I was a little nervous going to sleep last night because I knew that it was my last night in Canada for a while. I know America is our neighbour and I know that it is the most powerful country in the world, but still in the back of my mind I was thinking of it as if it was Afghanistan.
The morning’s ride was not the smoothest. It started off really cold so I was layered up, then it got warm so I stripped it down, then after that it got cold again. After stripping my gear on and off so many times I felt like a male stripper I decided to just suck it up and deal with the cold.
After making that choice about 5km down the road I saw my first moose. I do not know how I did not see one in Newfoundland but ce la vie. This moose may have been smoked by a car and dead on the side of the road but I am still going to count it. It is kind of like fish stories you never really know how big the fish is. In this case other then those who read the blog they wont know if it was alive or dead. The only problem with said moose was that it was fresh. Glass was everywhere and I had no option but to ride through it. After riding through the glass I was thinking “crap this is going to cause a flat” and cause me to stop again. At the top of the hill I stopped and checked the tires and surprisingly everything looked ok. Still I topped up my tires so that I can give er the old pinch check tomorrow morning.
Just like Manitoba wanted me to stay, Canada did as well. The last 40km’s of Canada were just brutal. I had a 20-30km/h headwind the entire time. Still I pushed into it as hard as I could. My lunch stop was st. Stephen and I was not stopping till I got there. Each kilometre ticked by and I saw the exit to owl beach, which on my map said was 14km from st. Stephen. At that point it was 12:30 and I was hungry. I don’t know what came over me but I did not stop I was up for the punishment. 2km later I see the exit for st. Stephen. Yet again my maps distances were completely whacked. This time it worked in my favour.
When I got into Canada’s chocolate town I was on the hunt for food. The first place was going to be the stop no ifs and or buts. In this case it just so happened to be a small local diner run by a very kind woman. Right away she started asking me questions about the trip and why I was doing it. Within 5 minutes she was going around to the other tables and telling them to come talk to me. Within 10 minutes she was on the phone trying to get a hold of the local paper. It was a great lunch for two reasons. The food and the people I cant ask for much more. So fingers crossed that you will see my mug in the st. Stephen local paper.
Next was the boarder. The road going into the board did a complete 180 degree turn so now I had a tailwind. Elated by this I was ripping into the final 3km’s and approached the boarder. I don’t know what it is but whenever I get to the boarder my heart goes in my throat. Whenever I get a question I feel like I should give them my life’s story, which then usually leads to more questions. This boarder crossing was a little unique because as I found out it was not for pedestrians of bikes. Inside the guy was contemplating sending me back but luckily he did not. That would have blown huge chunks if that would have happened.
Once in the U.S. I was on the hunt for a visitor centre for a map. Because it is awfully hard to travel when you do not know what road leads where. I saw the sign and it said 2 under it so thinking two miles I went ahead. The roughly two km’s down the road there was nothing but a police station. So I stopped and asked where the centre was and the guy said it closed down and I would have to go to the library 2 blocks ahead. Over the hill there it was in bold writing “tourist centre for Maine”. I thought to myself that does not say a lot about local knowledge. Here I got my map and again the lady said that she was going to send off my story to the local paper so I was super pumped on that.
The campsite was 9 miles away. Which in my head does not sound like a lot because I am so used to km’s. I am going to have to readjust my thinking about distance, or just get better at math to convert distances. Please America use metres. It is easier and makes more sense. Feet and miles seem to be calculated by taking the square root of 3 and multiplying that by the temperature. The calculation for the temperature is even more complex then that. Lets just say it involves at least 3 variables.
Trip Distance: 152km
Ride Time: 7:32hr
Avg. Speed: 20.23km/h
Total Distance: 8326km
Total Ride Time: 385hr
Destination: Keene Lake, Maine
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