Stanley Cup

Sometimes it's not what you know but who you know. I have a very good friend who is the brother in Law of the assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings. Since the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley cup it has been a tradition for each player and coach to have the cup for a day.

Since I am sidelined from bicycling I thought that going to this event would be fitting.

The cup arrived in Antigonish, NS Tues. and was at their residence for a private party. On Wed. the cup traveled into town to the local arena where he had started his hockey career for a public cup viewing. Earlier in the day the cup was at the local hospital for patients that were unable to travel to the public viewing. Later in the day it was back at his residence for a final party. We all got to get photos of the cup, with it, drinking out of it, reading all the names on it and just being overjoyed with it's presence.

Thank you to the family for the once in a lifetime invitation to share in this special event. Until the Red Wings win again!

Sidelined

We went on vacation Fri. Aug 8 and ended up in Carleton, Yarmouth County, NS.

Sat. we went down the Chebogue river on relatives motor boats. We spent the day getting fog burned on Crawleys Island at the mouth of the river.

Sun. was very similar but we went farther out from the mouth of the river to Green "Rock" Island. Three fast speed boats and a fishing boat travelled to Green Island. The island is very small that had a manned lighthouse which has been converted to an unmanned post. There were a lot of seagulls circling waiting for returning fishing boats to get a free lunch. There were puffins in the area which was a wonderful sight as I thought they were only located farther north along the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. The occasional seal bobbed by inquisitively to see what we were doing. The currents created by the changing of the tide in the area is extremely fast, raising or lowering 4 metres (13') in 6 hrs. Two of my cousins and a friend went scuba diving along the ocean bottom near the island. Two of the divers couldn't manage the currents on the ocean bottom and had to surface. We sent out a zodiac to pick them up but with the strong currents the zodiac was not making very good headway returning. I raised anchor on one of the faster boats and proceeded to pick up the divers who by this time had attached themselves to a fishing boat which was travelling with the tide. The third diver surfaced and was picked up by another boat. I then went to were the third diver was and got him on board the boat so we had all three divers back on the boat that we started on. All the boats rafted up together and the divers removed there cumbersome gear. We then returned to the mouth of the Chebogue River.

Mon. I biked from Mink Lake Route 203 Carleton to the Hardscratch road along route 340. return 30km.

Wed. I biked from Mink Lake to Yarmouth following route 203 to 340 to the Pitman Road, Left on lake George road and back onto the 340. Following the 340 again to Hebron and onto the 1 and when I got to the intersection of the 1 and Stars road I made a left following Stars road back to the Hardscratch road and back to Mink Lake. 60 km.

Fri. I did the same route as Wed. 60 km.
It was nice to find that the traffic in the area seemed more considerate to a fellow on a bicycle. My Aunt and Uncle were having a party for all their friends around Mink Lake so we spent the day setting up for the party. My cousin flew in to enjoy the party and spend the night. He has a piper cub and wanted to take me for a fly.

This is where the sidelined part comes into play!

I proceeded to attempt to prop-start the airplane and in the process dislocated my shoulder. I originally dislocated my shoulder skiing at age 21 and then again playing hockey. I had surgery on it in '92 and dislocated it again playing in a hockey tournament a year later, I have since quit hockey. I have had no problems with my shoulder since quitting hockey up until now. I spent Fri. night in the Yarmouth County Hospital getting x-rays and having to go into surgery to be knocked out. The pain medication and muscle relaxants were not working so they had to put me in the Operating Room and put me under to put my shoulder back in place. I now have 2 weeks off work with my arm in a sling, with no bicycling until I see my family doctor about physiotherapy.

