Full Map of Our Trip

Hi, again:
We've been getting our lives back to normal since the weekend. I'm trying to get maps of our travels onto this blog before everybody forgets about it.

This map shows our track all the way across (note the piece of Ontario that we took the train across). The red line is our track. The scale is bad, so it doesn't show up well.

The next post shows sections of the trip that are easier to see. They also include flags with the names of the places we stayed. Click on any image to enlarge it.

Greg

Maps of our travels

BC - We spent a lot of time in BC and did a lot of extra touring when compared to the shortest route across Canada, but I think we all enjoyed the section from Cranbrook to Jasper, which also had some of the most spectacular scenery.The prairies - our track had a nice north to south tendency. This route kept us off the Trans Canada Highway and away from most of the big cities.Ontario and Quebec - These are two really big provinces, so we only saw a bit of them.New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia - We only skirted the northern side of New Brunswick and didn't get all the way down Nova Scotia. There are lots of places in all the provinces that we missed.Newfoundland - We were going to cycle all the way up the Northern Peninsula to St. Anthony's but bad weather and cancelled bus service caused us to come to our senses and rent a car for the ride up and back.

Around St. John's

We've spent the last few days in St. John's, mainly being tourists.

Tuesday evening was a highlight when we had dinner with Peter & Barbara Clarke and their son Michael. Peter is my 1st cousin once removed (mother's side), and this was the first time we met. We had a great dinner and a wonderful visit. Thanks very much for the hospitality.

We're flying home tomorrow. Since I have some time before our 4 ayem getup (yawn), here are some photos from around town.

On the left is a photo of part of old St. John's, at the east end of town, just below Signal Hill.

Laura and I pedalled out to Cape Spear (most easterly point of North America). The image on the right is of the original lighthouse there, since restored and replaced by a new one (to the right, not in the picture).

This is Petty Harbour, south of Cape Spear. I dropped by there on the way back from the Cape.

These buildings are in downtown St. John's, on Military Road. Our B&B, "The Roses," are the first two buildings on the left. As always, we were treated very well by the hosts, and had a great stay there.

Here is the cruise ship Aurora, entering the harbour today. They just fit through the narrows. If you look carefully, above the pilot boat to the left of the Aurora there is a rock with a light on it, which further constricts the opening. Those guys certainly know how to drive those things. (Janice - this is the boat your friends are on, I believe?).

And, the last photo for today is of Middle Cove, where I pedalled to today, after we visited the "Rooms" museum. It's a pretty spot, with imposing cliffs on either side of a small gravel beach.

So, that pretty much finishes our trip. It's all over but for the credit card bills (and sorting mail, and getting caught up, and, and and...)

I guess that's about it for the blog as well. I'll get around to assembling more of the photos and some maps with the GPS tracks of our trip. I'll put the maps up on the blog later, if anybody is interested.

Talk to you soon, Greg

PS - does anybody know how to extract a blog off the net and save a hard copy (HTML?) version of it? I wouldn't want to lose this.

Sept 15 - Brigus to St. John's - 87 km

WE DID IT! 109 days and 7817 km of pedalling later, we are in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Today's ride was along the coast of the Avalon penninsula and then over the top into St. John's. We arrived at about 2:30 and had some nice gentleman take our picture down on the pier at the Harbourside Park. Then we pedalled over to Quidi Vidi Cove for a libation. The lady at the brewery was so impressed with our story she gave us half a dozen free beer as a prize!

The right hand photo is of the Quidi Vidi brewery. The other photo is the view from our B&B, "The Roses."

We still have a bit more pedalling to do - 17 km out to Cape Spear. And, of course, we are going to do the tourist thing around St. John's for a few days before heading out. NO, we aren't pedalling - we'll be flying back.

If I get a chance, I'll put up some more photos of St. John's.

See you.

Sept 14 - Arnold's Cove to Brigus - 95 km

Another dry day! It's been a while since I complained about rain. Headwinds in the afternoon, but not as bad as the previous day.

We are well onto the Avalon Penninsula now. The hills are smaller. Since we are on the Trans Canada Highway, the scenery isn't spectacular, but it is nice. It is almost alpine, in spite of being less than 200 meters elevation.

Brigus is one of those quintessential Newfoundland towns. Very old, quaint, a small fishing harbour and wonderfull people. We stayed at the Brittoner B&B (the story behind the name is too long to recount here), hosted by the delightful Betty Barrett. This is typical of an older home (circa 1840) that has undergone changes and renovations and finally been converted into a B&B. We had some wonderful chats with Betty over evening tea and a great breakfast. We'd recommend the Brittoner any time.

