descending false flats. Several times I got the distinct notion that my tires were flat, the road was "sticky", or something was just wrong. I chalked it up to fatigue and continued on. More stunning scenery, more rolling, and another repaving project that my butt was very pleased to see (fresh ashphalt)! I stopped in Yahk for ice cream and to fill my bottles as Two Scoop Steve's, and carried on. Still my bike felt "draggy". Finally descending a slight grade and not going anywhere I stopped to check it out, only to discover that I had been dragging brake. Great - I wonder how long that's been going on?

My ankle was starting to bother me as well. That started a day or two ago and has been getting worse. I was riding ok, but favouring it. Gonna have to do something about that...

As I passed the "Cranbrook 32km" sign I reached over and patted myself on the back. Not two minutes later a car zoomed up from behind and decelerated quickly, pulling up beside me. Looking out the passenger window was Eggle (Linda's dog). Nice timing! We chatted for a bit and then she went on up the road and pulled over so as not to block traffic. I stopped and chatted with her for a bit, and she mentioned that Joe and Lu were not far behind. Back on the bike. Soon Joe and Lu pulled up beside me and Lu asked if I needed anything. Then they went up ahead and pulled over where Linda was waiting and we figured out the plan for the evening. Apparently they were all under strict orders to take me out for "a real dinner". Auntie isn't pleased with how I've been eating, it seems... :p I told them to go on ahead and that I'd turn on my phone when I got into town, as being in the dead zone just kills my battery. They took off and I was looking at ~30km to go.

A headwind picked up, and my pace slowed. Damn - not exactly how I wanted to end my day. I thought about the evening and figured that I'd have to get a hotel so that I could leave my stuff somewhere safe while we went to dinner. Lu had also offered to work on my legs and ankle when we stopped earlier (she's a professional Registered Massage Therapist). Gee, that's going to be a hard sell. :p I was getting hungry and the road turned, giving me a sidewind. I picked up the pace and drove it home as fast as I could comfortably go without working really hard. When I got into town I turned on my phone and then saw Joe and Linda crossing the street. I pulled up next to them and they told me that I was too fast and had spoiled their plans to get tacos as a pre-dinner snack. :p Joe handed me a key and said that I was already checked in - so to go and have a shower and that they'd be by in a bit. AWESOME! I'm so fortunate to have such amazing friends...

A shower, a ridiculously large prime rib dinner, and a painful massage that Lu tells me has everything working properly again, and we made plans for tomorrow. Lu's going to ride with me and the other two are going to "scout the route" and then park the cars and ride out to meet us. The goal is Sparwood, though Linda really does want to see AB - so we might push a bit farther. We'll see.

I also got a care package from Auntie. Thank you!

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:40
Actual Ride Time: 8:18
Distance Traveled: 175.33
Avg Speed: 21kph
Max Speed: 67.1kph

A creek

I *think this is the Kootenay River...

An awesome road sign...

Two scoops at Two Scoop Steve's

TIME ZONE!!!

Day6 - a planned detour, and an unplanned early stop

2010-06-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. 07:20. I smiled, and rolled over. Not today... At around 08:30 I woke up and thought about what I'd do today. At ~09:30 I finally got out of bed and decided to start the day - for real this time. My clothes were still wet. Not soaking wet, but wet enough. Damn - that kind of puts a damper on things... I contemplated my route. Sticking with Hwy3 would have me going over two passes on my way to Creston - the second of them being the 2nd highest paved highway in Canada. The alternate route is an extra 60km out of the way - up one side of the lake, a ferry ride across, and back down the other side of the lake. Colin, who grew up in Cranbrook and knows the area had strongly encouraged me to take the long way 'round. There was a significant part of me that still wanted to stay on Hwy3 and "hit every pass", but my legs were dead. Not sore when I woke up, just dead. That wasn't really the problem, however. My concern wasn't so much making it over the 2nd pass, but having another storm blow in and catch me 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up - leaving me with no shelter and no options. That would SUCK. I consulted my map, packed up my stuff, put on my wet kit and hit the road in search of breakfast. Actually, I hit Google in search of breakfast, then I hit the road. Breakfast was a forgettable affair. A sorrily understuffed turnover and a greasy sausage roll, washed down with an okay cup of coffee. I had also picked up a package of cookies, 3 for $3 and a can of Coke to fuel the first part of my journey. Nelson was ~50km North, and the ferry terminal another 30km North of that.

In bypassing the two major climbs today, I still did not get a "flat" route. In any province outside of BC or Alberta these climbs would have rated mention in a guidebook. The road rolls steadily and constantly the whole way - with some of the hills being a pretty solid effort. I'm pretty sure that I didn't save any time going this way but it *might be easier on my overall level of fatigue - which has been moderately high of late. The thing about climbing a major pass is that even though you spend 3-5hrs at 6-10kph, you travel an equal distance down the other side between 35 and 70kph - so the overall speed at which you traverse the pass is relatively high. Proportionally one's climbing speed might be only a quarter of one's flatland speed - but the actual diference is only ~15-20kph. Compared with one's descending speed, which is typically between 45 and 70kph, that's 20-55kph faster than flatland speed. Chosing this route would almost certainly be slower. After the past night however, the threat of a storm blowing in was very much in the forefront of my mind. Colin had also emphasized that "this is the only FREE ferry in BC" - how could I pass that up?

I made Nelson in about 2hrs and the ferry terminal in a touch under 4. That last 20 odd k seemed to stretch on forever, and the road reminded me a bit of Northern Ontario cottage country. I made it to the ferry with enough time to grab a cheeseburger before boarding, and then in a rare departure for me, went upstairs to sit down and chill out. Normally I like to stand on deck, but I didn't want to get cold and stiff. Rolled off the ferry and a nice gal at the restaurant filled my bottles for me. Up a STEEP hill that was a lot longer than it needed to be, and I was back in (heavily) rolling terrain. My plan was to make Creston and stealth camp, so I pulled into a gas station and filled a 2L dromedary bag. Less than 6km down the road the storm announced that it was on its way - and FAST. I pulled over at a corner store to pull on my rain gear and the rain began to fall. The skies were black, and the wind was picking up. This was exactly they type of weather and fast moving storm that had prompted me to take this route rather than going over Kootenay Pass on Hwy3. They had a campsite there so I paid for a spot and set up my tarp STAT. I had everything up fairly quickly, and stood under the tarp watching the storm over the lake. Within 45min the storm had blown over and it was sunny and beautiful once more. Uh... Okay... Since I had paid for the site I decided to just chill out for the evening and get some rest. The real storm did hit later, and quite hard - but I was all tucked in and safely out of harms way by then. Not exactly what I had planned, but it was a decent day in the saddle.

