Hills, Wind, and Airplanes

I think if I were to give today a theme it would be “Payback”. Payback for all those nice sunny days. Payback for all those calm days. Payback for those glorious tailwind days. Payback for those flat stretches of easy pedalling. Okay, sure there were some big hills in the past but those seem so long ago.

But let’s not get too far ahead – I mean, I wouldn’t want this to be a short update.

Last night was another night of scattered showers. But fortunately, no down pours – at least not that I noticed. Add that to the list of things to which I’m generally oblivious. I know, it’s a long list. However, as has often been the case, the overnight rain stopped by morning.

The plan today was a short ride to Deer Lake, just 70 km down the road. Given the short nature of the ride I wasn’t exactly racing around to get packed up. Well, that and the fact that my legs felt like they were 100lbs each. I hadn’t thought about the effects yesterday’s hike might have on my legs. Well, it turns out the effect wasn’t entirely favourable. Something just doesn’t seem right when you can cycle almost 3,000 km in 6 weeks and still have sore legs after 5.5 hours of hiking up and down a mountain. It’s a cruel world.

Despite my legs obvious disapproval of today’s cycling plan, the plan would go on. I mean, as I mentioned earlier, it’s only 70 km down the road. It turns out that what I should have said was it’s only 70 km up, up, UP the road.

The first 20 km of the ride were pretty easy – eight of which I had already done on my ride to the trailhead yesterday. But then things changed. The wind started to pick up. Not a lot, but enough to be noticed. Then came the hills. There have been a lot of hills so far in Newfoundland and that continued today. But there were two particularly memorable hills today.

The first one really wasn’t all that bad. I think the lingering effects of yesterday’s hike made the first hill seem worse than it was. Although, adding to the challenge was that I was unable to access my bike’s lowest gear – and there’s a big difference between the lowest and second lowest gear. Anyway, I made it up the first hill. Exhausted. Sweating. Sore. But that’s all part of the fun. Then came the second hill. The second hill suddenly made the first one look like the prairies.

This was the worst type of hill. Long. Steep. Curved. Oh, and of course the wind had picked up by then too. The curves are nasty because you never really know when you’re getting to the top. When I got to what I thought was the halfway point (it was really only the quarter point) I knew I was in trouble. Between my legs feeling like jello and the lack of a low gear I feared I may actually have to walk. That seemed unacceptable. Fortunately, at that same time there was a trailhead at the side of the road. I pulled over, determined to fix my gears. My legs might not want to work but the gears had to. After a few adjustments and a few select words of “encouragement” directed at my bike (for which I have since apologized) I once again had a low gear. This hill was NOT going to beat me. Not today. Then I reached the curve.

It seems this was a magical hill that actually had no top. I really wish I had checked my odometer when I started the hill because I’d love to know how long it was. The section after the curve was longer and steeper than the first part. If my legs weren’t already screaming at me I’m sure they would’ve been telling me, “I told you so!”.

I noticed that there were two other cyclists about 750m ahead of me. They weren’t loaded bikes but they were still walking up the hill. Suddenly I had motivation. I was going to take my fully loaded bike and I was going to catch up to them, pass them, and pedal to the top. And I don’t mean that in a mean way. It just seemed to present itself as a challenge. And I accepted.

When I caught up to them I didn’t stop but as I passed we briefly exchanged the expected observations about the hill – I’m sure my comment sounded more like a grunt than anything. I couldn’t stop and risk losing what little momentum I had. I just put my head down and pedalled. Around another curve. Fortunately, this time the end was in sight. In the battle of hills vs bike, bike won this one. The human on the bike was totally exhausted though.

There was a lookout point shortly after I reached the top and I felt I deserved a break. I’m not sure how much of a break it really was but it felt good to get off the bike and wander around a bit. Sadly, the wind was so strong and cold that it wasn’t a particularly relaxing stop. There was a bus tour from Nova Scotia there when I arrived and I talked to one woman about our respective trips. She took a picture of me as evidence of my long climb – I can only imagine how exhausted I looked. Anyway, I gave her my card and I’m hoping she’ll email the photo. If she does I’ll add it to this update.

Remarkably, after all this pedalling and sweating I still wasn’t even halfway to Deer Lake. This was turning out to be a lot harder than expected. However, the bike wasn’t going to pedal itself so I got back on the bike and continued and at the 40 km mark there was a small restaurant. I stopped again. While I know the hike yesterday was having an effect on my ride today, I’m pretty sure my lack of a significant breakfast probably didn’t help matters either. Yeah, yeah. I know.

An excellent burger and fries later and I was back on the road to tackle the remaining 30 km. Fortunately, the hills from that point on were generally moderate. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the headwind I was facing. And as it swirled around me there were times when it was really tossing me around – it almost threw me off the shoulder once, and nearly stopped me in my tracks while I was going up a hill. But I pressed on and eventually made it to Deer Lake. And perhaps the most exciting part of that is that in the process of getting to Deer Lake I also crossed the 3,000 km threshold. St. John’s is now only 650 km away.

So, I’m now in windy Deer Lake. The winds were in the 25-30 km/h range today and they really haven’t calmed down much as the evening has set in. I’ve set up my tent near the Visitor Information Centre. Hopefully I have an uninterrupted night. Well, I know I’ll have two interruptions. It would seem there’s an airport in Deer Lake and it seems the flight path is directly over my tent. Do I know how to pick a location, or what! I checked online and it would seem I can expect a plane at 12:40am and 1:40am. Lucky me. I imagine my legs will sleep through both.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 77.58 km
Time on bike: 4:28:45
Maximum speed: 55.41
Average speed: 17.32 km/h