Day 71

Thursday, September 2nd
Whycogomagh to Little Bras d'Or
134km

Just as we were about to head out this morning, I noticed that one of my seat rails was cracked.  (There are two seat rails, attacked to my bike seat and joined into the seat post.)  The rails were carbon fibre, so perhaps they were not up to some of the rough roads that we have been on lately.  My co-riders didn't buy this story, however, and everyone called me as “fat ass” for the entire day.

Instead of risking a completely broken seat, and the prospect of riding out of the saddle all day, I switched seats & seatposts with Dave's bike.  (Dave was the rider injured in Outlook, Sask. Whose bike is still on the truck.)  While Dave's seat took some getting used to, it got me through the day with only minimal discomfort and no troubles.

Today was a short, 93km ride, with an optional 37km loop on the Cabot trail.  I rode with Rosalyn in the morning, but she didn't feel like riding the Cabot trail, so I spent the afternoon riding alone.

The small portion of the Cabot trail that I rode was really nice.  Nothing “unbelievable”, but really nice all the same.  Lots of rolling, sweeping roads with nice views of St. Ann's Gut (a small bay).  The sun was out and it was warm, but there was a crispness in the air that gave the feeling of a fall ride.

After cycling around the gut, ther was a short (25m) ferry trip and then a long, steep climb back to route 105...the main route for the day.  From there, the climbing continued...right to the top of Kelly's mountain.  This was a really tough climb...one of the hardest of the trip.  The descent was fantastic too.  The first really long, steep descent in a long time.

At camp tonight, we dried out our tents and packed up all of our stuff in preparation for tomorrow's ferry trip to Newfoundland.  The big Ryder truck (that has housed our stuff all summer) will not be coming to NFLD with us.  Instead, we'll have a covered pickup truck with a trailer.

After putting together a day pack for tomorrow, and packing everything else up, Rick, Paul, Rosalyn, Peter, Tito and I rode into town to stay at a Best Western next to the ferry.  This way, all of our stuff will be packed away nice and dry...and we got to eat a nice dinner and sleep in comfy beds.
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831