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 6:30
Actual Ride Time: 4:44
Distance Traveled: 95.8km
Average Speed: 20.2
Max Speed: 61.7

Breakfast was mediocre at best...

If I stop there, would I ride faster?

Hwy 3A, North of Castlegar

Not what I expected to find in Downtown Nelson...

Short break on the way to the Ferry

Kootenay Lake

Chillaxin' at the ferry terminal

Lunch!

The other side of the lake...

Camp:

My dinner companion...

Not unhappy about my decision to stay

Views from "the best campsite on the lake"

I wouldn't normally post pictures of myself "in bed", but just to dissuade readers from the notion that I might be cold or uncomfortable...

I leave you with the music to which I fell asleep, and awoke

http://vimeo.com/12892482

Day5 - Surprise!

2010-06-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today started out much like the others - I awoke tired but ready to move on. Andy had given me a recommendation for a great diner just outside of town but I didn't feel like going all the way back there - plus if it really was a great diner, I'd eat way too much and then be useless for a few hours. Instead I had breakfast at a little bakery/cafe in town and was rolling by ~09:40.

As I rolled along I came upon Neil- he's that other tourer I met on the way to Manning. Apparently that night he had made a bad decision to push on past his planned campsite to Princeton, but had forgotten about Sunday Summit. Given that he's on a hybrid bike and that he keeps stopping in bars to watch thre World Cup, he's making amazing time. I wonder what I'm doing wrong... He told me to keep an eye out for another guy from Portland - also riding solo.

The road from Greenwood climbs up for the first while, then up some more. No passes or "true" climbs, but it slowly but surely gains elevation before a great descent into Grand Forks. I stopped at the local bike shop looking for brake shoe retainer bolts, as apparently I was missing a couple. The guy didn't have the correct bolts but was able to find two that fit well enough. I'll have to get that sorted properly in a bigger town. I cruised around looking for somewhere to eat that had wifi and came up with nothing - so I settled for the Dairy Queen that was next to a hotel, hoping to borrow their signal. So much for "small town security"... it was locked down. Oh well. I had a chicken sandwich and was ready to move on. It was there that I met Tom, the guy from Portland. He's on his way to Winnipeg for the Folk Festival and is unsure about making it on time - so he suggested that he might bus part of the way. He took off as I was eating, and I figure I'll probably see him again too.

On to the start of the day's real climbing. First a long gradual climb into Christina Lake, and then the main pass of the day. I stopped one last time to grab some salt and sugar, and then hit it. I really wasn't feeling it on the climb to Christina Lake. My legs were tired. My butt was sore. Even when the road got flatter (or descended for a bit) it felt like a lot of work. Nothing to do but keep going, so on I went.

Christina Lake is really beautiful. The climb that follows also has some amazing scenery. Scenery that I feel is best taken in from the passenger seat of a car. That climb was a SLOG. At least it wasn't hot like it was back in the desert...

I had been climbing for well over 2 hours - maybe 3 (including the climb to Christina Lake) when I came to the highway gates and a sign that read "Bonanza Pass - Elev. 1535m Extreme Weather Warning" Well ain't that just dandy... Onward and upward, I suppose... At some point in there my butt and my legs decided to have a contest to see which could hurt the most. I don't know which one won, but I know who lost. :p Slogging away, slogging away. There was a road crew doing a repaving project, which is cool because parts of that road are pretty badly beaten. I guess mountain passes get that way... Once again, I was running out of water. I had filled all three bottles before starting the climb to Christina Lake, but hadn't stopped AT Christina Lake to re-fill. That was a bad decision. Now I was running low on water with no idea how much longer I still had to climb. It got cool, then cold. The clouds darkened. Hmmmm... Thunder pealed LOUD overhead. That's comforting... I thought I felt a solitary drop of rain. It didn't seem to be raining, and I couldn't smell the rain in the air. I did my best to quicken the pace. One sip of water left in the bottle. That's all there is. Then I'm dry. I could hear the creek running below me, and was not pleased about it. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. At this time I also decided that Robert Frost was a jerk. And miles to go before I sleep my ass. BOOM - more thunder. And yes, those are definitely drops of rain. I stopped to pull on my rain gear. Climbing in rain gear kind of sucks, but so does being soaked and cold. The rains came, but only gently. The violent storm I had been expecting had still not yet arrived. Again, I quickened the pace in an effort to outrun the storm. More climbing, more climbing and more climbing. FINALLY I crested the summit. I stopped for a quick picture and then got moving. It's mostly downhill to Castlegar, but with the wet road I didn't want to be pushing it. It was still pretty cold out and now my feet were getting quite a chill from the combination of wind and rain. My neck (c4/5) started to tighten up. Not great signs... This would be an absolutely AMAZING descent in good weather. Today I was just trying to survive. The pitch decreased and suddenly I had to work to do 22kph. Whaaa? Oh - I'm climbing again. Beauty... That didn't last entirely too long and I was soon descending again. Then the road leveled out and I figured the descent was over. Back to having to work to maintain speed, and neither my butt nor my legs were cooperating. I passed a sign that read Castlegar 26km and wasn't too thrilled about it. An hour still? At this rate I wouldn't make it there until 20:00. And I'm still out of water. Oh well - nothing to do but keep rolling. Soon after the road dropped away again and it really is almost all downhill to Castlegar. Even standing up I was cruising at ~35kph. My feet were frozen and my neck was getting to the point where it could sieze fully, so I knew I was hotel bound. I needed to get some hot water running over my body. Finally made town @ ~20:00 and pulled into a gas station for some fuel and to ask about hotel options. You know, if Marriott had better coverage throughout Canada I could have done this trip packing a LOT less gear! I settled for the Sandman Inn and talked the gal into giving me the government discount rate. Hot shower, food, hot/cold therapy in the pool (well - more like warm/cool) and some sink laundry. That kept me up later than I'd have liked, but I needed to get it done. My Day4 update went up and I went to bed - legs thrashed, butt sore, and contemplating me next move.

