Moose!!

Last night’s wild camping in the park was another successful endeavour. I enjoyed a very comfortable sleep – probably somewhat aided by the 165 km ride. The ground was actually so soft that, if not for the insulation provided by my air mattress, I could’ve easily just slept on the ground last night.

Despite my uninterrupted sleep I was definitely feeling a bit sluggish this morning. This may also have been because I expected today to be a short ride of about 70 km. I’ve really noticed that in addition to the obvious physical demands of touring by bicycle, there’s also a really big mental element. If your brain doesn’t want you to go 100 km it’s really hard to make your legs do it.

That said, with my St. Anthony detour officially over, I resumed my trek towards St. John’s via Gros Morne National Park. The next big target is Rocky Harbour which apparently is the hub of activity for Gros Morne. The problem with Rocky Harbour is that it’s about 220 km from where I was starting the day. So, that’s either three easy days or one easy day and one hard day. At the moment I’m leaning towards three easy days as the weather forecast is not looking favourable for the next several days.

I stopped back in at the motel before I left to use their WiFi and refill my water bottles. This took a bit longer than expected as I met a retired couple from St. John’s and had a bit of a chat. Side note, after spending four weeks in Quebec my French was still terrible but at least I got pretty “natural” with my “Merci”, “Oui”, and occasional “Douze pouces” … now it would seem I have to work on my “Ah yahs” and “Jeezs”.

Anyway, I finally hit the road by around 10:00. 17km later the distinctive sound of spokes-gone-bad returned. I have to say, all I could think of was how lucky I was it didn’t happen yesterday. I also was a bit lucky in the sense that this time the broken spoke wasn’t on the drive side of the wheel. I hoped this would lead to an easier repair. It did. The repair went relatively smoothly and I likely could have been on the road faster but I was in no rush. My brain was not as eager to ride today as it was yesterday.

Eventually I was back on the road. It was another really nice day for riding – although some locals were complaining about the heat. It was 23 degrees. There was some beautiful scenery as the ride returned to a coastal setting. Water on one side, mountains on the other. Hard to wrong with that. I also really enjoy the look of all the lobster traps piled along the shore and the sides of the road. The traps along the sides of the road puzzled me a bit as I didn’t realize lobsters travel that far inland. But what do I know, I’m a city boy. Anyway, I like the fact that it’s hard to forget that all the villages that I’m passing through are working fishing villages.

In other big news, I had another wildlife sighting today. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera ready but you can imagine my surprise when a moose passed me on the highway. Yes, it passed me! Okay, sure it was dead in the back of a pickup but it was still a moose and it still passed me. I really wish I had my camera ready at the time.

I reached Hawke’s Bay around 3:00pm. Despite the low mileage for the day I was definitely glad to be done – although, I did consider carrying on another 16 km to the next town. However, I spotted what was clearly the perfect spot for some free camping and decided to stay in Hawke’s Bay. There’s a restaurant, free WiFi, and a place to put my tent. I didn’t need any more reasons – although, a popsicle would’ve been really good.

There was also a boardwalk along the Torrent River which, like many of the rivers here, is good for fly fishing. I have to say that fly fishing sort of fascinates me – possibly because I know virtually nothing about it. That said, I’d really like to try it someday. Anybody know anyone in Newfoundland that wants to teach a city boy how to go fly fishing?

Today’s Totals:
Distance Travelled: 72.46 km
Time on Bike: 3:18:08
Maximum speed: 62.68 km/h
Average speed: 21.93 km/h

And for what it’s worth, there are so many black flies assaulting my tent right now that it actually sounds like it’s raining. Which is isn’t. Although, it likely will be tonight or tomorrow.