Week 1

August 22, 2013

Dist: 54kms Avg: 13.9kph
Deer Lake to Corner Brook

     We were on the rock and were ready to roll.  Even our bikes were raring to go rearing up like stallions waiting to bust out of the corral.  At 10:45 after a great breakfast of bacon, eggs and moose sausage we finally set off heading to Corner Brook at minimum, and hopefully beyond toward Stephenville.

It soon became apparent that we were dreaming in technicolour!  Lord a'thunderin' it was blowin' a gale, as they say in these parts.  We were immediately codswalloped by a steady 50 kilometer/hour wind smack in our gobs. Vicious wind gusts rocked and rolled us like dinky toys making it very difficult to keep a straight line or move much faster than 12 - 14 kph.  On top of all this, we had hills to contend with.  Big hills and bigger hills.  We hadn't counted on starting our journey in this fashion at all - especially after that hiking slogfest on Gros Morne mountain yesterday.  At least we had a good highway with a decent shoulder, but there was plenty of traffic so with the wind trying to blast us off the road, we had to be super vigilant to stay out of danger.

After a while we came upon a Dept. of Highways weigh scale so we chatted up the attendant and asked him if we could weigh our bikes - he scratched his head a bit then said 'sure why not?  Just wait for the traffic to clear.'  When the numbers  came in, Jim's load was 75 lb., Gene's was 110 lbs. and mine was 100 lbs.  including our bikes.  This gave us pause to scratch our heads a bit, but I guess the figures don't lie.  We thanked our jovial weighmaster and proceeded to the next town of Pasadena, some 10 kms. further ahead ( and no we didn't see the little old lady the Beachboys used to sing about).  Once we inched into town, our first stop was the Foodland store where we purchased some viddles and had a parking lot lunch.  I paid $3.49 for the same sandwich I paid $11.29 at the Toronto airport the other day.  Ouch!  What a hose-job!  Anyway, it all went down well and we were soon back on the road where the murderous headwinds tried to eat us alive.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!  It was the best because this part of the country is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and the people are wonderful. It was the worst of times as we struggled mightily with the wind, heat and hills and could not divert our eyes from the road even for a minute to appreciate the beauty of  our surroundings.
     As we rolled past the Marble Mountain ski area the wind funneled into our faces even harder and we estimated the wind gusts at about 65 - 70 kph.  It was enough to make a grown man cry but we soldiered on and after a few more miserable hours we approached Cornerbrook only to be met with the worst hill of the day.

Several huge blasts stopped us almost dead in our tracks but we finally made it into town - downhill all the way into the downtown section (we shuttered at the prospect of a huge climb out of town tomorrow morning).

We booked into the first hotel (Greenwood - formerly Holiday Inn) we found and got a decent, but expensive room ($128.00/night) and after a quick clean-up, we hit the Moose and Crown Tavern within the confines of the hotel and got hosed again - $20.24 for 3 draft.  We had some decent beer at Zander's Saloon in Deer Lake for $2.00 a pop. just 2 days ago. What gives?  At any rate, rather than go searching for another restaurant, we ate at the hotel outdoor patio and had an excellent Italian meal of Chicken Parmigana while Gene feasted on liver, onions and soup.  It was all good.  We should sleep well tonight.

     The distance we covered today (54 km) was paltry, barely a warm-up for experienced distance cyclists such as ourselves, but for me, it was the toughest 54 kms. I have ever peddled.  It was not a lot of fun, and I'm sure I speak for the other 2 amigos as well.
     Our life lesson for today:  Sometimes you just have to accept what Providence gives you, and today it didn't give us much to cheer about.

This blog posted by Fabio

**

August 23, 2013
Dist: 70km Avg: 14.8  Time: 4:45
Corner Brook to Barachois Park

Tribute ride to Angelo Pollari (see full obituary here)

Corner Brook to Barachois Provincial Park. 69.18k, Average speed 14.7kph Riding time of 4 hours, 42 minutes.

We dedicate today's segment of our journey to our friend Angelo Pollari who past away this week. Angelo was a dedicated cyclist and will be missed by the cycling community of Thunder Bay.

