Journey Notes

After a nice visit yesterday, it was time to get back on the bike. I was still feeling the two hard days riding down from Montreal but we need to get going to make it to Halifax to meet Julia. Checking the cell phone coverage maps, T-Mobile and AT&T did not have much coverage over much of this route. I spent more time than usual looking over the route just so that I could understand where I was going if everything failed. That's important in this area as there seem to be no straight roads and few places that have direct roads between them.

I started at about 10am, with a full complement of rain gear on. Within 10 km, I had shed it all. I then started the first of two climbs. These are more than just rolling hills. These are mountains. I got about half way up the first one when I was met with a detour sign. There was a bridge out ahead. I had to go the long way around a mountain. I figured that added about 5km to my route.

While looking at the revised route, I noticed that there might be an opportunity to make up some of that extra distance by taking a different route around the next mountain. So I took a left, instead of a right, to take this alternative route. At about 10 km down the road, I was met with yet another "bridge out" sign. I had gambled on the wrong route and had to back track another 10 km.

A little while later, I started on the second climb of the day. I think that it was about 400 meters of gradual but constant climbing but I was rewarded with a similar descent down the other side.

I eventually reached highway 9, a much better highway that was engineered instead of just following old animal paths. That's when the rain started. It wasn't too heavy and was quite warm so I put on my rain jacket and kept going.

I was not too far away from Concord, NH (a pretty major city) when cell coverage finally came back up again. It was about 4:30 pm and I had over 110 km completed at that point. I immediately got a call from Rochelle. She was worried about me because I had not come back "online" until now. She had come back to check on me and came across me just as I was getting cell coverage. While I was still short of our campground, I had covered the distance that I had planned to cover so I got a ride to the campground.

The rain had stopped so we had a swim in the pool. It was great to soak my sore legs in the pool but it was kind of cool for an overcast day.

The storms have now returned and it is pouring down incredibly hard. But, VanGo seems to be staying dry.

We are still trying to figure out where we will stay tomorrow night but it should be somewhere near Portland, Maine.