Breakfast:

I didn't know horses laid down...

A cool canoe store in Grand Forks

Guess why I chose these?

Christina Lake

The sign...

The reaction...

Climbin'

Summit!

Relief...

Day4 - Tuesdays with Simon

2010-06-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how smart my cousin Pat and his buddy Goran are? They turned North at Osoyoos and took "the long way" out of BC, hooking up with Hwy1. I might have listened to them... Day4 was HARD. Woke up in Keremeos and had breakfast at the Crowsnest Bakery - a little place on Hwy3 owned by a couple of German cousins. Great coffee and AMAZING sausage rolls. The pastry was light and flaky, the sausage moist and delicious, and none of it greasy at all. I told one of the owners that they were fantastic and his eyes rolled back slightly as he said "I knoooow..." with a touch of longing in his voice - a true German. One could tell that he wanted to hide in a corner with the tray and shkoff them all. :p I could have stayed there eating sausage rolls and drinking coffee all day. Instead I capped it at two, stashed a cheese bun for the road, and headed out. I'd highly recommend that anyone passing through town stop on your way - it's the block just before the flashing red where you need to turn left to stay on Hwy3, right across from the Keremeos paper (N side of the road).

I had a bit of a headwind heading toward the rollers, and stopped to remove my arm/knee warmers and adjust my saddle at the top of the first. My right knee had been bothering me a little bit so I needed to drop the saddle by about 3/4mm. Out in the desert it gets warm early. I'd never ridden the rollers this way before so it was interesting to see how the flow felt different. The last of them right before Richter was quite steep, pushing me into my full bailout gear. Then it was on to Richter proper. Like the rollers, I've ridden this pass a bunch of times - but always in the opposite direction. I think it's harder this way. It wasn't a killer climb but I thought it should have been over before it was a few times. Bombed down the other side into Osoyoos and stopped in Subway for lunch & internet. Total ride time from Keremeos to Osyoos: 2:35 :)

As I headed out of town I caught a glimpse of a sign that read "Osoyoos Massage Therapy" - hmm, I should stop... Too late and I was over the bridge and onto what would be my hardest climb of the day. In the Subway I had asked an RCMP officer if he knew what the road was like heading East - how hilly it was, etc. He wasn't sure but his partner came over and with a big smile on her face said: "See that mountain right there? The road goes right over it. You get a tonne of switchbacks on the way up. Once you're over it's quite beautiful, though". She wasn't kidding. It was hot. The sun bore down on me and I'm pretty sure I was dripping sweat faster than I could drink. I had filled all three bottles in the Subway and had some minor concern that I might run out. With the rocky cliffs, switchbacks and dropoffs, I half expected to see Wyle E Coyote trying to pry a boulder free to fall on me. Lots of stopping to rest and to drink, and to contemplate the lunacy of what I was attempting. Many conversations with Simon. Occasionally there was a cool breeze to gently caress me and lift my spirits; but like a rented companion, her time with me was fleeting and then I was left alone once more. More climbing. More stopping. More resting. Fuel (Mars bar and a bag of chips at two different stops) More conversations with Simon. I climbed that SOB for over 2hrs (actual ride time) before I saw what I thought was the summit, and the road started to head down. By this time I had left the Okanagan and was into the West Kootenay region. The change from the Okanagan desert to the Alpine Meadows comes almost instantly, and I saw deer tracks in the gravel by the side of the road. The road continued to wind and go up. The pitch wasn't all that steep, but I had just descended several hundred meters so if I was going to go back up again I'd have rather just stayed at my previous elevation, thankyouverymuch. No such choice, I'm afraid. Finally I saw a sign that read "Anarchist Summit". Well finally. Now I don't know about all the people that wrote about Hope Sloide being the toughest climb on the route out of BC. Maybe they followed Hwy97 North from Osoyoos, or even Green Lake Road from Keremeos. Or Hwy1 North from Hope. But this pass was definitely the most challenging I'd faced this far.

Bombing down the far side of Anarchist Summit was fun and even though the road wasn't great, I made good time. Green pastures and fields, huge expanses of forest, tiny towns, and some river who's name I don't know. I was now in the Kettle Valley, and bombed down into a little town where I saw a sign that read: "fresh espresso / ice cream / wireless". SOLD! Of course at 18:20 it was closed, so I settled for a coke at the gas station and my cheese bun. There I struck up a conversation with a painter who also owns a Brodie (the manufacturer of my bike). Like a lot of people I've met, this is a trip that he's always wanted to do as well. He turned out to be a photographer as well as a painter, and wanted to take a picture - so I posed with my bike for a while and he gave me his card so that I could email him and he'd send me copies. Cool.

I continued on to Midway (only 19km!) and when I rolled by for some reason I just didn't feel like stopping. It was well past 19:00 and I'd left Keremeos at 08:40. Greenwood was just 12km down the road, so I kept rolling. Naturally that was 12km of rolling hills... :p

Made Greenwood by ~20:00. A solid day. I had to pass up a few excellent looking "stealth camping" spots because I only had 1/2 a bottle of water left, and needed a lot more than that to make it through the night - so after stopping in town proper for some recovery fuel I ended up in the most ghetto motel in which I've ever set foot. I kept my flip-flops on full time, including in the shower. Great recommendation by the owner of the quik-e-mart. Ah well - it was cheap. :p

Stats

Total Ride Time: 7:54
Total Elapsed Time: 11:20
Total Mileage: 134.7
Avg Speed: 17
Max Speed: 71.3

Breakfast! (I stashed the cheese bun for later and went in for another cup of coffee and another sausage roll)

Spotted Lake, at the top of Richter Pass

The base of Anarchist Pass

A little further up (but nowhere near as close to the top as I had hoped)

Looking down toward Osoyoos (man, this thing just keeps on going...)

And going...

Proof that I'm having the time of my life...

And yet this damed road STILL goes up...

West Kootenay Boundary!

Goodbye Okanagan desert, hello Alpine Meadows!

FINALLY - the summit!