Up at 8:00 am, overcast, breakfast at the motel, on the road by 10:00 am. The climb out of town up to highway 1 was six kilometers at around 15% grade, what a way to start the  day. Once on highway 1 we encountered construction for approximately 20 kilometers. Once out of the construction the wind again picked up right in our face, welcome to Newfoundland. We found no services on this stretch of highway after the 15k mark. The sky continued to darken and by 2 o'clock the sky's opened up and boy did it rain. On came all of our new rain gear but, we couldn't get it on fast enough and wet we were. Soon are glasses came off as we could not see a thing it was raining so hard. We rode in heavy rain for several hours until we reached  Barachois Lake Provincial Park. The overnight site cost us $9.75 with hot showers and a laundromat, what a deal, I was still raining lightly while we put up our tents. It subsided long enough to have supper ( sandwiches and wraps ) which we had picked up en route. ( a good idea we learned from our last trip) After a hot shower and some laundry it was off to bed as were very tired and wet from our day. Today would not go down in the books as one of our better cycling days but it can only get better.

Todays blog by Jim. (we have to apologize for the  delay in the blog because of internet availability)

Note: If you have a Tbaytel cell phone don't bother to to bring it to Newfoundland as it won't work.

**

August 24, 2013
Distance: 100km AvgSd: 18.1 Time: 5:31
Barachois Park to South Branch

We awoke to a great day, sun shining, cool air and wet tents :) After packing everything up, we went to the laundromat and had breakfast outside on the bench that was there. We started talking to a frenchman and his wife who were both cyclists from Quebec City. After chatting with them for a while we started the grueling climb out of the park.... low gear almost all the way to the entrance.

Today we actually had favourable winds, but still had some decent climbs throughout the day. Here's a question and answer from Fabio...

Question: What do you call a cyclist doing 20kph in Newfoundland?
Answer: A speed demon.

We stopped in at the next gas station we came across around the 20 km mark and had a great breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. We asked about the availability of the next gas station and got a multitude of answers. Which reminds me, no one here knows how far anything is from anywhere. If you do get an answer your guaranteed it's going to be wrong. Same as the mileage on the maps, they'll be within 20% of what they're supposed to be :)

Another thing about the maps. If you think there's a town indicated by a circle, as normally done, it's not a town.... it's marking a river or bridge.... huh????

We cruised on until about 6:30 then pulled over in South Branch and pulled into an empty gravel lot with a garage on it. A women came out of the house next door and Fabio asked if we could pitch our tents there. She said just a minute then came out and said it would be ok. We proceeded to set up camp and also set up a clothes line to dry out all the wet stuff from yesterday's downpour. The fellow from next door came over to see us and chatted with us for at least 45 minutes. We had to laugh... Jimmy took a photo of a wolf that day and when we told this fellow, he said there's no wolves in Newfoundland.... so we showed him the photo. It took a few minutes for him to decide whether we were right, then he says..."By the Jesus, you know there was a ruckus in St. John's come to think of it." We couldn't help but laugh out loud again. He was quite the character.

After he left, it didn't take long to finish up putting things away and hitting the sheets. I don't think this was much after 8 pm :)

Gene

**

August 25, 2013
Distance: 60 km   AvgSp: 17.8 Time: 3:48
South Branch to Port-aux-Basques

We awoke from a really nice sleep to sunny skies, mild temperatures and a lots of blackflies, but I guess you can't have everything.  After an impromtu breakfast of p b & j wraps, old muffins and left-over bread on the back end of an old J-5 Bombardier muskeg buggy, we departed at about 9:45 in an excellent frame of mind.  Some 17 kms. down the road we met our first cyclist heading in the opposite direction to St. Anthony's.  He was on the second leg of a cross Canada trip having started this year in Winnipeg.  Among other things he warned us of the bad highways in NW Ontario.  I guess we're well-known in that area for all the wrong reasons.  Anyway, we exchanged best wishes and headed to our first refreshment stop in Doyles.  At the 27 km. mark we came to MacDougall Gulch which is where we again encountered the ocean.  What a magnificent panorama.  We pulled over to the side of the road and had our lunch while enjoying the view.  It was great.

