Sideways
Sept. 5 - I took it easy today and had a rather uneventful day. I woke up, biked some road, took a break, and biked a bunch of trail. The trail was lovely as usual, it's so fun to be able to tour for long stretches on a trail rather than on roads. The only problem is that the rough surface takes away a lot of speed, and provides many obstacles for me to avoid - puddles, giant rocks, washouts, etc.. My travel time isn't nearly as fast on the trails, but I like them, especially when they include bridges rather than just giant gorges with streams in the bottom of them. But that's why I #takelessdomore, I can still carry my bike setup through most terrain so I can get it where I need to go. I set up for the night in the town of Florence-Bristol, and retreated to my hammock to avoid the raindrops.
Sept. 6 - I woke up to pouring rain, packed up in pouring rain, and started biking in, you guessed it, pouring rain. I biked along the trail to Hartland and the world's longest covered bridge! I stopped for some shelter, and the rain let up just enough for me to think following an offroad trail shortcut would be a good idea, so off I went.
"You're following your phone, eh?" Says a man and his wife in their pickup truck as they pull up beside me. "You might not want to be doing that." Google maps had me routed through some backwoods backroads, and I had a feeling that some interesting terrain might be coming up. "Turn right at the stop sign, not left like your map says, go up the big hill, find the house with this truck and we'll draw you a map." One hand drawn map later, off I go, down a road these folks carved out with 9 people, 3 days and 1 bulldozer for better hunting access. They helped me over the 4 waist deep beaver ponds on their way to go fill the freezer, and then I was on my way. In my mind, I thought that New Brunswick was a fairly densely populated maritime province. Wrong. Very wrong. I haven't been rolling this remote since the Yukon, and I am quite enjoying the snarly trails and woodsy fresh air. I took some shelter in a snowmobile cabin for a midafternoon drying break, and meandered 130kms in to Fredericton. I had intended to continue, but a heavy duty thunderstorm with hail and some hefty rain encouraged me to find shelter in a baseball dugout, and limp my way to Kelsey Hogan's friendly face when the rains abated a little. Time to replan the route, dry off with a real fluffy towel, do my laundry and spend a lovely evening socializing on the couch.
Sept. 7 - My morning was pleasantly slothy - I've only got a few days left of my ride, and I am stretching them out as longggg as possible. It was another rainy, windy day, but comparing my day to the hurricanes in the south, I'm going to stop complaining right about now. I hit the trails for the morning, playing puddle slalom, and considering the merits of a snorkel. I then rode some roads, and slowly emerged from New Brunswick's woods into classic coastal hills. At the top of one of these hills, I saw it - the salt water of the Atlantic. I descended with a big grin, and a clued in motorist gave me one heck of a happy string of horn honks. As I reached the Saint John harbour, I could smell the salt water of the Bay of Fundy, but I want to taste the salt spray of the open ocean, so two more days of cruising for me! I ended the night with a fantastic cycling host and her absolutely lovely dog and cat. She made me a delicious dinner, and we chatted the evening away, people are the best:)
New Brunswick - tales from the trails
September 5 - 7 - New BrunswickSept. 5 - I took it easy today and had a rather uneventful day. I woke up, biked some road, took a break, and biked a bunch of trail. The trail was lovely as usual, it's so fun to be able to tour for long stretches on a trail rather than on roads. The only problem is that the rough surface takes away a lot of speed, and provides many obstacles for me to avoid - puddles, giant rocks, washouts, etc.. My travel time isn't nearly as fast on the trails, but I like them, especially when they include bridges rather than just giant gorges with streams in the bottom of them. But that's why I #takelessdomore, I can still carry my bike setup through most terrain so I can get it where I need to go. I set up for the night in the town of Florence-Bristol, and retreated to my hammock to avoid the raindrops.
Sept. 6 - I woke up to pouring rain, packed up in pouring rain, and started biking in, you guessed it, pouring rain. I biked along the trail to Hartland and the world's longest covered bridge! I stopped for some shelter, and the rain let up just enough for me to think following an offroad trail shortcut would be a good idea, so off I went.
"You're following your phone, eh?" Says a man and his wife in their pickup truck as they pull up beside me. "You might not want to be doing that." Google maps had me routed through some backwoods backroads, and I had a feeling that some interesting terrain might be coming up. "Turn right at the stop sign, not left like your map says, go up the big hill, find the house with this truck and we'll draw you a map." One hand drawn map later, off I go, down a road these folks carved out with 9 people, 3 days and 1 bulldozer for better hunting access. They helped me over the 4 waist deep beaver ponds on their way to go fill the freezer, and then I was on my way. In my mind, I thought that New Brunswick was a fairly densely populated maritime province. Wrong. Very wrong. I haven't been rolling this remote since the Yukon, and I am quite enjoying the snarly trails and woodsy fresh air. I took some shelter in a snowmobile cabin for a midafternoon drying break, and meandered 130kms in to Fredericton. I had intended to continue, but a heavy duty thunderstorm with hail and some hefty rain encouraged me to find shelter in a baseball dugout, and limp my way to Kelsey Hogan's friendly face when the rains abated a little. Time to replan the route, dry off with a real fluffy towel, do my laundry and spend a lovely evening socializing on the couch.
Sept. 7 - My morning was pleasantly slothy - I've only got a few days left of my ride, and I am stretching them out as longggg as possible. It was another rainy, windy day, but comparing my day to the hurricanes in the south, I'm going to stop complaining right about now. I hit the trails for the morning, playing puddle slalom, and considering the merits of a snorkel. I then rode some roads, and slowly emerged from New Brunswick's woods into classic coastal hills. At the top of one of these hills, I saw it - the salt water of the Atlantic. I descended with a big grin, and a clued in motorist gave me one heck of a happy string of horn honks. As I reached the Saint John harbour, I could smell the salt water of the Bay of Fundy, but I want to taste the salt spray of the open ocean, so two more days of cruising for me! I ended the night with a fantastic cycling host and her absolutely lovely dog and cat. She made me a delicious dinner, and we chatted the evening away, people are the best:)
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