Day 30 - Chapleau to Val Gagne

Chapleau to Val Gagne
271 km, 11.5 hrs
Sunny, windy – 0-25 km/h (7 hrs unfavourable winds)

The word of the day is “wasted”. Everytime you see that word, just like Pee Wee's Playhouse, you have to make some noise.

The day started early, as I was expecting 13 hours of biking up ahead of me. I was lucky that my phone had enough charge to activate the alarm clock for a total of 15 seconds before shutting off. Sleeping right through it would of ruined the day. So, I woke up at the crack of dawn to start riding (and no, I did not wake up at the crack of Dawn, unfortunately).

Biking before 6 am, seeing the sunrise, is pretty neat. Cool and damp, but neat. Luckily, I am not aware that I am biking, as I generally “wake up” at 10 (I get up earlier, sort-of like a zombie until 10).

Here's a joke. Three old men are talking, comparing notes on their physical problems. One says “every morning, it takes me 1-2 hours until I can finally pee”. The other says “That's nothing, it takes me 3 hours until I can finally go for a bowel movement”. The two ask the third what's his problem. He replies “At 7 o'clock sharp, I have a nice long pee. Eight o'clock, a nice bowel movement.” The two reply “you are one lucky s.o.b.”. The third replies “not really. I wish I could get out of bed by 9 am.”

I hope that was alright for you. Han, is it a better one that last?

Alright, back to the story of the day.

Riding early in the morning, very quiet for traffic, and quite peaceful. If only the bike didn't make it's normal noise. Breeze was non-existant. The little lakes had no ripples, which made a neat mirror-effect of the trees and rocks hugging those shores. There was also a short strip of a rainbow up ahead – odd since there was no rain or anything close to resembling that.

The morning also brought out the wildlife. After seeing something dark brown up ahead, I pulled off the road, took out my camera and observed (thanks to 20x optical zoom). Was it moving? I wasn't sure. Yes it was, very slowly. I took a few pictures, then started biking up the road towards it. Nice bear. I was doing some drive-by shooting (like many of the photos, hence the sub-par quality some might expect from such a professional photographer like me). Luckily, I got some nice shots of it. Eventually, it got scared and ran away. Up the road, a second bear I was able to get some pics of. The third bear, I was going up a hill, so I didn't bother taking out the camera. The fourth and fifth, I was too slow to get the camera out. The sixth, it was too far up ahead, crossing the road, that it would have been pointless to try to shoot it (with the camera, of course). For the latter, a car stopped and warned me about it, and so did a pick-up truck who flashed his lights as a warning. Everything turned out well. All this was within the 50 km mark. On a side note, I was stopping at a little pic-nic table at the 55 km mark to just have a little break and eat a bit – right in bear country. There were some tell-tale traces of bear in the area, so i didn't want to stay there for long or else I might end up as their breakfast. Actually, probably not, as I probably didn't smell the greatest, being my third day of biking without a full (proper) shower.

Lunch time was in Foleyet, 100 km into the ride. After lunch, I WASTED probably 45 minutes to find accessible internet in a town with dial-up (but the two elementary schools had wireless via satellite). One I could not tap into, but the other was unsecured but not connectable (is that an English word?). So, the time I made up with the ride, I wasted it. I was still on track to get to my destination by dusk.

Riding the second century was another long stip of nothing but rocks, trees, streams and lakes. No houses, nor businesses (except for the occasional logging road here and there). Traffic wasn't bad either.

At the 150 km mark, my front pannier started sagging (basically touching the front wheel). I tried to jimmy something with what I had to make it hold up, but as it turned out, it was 30 minutes time well WASTED. Damn. I just threw the front pannier on the back, and started riding.

I had to re-learn how to ride again. I am so used to weight in the front, that without the weight, it was feeling so unstable. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it. Anyone who is used to riding with bags, then takes them off, know what I am talking about. I was concerned with the extra weight on the back (more succeptable to snake-bite flats, aka pinch flat). But, things turned out fine. After a bit of riding, I got out of saddle a bit. Woah Nelly! I forgot how to ride a bike again! After getting the horse onto the road, I went back to “school”.

Got into Timmins to hit the 200 km mark. Search for a bike shop to get a new spare rear tire, hopefully get a new bottom bracket (it's sick at the moment, but will hold up probably until Ottawa), and to get a chance to tap into power + Internet to send a message saying I am still alive. Guess what – time wasted again.

Ate a “lovely” quick lunch at Burger King (wth free Wi-Fi), and then off for the last leg of the day. I was doing good time, so I thought I should stop into a Tim Horton's for an Iced-Cap. At one point, I hear “tic, tic, tic”. Pulling off the road, I thought the loose arm sleeve on the coat was hitting the spokes (thus making this noise). Fixed it, didn't fix the noise thing. Upon closer look, it was a u-nail stuck in the rear tire. Damn. I pulled it out, then the air started leaking (obviously). Fix the flat. For some reason, those flats don't botther me, only the pinch flats do. Within 15 minutes, back on the bike. I still pulled into Timmy's for the drink (and a doughnut too0.

Riding towards Val Gagne, I was happy to see signs for “Guay's Garage”, a sign that says to me “I am close to my memeres”. So, I followed those signs “home”.

ETA was between 8-9 pm. I got there at 8:01. Good thing I had a flat and stopped into Timmy's. My grandparents, at the request of my mom, were waiting outside to take a picture of me biking into the driveway. They were just checking a message on the telephone when I pulled in, so they missed the arrival. Oops, sorry.

So, I was not wasted riding, just lost lots of time today. I felt still good at the end of the day. There was still some pep in me (well, maybe some pe, not full pep). Since the 150 km mark, the average speed kept climbing up right into the last 500 m into memere's driveway. The last two hours was an average near 30k/h. Things felt good.

Alright, off to a full rest day, with some shopping, and some pannier-fixing stuff, before visiting other parts of my family.

Oh, I also saw my odometre hit 5000 km just outside of the village. That means I am close to 170 km short of actual 5000 km of the trip.

Ok, enough of wasting your time, get back to work.

Ciao

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