Halifax to Toronto: 18.08.2007-23.08.2007--1350km

I'd been thinking about doing this ride or one similar to it for several months, only after I trained enough to do more than 300km in a day, was confident with my gear, and got two weeks off work that I decided I would do it. I decided to take to shortest route possible which would involve a ferry ride from Yarmouth to Portland Maine and cutting across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York to Lake Ontario.

Here's the actual route taken:

Gear:

Clothing:

Two pairs of cycling shorts

White cycling jersey

Cycling shoes

Two pairs of smart wool cycling socks

One pair of smart wool hiking socks for sleeping and cold days

Fleece hat for sleeping and cold days

One pair of cycling gloves

One pair of wool cycling tights

Water resistant cold weather cycling jacket

Cotton t-shirt
Helmet

Night Gear:

Four wrist/leg band reflectors

BLT front and rear doppler lights (very bright and run on household batteries)


Reflective patches included on my bags and clothing

Sleeping Gear:

Black diamond light-sabre bivy

Silk sleeping bad liner


Emergency bivy sack


(slept in tights, hiking socks, t-shirt, jersey, jacket, shorts, hat, sometimes shoes)

Entertainment/Electronics:

Casio Exilim camera


Sandisk Sansa mp3 player with arm band


Two spare camera batteries


Several spare AA and AAA batteries for mp3 player and lights


Spare SD card

Personal Care:

Travel size (compact) toothbrush


Very small tube of toothpaste


One small razor (stepped on it outside Yarmouth by accident and left half of it behind)


Emptied small tube of toothpaste filled with shampoo (all purpose soap)


Emptied lip balm container filled with sunscreen


Quick dry towel (about 8"x8")

Three bug repelling wipes
Several magnesium pills (for sore muscles)

Tools and Repair:

Multi-tool

Two spare lightweight tubes

Tube patch kit

Frame pump attached to my chainstay

Two tire boots


Needle and thread


Spare cleats

Food and Drink:

Several Cliff bars

Several packages of Emergen-C

Six water purification tablets

(most food and drink bought along the way)

Identification ect:

Driver's license


Birth Certificate


Travel insurance card


Debit card


Visa card


Canadian and American calling cards


Homemade maps

Storage:

Jandd Mountain Wedge saddle bag


Jandd bento-box style bag (sits behind the steer tube and hold camera, money, other often used things)


Bivy and poles stuffed into bivy pole bag and strapped to top tube


Two water bottles


Jersey pockets for food and change

Musett bag for carrying things like a meal to a campsite or whatever

So I had fourteen days off work beginning August 17th but after staying up late preparing the night before I woke up very tired and still not feeling fully prepared, so I decided to wait until the next day. While sleeping in late I got a call from my friend Adrian who I hadn't seen in some time, he wanted to know if I wanted to go out for a ride. I told him about my trip and invited him to come part way. I stayed at his place that night so we could leave very early the next morning.

Day 1: Haifax to Digby (240km)

We left at about 7:00 Atlantic time on August 18th and as soon as we walked out the door it began to poor. Adrian rides a big mountain bike with slicks and panniers, it weighed a lot more and is older so it wasn't in as good of repair, so we took a slower pace than I'm used to. I didn't mind, it was probably good to start with a good warm up. The rain made the ride very cold at times and about halfway there Adrian's bike caused him enough problems that he decided to turn back and get a drive home. I pressed on and got to my sister's house in Digby by 7 or 8:00pm. I was able to get a good rest, good food, get my clothes washed and dried, and hang out with my sister and her husband at their new place.

A good NS road after the rain let up (with hills up ahead)

Day 2: Digby to Yarmouth (and Yarmouth to Portland, ME by ferry) (115km)

I had to be to Yarmouth by 3:00pm Atlantic to catch the Cat ferry which I had booked ahead of time, I meant to leave earlier but I didn't get out until 10:00 but I got there by 2:00pm anyhow. The ferry ride was comfortable (except walking around the hard wood floors in my bike shoes while the ship swayed back and fourth). I didn't get into Portland and through customs until about 11:00pm Atlantic (10:00pm Eastern). I stayed at the Inn at St. John's which was very comfortable and not very expensive.