Whites Lake to Queensland

Went for a ride today 122km Home to Queensland Beach and back. Taking a page out of The Squeaky Cyclist of My Bicycle Musings I had 2 energy bars and 2 bottles of water. The ride there was uneventful with the odd car screaming by. Why do they have to get so close? Watched the waves crash on the beach. There were only about 30-40 people on the beach, I guess the clouds kept them home. After leaving the beachgoers I had driven about 1/2hr. down the road, then it started to rain. It was a good thing I had put on my "forward deflector" and rear "rat tail" before I left home. It didn't rain long and it was warm. I never do like driving in the rain because of the lack of visibility between me and the cars passing. The rest of the trip home the pavement was wet so when I arrived home my shoes were "squishy". Average 31.15km/hr.

Whites Lake to Peggys Cove

My normal route is from Whites Lake to Peggys Cove return 45km. I had to buy a new chain as the strain of the trip streatched the old one. After a weeks rest I was up to getting back on my bike again. I did my ride today as usual but kept looking back to see if Mike was behind me, he wasn't. I had my fastest average today 32.5km/hr, the rest did me good.

Day 4

Base of North Mountain to Margaree 100km 4:10:24

While getting the bikes ready for the days ride we saw a moose on the side of the road. We passed a few cyclists during our days on the trail but while we were getting ready a fellow from Germany stopped and I put air in his tires for him. We talked about our ride and his and he was doing the trail for the second time in two days but in the opposite direction. He had already done the trail on Tues. and was doing it in reverse on Thurs., all in one day! We started the day with the climb up another mountain but with the day of rest we were well prepared. It started out overcast and the higher we went the foggier it got. North Mountain was the longest climb but not as steep as Cape Smokey, 7km up and 6km down. On the decent down North Mountain it became clearer and clearer and the sun came out. We reached a top speed of 78.9km down North Mountain, what took 30 min. to climb took less than 5 min. to decend.

During summer vacations as a child I would travel the Cabot Trail with my father and step brother. When we passed the Lone Sheiling my father would comment on it being "Hunters Mud Hut", so we had to stop for a photo op.

Mackenzie Mountain wasn't much of a climb, more like a few hills, then there was French Mountain. This was the nicest decent of the whole trip, it seemed to go on for a long time. We never exceeded our previous speed though I tried really hard too.

We were on the last leg of our journey with all the BIG hills out of the way we only had to get through Cheticamp and finish back in Margaree. You enter and exit the Cabot Trail a number of times around the park and the roads are a lot better while in the park. From Cheticamp to Margaree we had a head wind, come to think about it we had a head wind the entire trip. This was no ordinary head wind, it was like driving on flat tires. We made it to the Margaree Harbour bridge and stopped for a break. Mike asked me how much further and I said 6km, that was the longest 6km I had ever ridden.

Total time in the saddle under 12 hrs. and with 300km under our belts it was time to lay off cycling fo a while. We made it!

FIN

Thank you to Daniel, Carmelle and Arlene for being our support crew and thank you to Mike for sharing this adventure with me.

We are planning a bicycle trip through the Canadian Rockies for next September. The rockies are supposed to be easier than the Cabot Trail, we shall see.

Day 3

Oh boy how it rained that night, I thought we would float away but we didn't even get wet. We were up early and had everything in the car and headed for a shelter to have breakfast. We decided that since we had such a hard previous day we would rest today. We headed back to Margaree for the day and some well deserved rest. We had a room booked at the Duck Cove Inn http://www.duckcoveinn.com/ for 4 nights as we were taking in the Belle Cote Days. "Belle Cote Days; Belle Cote, Cabot Trail Date(s): July 23 - 27 Where the Margaree River meets the Gulf of St. Lawrence, this coastal community celebrates their annual community festival the last week of July. Activities include a golf tournament, triathlon, ecumenical service and outdoor concert, seniors card play, crab and wraps up on Sunday with a Chicken BBQ and Strawberry Shortcake."

