Day 58 - Fredericton to Moncton NB - 173.4 kms (the second longest day of our adventure!)
Day 58 - Progress to Moncton NB - 5,944.7 kms
No free breakfast at the Crown Plaza... You might recall that in the early days of our trip, our hotel criteria were very clear (price, free breakfast, hot tub), however, over the course of our adventure, these criteria have changed. We found that about 25 - 30% of the way into the trip, the presence of a hot tub became less important to us as our conditioning improved and our muscles were less fatigued at the end of the day. We also found that we wanted to have a little more time to get out of the hotel at night to see a little of the towns we were in while we sought a place for dinner. More recently, we have found that a free breakfast dropped out of the criteria as it has become more important to find a hotel at all... It seemed that over the first 75% of the trip we never worried about finding a hotel - rather, the trick was choosing among a few. Since leaving Montreal, as we've traveled through smaller towns off the main roads, and just finding a hotel has been a challenge - sometimes because of their scarcity, and sometimes because it is summer and they are full.
The hotel-less wilderness of New Brunswick... The scarcity of hotels impacted our ride on Day 58 in a big way. We built our original schedule back in January using the online AMA Triptik tool - which was extremely helpful. We knew that we had to ride 110 kms a day on average through the trip, and so for each day we would look for a town around the 110 km mark, and research it to ensure there was one or more hotels. For Day 58, we selected Petitcodiac, NB, which meant a 140 km ride. However, as we went to book a reservation the other night, we couldn't find any accommodations of any sort in Petitcodiac - or within 20 kms of the town. We researched alternate routes and asked anyone that we could, however, it seemed that the last half of the trip from Fredericton to Moncton (170 kms) was a pretty remote wilderness with the only accommodations West of Moncton being a B&B in Salisbury at about 155 kms.
So we set off this morning with an unusual day planned - we would ride 120 kms and then take the first accommodations that we came upon. Our original route plan was to take Highways 102/105 and 112 - thinking that there was more chance of running upon a remote motel on these back-roads than on the TransCanada.
So we set off this morning with an unusual day planned - we would ride 120 kms and then take the first accommodations that we came upon. Our original route plan was to take Highways 102/105 and 112 - thinking that there was more chance of running upon a remote motel on these back-roads than on the TransCanada.
"Do you think that's a bad sign?" We knew that there was a chance that we would end up staying in Moncton, which would mean the second longest day of our trip, however, we didn't get on the road until 11:30....! First, Cam had to ride to a nearby bike shop - the Radical Edge - to replace his rear tire. As we have found consistently on the trip, the service staff put Cam's bike at the front of the line. Unfortunately, the shop didn't carry the Schwalbe Marathon tire he had used since Brandon and that hadn't had one flat since then. However, they recommended another tire and Cam was riding away from the shop by 9:20AM. Interestingly, the technician told him that he could probably have made it to Charlottetown on the "blue rubber" as touring tires give a long warning to avoid stranding touring cyclists in the middle of nowhere... Cam feels better having a new tire however as he had enough flats in the first part of the trip and doesn't need another!
Ken had been trying unsuccesfully to upload pictures to our website in the hotel room and sent an email to the support team at Weebly. After getting packed up, we stopped at Cora's for breakfast and then at Tim Horton's to see if we could upload pictures there - which worked just fine. It appears that the hotel wifi was the problem... In any case, this took us to 11:30AM before we were on our way!
We followed Google Gretta (?!) onto a beautiful, freshly paved paved trail for about 5 kms. Eventually, a "trail closed" sign gave us concern. However, using Google Maps we saw that the bike trail closely followed the roads and so we chose to take the roads to get us to Highway 102. This road took us to the Barton Bridge which took us North across the St John River. There, we took Highway 105 about 35 kms to the little town of Jemseg where the road intersected with the TransCanada Highway and where we found the "Turner's One Stop" cafe which served us a surprisingly good lunch. It was there that we had to make a decision on taking Highway 112 or to get back onto the TransCanada. We asked the waitress, and she didn't know if there were any motels on the 112. Having seen very little development on the 105, and based on the lack of any online signs of life on the 112, we decided to take the TransCanada for the first part of the afternoon, but to take a crossroad over to the 112 if we didn't like it.
Ken had been trying unsuccesfully to upload pictures to our website in the hotel room and sent an email to the support team at Weebly. After getting packed up, we stopped at Cora's for breakfast and then at Tim Horton's to see if we could upload pictures there - which worked just fine. It appears that the hotel wifi was the problem... In any case, this took us to 11:30AM before we were on our way!
