East Coast Riding

Fredericton Legislative Buildings

I’ve been trying to write a post for the past couple of days, but seem to be without a few things, whether it be internet, motivation, or energy to get anything done. I’m now writing this in a semi-lucid state doped up on some strong antibiotics and Vicodin painkillers from the capital city of PEI, Charlottetown – population 32,000. I was thinking all day it is the smallest capital city I’ve visited so far, but for some reason my mind has been foggy and I forgot that Whitehorse, Yukon and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories are much smaller!

Fredericton Bridge Crossing (Rail to Trail?)

On that note, Remember when I went up north and rode with a bunch of guys (and girl) for a while, finally running into them on the very last day that I was in Yellowknife? Well, they’ve released a trailer for the movie “Riding North” due to be out 2011. Looks fun, and watching the trailer reminded me of some of the hairy situations that we went through together, and by myself when we separated due to lack of communication in between sites.

I’m not sure of the status of the book that Steve Langston was writing on his travels and for other cyclists who wish to undertake this feat of strength, determination, and sanity – and will report back when he publishes it. I’ve been thinking about that trip often as of late, and wondering if I would do it again – probably not, but the memories are some of the most strongest of the trip – the intensity of being alone, weather, BUGS, with a huge reward at the end. I know I’m coming up to another set of tough travel times for the final 20 days of the trip – Heading north into Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, finally heading over to Newfoundland for 900km of wind, rain, and wild weather. I’m drained of energy, cold is my worst nightmare, and rain demoralizes me – oh, let us not forget about the hills – so there may be a few panic posts upcoming soon, or I may love it and decide to stay out in the wild for another week. First off, I need to get better, and have my bicycle prepared for the final 1500km.

Fredericton, New Brunswick was a neat capital city to visit. On the first day I headed up a huge hill to find the sprawl of box stores, replacing my broken camera so I could keep capturing evidence. Apparently it was a bicycle lane, but I saw no shoulders, and snarls of traffic on the 9% grade – so I rode the sidewalk. It was because of this as well coming down that bumps in the walk flung a pannier off my bike and made me lose control almost wiping out in front of a man and woman sitting outside of their house having a beer. Instead of laughing, they offered me a beer instead, something I couldn’t pass up. It turns out they went to the local college down the road, and had both been living in seperate ends of the country for the summer filming videos for Parks Canada and invited me out to go and see them followed up with a potluck (Salmon from Haida Gwaii on the menu!). I accepted, on the condition I make it over to my hosts house first to drop off my stuff, shower and introduce myself, rather than banging on their door at 11pm. Of course it didn’t happen as when I finally showered and sat down, it was 11pm, and I was too wiped to move. I opted for a long sleep until 11am the next morning, before heading off with my wonderful host to the New Brunswick Legislative Building to attempt to perform my headstand-o-rama quest. We made it inside, past the security who took away all of my knives, and asked for ID, yet were perfectly fine with my guest walking through just providing their phone number, basically making it up a wonderful spiral staircase, and being able to look into the chamber room, nothing else. It has been one of the smallest legislative buildings so far, and by far the most closed off. Luckily, an MLA who was filled with energy was bouncing up the stairs, and took it upon himself to take us past the roped off areas right into an area where all the other MLA’s were hanging out! Some notable quotes from him were to a colleague were: ‘Who is that person? I wasn’t paying attention yesterday whatsoever’, ‘Do we regularly have to do this every time we come here?’ and finally turning to me and stating that he didn’t have any idea what he was doing. I laughed, glad they that he was at least being honest about being a hack in office and managed to snap some photos of some areas security didn’t want me in. I was worried about getting a photo in the Chamber Room so opted for a headstand in the stairwell, until I found another area downstairs and quickly ran across the gate, flipped upside down in 5 seconds, had my friend snap the photo and we were gone, with no evidence other than the photo stored on my memory card. Such fun!

Spiral Headstand

I then decided to explore the city a bit by bicycle, snapping photos with my new camera, wondering if I should keep it or not before running into a woman I had met the night before who gave me some tips on what I should see in the city – with the best one being the Beaverbrook Art Gallery that offered free admission after 5 on Thursday afternoons. It was one of my favorite memories of the trip so far visiting the exhibitions of Military Art: Korea and Beyond and some jaw dropping paintings and furniture dating back to the 1300′s. I was speechless as I exited the facility stunned until way later till I shared a few beers with some friendly people in the area until the wee hours in the morning. I had made the decision about Beer #2 that I was going to spend another day and hang out with my friend that I had met, unfortunately heavy gusts and rain blanketed the area rendering us useless for the majority of the day. We headed out to a Rummage sale in the early evening where I found a set of postcards from the 1960′s depicting skylines from each of the capital cities of Canada. I found this fitting to my travels and picked it up for 10 cents. I was starting to get too comfortable, enjoying the company of my new friend who was telling me all sorts of stories of their previous cycle tours, and another trip to Africa, something I listened to with great interest. I also got along great with the other family members in the house, one night spending a few hours chatting away well into nighttime.

Confederation Bridge, aka a cyclists nightmare

Saturday morning, I knew I had to leave the city otherwise I’d cause huge wrenches in the upcoming weeks, so quickly checked out the Farmers Market down the road before heading off for some groceries, next stop – Moncton. I rode off and on the highway not really knowing where I was to get to that day, growling a bit at the cold winds, and hills that were in my way. I eventually found a side road for the remaining 100km which took me through uninhabited territory, rivers, and farmland. The downside to this, was that I was out of water, and running low on food. I kept on riding hoping to find a town to replenish my water supply without success well into the pitch black, finally stopping when I saw a fire, where 3 farmers eyed me up and down wondering where the heck this hairy guy came in from. They sent me off with a small bottle of water, telling me there was nothing in sight for miles around, when by luck I spotted a church right across the street. It was a sign from above, and I setup my tent, ate dinner and laid awake for a few hours reading, before getting a solid 11 hours sleep. It was also the first night I slept with all of my clothes on, wind picking up and temperature dropping a good 4 degrees more than any other night so far on the trip.