In the Kettle Valley

More of the Kettle Valley

Day 3 - Redemption

2010-06-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

My alarm went off at 07:20. I know when I'm really tired because it takes a while for me to figure out what that sound is. The more tired I am, the longer it takes. Today took a LONG time. I turned it off and rolled over - I could hear the rain driving against the window and was in no hurry to get up and face the day. Finally at 08:30 I sat up and figured I'd better get moving. They had given me a coupon for $10 off breakfast, so I wandered across the parking lot to the restaurant. It was still raining, though not super hard. That changed quickly after I ordered, and I watched the rain come down in buckets. A tour bus pulled up and I looked at it. It read: International Tours - Vancouver Island/Vancouver/Okanagan. "I'm headed for the Okanagan" I thought, and wondered if there was room in the cargo hold for my bike. "If I'm sitting on a bus I'm technically still riding..." If the driver had wandered into the restaurant and offerred me a ride, I'd have considered it. I thought about staying another day "to rest", but there's no internet access at Manning Park - not even cell coverage. That killed that idea rather quickly and I went back to my room (through the pouring rain) to get ready to ride. "At least I'll make it to Princeton". With a (very) modest goal in mind, I set off. It had stopped raining by then (11:24) but it looked like the skies were going to open up again at any minute. Off I went. The road East from Manning Resort starts downhill, which was nice.

There are a few climbs and one pass worth noting, but I wasn't worried about them just yet. All I wanted to do was get my legs moving. The first climb hit and I was roasting in my rain gear. Well this is dumb... I had already opened up the vents on both my jacket and pants, but that wasn't cutting it. I took off my rain pants and put on my knee warmers. The pants went away. The jacket came off as well, but stayed out - close at hand. I still didn't trust the weather. Slogged my way up the pass with nothing in my legs, but I wasn't deathmarching - I was just really tired and unmotivated. This was not where I wanted to be. I called a bunch of people in my head on the way up to Sunday Summit. Mostly people with large vehicles, so that they could come and get me. :p Jen and Julian were both out the door on my word. But Simon would have none of it. He wouldn't even listen to me kvetch. "I don't want to hear it, brother - just keep going and call me from Princeton. You have to get there anyway." Bugger. I kept climbing. Sunday Pass is a little lower than Alison Pass (maybe by 100m or so) and I remembered that after cresting the summit it descends but you still have to climb a couple more times before the long downhill into Princeton. I stopped at the summit for some Coke and a Snickers bar. Gotta keep the fuel stores high.

My legs seemed to come back to "life" after that first climb. They certainly didn't have any snap in them, but they felt less dead than when started the day. As I crossed the border into the Similkameen Valley, the skies suddeny turned blue, white puffy clouds appeared, it got warmer, and my mood changed from "survival" to enjoyment. I was having FUN again. That bloody Simon's always right... The final few climbs into Princeton went by pretty well, and soon I was in town looking for food. After putting up my mini-update I hit the road again with a goal of Keremeos in mind. I thought about pushing it to Osoyoos, but with the seven rollers and then Richter Pass I was worried about digging a hole deeper than I'd be able to crawl back out. I figured I'd see how the legs felt. Hedley came and went, and I stopped for another Coke and a Mars bar. The wind was at my back, and I was feeling good. The road got lumpy after that and I was starting to tire out. My butt wasn't happy anymore, so I called it when I finally got to Keremeos. I cruised around and found a park with a water spigot but there were "NO overnight camping" signs posted and a squad car cruising by. (really?) I rolled a little further down the path and found a suitable campsite amongst a stand of trees. I cooked dinner, set up my hammock, got eaten alive by mosquitos, and called it a night. A crazy, WINDY night. By the time this trip is done I anticipate that I'll be completely ambivalent towards mosquitos. Or insane. One or the other...

Final Day3 Stats:

Total Ride Time 5:28
Total Elapsed Time: 7:15
Total Mileage: 137.46
Avg Speed: 25.1
Max Speed: 73.1

The full complement of wet weather gear

The climb to Sunday Summit

Summit Achieved!

Beautiful sunny skies on the way to Princeton

The beautiful Similkameen River

Fuel stop in Hedley

After Day 2's self-portrait I figured that I'd better take another...

Such beautiful countryside...

Camp

Dinner

Day 3 mini - update

2010-06-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

He's alive!!!!!

Bit of a rough start to the morning, and the rain was coming down in sheets. If they had internet access in Manning Park I just might have stayed another day. As it was, I rolled out @ 11:24.

No legs, but not deathmarching either. I'll take it. There's some climbing between Manning and Princeton (where I currently sit in Quiznos, pirating internet access from one of the local motels) but I made my way up them without too much trouble. Not feeling great, but nothing like yesterday. Crossing the threshold into the Similkameen Valley and it was like magic - bright blue skies, white puffy clouds, and SUN! A headwind, too. But SUN! That improved my mood greatly.

Stats this far:

Total Elapsed Time: 3:40
Total Ride Time: 2:58
Mileage: 68.2km
Avg Speed: 22.9kph
Max Speed: 73.1 (at this point I sat up and feathered the brakes because the road was still a little wet and I'm a total chicken descender)

On to Hedley, possibly Keremeos tonight. We'll see how things roll.

Dr. Nolove

2010-06-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

(or, how I learned to stop worrying and love my 22t chainring)

Day 1 was awesome. Can I just reiterate how well Day 1 went? Even with the gale force gusts at the end, it was simply an amazing day out on the road. I'd have been hard pressed to ask for a better day riding.

Not so much for Day 2... I woke up tired. Really tired. I had crashed at 21:30 pretty much exhausted, and dreamt alternately of being thirsty and having to pee. Not the best of signs, in retropspect. The day broke cool and overcast, with heavy cloud cover and moderate winds. Perfect, I said to myself. A nice cool day to climb Hope Slide. I wouldn't have wanted a hot and sunny day for that as I don't do all that well in the heat. After a free "continental" breakfast at the motel I got a bit of a late start - rolling out at 09:15. As I made my way with heavy legs and a somewhat sore butt, I noted that it's all uphill to the Hwy3 turnoff. Not a "significant" climb - just uphill enough to be annoying when you're starting the day tired. It was nice and cool however, and I got several friendly honks from other (assumed) cyclists as they drove by.