The first photo is of the dock at Brigus. I climbed the hills in the background to take the second photo (I'll do anything to keep you guys happy). The photo at right is from the deck of the Brittoner B&B. Pretty touch to take, eh!

And, one for the 'small world' department. One of the other couples staying at the Brittoner turned out to be from Comox, and they knew the Stewarts, who were our next door neighbours when we grew up in Kye Bay!

Sept 13 - Port Blanford to Arnold's Cove - 81 km

Less hills today, but the headwinds appeared after noon. We can live with that.

One of my sisters wanted me to check out Come By Chance, because she saw it on a map. So, I did. I knew beforehand about the Come By Chance oil refinery, but I decided I would fulfill my sister's wish and have a look. There's the town's sign beside the highway. The next photo is one of only two non-residential buildings in the town ( the other is the firehall).

So, sister, I went all the way DOWN the hill and had to pedal back UP the hill (fully loaded), just for this photo. You owe me big time, kiddo - at least two energy bars (the good kind!).

Arnold's Cove, where we stayed is actually the main residential area associated with the oil refinery and has some neat old fishing wharves. We stayed at Tanker's Inn, which is a converted construction camp, probably left over from the refinery (or,it seemed like it must have been!)

Sept 11 - Gander to Port Blanford - 122 km

A long day, compounded by headwinds in the afternoon. We did 2/3 of our day by lunchtime and fought headwinds afterwards. But, no rain.

We're still travelling down the east side of Newfoundland and today we went through Terra Nova National Park. Apparently, Terra Nova exists because of unique geography and bird migrations (I believe, don't quote me).

There were more hills than yesterday and it was a bit of a grind. I call this photo the "Newfie Roller Coaster." You could almost hear me groan right from BC when I saw it.

The other photo is of a town called Gambo, taken from a spot on the highway called "Joey's Lookout." The Joey referred to is Joey Smallwood - I don't know if this was his home town or not (it's on my "round tuit" list to check)


Port Blanford existed because of the railroad (now removed) and logging (you know what that's like). So, now its a sleepy little town with virtually no commercial buildings and a fair amount of residents spread out over the town's area. There is a big golf course development.

We stayed at a B&B again, the Serendipity hosted by Elsie. Very friendly, comfortable, a great breakfast.

Sept 11 - Grand Falls to Gander - 93 km

Not a cloud in the sky when we started out today - and it stayed like that all day. we had a big tail wind as well. The ride was fast, our moving average speed was over 24 km/hr, which is right up there with our best days. This part of the country is not too hilly, so it is pretty good for us cycling types.

Gander is another neat little town - I saw a sign on the way in that said "Chosen as one of the best 10 places in Canada to live in 2006(?)." No doubt the sign was put up by the Chamber of Commerce. Gander's airport isn't as important as it once was, but between it, associated air industry companies, Nav Canada with their Atlantic Air Traffic Control Center and being a service center for the area they are doing quite well apparently. The town is new, established in the 30's and then relocated from the original townsite a bit north of the airport to the current site. So, there is no decaying core like we've seen in so many small towns.

We arrived in town at 2:30 as a result of the good travelling, so we took in the Air Museum and I did a bicycle tour of town.

Tomorrow we're heading further along the TCH, and are trying to get through Terra Nova park to Port Blanchford. It looks like 4 more cycling days until we hit St. John's.

Sept 10 - Springdale to Grand Falls - 97 km

Sept 10 - I added a couple of photos to this post. The lefthand one is a view of Springdale harbour. The righthand one is of Rattling Brook - a very "typical" Newfie scene.

The weather report said we would have showers and headwinds and, unfortunately the Newfie weather forecasting has been accurate. So, today was another slog into the wind until lunchtime. After lunch in Badger we turned and were heading downwind, so we made good progress to Grand Falls-Windsor, a community of 15,000 in the upper central part of Newfoundland.

Grand Falls did have a set of grand falls on the river, at least until the river was dammed in 1909 for the pulp and paper mill, which will be 100 years old next year. Unfortunately, it may not last that long because the owners want to effectively shut down the mill, but keep the dam running to sell the Hydro power. Sounds like a tune we've heard before in BC.

Tomorrow the weather forecast is good and we are heading for Gander. We are following the TCH (Trans Canada Highway) which goes inland instead of along the coast.

By the way, we are up to 7343 km on my GPS. That is all cycling! We don't include car rides in the GPS total.