We followed Google Gretta (?!) onto a beautiful, freshly paved paved trail for about 5 kms. Eventually, a "trail closed" sign gave us concern. However, using Google Maps we saw that the bike trail closely followed the roads and so we chose to take the roads to get us to Highway 102. This road took us to the Barton Bridge which took us North across the St John River. There, we took Highway 105 about 35 kms to the little town of Jemseg where the road intersected with the TransCanada Highway and where we found the "Turner's One Stop" cafe which served us a surprisingly good lunch. It was there that we had to make a decision on taking Highway 112 or to get back onto the TransCanada. We asked the waitress, and she didn't know if there were any motels on the 112. Having seen very little development on the 105, and based on the lack of any online signs of life on the 112, we decided to take the TransCanada for the first part of the afternoon, but to take a crossroad over to the 112 if we didn't like it.
A bridge over a tributary to the St John River - the day was cloudy and misty all day
Back to the TransCanada...look at the beautiful shoulder! The TransCanada has been recently re-paved on this segment and had shoulders that must have been 10 feet wide. Although we were once again riding with semi's and monstrous RV's, we felt very comfortable with our broad lane, which was lined with rumble strips along the left edge. The countryside has become less hilly than the stretch from the Quebec border to Fredericton, and so there weren't as many hills as early stretches that we had ridden. When it came time to make the decision whether to move to the 112, we decided to continue on the TransCanada as we weren't comfortable that there would be any better chance of finding a motel on that road.
Another hill looms in the distance... Today's ride with no specific destination/distance provided a bit of a mental challenge to Cam as he has developed a fairly consistent approach to monitoring his daily rides. He marks each of the following points with mental milestones - 10%, 20%, 25%, 1/3, 50%, 2/3 and 75%. By doing this, it helps to feel that we are making progress each day (and there is a lot of time to think about such things on the road!). Another game that he plays starts as we begin to get closer to the destination. Cam's ride from home to work was 17 kms. When we are 34 kms from the destination, he says "Just a ride to work and back", which makes the remaining ride seem pretty manageable (in spite of it still being about an hour and a half!). At 17 kms, it was just a ride home from work. Some days, this game starts at 68 kms, meaning 2 days of rides to work, but that isn't quite as comforting...!
This day turned out to be a good test of our conditioning. The kilometres passed quickly after lunch and we were surprised to be suddenly 10 kms - and then 20 kms - away from Jemseg. Although less hilly, there were still many hills of 1 to 2 kilometers in length and running grades of 4 - 5%. Several of these came after we had already ridden 100+ kilometres. We both noticed today that we could climb these hills and get to the top without feeling that tired. Thinking back to the beginning of the trip, these types of hills would have left us huffing and puffing pretty heavily at the top. We guess that riding 6,000 kms across the country is good for your fitness!
This day turned out to be a good test of our conditioning. The kilometres passed quickly after lunch and we were surprised to be suddenly 10 kms - and then 20 kms - away from Jemseg. Although less hilly, there were still many hills of 1 to 2 kilometers in length and running grades of 4 - 5%. Several of these came after we had already ridden 100+ kilometres. We both noticed today that we could climb these hills and get to the top without feeling that tired. Thinking back to the beginning of the trip, these types of hills would have left us huffing and puffing pretty heavily at the top. We guess that riding 6,000 kms across the country is good for your fitness!
At 9PM, 173 kms later, we rolled into Moncton! We continued riding and reached the town of Salisbury at 155 kms at about 8:00PM without having seen any overnight accommodations in over 100 kms! We called the Salisbury B&B, but the number had been disconnected. There were no other visible options (or online options) and so we decided to go another 18 kms to Moncton (that's just over a ride home from work!). Although the day had been very cloudy and misty, we were amazed that we had not been rained on all day and we rolled into Moncton just as darkness was descending. We had about eight hotel options within a 0.5 kilometre radius, however, no restaurant options (?!?) and so we ordered pizza to the room for the first time of the trip. We weren't in the mood to get back onto the bikes to ride 2 - 3 kms for dinner after having spent seven and a half hours in the saddle today! We relaxed in the Travelodge feeling great satisfaction at riding 173 kms and finding that it was an "easy day"!
Ride Details:
- Distance: 173,4 kms
- Riding time: 7 hours, 35 minutes
- Average speed: 22.9 kms/hour
- Wind: Negligible
- Temperature: 18 degrees Celcius
- Cumulative: 5,944.7 kms
Tomorrow's Destination: Cap-Pele, New Brunswick - 59.0 kms
For more ride details, see Strava and for more photos from today's ride see our Photo Gallery.
- Distance: 173,4 kms
- Riding time: 7 hours, 35 minutes
- Average speed: 22.9 kms/hour
- Wind: Negligible
- Temperature: 18 degrees Celcius
- Cumulative: 5,944.7 kms
Tomorrow's Destination: Cap-Pele, New Brunswick - 59.0 kms
For more ride details, see Strava and for more photos from today's ride see our Photo Gallery.