8/10/09: Off segment. Rt 11 south along the Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick. Caraquet, New Brunswick to Miramichi, New Brunswick. 75 miles.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
To catch up on the rest of yesterday, I just took it totally easy, relaxing on a picnic table in the warm sun and getting ahead on most of my work with the computer. Then I wanted to get in a dip in the bay, but once I got down there it was low tide, and there was a bunch of slippery rocks I’d have to maneuver through, only to get some 30 or so yards out into more slippery rocks. No brainer there – back to the picnic table to just lay in the sun and relax. Barney went down to a historic village that was a 6 or so mile ride down the road. I just didin’t have it in me to ride a whole lot on an off day so I felt pretty good just chilling.
Round about 5:30pm I rode down to a subway and got my usual. I had left a not for Barney, and he appeared down at Subway just after I finished my first 12-inch sub. I told him about our new neighbors – a couple of French Canadians with a RV – who were just beside themselves because Barney’s tent was impeding about 2-3 feet into their campsite space. The campground manager had come over while I was on the picnic table sunning and asked if we could move the “yellow” tent for the new campers. And they’re standing there looking real concerned. I said that it was not my tent, and that I’d ask my partner when he gets back. I did have to move a few of Barney’s tent stakes so that the couple could roll their motorscooter off of the back end of the RV. Now they had spent some 30 min just trying to figure out how and where to park the thing, constantly pulling up and back, time after time.
Then they got out, moved their picnic table right up to their RV, and then the lady got her lawn chair out and put it right next to, almost ontop of Barney’s tent. And they just looked so concerned, pacing around the site, looking over at me, and pacing some more. They just did not like that tent on THEIR little piece of rented property. The folks who had camped there the night before didn’t have a problem at all with the tent, and were very friendly. But these folks – amazing! I just took in their pacing show while sitting on my picnic table as did Barney when I had my little fit of temporary insanity several days before in Pointe-a-la-Cloix. Yup, pretty funny when you’re sitting on the other side.
So Barney did his first 12-incher at subway. Awesome. Get done with a long hard day in the saddle and I guaranteed him that he’d be able to consume another six inches of sub. We rode to the ice cream store and each got a black cherry cone. Then it was back to the camp. I hit the hay very early and was out. Woke up later and it had started to rain out. It continued to rain off and on all through the night, albeit not really a deluge, just kind of lightly. Woke up several times once it was dawn, and it was still raining lightly. By 7:30am it had started to rain harder. Then by 8am it was getting to be bursts of very steady rain. We were both sitting in the tents talking a bit about what to do. I was not to key on packing in the rain, so suggested that we wait a bit and see if it clears out. Barney was ok with that, but a part of him wants to see what it’s like riding a day in the rain. Me? I’m about 2.5 weeks away from finishing this trip, and a day in the rain, with wind and cold…………packing wet gear and then getting out wet gear at the end of the day……I could just sit it out in the tent and be quite content with being a wussy for the day! Yup, here’s my wussy card……stamp it now!!
We had a couple of Barney’s peanut butter cookies, but then Barney’s stomach was getting the best of him so he put on his Sunday’s goretex best, and rode downtown to get some real breakfast. So I’m here in the Hillie, quite content, nice and snug, listening to the rain and wind, and listening to Vinyl Tap on the computer as I blog. If Barney comes back and is real key on riding today I’ll suck it up and go for it, but……….man I hope the temps go up and the rain dies down a bit if that’s what we do. Five hours in this is a long day indeed. Been there done that. Anyway, I’ll take a break here, and catch up with everything later in the day once we figure what we’re doing for the day.
Ok, it’s 7:38pm Atlantic Standard time. And hold on, don’t stamp my wussy card…I manned up, put on my cycling kit, and got er done. Well, the weather breaking a bit really helped me make my decision to ride today……that and the fact that Barney really wanted to get it going today so we could have a good shot at doing Cape Breton Highlands on the north island of Nova Scotia. So when Barney went downtown to eat breakfast, I went into the registration shack at the campground and bought a bag of Ruffles potato chips for my breakfast and sweet talked the two gals at the desk into boiling some water for some instant coffee. So I sat and talked with Janet and another gal for a bit about our trip. As we talked the rain stopped, and it was then that I figured that I had a nice window to at least get the gear down, stowed, and packed before the next session of steady rain.
So I made a beeline for the tent and ripped through a teardown session and got everything totally packed before Barney got back. Then I went back to the registration bldg and had another cup of instant coffee. By that time Barney came back, and low and behold, he had bought me a Subway breakfast sub. This guy is just awesome! There I was pretty much stoking my gastank with potato chips and instant coffee and Barney brings me back a sub. So I told Barney “let’s get it done”, and he went to tear his gear down while I ate my wonderful, delicious, amazing breakfast sub in the registration bldg. Now it wasn’t a nice day out here by any means, but it was not raining. We had a nasty headwind out of the south, and I knew that that, coupled with any kind of rain, was going to make for a very miserable ride. But, at least we had our gear stowed and loaded without being soaked. I’ll take the rain once we got going.
We got on the road at 12 noon Atlantic time, and it was not more than 20 min before we went right into the grip of the headwind. My legs have been pretty much toasted for the last………umm………like 2.5 weeks…..but today………today they were feeling like stainless steel pistons, just pumping away into the headwind at a nice, steady rhythm at Z3 cruise tempo. We were doing a good 14-17 mph into the headwind and it felt just wonderful. Now I know when I say this that tomorrow will be a day from hell. Usually is when I open my yap like that. But, for the record, today’s ride was one of the best I’ve had in weeks. We we just got it going, with me pulling and Barney tucked in on the draft just doing a fabulous job of hanging in there on the climbs and straights.
At some point, and I’m not sure where, Barney had fallen off. I figured that I’d just keep the rhythm going for 2 hours, as the last time I glanced back and Barney was on, was at the 1 hour mark. So I set my sight on the city of Tracadie-Sheila where I’d pull over and wait. But about 1.5 hrs in I hit this construction area with a detour. Now that really F’ed up things for me. So I go with the detour, that eventually goes to a choice of two routes – one goes totally around the city of Tracadie-Sheila, and at that point Rt 11 south looked like an interstate (interprovincial), or the other, which is a secondary that goes right into town. So I really didn’t know which way to go……go with the interprovincal, or go with the secondary into town. These are the kind of decisions that can really drive you batty – trying to figure out what the other guy is going to do. And with my luck, I’ll go secondary, wait in town for Barney, and he goes on the interprovincial. Or, I go interprovincial, and he goes into town for something to eat and drink?
What the hell, I went for the interprovincal Rt 11, hoping that the other road would eventually go back into this one anyway. And if I wanted to check my map out………well, it was buried in my yak drybag, and that would take 15 min of unpacking to bring out. So I assumed that Rt 11 is THE only way to Miramichi, and just continued on. So at that point I have this fantastic rhythm going, legs are just feeling like a million bucks and I decide to find a place at 3 hour in and wait for Barney. By 2.5 hours in it began to drizzle a bit, but nothing bad, and my pace is still just feeling wonderful at Z3. The I hit this section where a sign says: Moose danger to traffic for the next 20K. That means: no towns or cities for the next 12 miles because it’s all freaking forest and swamp! It was at this point that I decided: “hell, I’m just going to go all the bloody way to Miramichi, non-stop, and wait for Barney at a campground or a grocery where I can pick up cokes and candy.” With decision made, I just kept the rhythm going at Z3. At 3.5 hours in I hit a spot of rain that lasted about 30 min. It wasn’t a deluge, but it was steady, where rooster tails were spraying off of my tires.