Sept 9 - Deer Lake to Springdale - 119 km

Yay - we escaped from Deer Lake! The road was wet in the morning, but it dried out, no rain, no wind. We made great progress, one of our fastest and longest days. Our destination was a B&B at the highway turnoff to Springdale.

This B&B is hosted by Doreen and John Canning. As usual, they were very friendly and treated us royally. In fact, Doreen took us for an evening drive up the road to Rattling Brook, a community down the inlet. It's named after a the waterfall that comes off the cliff behind the village.

Thanks again to Doreen and John. Doreen is a very busy lady - operating the B&B, doing all kinds of crafts, and authoring a couple of books.

Sorry - no photos today. I'm on a restricted computer which lets me do everything but insert photos. Later

September 8 - Rain Delay

We're back in Deer Lake and decided to wait out the remnants of Hana for a day. In spite of all the bad weather we've had (and the commensurate amount of whining and bellyaching about it) this is actually the first day we've been delayed. Tomorrow we'll head east towards Springdale and hopefully get better weather. Leddy was told this morning that they've had a great summer around here and this is the first bad weather. I wonder who we ticked off to deserve this......

By for now. Greg

September 5-7: Northern Penninsula

I told you we rented a car to check out the northern penninsula. We were worried about a combination of ugly weather forecasts and the remnants of Hurricane Hanna.

The first day was a glorious trip up the highway. From Deer Lake to past Rocky Harbour it is hilly, but it is amazingly flat after that.

We saw L'Anse aux Meadows (first Viking settlement in North America) and stayed at a B&B near St. Anthony.

We hit constant rain as we made our way back down to Rocky Harbour. We stayed there on the 6th and then took a bit of a (wet) tour around Gros Morne and the Tablelands on the 7th. Unfortunately, the weather did not show Gros Morne at its best. You really need to hike to see the fabulous stuff.

The upper left photo is a village on the way up the coast; upper right is the remains of the steamer Effie, sunk many years ago.

The lower left is a photo of the L'Anse aux Meadows Viking site - the recreated huts are in the centre of the photo, the actual ruins are in front of the recreations and are low mounds. Note the vegatation - it almost looks alpine and it is at sea level.

And the bottom photo is a tour boat returning to dock at Norris point (near Rocky Harbour). Check out the mountainous countryside.

Photos from Newfoundland

We're in Deer Lake now (55 km north of Corner Brook). Short ride today, and got a bit wet. Here's some photos from "the Rock."

Left - Port Aux Basques

Right- cliffs on coast at Robinsons

Right - Corner Brook

Left - a lake and the mountains on the way.

Tomorrow, we're off up the Northern Penninsula, but we've rented a car. More about this later - have to go.

September 3

Hi - time for a short update. Photos later.
August 31 - Baddeck to North Sydney. Short day, easy ride (65 k or so)
September 1 - Waited for a late ferry. Got on ferry at 3 pm and into Port Aux Basques after midnight. It was a good thing we all had lights and our motel was close by.
September 2 - Port Aux Basques to Robinsons (110 km). No rain, no wind! Good ride, a few hills. The Trans Canada Highway is inland and not too scenic. I rode out to the coast afterwards and saw some fabulous views.
September 3 - Another 110 km up the coast and we are in Corner Brook. A few more hills than yesterday, but not bad.
We are heading towards Deer Lake and Gros Morne tomorrow.
A big thank you to Andre at Cycle Solutions Bike Shop in Corner Brook for loaning me a computer.

Onwards

Tomorrow is a shortish pedal to North Sydney, then off to Newfoundland on the Monday morning ferry. The map shows our original plan for "the Rock" but we'll have to see how it works out, given the weather. I was told tonight that they've had two days without rain in the last month!

Port Hawkesbury to Baddeck - 87 km

I woke up first and returned the rental car this morning - and got soaked when I had to ride back to the motel. Ho hum, another day.

The weather actually improved as we loaded up and headed out. Improved means it stopped raining. And the fog lifted, and we saw this bright thing in the sky a couple of times. You almost want to bow down and worship it. With no rain the ride to Baddeck was pretty nice. As always, this is beautiful country when its nice.

Baddeck is a tourist town, famous for a number of things I found (my lack of knowledge of Canadiana is showing again!). This is where Alex G. Bell spent a lot of the latter part of his life (he invented the phone in Brantford) and there is a large Historic Site dedicated to his work. He did much more than invent the telephone - his work with the deaf, experimenting with flight and hydrofoils, and improving the phonograph to name a few. He was a key part of Canada's first aircraft flight, here on an icy Bras d'Or Lake in 1908.

