Day 57 - Halifax to Sherbrooke

Halifax to Sherbrooke
220 km, sunny (high of 28, humidex 33)
Winds – calm, from the ocean.

It was a beautiful day, so I decided to go for a bike ride. What a ride it was. Two hundred and twenty km. Boy. (I'll let you in a little secret – it was easy today, very enjoyable. don't tell anyone though, this is just between you and me. i can't afford for people to think this trip is easy. I think I was smiling the whole time.). On the menu today: mainly winding and smooth roads with rolling hills, add shore-line biking, drain out any traffic (as much as possible) until there's virtually no cars, add a few drops of 1.5 meter waves crashing on the shore nearby, mix in a fairly constant cool breeze coming in from the ocean, and let simmer under the sun for 8h45 minutes. Result – one great ride.

The first thing to do this morning was to go see my name in print at the Dartmouth Trans-Canada Trail. Dem' folks wrote to me and told me it was in Halifax, not the (apparently) lower-class Dartmouth. But, I saw it. Neat feeling.

Climbing out of Dartmouth was fun. A bit of hills (I had to wake up my granny), and play with a bit of traffic. I decided to take a 10 km more detour to go along the shore, and to go through Cole Harbour to see if there was a sign of “Sidney Crosby's home town”. Nope. But, the road out of town, which eventually dumped me onto the 7, where I would ride that for the rest of the day (and a big chunk of tomorrow). Wow. Super nice detour. I found a super nice spot for surfing. Tons of surfers here. Waves were up to 1.5 metres. Screw Tofino for surfing, here's where I'm coming next. Sweet stuff here. I could hear the waves crashing on the shore from the road. Beautiful spots.

At the 40 km mark, I saw a sign I liked: “Serving breakfast all day”. I stopped in, as I semi-skipped breakfast in the morning (toasted bagel with cream cheese at Tim Horton's near the ferry). I had the Junior breakfast (egg, toasts, potatoes, bacon), and the half order of the Belgian waffle with fresh local strawberries and whipped cream. Delicious. Little Acadian town named Grand Desert. Folks from this corner are quite nice. Plus, more and more folks (about 10 today) wave as they drive by. Good sign.

Onto the 7, traffic was a big busier, but eventually became quieter once I was further away. It's there that the B-52's (music, not planes) coincidences started. Check out the pics to get what I'm talking about. The ride was basically along the coast the whole time, detouring around bays constantly. A little bit of construction, but it was still fast.

The riding was quite enjoyable. I hardly noticed that it was 5 hours into the ride, and I should stop for lunch. The grocery store wasn't too stocked up, so I bought a package of ham (close to 300 grams). A block of cheese was also purchased to add some more stuff on the three sandwiches. That was a heavy meal. I felt sluggish for up to an hour after lunch, with the water on occasion wanting to pull a Matt at Solstice. But, everything stayed down. Side note: there's some chatter that I should find a fast woman (biking wise) so I could do Hot August Nights Tag Team. But, we'll see. This would only fuel Paranoid Android's conspiracy theories, but would make a few other people have a chuckle here and there. Time will tell....

There's one section where I got freaked-out. I was riding, then something caught my eye on the left of me. It looked like there was a yard beside a house where there were random people just walking and standing there. But, no movement. It was like those zombie movies that I dont know much about. There were at least 20 mannequins. Weird. I stopped, stared for a bit, took pictures, tried to fight off that weird spooky feeling, then turned around and did a drive-by video. I do hope it will capture that feeling of biking by and spotting those freaks.

The riding was so easy today, it just felt right. I felt fresh. Ever have that not-so-fresh feeling? I felt good, legs felt great, but I'm sure I might of smelled a bit. Just a nice cruise today. I almost feel guilty that it was so pleasant. I could of gone for a long time, but decided to stop in Sherbrooke as there was nothing for another 50 km (no camping, no service stations, etc). Shower and early night trumped riding for another 2 hours.

In town, I bough a 650 ml Propeller IPA (room temperature), then headed to the grocery store to buy ice and the rest of the supplies for tonight/breakfast. I tapped into people's Internet in town, where a Swiss guy approached me. Nice fellow. He said he remembers passing me during the construction part. Neat tid-bit of info: Cancellara stayed at his place for 4 days, and Martin Gerber's sister lives right beside him. Gerber himself stays there in the summer (his town). He invited me to crash at his place if/when I decide to do Europe.

I went to the campground to eat and such. There, some Wyoming people saw me and said “We passed you on the road today, and we had a feeling we'd all be at the same place at the end of the day”. Cool. Two different crews from Wyoming, coming from different directions (one towards, and one from Cabot Trail), are here at the campsite. Nice little campsite on the waterfront, cheap (twenty bucks), and Internet is here too. My food is hung up in a tree. I wonder why?

I am now finishing the entry sitting in the bathroom while I recharge things. The IPA is doing well, but that's a big bottle. Luckily, I am close to the toilet. I feel like staying up a bit later tonight, as it's not a long day tomorrow (140 k or so).

Next stops – Glendale, Cheticamp, Ingonish, Baddeck, North Sydney. No backtracking, but few detours to visit different spots (including a little surprise – somewhere where I might get more class! - imagine that).

Lastly, I want to thank Ian and Luke for their hospitality, and to A for hooking me up. AS, A+.

Night night.

p