Touring The South Coast of Newfoundland involves a few Ferries!

I sat down today and worked out our touring schedule for Newfoundland. This is the last portion of our trip and will involve no fewer than five ferries. The first, the Marine Atlantic Ferry, will take us from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The next four ferries will take us east along Newfoundland’s rugged south coast visiting small fishing villages that depend on its service for their supplies. The last ferry we take reconnects us with Newfoundland’s road system for the final 270km ride into St. John’s.

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To make all the ferry connections we have to be in North Sydney Thursday, the 14^th of August to take one of Friday’s sailings. I’m thinking Friday’s midnight sailing is the logical choice and sleep the six plus hour crossing and start the 300km, two and a half day ride, to Burgeo in the morning. The day we catch a ferry from Burgeo is critical to make all the connections along the south coast. Miss one ferry and we would be stuck for a week! We will travel from Burgeo to Grey River on a Tuesday sailing. Grey River to Francois (the locals pronounce it “Fransway”) on a Wednesday sailing. It’s the Thursday sailing from Francois to Hermitage we cannot miss because it runs only once a week. From Hermitage it’s a short 52km bicycle ride to Pool’s Cove and catch Friday’s ferry to Bay L’Argent where we can make it to St. John’s riding our bikes.

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Time wise, this puts us on the Rock for twelve travel days and one rest day in St. John’s before we catch a flight back to Vancouver. We can shorten our time in Newfoundland if we take the ferry from North Sydney to Argentia (14 hour crossing) with only 134km to ride to St. John’s. We would use this option only if we are running out of time. I would be disappointed to miss Newfoundland’s South coast communities.

The third option is to take the ferry to Port Aux Basques and cross Newfoundland on the Trans Canada highway through the interior. Most touring cyclists who enter Newfoundland at Port Aux Basques take this route with 900km to travel to St. John’s which is a easy nine day ride.

If we are to keep the South coast of Newfoundland part of our trip we have to be in North Sydney no later than Friday, August 14^th to line up the ferry schedules mentioned earlier. That gives us seventy-five days (June 1^st – August 14^th) to travel from Vancouver to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

I say “This is doable”, with a smile on my face and fingers crossed.

For some reason Google Maps won't recognize the once a week ferry from Francois to Hermitage thus the two maps with neither showing the ferry route. 

The Joys of “Planning” or “Not planning” a tour

Recently I had a short conversation with a friend about a co-worker of hers who is planning to bicycle tour across Canada this summer. She voiced some concerns to me this person has not cycle toured and is not making much effort to prepare for the trip. My initial response was, "Any self-supported bicycle tour can be accomplished with very little pre trip planning". You can gradually build up your daily mileage at the start of the tour to increase your endurance and strength to reduce your chance of injury. Any problems with equipment or components on the road can be sorted with time and money.

After some time I started re-examine my initial comments about the realities of a long tour with minimal preparation or planning. First of all bicycle touring is 80% a mental challenge and 20% a physical challenge. It doesn't take huge amounts training to hop on a bike and pedal down the road at a leisurely pace stopping to take pictures, eat snacks and drink water on regular intervals. When touring, 100 kilometers per day on a fully loaded bicycle is a likely goal and if you haven’t taken the time to train before the trip to build strength and endurance you run the risk of sprains and strains to joints and muscles which will slow your progress down. At this point reducing mileage and time in the saddle would be needed to recover. Physiologically it’s possible to recover and continue but the combination of pain and slow progress really sucks the “Enjoyment factor” out of the trip and you will likely end it at that point.

A common mistake when first starting out is not planning where you are going to stop each night the first week or two. Sticking to a set mileage at the beginning of the trip gives the body time to adapt and get enough rest reducing the chance of injury. Remember I said touring is a 80% mental challenge? It’s difficult to reign yourself in at the beginning when your excited about the trip but you will thank yourself on that 4 hour climb up another pass wishing you traded that 24 tooth “Granny gear” chain ring for a 22.

Another mistake made is not taking the time to plan out what you really need (or don't need) on a long tour. The tendency is to take too much adding to the weight of your bike taking away the enjoyment of the trip. A couple of one or two day pre trips, fully loaded, will help determine what's useful or not. Make sure to pick a route with a couple thousand feet of climbing. Nothing like hauling an over weight touring bike up a steep hill to help make up your mind.

One of the most important things to do when preparing for a long self-supported tour is taking the time to learn the basic skills to repair and maintain your bike on the road. Understanding what common breakdowns a loaded touring bicycle can have will help to catch them and repair them before becoming a bigger problem, such as spokes breaking on the rear wheel leaving you stranded.

So to wrap this post up, a little planning and preparation can go along way to help you finish that self-supported loaded bicycle tour. But then again a tour where the only plan is leaving from point A and arriving at point B several thousand kilometers away with no time limits or commitments to keep sounds quite enjoyable to me.

