We haven't talked so much about the road conditions and our choice of routes because it is something more easily summed up later when we can take all our choices into account. We promise that we will do a post towards the end detailing our route, why we chose it and the outcome.
Back to the transcanada, we have been on this busy highway since Thunderbay. To be fair, much of it has been fine. The shoulder is paved wide enough about 50% of the time and the traffic is generally courteous. However some sections have been hell and the whole thing has been loud and busy. Time goes a lot slower when you can't ride side by side and chat!
For all of these reasons, we were all very excited to leave this long loud road. So we set out from the beach intent on fulfilling this one task. Some of us though had higher priorities. Despite the time ( 11:00am) Leah needed some fried potates! When Shane saw the chips sign she was off like bat! Half an hour later we were back on the road.
Road names and town names are one of the many things that keeps my mind busy during long rides. Sometimes the names are the result of practical minded people like roads such as "Town line rd" or "post-office rd" and even my favorite "bible camp road!!". Sometimes there are names I can only pronounce in my head while other-times they are odd names. Today the most interesting town came just before lunch and it was called "Spanish". I tried using my limited spanish vocabulary that leah has taught me such as "iscarda" or "donnde esta el banyo?" Unfortunately nobody seemed to understand and we didn't hear any Spanish in the town. However the town we ended up staying in tonight, Espinola , is Spanish sounding.
Finally, after enduring the worst section of highway yet and getting blown off the foot wide shoulder multiple times and getting buzzed by 3 lumber trucks in a row we arrived in Massy, the end of the transcanada! Woo Hoo!
After chowing down on more ice-cream, we followed u-pick strawberry signs out of town on a small rural road hoping to devour a big box of fresh berries! Bahh, it's 4 km off the main road and it's gravel, tempting but not worth it..
After 30 km on the bumpy and at times gravely road we rolled into a beautiful lakeside campground outside Espinola. Highlights of the evening included having dinner with 2 fellow bikers (Spencer and Adam) also going to Halifax and zooming down the camp waterside into the lake!
All in all a great day, we look forward to more strawberries, and quiet roads tomorrow when we begin the next scenic portion of our trip, the Manitoulin Islands!
Distance: 106.89 km
Time on bikes: 5:36:02
Average speed: 19 km/h
Distance from 4544 km
Start: 10:15 km
End: 6:30 km
Wind: north (light-cross)
Conditions: Sunny
Cheers
- The Warpotay Team
Location:Espinola, Ontario
Those ice cream look good! I am also glad you are off the Trans Canada, I worry about you. I get to tell our Lorax story to the Leeds camp today. Wish you were here to help. We are enjoying our CSA from Carla and Justin, Jeff can't get enough of the strawberries. Take care, We enjoy the blog so much.
ReplyDeleteHi guys. Great to see you off the TCH and looking so great. Amazing spirits. We will see you soon. The blog is great bedtime reading.
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