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.