It's almost hard to believe but the time has finally come for the trip. For the past couple years with all the building up to, planning, preparing and imagining this trip, to now that it has actually started and seeing how things are so much different (but also similar at the same time) to how I thought it would go has definitely been an experience. I envisioned relatively mundane days, riding most the day through nice quiet scenery with the occasional short chat with someone interested with my overly packed bike and at the end of the day I wouldn't have much I'd think would be worth sharing. Well so far it's been somewhat like that except every riding day has been eventful and had it's own story worth sharing. I do expect in the future it will become more like this but for now while I'm learning and getting used to living on the bike, things are more erratic and hard to predict than that. |
Day 1 leaving home
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For all the imagining I did well before the trip where I could easily envision myself travelling on my bike and visiting all these different places, it all stopped probably about 1 week before starting the trip. I knew the trip was about to start, I was ready for it and I definitely wanted it to start, but the envisioning just stopped and it became more a lack of feeling or almost numbness thinking about it. The final week went quickly like this as I saw any friends/family for the last time before leaving and doing any last things I wanted to do before as well. And then boom, it was April 2nd, my start date and time to leave.
The morning of April 2nd really did feel like it came out of nowhere. It was time to go and I was missing that feeling of excitement to start I thought I would have, instead it was an attitude of "the time has come and now lets just get ready and go". I spent the morning fully packing my bags for the first time, spending time with the cats for potentially the last time and getting in 1 more meal at home before leaving. A little after noon I was ready to go. I said goodbye to my parents trying to hold back my tears and I was off. As soon as I turned and went though the tears came out and I couldn't make myself look back as I went out the driveway. I continued crying the whole way out of our back road as the realization that I was leaving most everything I knew and had comfort in I was leaving behind. Leaving for university nearly 10 years prior had similar feelings but not nearly to the level I felt this time. When I made it to the end of the road I settled down and was able to get in the mindset I'd been lacking for that past week. It was time and I was finally doing this.
The heavy bike with weight on the front wheels (I hadn't ridden with weight on the front yet) felt quite weird but as I went along I got more used to it. I quickly made it through Bridgewater and onto the trail I'd take the rest of the day. I made it to Chester before taking a break. Everything beyond this point would be new as the furthest I had ridden was to Chester. At this point my thighs were starting to become tight. I really hadn't done much training before leaving and combining that with how much extra effort I had to put in to power the bike forward with all the extra weight was wearing on me. I had the goal of reaching a lake near Tantallon though so I pushed on. My pace slowed though as my thighs became tighter and as it kept getting closer to it soon getting dark, I decided I needed to stop and make camp somewhere before it got dark.
I stopped in Hubbards and found a nice little public park for the night. I got my sweaty shirt off, filled up my water and got all my food out to start cooking when a car pulled up next to the area in the park that I was. A man came out and started to head in my direction and all I could think was that this man was coming to kick me out of the park because it was in public and near the road. When the man got to me he asked if I was bike touring as he had seen all of my panniers. I said yes and then he introduced himself as Greg and said that he himself had done some bike touring when he was younger. Then instead of kicking me out of the park like I thought he was coming to do, Greg invited me to spend the night at his place. Part of me wanted to say no as I had envisioned spending most nights outside on the trip and starting night 1 like this felt proper, but as I was getting cold by this point and he insisted I took up his offer. I became even more happy that I did when I went to grab my sweaty shirt off my bike and found that it had already frozen solid in the short time I'd been in the park.
I followed Greg to his place only a couple kilometers away and he left me to his place by myself as he was actually on his way to visit his grandkids when he spotted me. I expected as I went along I would meet this kind of generosity from time to time but not on day 1 of the trip. I really couldn't have asked for a better way to start the trip. I cooked some food and Greg made it back shortly before I called it a day. The next morning I got to properly talk with Greg. I found out he had toured across Canada before as well as down the east coast to Florida. Not only this but how he had hosted over 100 bike tourists before at his place. He also gave me some advice along with sharing some of his experiences from his bike tours back in the 80's. He offered me to stay with him an extra night where the weather didn't look good for the day, but I had just started the trip and wanted to make progress in getting to Moncton so I left in the late morning. Boy did I come to regret that decision.