View from the rear of the Cat Ferry

Day 3 and 4: Portland into the Adirondacks (527km)

I had a good continental breakfast and took off from the Inn at about 9:00 Eastern. I got a little lost getting out of Portland but soon got back on track again. I first got acquainted with the roads though rural US and was very impressed, the roads were for the most part clean and smooth and had shoulders wide enough to drive a bus through. In NS I never ride on the shoulder as if there even is one, it's usually less than a foot wide and covered with debris so it took a little time to get used to but I've never felt so safe on the road. I reached Plymouth NH by about 5:00pm Eastern and decided to stop off at a local health food store, Peppercorn's, for supper. The people there were extremely nice and had really good food and one of the staff members told me she was planning a road trip to NS. I then stopped by Rhino Bike Works to get my bike looked at quickly, all I really needed was a little chain oil. They were also very helpful. I pressed on towards Vermont and for one of the first times left hwy 25 for a shortcut on some back roads. The road I took was pretty much uphill the entire way and at one point stopped for a rest. While resting a nice gentleman stopped to make sure if I was ok, he told me the shortcut I was taking was probably not a good one and could end up a gravel or even blocked road. I took his advice and turned around for hwy 25 again with little direction through Vermont. At about 10pm I reached the colonial town of Fairlee just over the border of Vermont and decided it was time to find a place to camp. I cycled around the town and the most suitable place I could find was a golf course and thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea to set up my bivy in case I had to move quickly, so I got into my silk liner and then into my emergency bivy sack. As the night went on it got colder and colder and after getting somewhere around two hours sleep I decided it would be safer to get back on my bike to keep myself warm rather than staying awake burning energy keeping off the cold and risking hypothermia.

Wide clean shoulders
New Hampshire State Line
More awesome road

This store sold more than sandwiches they had pizza too

I got back on the bike at about 3am and headed westward, not exactly sure where I was going. I moved along fairly slowly and still very cold. By about 5am I reached the town of Orange and stopped at a gas station that had some good food, coffee, and maps for sale. When I took off the sun was just beginning to rise and I past a scene of rolling hills with low lying mists that look like it was straight off the cover of a fantasy novel. I tried snapping a few pictures but soon after my camera turned off and refused to turn back on again or even retract its shudder. That made for the ed of all pictures along my journey, not that I had taken many anyhow. Neither New Hampshire nor Vermont were as hilly as expected, the few hills there were were very steep but very fulfilling to climb, and the twisting roads made the descents a lot of fun. Had a couple of cookies and drink from a couple of young girls running a lemonade stand. I reached the edge of Vermont by early afternoon where I waited to cross Lake Champlain on the second ferry of my journey, on the ferry I got a little cleaned up and had a little chat with a little boy that couldn't figure out me why I didn't take a bus or plane to Toronto. In Essex NY I stopped to eat at a nice restaurant and got directions to Elizabethtown so I could get back on my original map. On the way there I was descending nicely down a hill when I noticed the hill had a 90 degree turn at the very end. I didn't make the turn and flipped into the ditch, but apart from a few scrapes and a bit of dizziness I was fine, and my bike only suffered from a bit of ripped bar tape. So I pressed on. Once I got back on the highway there were once again wide shoulders and the hills really started. At one point I thought I was on a flat and started to panic thinking there was something wrong with my bike or me but after getting off I realized I'd been on a slight uphill for several kilometers and it continued on for several more. It all payed off when I reached the top and had one steep hill to descend reaching nearly 80km/h. There was another big hill into Lake Placid where I stopped off at a local trail and bike shop to get some advice about the road ahead and pick up a map of the area. On their advice I decided to complete the major hills of the trip that day by getting to at least Tupper Lake. In Tupper Lake I got a large sub for supper and started looking for a place to set up camp, I must have passed by the site mentioned to me by the guys at the bike shop and found it difficult to find a good place. At one point I stopped to look at my map when I young man in a pickup asked if I needed directions. He pointed across the road and told me that the building there was an old pump house which is rarely used and no one would bother me all night. It turned out to be perfect, well lit enough to set up my bivy and good grass to make for a comfortable night.

