Cycle Canada, Day 62, July 5/06

July 5/06, Wednesday                                                           Day 62                        6272 Kms

Highland Heights Inn, Iona, N.S.                                                                                  86 Kms                          ~ 4:25 Hrs

~ 60 Kms to boat.

Woke up to what Doug calls a "moozie day" though when I hear that term I think of mosquitoes. Around here it means gray, cloudy, foggy. With about 1 hard day's ride to the ferry and two and a half days to make it the urgency in our riding seems to have suddenly disappeared. We ate most of what we had left for dry food (oatmeal) and got away about 11:30. I was cold at first but we climbed a hill right off the causeway and I warmed up.

Moozie days make for comfortable riding.

We ran into 3 cyclists heading west, all on identical new Giant touring bikes. Two brothers from Lloydminster and the girlfriend of one of them from Calgary. It sounded like they had done little preparation for the trip but they had all of the good equipment. It also seemed that they had left St. John's about a week ago and taken a circuitous route to get to the Argentia Ferry. We didn't get much into the smaller details but it seemed to me that they hadn't made it too far in a week's riding. One of them said that they figured the ride would take about 70 days.

Good luck.

I just had a thought about long distance cyclists, the 'real' ones (Bill Quaille, Nick, us) don't have the slick look of Tour de France riders. We're more individuals, cobbled together junk on our bikes, ratty clothes, worn equipment. Rarely sharp, clean and cookie-cutter perfect, long distance cyclists individualize as time goes by and miles build up. Each person's personality and physical capacity comes out in their appearance and the configuration of their equipment. You can tell something of what's important to a person by checking them out on their bikes.

It's strange but as the trip approaches its finish the enormity of it is striking me much more than it did at the beginning. At the beginning I tried not to think about it as a big project. I was afraid I'd be discouraged. I tried to think of just that day or just that hill or just 4 more kilometres or just 60 more seconds holding this speed. Now, with just a half day of cycling left the fear of failure is gone. (Though I'd thought it was gone between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury)