The Weather Loop

After last night’s glorious cupcake experience I woke this morning ready to face whatever today had in store for me. Turns out what was in store for me was another misty morning. I have to say, I kind of miss seeing the sun rise. Or set. Or anywhere in between. Oh well, rain or shine the bike must go on.

The plan for today was to go from Bishop’s Falls to roughly the midpoint between Gander and Gambo. About 110 km. As such, I wanted to hit the road a lot earlier than yesterday’s 11:00 departure. I had everything packed and loaded by around 8:30. Allan had bought some egg-whites yesterday and this morning cooked them up on his high-powered stove. They were REALLY good. I’m now curious to see how my little Trangia stove would handle eggs. That experiment will have to wait as I have no egg-whites.

With Allan planning to stop in Gander tonight, we parted ways but are hoping to meet up again in St. John’s. I was on the road at 9:15. On my way out of Bishop’s Falls I noticed something that wasn’t in the travel guide. Apparently there’s a correctional facility here. I took a photo of the sign and moved on. Hopefully I won’t be seeing the inside of that facility any time soon. Although, a tour might be interesting.

According to the map, there are a few small towns between Bishop’s Falls and Gander. Well, that may be true but all of them, much like Bishop’s Falls, are set back from the highway – understandably so. However, that isn’t particularly convenient for those travelling by bicycle. I have a general rule that if I see a sign for a restaurant or store that I might be interested in I will only head towards that place if I can see it from the highway. The prospect of a 10 km detour doesn’t appeal to me.

After passing by Norris Arm, Glenwood, and Appleton without seeing any sort of commercial establishment I was beginning to think I might have to alter my general rule. Then, completely unexpectedly there was a Clover Farm Supermarket on the outskirts of Appleton. While this didn’t make me as happy as the cupcakes last night, I was still pretty happy to see the store. It’s not like I really needed anything. I had food. I had water. I was 60 km into my ride and I think I just wanted a real place to take a break. I ended up buying a frozen drink and a package of “Fiddle Stix” cookies.

Gander was now only 23 km away PLUS Gander has a traffic camera so I alerted Jeff to my location and we once again set out to capture the moment. This time things went a little more smoothly as I had little trouble finding the camera. Although, I took a little longer getting there due to hills and a quick detour to the Aviation Museum along the highway. But with the hills conquered and some old airplanes visited, I arrived at the camera at 2:56. I once again stood by the side of my road with my arms stretched out, feeling a little self-conscious as people stared as they went by. Ah, the things I do for the shot. And with the shot eventually captured it was time to move on to the final segment of today’s ride – a campground 28 km east of Gander.

The final 28 km was much more difficult than expected. Actually, difficult probably isn’t the right word. The hills were just a LOT bigger than I anticipated. One in particular was about 2.5 km long and rather steep. But with patience and perseverance I got to the top – didn’t even use the granny gear.

One thing I’ve really noticed as I get closer to St. John’s is the amount of traffic has definitely increased. It’s still not bumper-to-bumper but, compared to what I’ve been traveling in for the past few weeks, there’s been a huge increase since Deer Lake.

By 6:00 I was settled in at the Square Pond RV Park. I won’t even bother with a rant (or even mini-rant) about campsite pricing because we’ve been down that road before. What was said before, applies again here. And I don’t think there will be cupcakes tonight. Okay, so maybe that was a mini-rant.

The biggest puzzle of the day was definitely the weather. While it was never very good, it was never really bad either. But it seemed like it changed every 10-15 minutes. And it seemed like it was mocking me all the way. Perhaps that’s just Newfoundland weather. I’d be riding along in a light rain for about 10 minutes causing my glasses to become less and less useful. And then, just when I could almost see no more, the rain stopped. For about 10-15 minutes. Just long enough for my glasses to dry out and return my vision. Then the rain would return. And this continued all day. Every now and then the sun was allowed to peek through only to be swallowed up by the clouds a few minutes later.

While I’ve been in my tent typing this update, I think the rain has started and stopped about five times. And at the moment it has stopped. Time to go fill up the water bottles.

Today’s Totals:
Distance travelled: 113.34 km
Time on bike: 5:42:40
Maximum speed: 47.96 km/h
Average speed: 19.84 km/h