The last few pictures taken:

Day 5 (and four hours): Adirondacks to Toronto (470km)

I got in my bivy by about 11:00pm and got going the next morning by about 7am. I had camped somewhere between Tupper Lake and Cranberry Lake. When I reached Cranberry Lake some locals told me the road ahead was under construction and may have sections of gravel, I had been panning on taking a shortcut around that section anyhow and they told me it was a good one. I reached Watertown by the afternoon and was not impressed by the city, it was very run down and the very first person I saw was a young man holding a golf club, he didn't look like much of a golfer. I decided to get out without stopping. Highway 12E was a pretty terrible road to ride, narrow and in disrepair, it only got a little better as I approached Cape Vincent. In Cape Vincent I waited for a few minutes to get on the ferry to Wolfe Island ON CANADA! The cost was 2$ and was a very short ride. Wolfe Island was about 10km long and was able to catch the ferry to Kingston at 4:00pm. This was a free ride but longer and I got to get cleaned up pretty well and get changed in the restroom. I was standing behind Bruce Cockburn on most of the ride (I didn't talk to him, I don't really like his music so it would be a bit [even more] awkward). Got a bit lost trying to get out of Kingston but when I did I stopped at a gas station for some food and started talking to the man behind the counter, we estimated the distance to Toronto from there to be somewhere around 250kms, it was about 6:00 at the time but I decided I was going to try to press on through the night as long as I could. I increased the amount of coffee I was drinking and lasted until somewhere around Brighton where I decided I should take a nap. I stopped at a grocery store which has closed for the night and got in my silk liner on the lawn for about an hour long nap. I continued on to somewhere around Port Hope where I had about a half hour nap directly on the grass of another store which was closed for the night. At one point the sky began to flash and I thought I might be hallucinating but soon I realized it was lightning but there was no thunder or rain. The sun came up when I was just outside of Oshawa and became the most difficult part of the ride. My knees began to really hurt and traffic became heavier and heavier and I got into more populated areas and closer to rush hour, drivers pass very close and I was too tired to try to keep up or figure out a better riding position. I reached my friend Victoria's flat by 10:00am Thursday morning making my ride 5 days 4 hours in total and 1350kms. Also the ride from Portland Maine to Toronto was approximately 1000kms and about 73 hours which is under the 1000km brevet time limit of 75 hours which I wasn't trying for but am glad I accomplished.

Stay in Toronto: 9 days

When I got into Toronto I was extremely tired, hungry, and dirty. It was difficult to figure out what I should take care of first so I ended up ordering an extra large pizza which I ate in the bath until I fell asleep. I woke up completely shriveled, cleaned up a bit more, and ate the rest of the pizza. I found some jeans and a pair of sandals in the house the fit me and later went downtown and bought some new clothes. From then on I went out almost every night, ate lots great fatty/sugary food during the day (including one day where I spent several hours going from bakery to bakery eating a new pastry at each one), and I hardly rode my bike at all. From the time I left Halifax until the time I returned I actually gained five pounds. I saw some great bands (and a few lousy ones) and met some great people. I decided to fly home and found a flight for about 185$ but otherwise spent whatever I felt like. When I did get home I found an unexpected cheque in the mail for a job that just ended for about 340$ that covered a lot of my costs.

Costs (travel out):

Ferry to Portland $127.67 + Ferry to Essex NY $4.72 + Ferry to Wolfe Island $2.10 = $134.49

Accommodations: Inn at St. John in Portland $103.91

Food and Drink (plus calling card and unaccounted for): $108

Parts and Repair: New rear light $18.78 + approx. cost of wear (tires and bar tape) $43 = $61.78

Total: Approximately $408.18 or about 24 cents per km ($0.40 USD per mile)

That's about all I can think about now, probably more than you wanted to know but that's the nature of a blog isn't it?

Rides to date

So I'd been planning to write about the rides I was doing from the time I started riding centuries earlier this summer but as always, I put it off.

I've been an avid commuter for a few years and especially over the last year I really began pushing myself to go faster on the short rides I was doing on my old Norco road bike, which was slightly too big for me. I rode the bike every day no matter what the weather until I rear-ended a small car during February totaling the bike and receiving a small concussion. Later that week I bought two bikes in two days, an old Gitane roadie from the sixties from some friends that build bikes, and a new 2006 Litespeed Sienna, which I had been saving for for some time. It wasn't until late April or May that I finally brought out my Litespeed and went on a few rides of 40-75kms.

I decided for my first century I was going to ride the Peggy's Cove loop which is a fairly popular metric century (100kms) around the Halifax area. Unfortunately I discovered how bad my direction is on this trip when I rode approximately 40kms past the exit I was supposed to take to start the loop and cycled all the way to Chester. When I finally asked directions and turned around I was still feeling good and decided I was going to find and complete the loop anyway but by the time I was over 100kms in and well into the loop I was exhausted. I pushed myself on to Peggy's Cove, took a short nap on a bench and then pushed myself home by dusk. I completed about 180kms that day which is more than an imperial century (the most common) and much more than I'd ever done. Now I am terrible at taking pictures, both at getting a good shot and actually remembering to take pictures, but here's a couple from Peggy's Cove:


And the route:





From that point on I decided if I was out for a ride (not just a commute) I would make that ride at least 100kms so then I decided to cycle from my mother's house to my house via the Meaghers Grant Rd and the Airport. The ride started out great, the weather report called for a chance of rain but by the time I reached the airport the rain was nearly torrential and very cold. After missing my turn off I stopped in a Hilton for directions where I had some free coffee and found out I would have to ride for a short time on the Trans Canada (110km/h highway). Mot of that was slightly downhill which kept me going at a quick pace but also made the rain feel like hail striking my face.




And the route:



And I also went out the other direction taking another route. I came across this little guy along the way in Preston:




My next ride was meant to be a double metric and ended up being 225km in total. The ride was from Halifax to Windsor to Chester to back home in Halifax. I had no camera for that ride but here's the route:



I then decided if I could do a double metric I should be able to a triple metric so I set out on a similar route from Halifax to Kentville to Chester Basin and back home. It was a difficult ride to keep myself going at points but had no major problems. The ride ended in the dark and I was on auto pilot mode. About 25kms from home a family of raccoons began crossing the road just a a car was passing me, the car hit two or three of them and when one turned back I hit it with my bike. I probably ran over its tail or paw as I stayed on the bike but I was too determined to get home to see how it turned out. The ride ended up being about 310kms and took about 12 hours total with about 10 and a half hours of on bike time.
I forgot to take any pictures but here's the route:



I then decided to try for some overnight trips. First a short one, 100km from Halifax to Bridgewater then back the next day. It was a very cold night and I didn't get much sleep which made for the 100km back to Halifax grueling. So the next weekend I brought warmer gear and decided I would have to build a ground cover under my bivy from branches, grass, or whatever I could find. I planned on doing a 600km brevet from Halifax to Joggins and back the next day. After getting lost in Truro and soon after having the wind and hills turn on me I decided to top for the night in Parrsboro after 240km. Had a much better night and woke up early to make it back to Halifax by 16:00 that day for totaling about 450km over the two days.









At this point I decided I could make the trip to Toronto.