So I was just in the zone, determined to now do this whole 60-70 miles non-stop, and all at Z3 CT. And all of a sudden this guy honks at me and slows down and pulls to a stop on the berm, and this berm is like a whole lane wide and just wonderful to ride on. And he motions me to stop – in the freaking rain no less. So he’s rolling down the window to talk to me, and I’m thinking, “dude, it’s raining, I’m on a mission, and the last thing I need to do is to stop to chat, or worse yet, give directions in a place I have no idea where the hell I’m at!” So he stuck his head out the window and I yell, “it’s raining I can’t stop…..I have to keep riding.” And I pass by his car. Then, I hear him coming back up on me, and he pulls up to me and his bud rolls down the window and he says something to me in French. I said in French, “I don not speak French. Do you speak English?” He did, and told me that my partner was 20K in back of me. I later learned from Barney that he had talked with these guys at a candy/coke stop. I told the guy thanks and kept it rolling through the rain.
Four hours in and I had done 62 miles, which translated into 15.5 mph into the headwind. By four hours in the rain had stopped, but my Underarmor top was just soaked. Fine, as long as I didn’t stop. Stop in these temps with a soaked top and it’s hypothermia time! There were no signs to tell me how far Miramichi was, but I figured that it had to be within an hour away, so I really tried to focus on keeping the pace steady. But the legs were really starting to feel the effort by this time, so I was out of the saddle a whole lot more trying to rev back up to speed when I was beginning to fall off.
Today, the scenery was really boring compared to the north side of the peninsula – this being just endless stretches of woodlands, and no coastline at all to marvel over, so I didn’t feel at all bad about my bonzi mission. Couple that with the fact that it was looking like it could just rain like hell at any minute and the headwind, and it was a done deal. Motor! I finally hit the Miramichi corp. sign at 4.5 hours in, and my legs were just about ready to turn to jelly. That was 4.5 hours of Z3 CT. I have not done that kind of pace and intensity for years, but man it felt good. I passed a campground just past the corp. sign, but it was out in the middle of nowhere, and did not fit our criteria for a campground – restaurant access, beer store, internet. It may have had wifi, but the other two were sorely lacking, so I just rode on. I finally got to this strip mall area, and low and behold…….there was a sign for a Subway. Now, this fit two of my criteria: I’m hungry and tired as hell, and Barney knows Ryan and myself well enough through reading our blogs that if someone is ahead, and there’s a Subway at the final destination, that lead rider will stop at the Subway and eat and wait.
So I detoured away from the Rt 11 south and headed into the strip mall for my Subway fix. Pulled in, and had to walk a few stored down to take off my soaking wet underarmor and change into a Gortex jacket so as not to go hypothermic inside the Subway. That done I order 1 12-incher and get the endless fountain coke – actually 4 32-oz cokes when all was said and down. I set my stopwatch so as to monitor my downtime. I figured that if I were indeed 20K ahead of Barney I had about 1 hour before he’d catch back up. Gobbled down the sub and chugged the cokes in less that a half hour. Then I went back to Rt 11, and went north so as to not worry about Barney missing the Subway sign near the stripmall. I noodled down the road until I found a church to stop at. There I changed into my long sleeve jersey and waited for Barney.
And wouldn’t you know it, in just under an hour I see Barney riding towards me. Awesome. So I filled him in and we decided to just shoot for a motel in downtown Miramichi as it was nearly 6pm by that time. We rode across this massive bridge, riding on this narrow sidewalk on the side of the bridge rather than in the bermless single lane all the way across the bridge. Once across we headed down into downtown Miramichi for lodging. We found a place right on the water, but it looked a bit to fancy for my tastes. Barney went in and came out with a price of $116.00 without tax. Ouch I said. Then he went back and was going to ask about cheaper hotels in the area. Came out, and had room keys. He said the guy gave him the “Seniors” discount at $88.00. Now that’s my kind of price! So we got a first floor room, wheeled our rigs in, and I went on a micro brew run while Barney showered. I found some cool New Brunswick micros.
So that’s the day. I’m really happy we took a crap day and got a full day’s ride out of it. So we’re still on target to take a stab at doing the extra mileage in doing the Cape Breton Highland ride. Tomorrow the call is for sunny weather. Wednesday is supposed to be another rainy day. We’ll see. But we’re about 2 days away from getting onto PEI.
No comments:
Post a Comment