I marveled in the morning at how good long johns felt underneath all my clothes as I quickly packed up, had a not so fancy breakfast, and yelled at a bear in the woods to get out of my area and leave me alone. He left – funny how 6 months ago I would have been shaking in my boots, or doing something rash like pulling out my bear spray and acting stupidly by trying to spray it. Now, I just don’t care. I started riding east towards Moncton, finally seeing civilization 50km later stopping to talk to some locals and getting groceries at one of the bigger food stores I’ve seen in weeks. Moncton was a nice town, I especially loved the crosswalks, with the Moncton logo imprinted into the ground, and some of the old architecture. I overheard bits of french here and there, but didn’t stop to talk to anyone as I had nowhere to stay that night, and it was far too early (2pm) to stop. I had originally planned to head south to a city named Sackville, but headed right on east so I could get to the Atlantic Ocean. It was there I washed my face for the first time with some of the coldest water I’ve ever felt – and it was wonderful!  The wind was picking up next to the coast which gave me a little boost through the small villages advertising beaches and picnic areas in french, and I finally stopped after 120km of riding camping out behind a community centre/hunting club. After my last encounter with a guy with a gun, I decided to make my area very visible and walk around with some high vis gear in the dark. Bonus – I was able to get some power from the side of the building and eliminated the need to waste an hour in a coffee shop later on that night or the next morning. Another point of the night that dawned on me, I had bought 2 beers from the store to drink during dinner and into the night, and after finishing only half of one, I decided that I was done and threw it away. I can remember nights in the start of the trip when I’d have more than one multiple nights in a row – so I think if I’ve learned something so far about this trip – it’s moderating my moderation. Go me!

Red Roads, lead to red tires?

The big day had arrived on Monday morning, the end of New Brunswick and heading into Prince Edward Island, via the Confederation Bridge. It’s a 12km marvel crossing the Atlantic that was put into usage in 1997, free for people going into PEI, but a hefty fee to leave, replacing ferries that once crossed back and forth for years.  Eve since I left Vancouver I’d been plotting ways to cross this NOT so cycling friendly bridge, knowing that I would most likely get arrested, or ticketed, still not being phased by the potential implications. It was when I arrived and saw this monstrosity that I changed my tune immediately. Winds of 70km/h with gusts of 100km/h had shut down the bridge to high sided traffic, lines of semis piled up anxious to cross. I made it to the foot of the bridge and turned back, knowing that I wouldn’t stand a chance on that bridge, being blown over, ending my trip and anything in the future right then and there. I sulked away finally taking the shuttle over, which worked out quite nicely as I got some good history lessons and info on how the bridge was made, as the shuttle driver was working overflow at the time from his regular job as bridge repair. Next time Confederation Bridge, next time.

At first, PEI seemed like just an extension of New Brunswick, same stores, gas stations, farmers dealing with potatoes, until you stop and look around to notice the greenest grass in all of Canada. Then you notice that everything is red – the dirt is a very rich red colour,  staining fabric, and everything it touches. Watching the ocean move with the heavy winds lifted up the red dirt turning it into a sea of blood. It was quite the sight to see and certainly something that couldn’t be caught on camera. I rode for quite some time on the coast when I happened to receive a text message from a friend who had stated that I should go check out where they were brought up, which turned out to be less than a kilometre from where I was at the time. I rode up the hill and was offered a place to stay in a house situated in 20 acres of woods, hills, and natural springs – where they did impressive collection of water, heating it via solar panels in the summer and via the stove in the winter. The house was built from the ground up and it was nice to meet the parents of this truly unique individual. I also met another family in the evening who had lived in Russia, giving me valuable information for years ahead.

Making Dinner

I woke up early to an empty house, my hosts had left early to catch a flight so I packed up and made my way over to Charlottetown. My mouth has been hurting since the first day I arrived in Fredericton, and today it was screaming more than usual. You see, I’ve got a little flap of skin sitting over one of my back teeth (my wisdom are long gone) which some how has grown to the size of a small eraser-head on a pencil. With it throbbing on a scale of 5/10 I headed over to the hospital, and had them check it out. I’ve got to get some surgery done to get this removed, but wasn’t really feeling like today is the right day to do it. Instead I picked up a dose of painkillers and antibiotics, and will make the call whether to go in for emergency surgery at the next major city, likely Sydney, Nova Scotia. It’s funny – memories of last years trip come to mind as I had as well 14 days to finish my trip but was hurt severely and rode the rest of the trip riding high on Percocets to assist in numbing the 16 stitches in my face.

PEI Provincial House

After the hospital visit, I headed over to the Province House – aka the legislative building in PEI, a very small building that has been restored by Parks Canada as a heritage site. This was the building where Canada became Canada in 1867, although ironically, PEI didn’t join confederation until 1870. It was a nice building, restored to represent older times, and no security, that being said, no headstands. When I left, I headed down for a little cycle tour of the city gawking at a map when  I was approached by a woman putting up billboards on a pole. We chatted for a while and she offered to have me over to set up my tent in the backyard. I later talked to my friend in Yellowknife, who’s parents house I stayed at the night before and it turns out that they were all old friends. Small world. It’s been a good visit so far and I’m still wide awake at 1:36am laughing with the other residents of the house, deciding if I should head east or stay one more day. Time will tell.

Fredericton, New Brunswick to Charlottetown, PEI

• Rocky Riding
• Return to Riding
• Superior Riding
• Riding the White Horse
• Historical Waterfront Riding