The day was projected to have snow transitioning to rain with potential freezing rain mixed in. The start of the day was great as I found a beach and touched the Atlantic Ocean declaring crossing Canada will be complete once I've done the same with the Pacific Ocean. It was only windy when I left but by the time I made it to Tantallon there was already freezing rain. When I made it far enough to the plaza I went to subway to get out of it as I didn't really enjoy getting pelted in the face. Now this is where I differ from Greg some as he had no advice for me on dealing with freezing rain and snow as he only had toured during the summer (if someone reading this ever decides to bike tour themselves, listen to Greg, don't start a tour during bad weather, seriously). As I hid the weather transitioned to snow, the big flake kind and it was coming fast. I left when it calmed some but by this point my bike and bags were covered in at least a couple cm of snow. In fact enough snow got in my drivetrain that when I tried shifting into my higher gears, the chain skipped and I couldn't use them. So now I was on a very busy road with impatient drivers, with a shoulder I couldn't use due to the slippery slush on it, driving in my slower gears and it had switched back to freezing rain and I was getting pelted in the face again. Now do recall, I had the option to stay at Greg's another night...
I continued on like this and at some point it transitioned to rain. I made it beyond Sackville and left the worst of the city like traffic behind me. As I made it further up the road I realized I needed somewhere dry and warm to spend the night as it was not much above 0 at this point, I was drenched and quite frankly I didn't feel great and wasn't having fun anymore. I checked my map and saw a church ahead right before I'd get to off-road trails and I wouldn't be able to find anywhere. Now I had heard that churches didn't lock and kept their doors open so I figured I'd be fine once I reached there. When I reached it I had finally started to become cold as the heat I generated riding had kept me warm until this point. Well turns out my map was wrong and it was a nursing home and not a church and they weren't letting me stay. So my only option was to backtrack. Well after around 3 hours of backtracking while cold and soaked and trying numerous churches and a firehall, I found that all of them were locked and I was back in Sackville where I did find a Tim Horton's to warm up and figure out what to do. By this point it was after 8 and dark out, so I really had to get something figured out. After talking with my family I was persuaded to get a cab to a motel in Bedford as there was still nowhere nearby for me to go and by this point I didn't have it in me to bike that far anymore. By the time the taxi got there, Tim's was about to close so one of the workers there offered me donuts as I'm guessing they were trying to clear out what they had for the night, so I said sure I'd take some. Well she came back with 2 full boxes of donuts and cookies which I was not expecting. It was so much I almost didn't know what to do with all of them. I gave some away at the motel and had enough to condense it down to 1 box so I could strap the rest of them onto my bags for when I started riding again. For as bad as the day was, this was a great way to put an end to the day as the kindness of someone else again gave me a lift.
The night at the motel got me back in the right mood to keep going as the previous day made me question whether I was really gonna keep doing this or not. I left in the morning and made it back to the point where I had turned around the day before, regaining the joy I had for wanting to travel this way as I went along. I started taking the off-road trail which started out decent enough but eventually the trail became to soft and mucky for me to ride and I had to start pushing my bike. It kept getting more wet than that as I went along though as soon there were also big puddles that took up the whole width of the trail. Then there were parts with big rocks, some just sticking out and some loose that make you lose your balance as you try riding over them. Every time I kept thinking it couldn't get worse, it somehow just kept getting worse. Soon the trail was entirely under water in what I call a 'mini lake'. As I kept going it just kept getting worse as it became a mix of the unrideable muck, wide puddles, big rocks, mini lakes and potholes. Before I got to the end there was even a full on stream with a pretty strong current I had to cross. I think it took me around 4 hours to get through about 20km of this, so I was going at less than even a walking pace to get through it. That trail was the type of thing I wasn't expecting to see until I got to either a third world country or somewhere really remote, not in NS. Well at least I learned a lesson that the quietest path isn't always the best option. This just like yesterday absolutely killed any desire I had for continuing the trip but I kept going on.
I got back onto quiet roads where I could make real progress again and my mood lifted back up again. My time on the bike really has been a roller coaster of emotions so far which is kinda strange considering I don't usually have much in the way of big emotions in any direction in my regular life. By 6:00 I found a quiet place near a lake and put up my tent for the night. Only problem was since it was about 0 out and my feet were soaked again, I had no desire to stay out and cook. Luckily I still had the donuts though.
The next morning I woke up to below 0 temperatures and found that my soaked shoes were now frozen shoes. I again had no desire to cook anything in the cold with frozen feet so the donuts yet again saved me, providing me another meal. The reason I wanted I wanted to start now in the spring was because I knew the cold wouldn't be an issue for me sleeping, nor when I was on the bike generating heat. I really hadn't thought about the times in between those though as these were now becoming issues. I packed up and left after my donuts and luckily my shoes unfroze as I started generating warmth by riding, so now they were only soaked again.
My plan for the day was just to get to Truro as I had a place to stay in the area with a friend of my moms (Tena). Luckily I only had around 50km to get there as about half way there my left knee started to really bother me. It had started to hurt a little the day before when I was making my way through the trail, but now it was enough to become more of a real issue. At this point I sent Tena a message letting her know I'd soon be there. The rest of the way there was nice as I crossed the Shubenacadie River and later took a trail along the Salmon River into Truro. As I neared Tena's I found out my message hadn't sent as apparently sometime between when I left in the morning and sending that message I had lost phone service. I had got a new debit card before leaving and hadn't thought about how I might need to update anything with the new one, so now my phone plan was cutoff. I kept going to Tena's though in hope she might be there but unfortunately she was not. So I had to go back into Truro and found a Tim's where I was able to get my phone back to being functional. I get the feeling Tim's is going to be a place that helps me out a lot during the Canada portion of this trip. I got in touch with Tena and soon was back off to her place with my knee becoming more of an issue.
I spent the night at Tena's and she was kind enough to offer me to stay at her place another day. This time I learned from earlier and stayed as the day was a mix of snow, freezing rain and rain again and I really had no desire for a repeat of a couple days ago. The day after though I got back on the road. The morning trip leaving Truro was quite nice as a found a mountain like road that brought me to Tatamagouche. The road was nearly undriveable this time of year for vehicles but it was nothing but fun for me on a bike. It took longer than I wanted, but finally I was feeling the joy I was hoping to feel to while travelling about. I reached Tatamagouche by noon but now I had to figure out the plan for the rest of the day. The next day was forecast to have potentially up to 10cm of snow, so I was again going to have to try to find a place to stay. Checking my map I didn't see anywhere to stay in Oxford or Pugwash like I was assuming there would be and it didn't look like there would be anything along my route until Sackville which was over 100km away from me. So my options appeared to be stay or make the long trip to Sackville with my knee which was starting to hurt again. I decided to stay and killed time until 3:00 when the motel in Tatamagouche was supposed to open. Well when I got there the motel was closed and after hanging around for a while, a women came over and told me that the motel was closed for the season. Now that I had nowhere to stay my only option was to move forward as I didn't want to double back to Truro. Sackville was no longer an option given how late it was at this point. I decided on trying to head to Amherst over 80 km away and off my route, as it seemed to be the closest option, but even there I would not be able to get to before it was dark.
I left in a rush trying to make it to Amherst as fast as I could. I've found travelling in the dark either on trails or in areas I'm unfamiliar with is not very fun as I have a much harder time trying to navigate my way, so I wanted to cover as much ground in the light that I could. I sprinted on my bike for 2 hours straight only taking short enough breaks to get enough of my breath back to keep going. Each time I started back up after stopping I felt my knee hurting worse and worse. After those 2 hours of sprinting I was absolutely drained and my pace drastically declined as I felt defeated. I kept drudging along though and soon came across a small cabin on the side of the trail for snowmobilers. I stopped to check it out and saw on the side of it was a map with notable locations for anyone on a snowmobile. To my surprise it displayed that Oxford had accommodations. So I checked my map again scanning every bit of Oxford and did indeed see there was a small motel there. The question now was whether it was legit or if I would just be let down again like I was in Tatamagouche. I hopped back on my bike and started the roughly hour I had to go yet to make it to Oxford. By this point my knee was hurting so bad it was becoming difficult to pedal and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it to Amherst if Oxford ended up being a let down.
I managed to make it to Oxford and found the motel. It looked pretty dead and the restaurant next to it that shared the same name being closed even though it Monday gave me a bad feeling. I checked out the motel and I did find a little sign in a window saying to call a number for the motel. So I tried it and luckily got hold of the owner who said they'd be there shortly to get me a room. I was so relieved to hear this as I wasn't sure what I would have done if the motel wasn't an option. I spent the next day at the motel happily avoiding the snow. I plotted my route for the next day mostly on roads as I wanted to avoid poor trails with snow. I was close enough to Moncton now that my intent was to make it there the next day as I had a place to stay at my sister and brother-in-law's (Heidi and Dave).