Once I made the turn onto Hwy3 I got a brief descent, and then a bit of a headwind to the base of Hope Slide. I've driven this road before, though not that recently, and remember it being long - but not all that steep. It was steep enough to have me spinning my 22t chainring, alternating between the top 3 cogs in the back depending on the pitch. It was then that I noticed that apparently it's somewhat difficult to grab a bottle when you're climbing at 7kph on a loaded touring bike. That necessitated stops when I wanted water, so I took a few opportunities to take pictures as well. Not long after the road turned up in earnest I had my vest wide open and my arm warmers rolled down to my wrists. The climb continued, and it got foggy. Very foggy. I stopped to turn on my rear flasher just in case. At some point in the top 3rd of the climb I got really cold. This is odd for me - normally I run pretty warm. I was close to freezing by the time I reached the summit, and pulled into the rest stop to pull on a jacket. As I was rummaging around for food, a minivan with an empty bike rack pulled in beside me. The guy dragged out a large sandwich board and as if on cue, a roadie appeared to fill his bottles and grab a rain cape. I chatted with the driver for a while as I ate a panini, and learned that this was a fundraising ride from Vancouver to Banff. Within 5 or 10min another roadie pulled up and the two took off like they were on a mission. The SAG driver offerred me some water, which I was only too happy to accept, and I shared some beef jerky with him. He mentioned that they had ridden from Vancouver to Agassiz yesterday, and that their goal was Manning Park today. He asked where I was headed and I told him that my goal was Princeton today, and hopefully St John's Nfld in 8n weeks. He asked where I spent last night and I told him Hope, which he thought was funny as the unsupported guy was out distancing the supported guys. (make note of that) I thanked him for the water and took off, enjoying the brief descent/descending false flats into the Sunshine Valley (which I have to say, has almost never been sunny when I've gone through). Maybe 1/2 an hr to 40min of easy cruising later I saw a sign that said "Manning Park 40km".

About 5km after that, the wheels came off. Completely. I'm not really certain what happened there but I had no legs, no power, no energy, and I was quite unhappy. Assuming that I'd bonked (though odd, as I'd eaten not long ago) I force fed myself another panini and some peanut butter M&Ms. Things started to go downhill from there, and it was a steady cycle of: ride. stop. rest. drink. "motivational speech unfit for the ears of children". ride. Question the brilliance of planning more daily mileage than pretty much anyone I'd met thus far on the trip, read about while planning the trip, or heard about as "normal" for a tour. stop. rest. Wonder about what the people watching the GPS tracker were thinking. contemplate turning off said GPS tracker. Decide that too many people would freak out if it suddenly stopped broadcasting, so best to just endure the public suckage. ride. stop. rest. drink. etc

At some point in there I lost the ability to efficiently thermoregulate. Normally I run a little warm, but I was alternating between freezing and boiling (and all points in between) without any apparent rhyme or reason. I noted it, and kept plodding along in my misery. It was at about this time that I got a brief reprieve in the form of Andrea. Andrea's a gal who works with Julian at West Point Cycles, and remembered me from when I went in there with a cleat that had pulled out of my shoe and was stuck in the pedal. Julian rides with her sometimes and this was initially confusing to me because she totally reminds me of a good friend of mine - also named Andrea (Andy). She also describes pretty much exactly the same, only maybe 15 years younger. She's cute and has a very bubbly personality so naturally I was quite happy to see her. Andrea is also doing that Vancouver to Banff fundraising ride and was floating along solo in about 3rd position, happy as ever. We chatted for the 30s it took for her to drop me (and it only took that long because she slowed down) and she carried on her merry way. My spirits remained uplifted for maybe 5 or 10min. Then it was back to the suck.

An eternity later I passed a sign that read "Maning Park 20km". I can't say I took seeing that sign particularly well. It did however, cement the reality that Princeton wasn't going to happen today. Princeton's another ~70km past the Manning rest area, and a hilly 70km at that. Back to suffering, with the stops becoming more and more frequent.

I was running low on water. There was a river beside the highway, but it was down a very steep embankment and looked to be about a class II rapid. With my luck I'd fall in and get swept away. Nope. Not gonna do it. Just keep on sucking.

I force-fed myself the last of my sandwiches and 2 handfulls of peanut butter M&M's. Downed the last of my water, and figured I'd give it my best shot at a run for Manning (as opposed to the deathmarch I had been doing for the past millennia). At this point I met a guy also on a touring bike (though significantly less laden than mine) who's on a six week trek - as far East as he can get. He stopped to fuel up and I told him that I'd see him @ Manning. I carried on, and thought that I was pretty close - the road wasn't going up anymore. Well - not really. It started to dip down a bit and I almost jumped for joy when at last I saw the highway gate. The highway gate is the point on the road where they close it if the weather is bad and they don't want people driving over the pass. That means that it's downhill from the gate. Soon after I came upon the Alison Pass Summit sign. At 1342m it's not the highest pass that I'll traverse by far. But it kicked my ass something fierce, so I stopped to take a picture. As I was getting ready to leave Neil came by (the other touring guy) and suggested that he take my picture so that I'd get to be in one. Then I took his picture with his camera, and rolled off.

I bombed down the pass and was quite annoyed to see another rise, but it was just a little bugger to mock me before the final descent into Manning.

With Antonella's voice in my head and knowing that things weren't going well with my thermoregulation issues, I checked into the lodge rather than camping. A hot shower, some food and a Guiness (and watching a replay of the NZ/IT game) and here I sit - exhausted, thirsty, and with extremely dead legs. They have a pool and a hot tub here, so I'm going to soak them and do a little hot/cold therapy. Maybe that will restore them. At least somewhat...

I think I can make Osoyoos tomorrow and then I'll take another look at the maps to see if I want to continue this Hwy3 route or if I might opt for a longer but less hilly option. (I believe that Pat & Goran made a similar decision in Penticton) If my legs come back I'd like to stay the course; but if they feel like they're going to take several days to come back online, perhaps discretion is the better half of valour. My butt is really sore, too - but I don't think there's a whole lot I can do about that until I get to Princeton (forgot to pack chamois cream).

No internet @ Manning, so this will go up tomorrow or maybe the next day. We'll see when I get internet access.

Stats for Day 2: because you can't lie well without statistics!

Distance Travelled: 67km
Total Elapsed Time: 6:35
Total Ride Time: 4:42
Average Speed: 14.2kph
Max Speed: 65.3kph

Food for the day

At the base of Hope Slide - 6k to the top, and only 121 to Princeton. Easy!

None of these do the climb justice, but anyway...

Well after the wheels came off. Look at how happy I am!

I actually am happy here. Thrilled, as a matter of fact.

Day 1 in the books...

2010-06-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

After surviving several of my dear friends' attempt to leave me in a meat coma come this morning with a going away dinner at Samba, I made it up (albeit a touch late) and finished packing. There was just no way that was going to happen last night... :p Julian picked me up and after dumping my car off at my folks' place, we headed to Kits Beach to meet up with Linda. It was an absolutely gorgeous day - sunny but not hot, with a light breeze.

My route out of the city took me past both Tartine (kickass bakery) and Chinatown ('nuff said) and I'm proud to say that I didn't stop for a snack at either! I actually rolled pretty well, making Haney in 2hrs and Mission in ~2:30 - where I stopped to fill a bottle and had a Coke and a Snickers bar. It got a little tougher after that as the first 2:30 felt really smooth and easy, but the road got a little lumpy and I had to deal with more of a headwind once past Mission. I also hadn't done that many rides longer than 3hrs... :p I stopped again in Deroche for a slice of pizza as I knew my stores were low when after the 387th motorcyle went by I wondered why I hadn't opted to ride one of those instead. There's a bit of a "warmup hil" just outside Agassiz, and I rolled slowly up that in my 32x32. On the way down I hit 70kph and the bike was rock solid. That yellow burrito bag across the back does change the handling a bit, making it not quite as super-awesome as without - but it's still very stable and tracks incredibly well. One last stop on Seabird Island for fuel and the last push into Hope - my goal for Day 1. About 40min before I made it into Hope the weather changed dramatically - it snapped and got quite cool, the sky darkened and the wind picked up A LOT. That made the final approach much slower than I had been expecting. A massive motorcade came by in the other direction and the cops made me pull over to let it pass. It was some fundraising ride and they had a TONNE of support. At least six police vehicles, over a dozen trucks, and maybe 60 or 80 riders all rolling along in (mostly) matching kit. I don't know what ride they were doing but they were doing it in style! After they went by it was just a short hop into town - but still more difficult than I was expecting. Going over the highway overpass just outside of town the gusts were so strong that I had a really tough time making forward progress! I was in my 32 (middle) front ring, high in the back, and barely moving forward. If the wind had been like that in Vancouver as I was starting out I'd have called it and started tomorrow. :p

I finally made it to Hope and the weather looked like it was going to get very ugly in a hurry. After a quick stop for recovery fuel I made the tactical decision to be a wuss and checked into a motel. :D There will be plenty of opportunities for me to sufer through crappy weather, but I didn't feel pressed to start tonight.

Stats for Day 1:

Total Distance: 157km
Total Elapsed Time: 8hrs
Total Ride Time: 6hrs 40min
Maximum Speed: 70kph
Average Speed: 23.5kph (that's going to go down tomorrow! :p)

Ride Pics:

The view from some bridge between Haney and Agassiz

Professional style ride fueling...

It wasn't that big of a hill, but it came late enough in the day and I had been battling headwinds long enough that it made me ornery. :p

That's pretty much what I rode today

Tomorrow I face the infamous "Hope Slide" - arguably the toughest climb I'll face; though one of the guys I met earlier today seemed to like talking about how hilly Hwy3 is, and how the passes just keep coming. :p I guess I'll be able to tell you all in about a week.

T minus one week and counting...

2010-06-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

I leave in less than seven full days. In one week, minus a few hours, I'll be on the road for real. Not "training". Not "a shakedown ride", but actually on my way. I'm not typically the sort to get intimidated, and generally don't really worry about much - but I have to say, I am somewhat intimidated now.

Last week I went to BCAA to get a flip map. We used to get them when I was a kid and my folks were planning a road trip. It's pretty cool - you follow the highlighted line, flip the page, and keep going. In order to make one I had to draw out my route (as best as possible) on a big map of Canada. Then they send it in and turn it into a flip map. Up until that point all my planning had been via Google Maps. Strangely, it looks a LOT farther on a single sheet map! I also got some smaller maps that will allow me to see more details such as smaller roads, etc. But it was looking at it on a big map that all of a sudden made it look like a really significant undertaking. Yes, I'm not really that dumb - I knew how far it was. But for some reason, seeing it all on a big map of Canada makes it seem bigger.

Today I loaded up the bike with about 30lbs and went out to ride the North Shore. I haven't ridden this bike with a balanced, heavy, load yet and I wanted to see how the bike handled. Specifically, when climbing and descending. So I rode out to Deep Cove via Stanley Park, the Low Road and Dollarton, up part of Mt Seymour, and back. The good news is that it handles really nicely. I was descending at ~70kph and everything felt rock solid. My new brake pads are awesome. The tracking is good, and the long wheelbase and trail of the fork/headtube allow it to handle the weight very well. Everything is just smooth and predictable. Climbing at ~6kph really sucks though... No Cancellara button, unfortunately.

My GPS tracker has been functioning fairly well, and so I now present to you all the url where you should be able to track me most of the time. It might not send if I run out of batteries, or forget to turn it on, or whatever - but for the most part you should be able to get a decent idea as to where I am. Note that it doesn't follow roads, and as such does a poor job of mapping out the actual route traveled. It does however, pinpoint GPS coordinates on a map so that so can see a general trend. You're all smart people and ought to be able to figure out the rest: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ghCxT3Q7TUZ6zp6xX2Itq0qftjbyJ1SJ Bookmark the link, ,or else just come back here when you want to see where I am.

I had the great misfortune to ride past the "World Naked Bike Ride" on my way home. They were coming towards me, and as much as I tried to avert my eyes I still got a few glimpses that will take a while to forget. Some of them yelled at me to take off my kit and join them, but really - no-one wants that. I certainly don't want that. There's no possible upside, and more down than I care to consider.

Just a few days left to finish gear testing and get organized. It doesn't seem like enough time. I suppose it never is.

Surprise?

2010-05-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

I've never really been one for surprise parties. Which is part of the reason why I was so completely shocked when my AWESOME friends threw a surprise going away party for me last weekend. I had been told that it was in celebration of Linda's having made partner at her law firm, but that it was being disguised as a pre-reno party for her so that she wouldn't catch on. That Imelda... she's a cunning one. In the end I'm not entirely sure how many people were involved in the planning but it seems to have been a fair amount of work. Derek showcased his mastery as an artist, and the guest list was kind of like a game of "six degrees of Gregg".

