8/26/09: Segments 95 and 96 http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment95.html http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment96.html Gambo, NFLD to Clarenville, NFLD. 71 miles.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
Barney and I were joking yesterday about just WHO it was who brought such good karma to our NFLD portion of the trip, what with all the horrific weather possibilities we’d just not had thus far. Of course I thought that I was the one who was the good karma guy. Yep, just when you think you have it figured………….right back in your face! Today was a day of hellish headwinds courtesy of the OTHER Mr. NFLD. So just who wants to take credit for today’s karma? Well……..I guess Barney will!! Ok, so that’s the tone of the blog today, so let’s get back to a reset on last night and this morning.
Wonderfull night of camping as the stars up here in NFLD just seemed to be falling out of the sky like a beach full of tiny diamonds last evening. The sight was very impressive, and I just couldn’t help staring up, out of my van side windows, at the amazing stellar spectacle above us. With this clear sky the temp really dropped again, and we woke to a quite chilly morning with a very overcast sky. The local CBC weather station was forecasting rain for the Gander-Gambo area for late morning, with the rain moving to the east over the course of the day. So we had a definite sense of urgency to getting today’s ride under way in order to beat the oncoming weather front. As usual, I was the last one up, while Bill had the colman stove humming with boiling water for coffee. Within the hour the sun actually broke for a bit so we were able to find a seat in the sun to drink some coffee. Judy took care of the chow situation with some granola and yogert, and then some egg sandwiches – this in order to save time and just get the ball rolling early.
I knew it was going to be a pretty long day as my sinus condition was taking a turn for the worse yesterday, and got even worse last night and this morning. Felt like I had a head full of snot coupled with a drum-beating, pounding headache with a scratchy throat. But, with the end so close there’s really nothing that’s going to keep me down now. I think anyone in this position would feel the same way – the show must go on. And indeed it did. Bill and I headed out first thing, and Barney and Ryan were a bit behind us as Ryan needed to call his daughter before her first day of school today. Judy was going to do sag and possibly ride after Bill did 2.5-3 hrs. I was quiet, solmn, and had a kind of resolve to get this day done so that I could just rest. So Bill and I rode a chilly 5 miles out of Gambo and back up to QEW 1. And we noticed a gnarly cross wind on this easy portion of the ride. I warned Bill that we could be in for a very nasty day if that thing was a headwind. It was.
Got on the QEW and there it was, a headwind just beginning to whip up into our faces. Gone were those lovely miles of doing a false flat at 17-19 mph, today we were reduced to struggling up these false flats at 11-12 mph, in and out of the saddle, and fighting for every foot of forward progress, as if in a football game of rushing only. My original intention was to ride with Bill for 2.5 hrs and then Judy for the same. But once we got going against the headwind I found that we really had to just go it every man for himself. It’s one thing to just hang back and do someone else’s pace with a great tailwind at your back. Not really a problem there. But against a stiff headwind, it’s pretty tough to noodle. So today soon became a day where we were each going to have to find a pace that worked, and stay with it. Today I could only just plug along against this wind wall at my own pace. So Bill and I parted about 20 min into the QEW. I was standing on almost everything the went up, as that gave me the opp to put more weight into each pedal stroke, despite exposing more surface area against the wind. Somehow I got into a rhythm and just wanted to keep it rolling from there on in, non-stop, to the end, which in this case was the town of Clarenville. Any thoughts of going further east, possibly of doing another 100-mile day today, were just sucked right out of my brain with my sinus condition and the terrible wind.
It was about this time that I noticed my rear tire having a whole lot of bounce to it. I bounced on the saddle a couple of times and sure enough it was a rear flat. ^%$%#%@@# That should tell you my state of mind at the time. So I figured that I could ride it out until I run into Judy and what do you know……she’s right there parked on the left side of the road. Fly in, hang the bike on the van’s bike rack, remove the wheel, and there is this big staple in the tire. So I just opened the tire, removed that section of tube, and patched it with 75% of the tube still in the tire. By this time Bill, Ryan and Barney had ridden in for the first support stop. I zipped out ASAP and got the suffer fest going again. Ryan must have bridged sometime within the first 10 or so min that I was going again because I heard his creaking bottom bracket behind me. I didn’t say a word. He didn’t say a word. Today was minus fun, minus frivolity, minus small talk, minus talk in general. Today was the “Git er done mode.” Nothing more. Nothing less.
We climbed into some just ferocious headwind situations. We descended into some where we just could not soft pedal or coast. We had to continue to put some meat into each pedal stroke during the downhill – or else you’d coast to a stop at the bottom with no roll up onto the next climb. And as each hour wore on the wind got harder. Every once in a while I drop down into easier gears to spin up the climb, but this was the exception rather than the rule. It was just much easier to get OTS and just crank up the climbs with more meat into each stroke.
Bill rode for 2.5 hours and then gave mother nature the big bird. Judy chose not to fight the wind and tempt the rain that was looming on the western horizone. Unfortunately this section today, going through Terra Nova National Park, is a very wonderfull section of highway. But with the high winds, the impending rain, the overcast cloud cover, you really couldn’enjoy it from the bike. It figures……….I just cannot remember going through Terra Nova on a good day. It’s always been this dismal, this gloomy. Judy and Bill were stopped several times up ahead of us anticipating a stop for pop and food, but we just waved and kept riding. I figured that I had ONE stop in me and then it was ballgame. And I was saving that last stop for about 20 K left in the ride. So they’d then wait for Barney to go by, and then drive back up ahead of us and wait again. And on we went, with legs feeling like concrete pillars as each mile of headwind continued, and more and more climbs rose up after the next descent or around the next curve. And then rain drops began to fall.
It had looked like that was our last card to be turned over – the “not getting caught in the rain” card. I’d look for windshield wipers moving with the oncoming traffic to see if we were riding into a deluge. We were not. Finally the signs of civilization began to appear. Restaurant signs, hotel signs, pub signs. 12K, 10K, 8K, 5K. One of those signs was a Subway sign, and that was our cue. DONE. So slowly, every so slowly we chugged up one last climb, one last long climb, into a headwind that felt as if it were sent from angry Greek Gods, just howling down the mountain daring us to proceed just one more pedal stroke. It was bending small trees, grasses, weeds, everything in its path, back down to a horizontal position. The feeling was otherworldly to fight this wind for one last time today, as it was at it’s peak ferocity, just daring us to go any further. So I got that bug up my ass and just shifted down a gear, stood on the pedals and jumped into the headwind like an angry bear. And did that take it out of me. We topped out and I was just sucking air.
We descended down to the exit for Clarenville and rode straight to Subway. As usual, the universal meeing place if you’re not sure where you’re commrads are………is Subway. And darned if Judy and Bill didn’t pull in five min behind us. They were worried about Barney, who hadn’t gone through his checkpoint on time. So we ate, quicky booked a couple of motel rooms, and then we off to hunt for Barney – with my van’s heater just blowing out hot air to warm up Ryan and I who were still chilled from the day’s ride. Sure enough there Barney was chugging up that very same final climb that blasted Ryan and I. Met him at the top by the information center, got him coked and cookied and then him and I rode down to the motel together about 2 miles.
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