The Ride

Another great Nova Scotia bike shop

Wheel full 70px I took the Surly into Manser’s Bike Shop [linkie] in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia yesterday for a check up and some adjustments.

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Wheel full 70px Jordan, the shop’s mechanic, went over the bike from front to rear, tightening a loose quick release on the front wheel, custom bending a fender bracket that was causing occasional rubbing, properly torquing the headset, and making some needed adjustments to the front and rear derailleurs.  The bike has never shifted as smoothly as after him doing this.

Wheel full 70px All told, he probably spent an hour working on the bike, all the while chatting with me about my trip, Surly bikes, Brooks saddles, and other stuff.  The shop was busy, too.  He handled a couple of customers and dealt with several phone calls while I was there.  I was, if you haven’t figured it out already, really impressed.

Wheel full 70px I won’t tell you what he charged me; I’ll just note that I must have gotten the long-distance bike rider discount rate.  A Five-Star experience!

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Wheel full 70px Yarmouth is a nifty little city, with a great historic downtown.  I had some non-trip related business here that took a bunch of time out of the remainder of my day, but I’d come back here as a tourist and hang out for a few days in a heartbeat.

 

 

b2b Trip -Week #2

Wheel full 70px Yesterday, September 1st, I wrapped up the second week of the beach to beach trip when I rode into Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.   Yarmouth is the major city in the western part of the province, and from here I could catch if I wanted to a ferry to Portland, Maine.

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Wheel full 70px But that’s not the plan. I’m going to continue to ride in Nova Scotia for another two days, traveling on to the port city of Digby (left side of the above map about halfway down) where I’ll catch the ferry across the Bay of Fundy to St. John, New Brunswick. From the there I turn left and it’s just a couple of days to the international border in the just a couple of days to the International Border in the State of Maine.

Wheel full 70px As Treebeard said, it’s all downhill from there.

Wheel full 70px So here’s the 215 miles/345 kilometers I rode during the last week.

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Wheel full 70px The 30 to 40 mile days will end when I depart Nova Scotia. From there things will get much more businesslike as I plan to ride an average of 50 miles/80 km a day north of New York City and 60 miles/95 km a day south of there to Florida.  Right now if all goes as planned I will be arrive in Key West the first week of November.

Wheel full 70px I’m working on integrating the pictures I’ve been taking with a more detailed description of each day’s ride from my notes. No promises, but they’ll be coming along your way at some point.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Wheel full 70px No, not really.  All the purposeful riding I’ve done this summer has been in August here in Nova Scotia.  The rest was prelude.

Wheel full 70px Here’s how RidewithGPS [linkie] sums up my August activity.

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Wheel full 70px Not too shabby for a tourist, eh?  Or a flatlander.  The thirty thousand and change calories RwGPS says I’ve burned- an estimate based on an algorithm, I’m sure, but probably a pretty informed one- are from about zero exercise-related calories through the end of May of this year, and up from a handful- a couple of thousand a month- in June and July.  My elevation gain is more than if I had summited Mt. McKinley Denali from sea level, which of course everyone knows you can’t do on a bicycle.

Wheel full 70px On to September!  I’ll sum up the first two weeks of the ride tonight.

Just Four Days Left

Wheel full 70px I spent last night at Clark’s Harbour on Cape Sable Island off the very southwest corner of Nova Scotia.

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Wheel full 70px If you look along the bottom of the map the town is about 1/3 of the way over from the left.  That dot and the island it is on is just about as far south in Canada as you can go outside of the Province of Ontario.

Wheel full 70px I don’t know why other than that I have always loved maps  but the name “Cape Sable” is one of those I recall from my childhood that made the world seem like such a mysterious and inviting place.  The reality, going  on 60 years later, is a little more mundane-  a place of small weatherbeaten saltbox cottages along quiet lanes and the curve of deserted beaches with the open Atlantic just beyond.

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Wheel full 70px But it’s all wonderful nonetheless.  I’m glad I’m here.

Wheel full 70px As I noted at the start of the post I’ll be leaving Nova Scotia in four days, catching the ferry across the Bay of Fundy- another childhood name- for St. John, New Brunswick at Digby.  Then in a couple more days I’ll be back in the United States in Maine.  It will be sad to leave the Maritimes behind, but I’m excited by what lies ahead.

Yesterday’s Ride

Wheel full 70px Just so you don’t think I’m hanging around hotel rooms eating donuts…

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Wheel full 70px I had the best ride of the trip yesterday.  The weather was gorgeous, the wind was reasonable friendly, and the hills… well, two out of three aren’t too bad. I hope to be doing 50 mile/80 km days by the end of the week.

Wheel full 70px I’m going to start checking my tires every other day.  They should run at 90 psi, but each was down to around 65 or so after the last six days.  Full tires really… Duh!… make a difference.

Wheel full 70px I continue to take many photos, of which this is a teaser.

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Wheel full 70px We’ll sit around a campfire soon and I’ll do a slide show.

Weigh-in #9 – Back Up to 333

Wheel full 70px Well, it looks like the hot streak has ended.

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Wheel full 70px My weight’s back up to 333 pounds/just over 150 kg, which is where it was two weeks ago.  I’m not freaking out, mind you.  It’s likely that there’s enough variation between scales where neither this week’s result nor last week’s was on the money.  I’m pretty much religiously counting caloric intake on MyFitnessPal [linkie] and, to the extent my expenditure of calories when I am riding as calculated by RidewithGPS [linkie] is even remotely accurate, I am still well below the net intake that would be required to maintain my weight at a particular point.  So I can deal with that, and I’m guessing that there’ll be a return next Monday to the glide path downward I’ve been on the past couple of months.  Or not.

Wheel full 70px We’ll see.

Wheel full 70px Oh, and of far more immediate concern… it’s pouring rain.

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Another Old Buoy

Wheel full 70px I took a great loop ride into Lockeport on an unloaded bike today on my day “off.”  Took lots of really nice photos of the interesting things I saw.

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Wheel full 70px Some are even in color!  I just couldn’t pass this up, though.  I’m going to grill a piece of meat I bought at the store today and heat some beans, but I’ll be back later with scenery as opposed to art.  Sigh…

Lockeport, NS

Wheel full 70px What a beautiful spot for Saturday breakfast!

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Wheel full 70px Behind me appears to be- and smells like, but that’s not a bad thing- a still operating fish cannery.  I hope so, because I’ve been through one community after another here where the working boats are all gone, replaced by quarter-million dollar sailboats and such.  Still pretty, but you know those boats aren’t owned by many local folks.

Wheel full 70px Times do change; I get that.  I don’t necessarily like it, but that’s the way it is.  I’ll have been privileged to to have visited Nova Scotia twice in my life.  Once 40 years ago, and again right now.    Few places I’ve been leave memories as deep and lasting.

Wheel full 70px I love it here, change and all.