I showed up late, with Julian, who had been updating everyone as to my whereabouts - so it seemed like I fell right into their little plan quite handily. Once I figured out that it wasn't Linda's party, but mine, (and why), my shock was apparently quite obvious as I was unusually quiet for a little while - and not because my mouth was full, either. :p

Way too much food, some tasty beer, and a showing of the RAAM movie - "for motivation". Right. Well. I've never really been one for sleep deprivation, but I do like riding long - and the RAAM is a pretty badass race.

In keeping with my pledge to Auntie Ella that I would keep everyone up to date, and at the request of my father, I've procured a SPOT II GPS tracking device. This works in two ways. One way is to give me a button to push in case I'm mauled by a bear but somehow miraculously survive the attack (with the beacon). Then I can push the SOS button and the device will send a message to a tracking service who will call in the A-Team, having pinpointed my exact location. (A domestic terrorist bear, okay?) With BA as my shepherd, I shall not want. The second way (and why I chose this device over a more "hardcore" PLB) is because it provides regular tracking - that is to say, entertainment for you folks. Every 10min it sends out a message to the system with my GPS coordinates, which can be tracked via Google Maps on a website I'll publish once I get this device figured out. Then you can see that it took me 1.5hrs to scale a pass and only 9min to descend the other side. Or see how fast I got through MB. Or wonder why I stopped for 3hrs in the middle of the day, just outside Chicoutimi. Thus, even without blog updates you'll be able to see where I am.

That's a bit of a weird concept, actually...

A small tribute to a great friend...

2010-05-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes genius strikes and you can take all the credit (like riding a fixed gear bike in a half Ironman triathlon, or feasting upon hot! biryani for lunch with a time trial slated for later that evening...). Other times it's blatantly obvious that inspiration was bestowed upon you by a greater power - something not of this world. Something... from beyond.

I've been riding the new bike unladen - just getting used to it, dialing in the fit and testing out certain componentry decisions. It's going back in on Wed for some swapping of stuff, which is handy because I'll be out on Thursday night and then have to fly Friday morning - so I won't really miss riding it. Today I thought that I really ought to break in the rack. But how? I guess I could fill some waterbags and put on the panniers... But that's not really any fun. What to do? WWSD? (that's What Would Simon Do?) Just then, inspiration struck.

Only a small load for the first time out...

As a matter of fact, that box was empty for most of my ride. But on my way home, I stopped and picked up some very special cargo.

This one's for you, Simon.

I wasn't sure that I had my 4:1 carb:protein ratio dialed, so I figured I'd best hedge my bets with a little Stumpkin...

New Bike Day! ( Redux)

2010-05-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

For real this time. Ed's shop has been absolutely SLAMMED for the past two weeks, so I had to wait a little longer than anticipated. Well - maybe not had to - but I did. It's not like I didn't have a bike to ride at all, and as I mentioned in my previous post, don't mind him taking a little longer with the build. I was very excited to get it today, though...

Took it out for a little spin this evening and I'm definitely going to have to change a few things. Nothing major, but still things that need to be addressed. The fit is good however, and it handles like a touring bike ought, I suppose. It's kind of weird - everything is a little slower and smoother. I'm used to fairly quick handling - most of my bikes are race bikes, and handle as such. This one is definitely not a race bike. It's kind of like going from driving a snappy little sports car to an electric sedan. It goes, but it doesn't jump. The steering is slow. The center of gravity feels high. It's inherently very stable. And when you stomp on the pedals... well... it does react - but it takes its own sweet time. Like a stoned sprinter, ambling out of the blocks.

These pictures kind of suck, but I ran out of daylight and my apartment doesn't have very good lighting for photography... :p

I'll take it out again tomorrow for a slightly longer test ride, and then make up my mind about a few of the modifications I have in mind. As for my fitness, isn't there yet - but it's getting better all the time...

T minus seven weeks and counting...

2010-04-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's still not "New Bike Day". Ed called me today to apologize and I just laughed. I knew that bike was going to take a lot longer than a standard build, but neither of us expected his shop to get slammed the way it has this past week. He knows I'm not in any real hurry, and appreciates the extra time I can afford to give him. He's always treated me really well, so I'm certainly not disinclined to do him the odd favour. It all comes out in the wash.

Training has officially begun. It actually comes back fairly quickly - one of the nice things about having been a cyclist (even if an inactive one) since before I could drive. I rode Sunday, Wednesday, and today (Friday). Sunday felt "good to be back out there". Wed was "not bad... not bad at all..." Today I had just a glimmer of what it was like to be a roadie again. I don't really have any fitness per se, but it's coming back. Assuming I can keep this up, I should be in pretty decent shape in seven weeks - and in fifteen weeks I should be in AWESOME shape! :p

Phil pointed out that my Google maps are all messed up in the post from a few days ago. I'm not sure what went on there but I'm going to leave it up just because I think it's interesting how it's changed - and to see if it changes any more. Below is the most recent set of maps, with (somewhat arbitrary) endpoint destinations for each riding day. There are some big days in there, and I won't be shocked if I don't hit them all - but at least it's something of a plan and I have enough slack days built in there to accommodate a few shorter days plus a few days off the bike entirely. Also benefiting my schedule (though somewhat of a bummer) is that I'm going to miss my sister, bro-in-law and nephew. They're going to England, and I won't make it that far before they leave (looks like I'll be about a week too late). That's disappointing, but it also allows me to cut ~400km off the route and save 4-6 days as I had planned a few days off to play with my nephew and eat pie. (If anyone else wants to feed me pie on my way through, I certainly won't turn you down!)

