Day 69

Tuesday, August 31st
Brackley Beach (PEI) to Lower Barney's River (NS)
142km

Really tough day today.  We woke up around 5:30am to make the first ferry off of the island and 11am.  The ferry was more than 80km away, so the timing would be tight.

Just after I got my tent down it started to rain pretty hard.  We hit the road around 6:40am and it was still very dark.  There were ominous black clouds everywhere, a fierce headwind, sharp rain slashing down on us, and rolling hills all of the way to the ferry.  Just about the toughest conditions you could cycle in I think.

We did pass through Charlottetown and several of the historic building there, but we didn't bother to stop or take any photos due to the heavy rain.

We made it to the ferry around 10:50am and went across to Nova Scotia with about half of the cyclists.  The ferry took about an hour and a half, and gave us a chance to have a hearty secound breakfast.

The rain had pretty much stopped by the time we reached Caribou, NS.The wind, however, was still out in full force.  For about 20km it was either a headwind or cross wind.

At the 100km mark, a large group of us got a bit confused by the directions, and ended up at a Tim Hortons asking for help.  A kilometer down the road, who do we meet...but Bud...the guy who runs the trip and made the map.  He was cycling around, looking for blueberry pie, he said...really.  He led us back onto the route, and even stopped to help Rosalyn with a tangled chain problem.  Perfect timing.

The last 23km or so were great.  We changed directions and had the stong wind at our backs.  Cycling is so much fun with a tailwind.  The windy, hilly roads were no longer obsticles, but rather points of interest and fun...thanks to the extra speed we picked up.

Tonight was the last night for my galley crew to cook.  I was the only one out of the four of us to make the first ferry, so I got into camp well before the others.  We didn't get cooking until 5:30pm...and we usually serve the food at 6pm!  Luckily, we had a lot of leftovers from Rick's family, and we were able to through together some rice and chilli to round out the meal.
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831