Saturday, April 29, 2017

Testing out some rain gear :-D



Trying out some of the gear I will have on hand for those less than favourable days in the saddle during my cross Canada ride.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Triple dip - cross continent ride. Stage 7 (The end)

Planned for August 12 - 31

Well it's been a long journey thus far but the end is almost in sight.  It feels like a lifetime since this virtual trip started.  I'm sure the real thing will go by much faster.......
This part of the route is open to interpretation and depends on a few factors.  Okay really just one factor.  What day in August it is when we actually get here.  There are definitely plans to go across PEI and also to spend a while in Newfoundland.  However we'll just say it ends in Sydney for now, how we get to St John's is still a mystery (though I'm sure it will involve a ferry).



Triple dip - cross continent ride. Stage 6

Planned for August 4 - 12.

Here we go right through my home town, Peterborough.  Google says it's the best way to go so who am I to argue.  Admittedly for the first time while posting these maps I used the handy bicycle feature on Google and it looks to be routing us on a bunch of sections of the Trans Canada Trail which would be really cool.  Not sure how easy that would be to program into my Garmin, judging from my history of trying to get my Edge 1000 to work properly I can tell you that it will probably be extremely frustrating ;-)
The end is really sneaking up on us here though I'm not sure it will feel that way during the ride.  We finish stage 6 in Drummondville Quebec.


Triple dip - cross continent ride. Stage 5

Planned for July 21 - August 4.

This leg of the journey brings Jason and I into the part of Canada we call home, Ontario.  From doing a bit of research and digging we have found that while cycling across the continent you really ought to avoid Thunder Bay due to heavy traffic concerns.  With some help I was able to find what I think should be a really nice route through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to bring us over to Sault Ste Marie.  This part of the ride finishes in the town of South Baymouth with views of Lake Huron.



Monday, April 3, 2017

Triple dip - cross continent ride. Stage 4

Planned for July 9 - 21

Now we roll through the prairies.  Most of the route from this point isn't set in stone, it's just something I've put together quickly as a general guideline.  However it will follow very closely to this map.
The prairies will be happening during potentially some of the hottest weather of the year.  It's hard to say what the weather will do.  The trailer has air conditioning so maybe we'll have to hibernate in there at every opportunity.  Hopefully we don't encounter too many summer storms.  The winds should definitely be in our favour.  Combine that with the flatness of the terrain and this could be a good recipe to get ahead on our mileage. 
It's hard to say how quickly we'll make it through this stage so we'll stay with our goal of 150km/day (with one day off every 7 days).  One advantage of making up some mileage is that we can spend more time exploring Newfoundland.