Kootenay Ride

Chain lubed. Tires aired up. Brake and shift cables adjusted. As I wheel the bike out the basement door, I notice it's a little cooler than I thought it would be. Oh well, I'm not going back to put another layer on. I'm already running an hour later than planned so I will just have to push a little harder to turn the furnace up. Before I swing a leg over the top tube, I enable the GPS function on my Smartphone and turn on the cool little app that records everything a bike nerd like myself would want. Finally! I quickly click in and push off only to find myself struggling to keep things up right. Of course I forgot to move the chain up the cassette after giving it a lube. The little rise up the street is enough to keep one from mashing through a few pedal strokes in that high a gear. I'm pretty quick at flicking a heel out to unclip my shoe from the unnervingly strong grip, to some people, of the clipless pedal. Twenty-four years of practice clicking in and out helps. It wasn't such an automatic move when I first started using clipless pedals. A friend and I on a loaded bicycle tour heading out of Vancouver for the Sunshine Coast had stopped just before crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge. My friend was waiting for me so I pulled up to his left and promptly fell over onto the roadway. While I was making my stop, I tried putting my left foot down the way I always have by sliding my foot back and out from under the leather toe strap. But my foot remained anchored to the pedal and I fell over like a two legged stool. As I lay on the road in a fetal potion expecting my head to be squished under the front wheel of a passing car, I twist my feet out of my new clipless pedals and stand my bike up checking for damage. Luckily for me there was no car or driver of a car to see me make the classic mistake of a cyclist toppling to the ground. My friend stood there and chuckled while he asked if I was OK.

Last time I made that mistake. Thought I was going to die.

This is just a test sample of an attempt to journal with my Smartphone and a Bluetooth folding keyboard. This will be how I post during my cross Canada bicycle tour this summer. I will be posting to Blogger and Facebook if you want to follow. I will also be using a micro usb reader to move my pictures from my camera, a Lumix DMC-TS4, to my Samsung Galaxy Nexus which has no card slot so software is involved. More on this later. 

....and lines are drawn!

View the map of the route by using this link:  Google Maps Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the driving directions to view all of the maps.

 This map of my proposed route is just that, a "Proposed route" which will be subject to change as decisions are made. Some of the route decisions I have made I will keep such as riding along the south shore of Lake Superior through the USA and re-entering Canada at Sault Ste. Marie to avoid the somewhat shoulderless, heavy trafficked Trans Canada Highway along its North shore. The other portion I will be keeping is the route through Newfoundland along its South Shore. This is one of the portions of the trip I'm looking most forward to. I will be ferry hopping between small fishing villages that have no road access and depend on this ferry service for most of their supplies. I would like to see some of these communities before they disappear.

The community of Grey River. The first stop after the ferry leaves Burgeo.

What inspires me to ride?

Recently I was asked, “What inspires me to ride?” my bike. The short answer is “For enjoyment and fitness”. The long answer is a little more complicated. It’s a love of cycling I developed over a lifetime. 

Looking back over the years as a kid growing up in North Coquitlam, my bicycle was transportation and independence. Any friend you wanted to play with was usually a fair distance away and your parents didn't make a habit of driving you wherever you wanted to go so you got on your bike and peddled your butt over there and thought nothing of it.

Then it was commuting to work to save money to buy a house. Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s commuting by bicycle was not a common thing to see or do so most people thought I was a little crazy. Later my commute became more of a way to keep fit for bicycle touring in the late 80’s and 90’s. This again was viewed as a little strange for a mill worker so the ‘Crazy’ label stuck a little longer. Later, most of my co-workers thought I wasn't so crazy after all when adding up the tens of thousands of dollars I saved over a twenty year period.

My commute now is a five minute walk so cycling is for fitness and enjoyment over a means to save money. If you noticed, I reversed the order of “Enjoyment and fitness” to emphasize the fact that a curtain level of fitness can greatly affect ones quality of life and the enjoyment it brings. Thus I ride to help keep chronic illnesses associated with aging at bay and enjoy life with the people I love for as long as I can.

This is the paragraph I wrote in response to the question, “What inspires me to ride?”

I live in Nelson, British Columbia located in the West Kootenays' of this Canadian province. The culture here revolves around remaining active well into your senior years and on any given day, while the roads are clear of snow, you will see cyclists heading out to rack up mileage on their road bikes. The majority of road cyclists you see mid day are retirees. Men and women 60 to 70 years of age riding east from Nelson down the scenic west arm of Kootenay Lake completing various distances before heading back to town. Having a community of retired senior riders reinforces the fact that aging is no reason to hang-up your skinny tired bike. As a road cyclist approaching my mid 50’s, I’m inspired to be one of these cyclists. Twenty years from now I’ll be chugging up a mountain pass on my loaded touring bike or taking a turn at the front of a draft line heading for the bakery 40 km away to enjoy a warm sticky cinnamon bun with a cup of strong black coffee. I find myself looking forward to the next twenty years of cycling.

First Blog. First entry. First of a lot of things!

In just a little more than nine months I will do the obligatory “Dipping of the wheel” in some source of salty water here on the west coast. Equipment is being purchased, lists are being made and lines are being drawn. 

The question has arisen, "To blog or not to blog".

I've wanted to experience this bicycle tour for the last thirty years and made the decision it’s happening June 1st 2014. I don’t know if I want the experience of spending time note taking, picture cataloging and editing a final product to upload from a laptop I’m lugging across the country.

And what format do I use? Blogger? Wordpress? CGOAB? …….Facebook?!?!?!?

When it comes down to it who am I doing this ride for? I know the short answer is “Myself” but did I not “Armchair” my way across Canada countless times reading the blogs of tourers before me?

I’m leaning towards “KISSM”. Keep It Simple Social Media. A few words and pictures posted from my smartphone whenever a wifi connection becomes available. 

The nod goes to Google's Blogger to keep friends and family up-dated as to the adventures I will be having. I will use an Android smart phone, my Samsung Google Galaxy Nexus, which seamlessly (so far) integrates with Google's Gmail and Blogger.