8/25/09: Segments 93 and 94 http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment93.html; Grand Falls-Windsor, NFLD to Gambo, NFLD. 92 miles.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
Wow. What a totally awesome day of riding here in NFLD. The weather was just some of the best I’ve experienced out here – in this my 5th trip to Newfoundland. So let’s reset the day back to last night and then this morning. Last night Judy cooked up an awesome dinner over the coleman camp stove. We had some great pesto pasta to start the evening off with, and then some fresh, pan fried cod and haddock for the entrée. We all ate until we about burst. Perfect ending to a very nice day of riding last night for sure. Had a couple of beers and some white wine and that was the evening. Bill hit the showers, Judy and I retired early, and Ryan and Barney solved some of the world’s problems out on the picnic table for a bit into the night. Woke up to our camp roosters Bill and Barney, with Bill firing up the stove and getting the coffee going. We had our java on a very nippy morning this morning. This morning is more the norm here in NFLD in August. Sipped coffee and I had the remnants of the pasta dinner last night. Ryan finished off the remainder. And then them major blunder……..for Ryan…….as he got TKO’d by dipping chocolate chip cookies into his coffee to replace the lack of sugar we had. He ate a big bag portion of pasta, then gorged down I don’t know how many chocolate chip cookies soaked in coffee. Result – a very massive stomach ache pre-ride.
So by virtue of the cookie chaser – Ryan did support in the van today! We pretty much gave him grief all day with vomit jokes and simulated puke miming. He took it very good natured. So Judy and Ryan began in the van as support while Bill, Barney and I began the ride from the camp. Barney did his usual “Bat Out of Hell” start, so Bill and I just motored a bit on the more moderate side. There was though, a massive tailwind today that just pushed and pushed at your back all day long. Barney wanted to stop in Bishop Falls to buy a real breakfast rather than attempt to do my cold pasta impression, or worse yet, Ryan’s cookie chaser impression. So Bareny pulled out at Bishop Falls about 20 K in while Bill and I kept it rolling. And as I said, this was a fabulous day to ride, as we began on a cloudless morning with about a 20 K tailwind – that eventually grew to a solid 30+ K tailwind.
We had a bit more climbing today, but with the headwind it was really pretty inconsequential. The scenery was just as stellar today as on the past several days here in NFLD, with just these long stretches of nothingness for miles on end. Today there were a few more alpine lakes to pass, and then the massive Gander Lake later in the ride. Once Bill and I got over this really long gradual, past what looks like the Trans NFLD pipeline, we hooked up with Judy. We blasted through the city of Gander in notime, and then had another 25 miles to get to our day’s destination – Gambo. The three of us rode on for a stretch until we hit this gnarly construction area, where they had one of the lanes, the right land, graded off for repaving, with the berm still intact. It was pretty awefull to ride on due to the truck traffic. So I got on this 3-foot wide section of berm that was smooth for my riding surface so as to stay out of the traffic. And then, out of nowhere, there’s this cut across the berm that’s a good 2 feet deep and 3 feet wide, and I’m right on top of it. So I do this massive pull up in the air for a bunny hop and actually clear everything, but as I went airborne my well worn cleats pulled out on the right side. I came down unclipped on the right and banged my ankle bone on the pedal pretty hard.
Enter temporary insanity. I landed, banged my ankle and then blasted out a non-stop flurry of obsenities for a solid minute, cursing everyone in NFLD that had anything to do with the road work. After a quarter mile I gathered myself and we continued to ride – NOT on the smooth berm with these horrible cuts, probably put there for water drainage off of the highway and into the side of the road. Lesson learned. We continued on, finally out of the road construction, and back on good pavement. Bill rode for about 3.5 hours and ended up with about 56 miles for today. Judy stayed on and continued to ride with me. Barney we were told was about 30-50 min back from the breakfast stop, so I didn’t get a chance to ride with him today.
Clouds began building over the course of the afternoon, but really had no impact on the day as far as weather went. Ryan and Bill did support for us for the rest of the day, and we did stop for a very quick coke stop, and then continued for another 10 miles to the town of Gambo. Now Judy started to loose just a bit of steam over the last several climbs, so she motioned me to just finish by myself, so I motored on for another 4 miles to meet with Bill and Ryan at the Gambo exit. I waited for her at the bottom of the exit, then we rode up to meet with the guys and wait for Barney. And this is where we ran into the Road Grader Nazi. This guy is grading the road next to my van, and he’s getting closer and closer to my van and the guys. So I pull up to look at a map with Bill and this guy backs up the grader and damn near hits me, and Bill yells at the dude. Then Bill and this old Newfie Grader Guy start yelling F You to one another like two kids on a playground. It was actually hilarious now. They were just going at it with the F’s, and the F’s included mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons. No one was exempt from this massive F you fest. We’re totally joking about it now, and we’re all doing our impressions of how it went down. Funny stuff.
I rode down into Gambo to scout out a camping area. Finally found one about 4 miles from the freeway, way the hell up in the woods. It’s a pretty cool site we have, with this giant camp spot for all the tents and the van, out in the open in the sun and under the stars, with a big fire pot. So once Barney arrived we all hit the site, with me driving my van solo down this one-lane, rocky road to our site. I had to have them unload bikes and personnel due to the weight – not catching an oilpan on the big rocks in the road. Got there and just chilled for a bit with a couple of beers and we all sat in the warm sun. We hit the local eatery deamed the best by the people who run the campground – called Sheila’s. And it was a homerun for sure. Three of us had the fresh cod and two had the turkey. The mashed potatos were home made. The batter for the fish was light and excellent. The portions were great. It was just a wonderful meal. Back to the campsite where our camp hosts had piled a bit of firewood next to the fire pot. So this is the first campfire we had on the whole trip. Barney is currently at the picnic table with headlamp on doing his blog, while I’m here at the van plugged into my power inverter on the van, and Ryan and Bill are huddled around the campfire. Very nice night in NFLD. And very cool! Stars are already out at 9pm NFLD-Labrador time.
This was just a wonderful day where I got a chance to ride with Bill and Judy, and really enjoy the beauty of the day. We’re now looking at 170 miles to finish this trip. If the weather is nice tomorrow we may shoot for 85+ miles to get us almost to the Avelon Peninsula, and then one more 85-mile day to the finish, Thursday, to St. John’s. If the weather is so-so to bad tomorrow, we’ll cut the ride down to 60 miles and just go to Clarensville, and then go two more 60-mile days to Cape Spear. That’s it from deep in the forests of NFLD. All the best……..Pete
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