There are signs posted in this area that winds have been recorded up to 200 kph.  That's a fine prospect when you're on a bike.  We soon felt a strange sensation at our backs - it turned out to be a tailwind!  It had been so long since we had that experience we had almost forgotten the feeling.  After a false detour into Cheeseman Provincial Park, we continued happily into Port-aux-Basques where we found a nice sports complex for a hot tub, swim and shower - all of us for $10.50.  Senior citizens do have some perks, I guess.  We had a very interesting experience when the place closed at 4:00 when Jimmie realized he had left his travel bag inside and everyone had gone home for the day.  More on that later as time is tight before we board the ferry.

(Next day)  We made our way to the ferry (The Highlands) in the dark at 9:30 for our departure at 11:45 PM and rolled right into the hold after only a short wait.  The loading, unloading, arrival and departure of this huge vessel is a very big deal with the vehicle marshaling yard crammed with semi-trailers, RV's, cars and miscellaneous vehicles (including 3 bikes).   We saw the spot in the harbour where this ship hit the shore a few weeks ago when the captain steered to starboard instead of to portside. Just one teeny, tiny mistake. Don't you just hate when that happens?
 

Hear no evil - speak no evil - see no evil

Wreckhouse area coming in Port aux Basques

Anyway all went well and we arrived in Sydney, NS at about 7:00 AM after a sleepless night on the high seas, tired but ready to go.

Highlande

At any rate, things are definitely improving and we've pretty well recovered from our ordeals of the past few days.  Hopefully, this trend will continue.

This blog posted by a tired Fabio.

Day 7 Monday Aug. 26th
North Sydney to Baddeck total distance 63 km at 3:55

Hwy to Baddeck

The ferry docked at 7:30 am, none of us had gotten much sleep on that trip, It's hard to sleep in a sitting position, anybody planning to use that ferry spend the extra money and get a cabin or at least a deluxe reclining chair it will be money well spent.

Unloading from the MV Highlands

North Sydney is a small community but we did find a local restaurant open so we stopped in to eat at Robenas' and get the local gossip. These local people are eager to talk and we found out the location of every store and restaurant for the days ride. After a quick stop at CTC for a new bungee and batteries we were off on Highway 105 heading west.

 The weather was perfect sunny and cool and no wind yet. After a short way we stopped into a convenience store for supplies for the day. The female attendant chatted us up and believe it or not she was born and raised in Thunder Bay and grew up in Marathon. How she came to live in Bras d'Or is another story.

Bras d' Or lake

The views were spectacular crossing may bridges and bays and eventually we crossed a huge bridge and were at the base of Kelly's mountain. The climb was 7 kilometers and rose to an elevation of 240 meters, it took exactly one hour to climb and reminded us of our days in BC.

Top of Kelly's mountain

The ride down the other side was shorter and the wind had picked up and was right in our faces and was not rewarding after our grueling climb. We stopped for lunch at South Haven it is here you can turn west and on to the Cabot Trail, this was nor our route on this trip. After a nice lunch we were heading west again with our destination Baddeck.

Lunch stop at South Haven

We had planned to stay there overnight as we were told there were not services until Canso Causeway. The town was very busy as this is the birthplace of Alexander Graham Bell but we found accommodation at The Telegraph House, probably named after it famous citizen. After a nice pizza and beer it was bed time, we all fell a sleep quickly. Tomorrow calls for rain, we will see what the morning brings.

Today's post by Jim

**

August 27
Dist: 94km  Avg: 19kph Time: 4:55   Elevation gain: 1600'
Baddeck to Port Hastings (The sine wave route... up, down, up, down, up, down, etc)

Had a great breakfast at the inn we were at then packed and set up for inclement weather, going by the local forecast. We stopped at the local co-op to pick up some extra ziplock baggies to keep our valuables dry.