Day 2

Base of Smokey Mountain to the base of North Mountain 80km 3:03:14

We woke early excited for the journey ahead. We were driven back to the base of Cape Smokey where we had ended the previous days journey. While loading the bicycles onto the bike rack we noticed the frames had taken in a lot of water, the force of the water off of the tires pushed the water into the bicycle frames and drained through tiny holes near the rear tire. Mike and I had at least a cup of water in our frames when we drained them. We were in for a very hard ride today. Cape Smokey is a steep climb with switch-backs 5km up, this was to be the hardest climb of the trip. With the previous days rains the hills had sand washed from the shoulders of the road onto the pavement. While shifting gears Mike lost focus on the road and with sand on the pavement he lost his balance and crashed going up Smokey. This was the only upset of the entire ride but it was a wake up call to be more aware of the road surface. He made it out with a little scratch as he was going slow up hill but his main chainring shifter was bent but still usable. We had thick fog going up Smokey and when we descended 7km back down the weather was overcast for the entire day and the pavement was dry. After Ingonish you enter the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the pavement gets much better. We were headed for Cape North and the Hideaway Campground & Oyster Market http://www.campingcapebreton.com/. We turned the corner at Neils Harbour and were now headed West towards North Mountain. We had a long climb out of Neils Harbour but we were used to the terrain by now and a long hill wasn't that bad. We had gone about 55km by the time we reached the campground and decided to travel further befor stopping for the night. We made it to the base of North Mountain and were glad to stop for the day. Starting the day with a climb up Cape Smokey took a lot of the "stuffing" out of us and after having ridden 120km the previous day, we stopped after only going 80km today. Since it was overcast and the weather man was calling for rain we tried to look for another cottage but they were all booked up, so we tented. We showered, had a big dinner and went to bed.

Day 1

Cabot Trail - Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

http://novascotia.com/en/home/aboutnovascotia/uniquely_novascotia/cape_breton_island/default.aspx
In February '08 a friend told me of her family's plans for a family reunion in Margaree Forks, Cape Breton. Her brother in law was planning to tour the Cabot Trail in the days leading up to the reunion. I had always wanted to bicycle the Cabot Trail and asked if I could tag along. What follows are our experiences along the trail.

Margaree Forks to base of Smokey Mountain 121km 4:32:11

We had planned on starting on Monday weather permitting. I was excited to get going but when we woke Mon. morning it was pouring buckets. I found Mike and around 9:30am it had started to let up so we decided to head out regardless of the weather. It was a good decision because by the time we started at 10:30 it was just a typical overcast drizzly day in NS. Our vehicle support consisted of Mike's wife Carmelle and her brother Daniel in one vehicle and my wife in another vehicle.

We followed route 19 East along the Cabot Trail toward Baddeck. From Margaree to Lake O'Law http://thelakesresort.com/ the pavement was mostly dry but overcast. From Lake O'Law to the base of Hunters Mountain we had light drizzle with rain up and down Hunters Mountain. The terrain along the route is very favorable to cyclists with no hard climbs until Hunters Mountain. The climb up Hunters Mountain is 2km and is not that bad. After the climb up Hunter Mountain you come down, fast. It's easy going the rest of the way to the 105, at the "Red Barn" you turn left along the Trans Canada Highway toward our destination in Ingonish.

When we reached the TCH we had a car following behind us with a sign advertising slow bicycles ahead. This really helped to keep the cars farther to the left than normal. Following the TCH toward Baddeck you have the widest paved shoulders of the whole trip. To make the trip more interesting we didn't take route 19 after St. Anns but took the exit at the 312 to the Englishtown Ferry.

The ferry ride saves 9km of cycling and it's a 5min. cable ferry ride. OK, I know we were here to cycle but a cool ferry ride to mix it up a bit was kind of fun too. On the way to the ferry a fox ran across the road in front of us making us excited because of the thought of more wildlife on the roads ahead. Once off the ferry we were now on route 19 following the coast of the Atlantic Ocean North toward Ingonish. There was very little traffic on the road so we sent our support ahead to set up camp. Then it started to rain and rain it did all the way to the base of Smokey Mountain. We were not looking forward to sleeping in a tent in the rain that evening and were excited to find out our wives had secured a cottage for us to sleep in for the evening. We had dinner, showered, watched the Tour de France http://www.letour.fr/ on TV and then had a really good nights sleep.