Day Two – aka. Exodus, Chapter 1

I really don’t know why I bother planning anything. I mean, what’s the point? Nothing ever goes according to my plan so how could I possibly be surprised when today turned out considerable different than anticipated.

The plan WAS to leave at 6 am this morning to get a head start on some of the ever-pleasant Toronto drivers. Well, packing up the panniers took a little longer than anticipated. Then I had to find someone from the rental office to inspect that I had done a satisfactory job of disposing everything. Apparently I succeeded.

So, with the apartment gone I was free to hit the road – well, I had to take a “quick” detour up to the office to drop off a bag of things that I was still using last night and wasn’t about to throw out – ie. modem, router, and a bunch of other crap! So, with that task complete I was finally ready to hit the road with my woefully overloaded bike. I mean, seriously … I envision some of this stuff getting tossed somewhere along the line. WAY too much weight. Whatever, I’ll deal with that another day.

So, at 8:25am the ride finally began. St. John’s here I come. Of course, by “St. John’s” I really mean the corner of Mt. Pleasant and Glengowan Rd. I would just like to preface this part of the story by saying I really like traditions. I think they can be fun and often just an excuse to do something – like my Annual Baseball Road Trip. However, some traditions are just getting tiresome. Really tiresome. Just to be clear to those that missed it, the emphasis should go like this – TIREsome.

Leading up to this trip, I’ve managed to get a flat tire on the first day of every cycling trip (hmmmm, okay, maybe that’s not true – New Zealand was Day Two). Either way, it was early in the trip, and it was a flat. So again, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the gunshot-like bang of my rear tire as it exploded a mere 1 km from the office (yeah yeah, cue the laughter). On a side note, I don’t know if it makes me happy or sad that I’m getting pretty good at changing tires along the side of the road.

Fast forward to the tire being fixed – which went remarkably well – and I was ready to go again. Except I had just used my only spare tube and I thought travelling without one would likely be less than the brightest thing I’ve ever done. Fortunately there’s a local bike shop nearby. Unfortunately, they don’t open until 10:00am which left me sitting around outside the store until then. Fast forward (again) to about 10:10am and I was ACTUALLY ready to hit the road.

The VERY heavy bike held together – and while a bit wobbly at times (I blame the rider), we managed to carry on. I didn’t really have a REAL goal for the day other than to put Toronto in the rear view mirror (or mirror mounted to my sunglasses, as the case may be). Overall, I think I did a decent job of eating and staying hydrated – although, that started to slip a bit at the end. The ride was going so smoothly that I kind of zoned out for a bit, missed a turn, and nearly ended up on the 401. However, that quickly got resolved and at 11:30 I actually stopped for lunch – at Subway (a fine establishment that should clearly sponsor this adventure!).

The other notable moment came shortly after leaving Pickering when I passed another cyclist with a loaded bike (although clearly much more selective than me in regards to what to pack!). Anyway, when I pulled off the road for a break in Oshawa I saw him cycle past. Several hours later as I was riding past a Tim Horton’s in Port Hope I saw his bike – with the rider waving enthusiastically from inside (another fine establishment which should also sponsor this adventure). And finally, about 20 minutes after I arrived at the campsite we met up again. Turns out he is also going out to St. John’s but taking a much different route.

We didn’t discuss too many details of our trips as exhaustion from the day was more than a little high. I have to say I was pretty much out of gas at about the 120 km point but I knew a campsite was within reach to I decide push on and power through (ok, there wasn’t much “power” left). My legs pretty much feel like jello at the moment – hopefully they’ll be ready to go tomorrow morning. Looking back on the day I think the sun took a bigger toll on me than anticipated which is why I retreated to some shade for a bit in Oshawa – which may have been the best decision I made all day (look at that, I’m learning – slowly).

So, my final destination today was Cobourg East Campground.

Distance travelled: 138.94km
Time on the bike (actually moving): 7:24:01
Maximum speed: 44.07 km/h
Average speed: 18.76 km/h

All things considered, not a bad first day. Ok, I really probably shouldn’t have gone that far on first day of riding. I could regret that in the morning, but we’ll see.

Oh, and so far mosquitos are a bigger threat than bears. Nasty!!  And some of them are only slightly smaller than a bear.