We took the secondary side road out of town, this way we didn't have to climb the long hill back up to the middle access road into Baddeck. It didn't take long to start climbing even though we took the easier way out to Hwy 105. After a couple of hours of riding, the sun decided to break through the overcast skies we started with. The rest of the day was beautiful, even fairly hot at times during some of the climbs. The climbs actually got longer and higher as we got closer to the days destination.

About two thirds of the way here Fabio ended up with a flat tire, which we still can't find a hole in the tube... that's about 425 kms into the trip. Fab just did a water test and found the hole to be on the spoke side. If this happens again he might have to invest in another layer of rim tape.

On this trip so far, we've found we're getting chatted up by more people than last years trip.... probably because it's a touristy area. Quite a few people stopped to talk while we were having our roadside lunch in Whycocomagh.

Crossing the Canso Cuaseway

Thank goodness those clouds were behind us

Stopped in at the tourist info as we got in Port Hastings and got them to phone the Cove resort for a room and to see if they'd give us a bit of a discount. The first thing was to kick back to catch of breath and enjoy our $6 beers.... yikes... what's with that here? We did have a great meal in their restaurant after showers. The fish and chips were amazingly tasty.

The Cove Motel

Sorry, but it might be a while before we get any more photos online.... the chip reader decided to give up the ghost. Hopefully we can find another one in the next few days.

Cheers, Gene

**

August 28
Dist: 93.4  Avg:19.2  Time: 4:35
Port Hastings to Lower Barney River

We awoke to a pretty decent looking day even though the forecast called for afternoon showers.  Oh well - we had dodged the rain before and we were optimistic we'd do it again today.  To expedite matters, we had breakfast at the resort rather than go scouting around for an alternate venue and made our departure at 10:00.  The first 4.8 kms were a steady climb on a very busy TCH so after about 8 km we opted to take an alternate and more scenic route on Hwy 4 passing through several small burgs.  Here we met a lone cyclist biking from Vancouver to St. John's Nfld.  He cited Quebec as the best province to cycle through and Ontario as the hands-down worst.  Just great.  Anyway we bid our adieus and continued onward - we soon realized we had traded the high traffic volume and noise of the main highway for the hills and headwind of the road less traveled.  We felt this was a fair exchange and happily peddled onward.

David from Toronto

Once we re-entered the highway we were immediately assaulted by the noise and steady traffic we had tried to avoid earlier.  With 48 kms behind us, we came to a restaurant, Mother Webb's about 6 kms. out of Antigonish which was highly recommended by David, the cyclist we had met earlier.  Although it as very busy, the food was only so-so but we did enjoy a good beer and waited out a passing rain shower.

One of the many little churches in NS

Back on the bikes we set off again at a good pace through the town of Antigonish and back on the road paralleling Hwy 104.  We were starting to get tired of the wind and rolling hills and pondered our options.  Going all the way to New Glasgow - one of our pass-through towns tomorrow was deemed unfeasible so we either had to proceed on 104 and take our chances even though we were forewarned that there was nothing en route, or take an alternate route to a campground at Lower Barney R. which nobody seemed to know much about.  Gene wanted to go.  Jim wanted to stay.  I wanted to vomit.  We had no food, no solid info on available stores or accommodations.

Finally a car came by and the driver assured us there was a store and campground a maximum of 6 kms down the road.  Great - we felt refreshed, especially after filling our water bottles with cold, fresh water from a roadside spring and away we sped.  Six kms. rolled by.  Then 8.  Then 10.  Finally after 12 kms we found our turn-off, there was the store and the Cranberry Campground across the street.  It was a sight for sore eyes. We grabbed some vittles for a picnic supper and a few Alexander Keiths to wash down the road dust, checked into the campground and unwound.  After our meal and a shower we felt great again.  Tomorrow should be a nice leisurely peddle into PEI, however rain is once again in the forecast.

All-in-all, it turned out to be a very satisfying day - like a good bowl of Mother's chicken soup and a plate of perogies.  If you're still smiling at the end of the day, I guess it's been a pretty good one.  We're still smiling.

This blog posted by Fabio

We picked up two card readers at Dollarama today, so photos will be added again. gv

See Week 2 tab for more adventures