We also spent some time at the Bras d'Or Lakes Interpretive Centre, learning about this unique area. (You didn't think I had all this culture in me, did you).

I'm working on this next to the restaurant listening to some beautiful eastern music being played live by a (I assume) local couple - and watching as the sky darkens in preparation for the next downpour! Groan. By the way, the total mileage on my GPS is 6794!

Photos are of the local lighthouse and the county courthouse, which is a bit unusual in its design.

August 29 - Cabot Trail

We woke up yesterday to a perfectly yecchy morning in Port Hawkesbury. Drizzle, low cloud and not much prospect for improvement. So, instead of biking it, we decided to rent a car and drive around the Cabot Trail.

I apologize profusely to the purists who have been following our trip, but enough is enough! We're one wrinkle short of being prunes.

So, the Cabot Trail - We went around it clockwise, and actually didn't have rain on the west side, so here's a couple of photos of that side.

And there's one in the fog of some waves on the east side. Note the lovely shades of grey blending into the fog - remember this is August!

The skies opened up a number of times while we were on the east side - we passed one poor girl on a bike in a huge downpour.

We decided seeing the trail was worth it, even if we didn't have a great day. Maybe next time we'll bike.

Update on the Tauntons

I spoke to Gerry a couple of evenings ago and was updated on the Taunton family activities. Here's a bit if a summary: They toured the Cabot trail by car and then headed for Truro, and apparently got very wet. From there they went to Windsor and Wolfville where they stayed for a couple of days, visiting a friend. Next it was down the coast to Middleton, and then to Lunenburg, where I spoke to him. Gerry said they were lucky and had missed some of the rain that we had gotten a few days ago.

They are making their way up to Halifax where (I believe) they will have a day off before flying back to British Columbia.

August 28 - Antigonish to Port Hawkesbury - 60 km

Another short day - up the freeway from Antigonish, across the Canso Causeway to Port Hawkesbury. We had a bit of drizzle today, but no real rain. We took the freeway and had a nice ride. The road had nice, wide shoulders - the best we've seen in Nova Scotia.

Only one photo today - of the Canso Causeway. The Canso Strait is 200 feet deep here, so filling it in to create the Causeway was not a small job.

Port Hawkebury is an industrial town, dating from the 1890's. It reminded me a bit of Powell River, in that it is a working town and not too touristy. It is the gateway to Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail (where we hope to venture towards tomorrow).

August 27 - Liscomb to Antigonish - 82 km

Groan, a really wet day. We crossed back over to the other side of Nova Scotia. going past Sherbrooke and up the St. Mary's River valley. This would be a really pretty ride on a nice day - not too hilly, not too much traffic. We made it into Antigonish. They've had so much rain that the rivers are close to overflowing. In fact, we passed a highways maintenance sign that said "Expect Flooding Conditions." Enough said. I included a photo of downtown Antigonish and a couple of photos of St. Francis Xavier University. The town goes from 4000 people in the summer to 8000 when the university is in session.

August 26 - Jeddore to Liscomb - 128 km

Further up the coast today. A long day, but luckily no rain, very little wind, cloudy, and not too hilly (although opinions vary about this).
We ended the day at Liscomb (further east along the coast). We really lucked out on accommodations, getting the guest house belonging to Rosalyn and Tim Spears who run the Birchill B&B. If you wanted to spend a few days in a very nice area that looks like kayaking heaven, then this might be the place for you. Their website is www.birchillbb.com.

Photos are Sheet Harbour, some boats along the highway, the view from the guest house, and a view of the guest house guests.

August 25 - Halifax to Jeddore - 56 km

A short, wet day as we took the ferry over to Darmouth and up the highway to Jeddore. You know where Jeddore is, right? It's up highway 7, past Musquodobit Harbour and right before the Salmon River bridge. Okay, it's 50 km east of Halifax (up the coast, so to speak).

Rain and drizzle until noon, cloudy afterwards. Lots of views of the bays and islands along the coast. The first photo shows how many of the small docks are constructed - since the tide range is not that high the docks don't need pilings or floats.

August 24 - Day off in Halifax

Here's a few pictures from our day off in Halifax.
-The HMCS Sackville, Canada's remaining WW2 Corvette (my Grandfather served on one)
-The Halifax town clock, pictures of the waterfront and a street.

And, for one of my sisters, a picture of Theodore Too (she wants a harbour tour on him).