8/23/09: Segments 91 and 92 http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment91.html http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment92.html ; Cornerbrook, NFLD to west of west of Southbrook NFLD. 92 miles.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
Rained a bit last night but nothing terrible. Is it part of the hurricane? Don’t know really. We heard bits and pieces on the radio, but nothing definitive on the exact tract of this thing. Again, a nice, long night’s sleep with a late wake-up. Bill is the rooster of this crew now, with Barney dethrowned and taken his “second fiddle” status on early rising. I heard that Bill was torn down, packed and sitting on a camp chair by the time my lazy arse was up. Judy made it up third, me fourth, and now Ryan, my previous rooster for months of cycling mornings………last up!
The morning was humid and pretty sultry for NFLD, and the clouds were thick. But no rain to start the day off. We packed, loaded the van and headed back into town for breakfast. We chose a restaurant, Jungle Jims, of all places because it was right next to where we ended the ride yesterday at exit 5 in Cornerbrook. Yup, Jungle Jims, complete with a jungle motif in NFLD. Pretty crazy. I could buy like…….fishing motif……..pulp mill motif…….even Scottish motif…..but jungle motif? We all got a chuckle out of it. Now we were greeted and ordered with about 6 other people in the whole place. And then came the wait, and the wait, and the wait. We must have waited for 35 min for the food. Like they had to go out and buy the chickens to lay the eggs. But breakfast finally came and we were pasified with our food frenzy and all but forgot about the wait. The portions were big and many of us orded a side to go with the local Grand Slam.
Finished, and across the street to change to the Ultramar gas station to ready the bikes, get water, change into cycling gear. Then we were off. Barney, Ryan and I started out together. Bill is currently fighting the nortorious sinus infection, as he came down with his last night, so he opted to take the day off and just play support. Judy decided to let us warm up for an hour or so and then start to ride on her own and let us catch her. So that was the gamplan for today. We hoped to be able to do 70-100 miles today.
The three of us got going, with a slight uphill back to the freeway, QEW 1, and then did this long assed descent down 1 to the east out of Cornerbrook. By the time I was on the flats after the descent, I already had my shirt off due to the humidity. The roads were still wet from the previous night’s rain so we rode in the berm – wet and puddle – and on the inside of the white line – dry and comfy. Tough choice hah? Finally, when the road went from double lane to single lane on both sides, we really had to get inside the berm, so I rode on the right hand side of the white line, Ryan on the outside of the berm, and Barney in the middle of both of us, that so no one would get the other’s rooster tails from the wet road surface.
Today was minus that massive tailwind from yesterday, as it has shrunk to just a tad of a tailwind this morning. But heck, this was awesome considering that here in NFLD you can have rain and a horrible headwind for days on end. The big trade off from yesterday was that today we had way less big climbing. You could call today the day of the false flat climbing, because there were just a myriad of these, some just a mile or so, some lasting for a good 4-5 miles straight, stairstepping up and up for an eternity. BUT….we could maintain a good 18-21 mph on these false flats …..with effort! So we were averaging 20 mph darned near from the gun. False flats, flats, descent, flats, false flats, mile after mile. And the terrain, it was really the same as yesterday, and the day before – miles and miles of untamed wilderness with mountains. Once in a while you’d pass a little house, gas station, maybe even an exit for a town. But mosly, you’re just riding for miles on end with nothing but this little ribbon of highway stretching off into the horizon for eternity. Put the forest and mountins in front, in back, and on both sides of you and that’s the ride.
Barney did an awesome job and hung in for a good 20-30 miles, and then fell off just a tad on one of the longer OTC false flat climbs. We rode past the massive Deer Lake, which took us a good 45 min to go from the western shores to the eastern shores. Then we went through the interchange for the city of Deer Lake, and the norther road that goes up to Gros Morne National Park. And it’s about there that Judy had taken off and began to ride on her own in preparation on us coming through. Ryan and I hooked up with her about 2:10 hours into the ride. Then Judy hung in there for over an hour on her less than ideal old 26-in mt bike with Ryan and I on our new, stealthed out 29er’s. That took some real moxy to hang like that on such an antique bike.
All the while Bill was doing an outstanding job doing support for us and taking pics as we rode by various locations. Judy fell off about 3:20 hours in, and withing another 10 min we had gone past our first potential camping destinaton at the 70-mile mark. We stopped for just 5 min at the Van and Bill pulled some ice cold cokes and water for us and then we were off again. We wanted to ride another 15 or so miles to get a good jump on the trip across NFLD, and the potential for bad hurricane weather, so we just kept it rolling past the campground. At this point I was really starting to feel the effort of 3.5 hours of Z3 CT. Ryan to. Legs were beginning to feel more like jelly than pistons, and the humidity, well it was beginning to make me wilt. Then we had a series of slightly steeper false flat climbs, and this is where Ryan kind of fell of the pace just a tad. But the good thing was that the weather was just holding. No hurrican junk yet.
By 4 hours in I was on the verge of being lightly browned toast. Bill and Judy went by me and said something about meeting me at a information center, but I didn’t know how far that was. So I just kept it rolling, up this massively long false flat out in the middle of nowhere with no signs, no towns, no nothing. Then across this endless flat, and then again up another long false flat. Again, nothing. Finally I saw signs of civilization way the hell up the road, signs advertising a restaurant and motel. It read 5K to the restaurant. Three miles……and I just TT’d the rest of the way in. And there, at an Ultrmar gas station, was the van with Bill and Judy. I almost had to be helped off of the bike. I was totally cooked. Managed to do 92 miles in 4.5 hours. Did I want aonther 8 miles to get in 100 on a mt bike at over 20 mph? NOPE! Couldn’t pedal another revolution. I got off and just crushed an ice cold coke and then sat like a zombie for another 10 min.
Ryan rolled in next and was pretty torched to. I had to wait another 30 min before I could even eat. Then, with a fast food truck just next to our van, I ordered a chicken sandwitch and some onion rings. Barney rolled in next and was in great shape, having PR’ed today for average speed at that distance. And he was in good enough shape to have gone that next 8 miles for the century! So there we were, kind of in this little oasis in the middle of nowhere, with nothing behind us for a good 20 miles, and nothing in front of us for another 20 miles. But here, there was a gas station and a restaurant/motel. So we checked on rooms – 79 bucks. DONE. We could eat dinner at the restaurant, get a room while the hurrican blew in over night, and hopefully eat breakfast and be on our way in the morning, starting in the same place as we ended without driving way out of the way for our lodging.
We sat on the deck of this tiney little motel, Judy and Ryan on our camp chairs and Barney and Judy on motel room chairs. Barney and I toasted with a couple of cold beers, and we all watched the rain begin to hammer outside with what lookes like the start of the hurrican weather to come. Bill had to crash in the motel room as he’s pretty beat up by the sinus infection. By the time we walked the 30 feet down the deck to the motel restaurant, it was a deluge outside. Had some great local food, and then off to the motel rooms to get our well deserved R&R. The walls are thin, the rooms are, well, just meager, and the TV is this old cable model from the 80’s.
Ryan, that bugger decided to ride this freaking storm out in his Hotel Hillie, just behind our motel room. Hopefully we’ll have the worst of this hurrican thing behind us tomorrow so we can keep the train rolling. I have to use my aircard to post and to do my emails. This is probably the hardest stretch of terrain on the whole trip to get free wifi. It’s like a wilderness out here when you’re on a bike. Well, that’s it. We’re about 350 miles from St. John’s, and probably a 4-5 days of riding depending on the weather. That’s it from NFLD……….Pete
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