Here's the most up to date itinerary:

Day1	Hope	155
Day2	Princeton	134
Day3	Midway	184
Day4	Salmo	187
Day5	Cranbrook	190
Day6	Sparwood	125
Day7	Ft MacLeod	131
Day8	Medicine Hat	221	AB
Day9	Swift Current	224	SK
Day10	Rouleau	226
Day11	Manor	226
Day12	Glenboro	215	MB
Day13	Ste Anne	207
Day14	Kenora	168	ON
Day15	Dryden	137
Day16	Lac des Mille	126
Day17	Thunder Bay	156
Day18	Pays Plat 51	175
Day19	White River	209
Day20	Lake Sup Prov	143
Day21	Sault St Marie	171
Day22	Espanola	237
Day23	North Bay	203
Day24	Petawawa	210
Day25	Ottawa	163
Day26	Mirabel	148	QC
Day27	Trois Rivieres	160
Day28	Valin	147
Day29	St Simeon	166
Day30	Van Buren	237	ME
Day31	Dalhousie	184	NB
Day32	Miramichi	162
Day33	Bayfield	193
Day34	Wood Islands	136	PEI
Day35	Port Hawkesbury	166	NS
Day36	Sydney Mines	147	NFLD
Day37	St Georges	144
Day38	Rte 1	189
Day39	Grand Falls-Windsor	150
Day40	Gambo	143
Day41	Arnold's Cove	160
Day42	St John's	142

Map - Part I

Map - Part II

Hopefully with discrete points laid out frequently through both maps, Google won't be tempted to deviate and find me a "better" route... :p

New Bike Day!!!

2010-04-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

D'oh! I was supposed to get my touring bike this afternoon, but apparently the good folks at Mighty are understaffed today - so it's not going to be ready. Bummer. Oh well. Hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow... :p

Falling into place...

2010-04-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

Just checked off another box in the pre-ride prep. I've had my eye on laser vision correction for - oh, maybe 15 years now... I just never prioritized it enough to cough up the money. Riding in glasses kind of sucks however, and the idea of contact lenses while camping (and less than ideal cleanliness of hands) sketches me out. Time to pony up some bucks and get my eyes done.

I visited 3 different shops for an initial consultation and opted for the one that I felt the most comfortable with (and also with the doc who's done more procedures than anyone in the area, as far as I can tell - Dr King has done over 50,000 procedures). Clearly Lasik in Metrotown. I went in for the procedure yesterday afternoon, slept the rest of the day/night, and woke up able to see. My vision isn't "perfect" just yet, as the eyes are still healing and I've got a lot of junk (various drops) in there. Hard edges and lines aren't sharp, and sometimes it takes a second to focus - but I'm told that this is all perfectly normal and that things will stabilize within the week. I went in for a follow up visit today and was tested at 20/15. This means that I can see at 20' what "people with normal vision" can see at 15'. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased.

Now if I could just stop trying to take off my glasses before I put in my drops...

The Route...

2010-04-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Many people have been asking if I've got my route settled, if I'll be passing nearby/through x town, what my itinerary is, etc. Here is a Google Map of my route: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=vancouver,+bc&daddr=HWY+3%2FHWY+3B%2FHWY+93+to:HWY+13+to:Dawson+Rd+to:Pim+St+to:King%27s+Hwy+6+to:Route+27%2FCounty+Rd-27+to:King%27s+Hwy+12+to:King%27s+Hwy+7+to:County+15+Rd%2FCounty+Rd-15+to:Franktown+Rd+to:Prince+of+Wales+Dr+to:Boulevard+Maloney+E+to:Route+148+to:Route+40+E+to:St+Peter+Ave+to:Hopedale+Rd+to:Route+1+E&geocode=FeSz7wId-w2p-CmN3LASwnOGVDEACnsqFTUBBQ%3BFVIb9AIdclYb-Q%3BFSLg9QIdpvLb-Q%3BFeRs4wIdDuCt-g%3BFZi4xQIdYmP5-g%3BFVrysAId4sYk-w%3BFRTYqAIdIEQ9-w%3BFV66qAIdXJJD-w%3BFYCwpAIdZHtN-w%3BFYugqwId2X17-w%3BFcnWsAIdFpJ5-w%3BFThdswId0eJ8-w%3BFcoEtgIdwD5--w%3BFSB_uAIdgsqK-w%3BFdZOwgIdVAKq-w%3BFfLU1gId-u4V_A%3BFUw0wwIdhDc5_A%3BFayE1gIdssDb_A&hl=en&mra=mr&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16&sll=45.721522,-63.231812&sspn=1.114059,2.142334&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=44.86755,-80.425415&spn=2.16463,4.224243&z=8

It's a little rough, but that's the general idea. If it looks like I'm riding down a major freeway (like the 401 in Ontario, for example), I'm probably on a much smaller road that runs closely parallel to it (Hwy 2 in this case). I do appreciate feedback from people however, as for much of this route I just picked what looked good on the map and have no freakin' clue as to whether that particular road is good for cycling or if riding there would be a deathwish. So comment away and tell me I'm a dumbass - it's nothing I haven't heard before... :p

As for an itinerary, I need to be near a moderate sized airport by Saturday, Aug 14th at the latest. Regardless of whether I've been chillin' in St John's for a few days or for some reason never made it past Princeton, I'll be coming home. I figure that barring any weird unforseen circumstances, making Montreal is a lock. PEI should definitely be doable. It's that last ~1400k push to St John's that's really in question to me. We'll just have to see what the road and Fortune give me...

Speaking of Fortune, I just signed my online organ donor form (signing the back of your DL don't cut it no mo'). If you might die sometime, even if you aren't planning on it, you should sign up. It's not like you'll be needing them where you're going...

BC peeps can do it here: https://www.transplant.bc.ca/

And so it begins...

2010-04-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well actually, it began nearly 20 years ago when I first decided that I wanted to do this ride. It's just taken me a while to get organized, prioritized, secure time off work, etc. Back then I was in pretty decent shape. Not so much this time around. But I do have a wealth of "experience". Yeah, experience. Experience is what we call the failures that didn't kill us. And I have a boatload of those!

My departure date (D-day) is looming less than 10 weeks away, and rather than having spent the past year diligently training I had shoulder surgery, spent some time skiing, spent some time cooking and baking, spent a pile of time and effort reducing the probability that I'll ever see the damage deposit on my apartment again, and generally not riding my bike very much at all. I've done some reading, though... Reading that tells me my goal of St John's, Nfld and timeline of 8 weeks is "aggressive" to say the least.

I'm now finishing up the "research" part of my pre-ride preparations and am well into the procurement phase. As usual, things didn't go exactly as planned there, either. Still, I press on.

T minus 10 weeks and counting...