I left the next morning to clear paved roads and only saw a little snow on dirt roads before I made it to the border through Tidnish. The day off helped my knee calm some as the first part of route, getting to the trail in New Brunswick, featured only a little pain, but I expected it would keep getting worse as the day went on. The trail started clear but as I went along I soon reached parts covered in snow where it appeared none of it had melted yet. In total I'd say about half of the trail was bare and half was snow covered. Most of the snow was just shallow enough for me to very slowly ride through it although my front tire slipped a few times and I ended up walking parts of it. After this I was back riding on the road but it didn't last for long.
The road kept getting worse until it turned into muck that I couldn't ride in. I saw I wouldn't be on this muck "road" for long until I turned on another, so I continued along pushing my bike. When I reached the next "road", it to was pretty mucky although just barely rideable so I continued on. Very quickly however it got worse and I could no longer ride but I hoped it would get better as I knew there was at least part that was technically rideable, so hopefully there would be more. Instead it kept getting worse and about halfway through this "road", it became torn apart by logging trucks to the point that I could hardly even push my heavy bike along it anymore. I was in deep enough now that I didn't think it was worth turning back and I knew after this road it looked like a more well travelled road was ahead. After hours of pushing my bike I made it out and was rewarded with a dirt road so riddled in potholes I couldn't even avoid them all on a bike. Apparently this is what New Brunswick considers to be a main road. After this I only had one more road before I reached what I knew were properly paved roads just outside Moncton. This final road started off fine but quickly became muddy and then transitioned to unrideable muck again. In Nova Scotia when something is called a road, it is something that is able to be driven on. In New Brunswick apparently any open stretch that is not blocked by trees is designated a road and given a name.
It was now after 7 by this point and if I was going to have to push my bike the whole way, it would be well after 9 by the time I made it through with still over another 20km to go to get to Heidi's. They weren't staying up overly late for me to limp my way there so we decided that when I reached the other end of the road where it became sand sealed they would pick me up. I felt like such a failure at this point. I wanted to do as much of this trip as possible avoiding vehicles and here a week in I'd already be relying on one, not to mention the cab from day 2 but at least that didn't cover part of my route and actually added more riding. The routes up to this point were put together poorly, I'd been doing a lot of stress riding trying to make it to places in certain times, my body wasn't handling the trip well and I'd soon be pushing my bike in muck in the dark not able to fully see how to get through it. To say I felt defeated thinking about all this at that moment would be an understatement. I continued though and pushed my bike through the muck and puddles that covered the whole road getting my feet soaked along the way. Sometime after 9 I had made beyond the muck and found the sand sealed road where I could ride again even though my knee desperately begged me not to. Within 1 minute later I saw a light coming in my direction and I knew what it was. Heidi and Dave had made it as they left a bit earlier. I was so happy and relieved to see them, as it really did feel like I was being rescued in that moment. We loaded my bags and bike onto the pickup truck and headed to their place. In total I believe I ended up pushing my loaded bike over 30km through muck it just wanted to sink into that day.
I've been in Moncton for a few days now and I'll be here a while longer. My knee needs to heal before I start up again. It's still swelled up and hurts a lot so I'm guessing it may be weeks before I start up again. I also want the nights to become a bit warmer but that should naturally happen as I wait for my knee. In general, my approach to how I've been going so far also has to change. If things continue on as they did for the first week, quite frankly the tour wouldn't be worth it as so much of it just hasn't been enjoyable. The weather will get better as I go so that's one thing that will improve. I need to listen to my body more, stop earlier some days if it doesn't feel good and probably start with days closer to 50km than 100km so I'm not overworking my parts as much like what's happened with my knee, then as I get used to it work my way up to longer days. I also want to stop planning to have to get to or past someplace within the day and instead be more free to having the open schedule I wanted when I started. I also want to get better at accepting stuff when people offer me something or help. Technically I'm getting better at this last one as I learned from the mistake I made on day 2 but I still feel the urge to say no to anything anyone offers me (like the donuts and staying at Tena's an extra day, my mind was telling me it's wrong and I should say no).
As for the blog, I don't really want the posts to be this long as this took quite a while for me to write up. Maybe I post more often to avoid that but I don't know and we'll see what happens as I go. I also want to start taking more pictures as there are things while writing this I would have liked to be able to have shown, but I hardly took any. I don't plan to post anything until I've started back up again and will probably put up some sort of note when I know I will be starting again.
Distance Traversed: 498km
