Another day on the city...

Last Sunday (Sept 19th), I got to ride with my cycling pals in a "disorganized" ride they have dubbed the "Triple Bypass".  It is a follow up to their "Quadruple Bypass" from last August 1st which I missed out on because I was already booked, and somewhere along the northern shore of Lake Superior. The "Bypass" ride is named for the number of different bridges that we ride to get on and off Manhattan - the "disorganized" aspect of the ride is because we had a general view of places we wanted to visit, but no particular route in mind - we just followed our noses, and for the most part the very well marked bike lanes in NYC...

The Hudson River at 7:00 A.M.

The ride starts in Fort Lee NJ with a crossing of the Hudson River over the GWB (that is the George Washington Bridge).  At that point the Hudson is about a mile wide, and it reminds me a lot of crossing the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal.  For me, the ride started off somewhat ominously as I got a tire puncture before I made it across the bridge (in the first mile!!!) luckily the sealant in my tire stopped the leak and I didn't have to do anything other than add air.

The GWB from the Manhattan Bike Path

Our group... and my shoulder...

We then ride down the West Side Bike path, along the Hudson.  Two neat parts about riding early on a Sunday morning are the general lack of bike traffic (everyone was probably still in bed after a late night of partying in the city), and the cruise ships docking at the port to drop off passengers (there were two massive ships docking when we rode by - it was quite the impressive sight!).

Glad I don't have to park this!!!

Through lower Manhattan...

Once downtown, we headed east through the canyons of Manhattan.  The traffic was light so we made our way through Chinatown and Little Italy.  The streets of Little Italy were blocked off, with street vendors and carnival rides on either side in celebration of the Festival of San Gennaro which made for some rather interesting riding.


Our route into Brooklyn was the Williamsburg Bridge, which we learned from our NYC Century ride last weekend, was great for cyclists.  The bridge has elevated pedestrian/bike paths on either side, above the traffic.  It seems that the graffiti artists have been very busy, with each beam on the bridge "tatted" with different art.

The bike path, above the traffic, on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Bridges from Brooklyn...

Our destination in Brooklyn was a little bakery, Almondine's,  offering great flaky croissants and "pain au chocolat" - basically a croissant with a chocolate fillimg - MMMmmmmmmm! 

The bakery is tucked on a narrow street in the "DUMBO" (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) section of Brooklyn, a funky neighborhood affording great views of both the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges,with the East River, and Manhattan as a backdrop.



Heading back.



Our ride back into the city, in my mind, ranks in the top ten as one of the most interesting "miles of riding" I have done - the wooden plank bike path along the center of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Always a pleasure, and you can't ride over it without imagining what Washington Roebling (and his father)  must have been thinking, and what it must have been like to design, plan and build the bridge to Manhattan some 127 years ago.



Ed, Dave, Paul, Me, Pascal, Peter and Marty on our way up to the High Line Park



Back up the west side, we stopped for a "photo op" of the group in the High Line Park, a newly converted section of the eleveted railway which once carried supplies and cargo from the ships in the harbor, downtown to the factories and businesses in Manhattan.  It is amazing the extent of the urban renewal, and reuse going on in the city.  Let's hear it for a very progressive city government, and great cycling advocates.

We ended the day with a couple of laps of Central Park, and a stop at the Levain Bakery on 74th and Amsterdam for one of the most mouth watering chocolate chip cookies I have ever had (click on the link to see a calorie free version of the cookie). By the time we rolled back to our cars in New Jersey, we had logged just a tad over 60 miles.

Many thanks to Ed for pulling this ride together, and suggesting the sights, and to Tim (couldn't make the ride) for germinating the "Bypass" concept and pulling off the Quadruple Bypass in August.

"20th Century" - FOX (NYC)

It has been 7 days since the final day of riding on the "tour".

During the week, after performing a much needed wash of my clothes, sleeping bag and camping gear, I reassembled my bike and brought it in to the shop to get the bolts torqued to the proper specifications.  Yesterday I rode the 20-mile Saturday Morning "Pastry" ride with added mileage (an additional 21 miles) to and from home.  The hills seem a lot flatter than they did when I last rode them in June, including the 13% half-mile climb up Union Hill on the way home.

After that warm-up, and a fitful night's sleep last night, the alarm went off at 3:45 A.M. to wake me for today's NYC Century Ride with my cycling buddies from New Jersey.  Out the door at 4:30 (at least I did not have to pack tent, sleeping bag and clothing prior to leaving) , and off to meet the guys at the shop for a 5:00 A.M. car pool into New York.  On the drive in we could see the memorial spot lights shining to to the sky at Ground Zero marking the 9th anniversary of that tragic day.  It is still hard to believe what happened, and to look at the vacant space where the World Trade Center once stood so proudly marking the southern tip of Manhattan.

The weather forecast for today called for 40% chance of rain later on in the day (or 60% chance of not rain, as I like to see things).  We arrived in the city shortly before 6:00, parked on the upper West-side, put our bikes together and rode to the northern end of Central Park to register.  The route this year was for the most part the same as in previous years but offered some new terrain through Queens, and a new route down Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge.




The Verrazanno Straits

As usual we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise and headed through the borough, blowing off the first rest stop and on to the Verrazanno Straits, at the mouth of the Hudson River.  For some reason the ride seemed to go faster than in previous years, or as Tim liked to put it "you did not ride across Canada this summer, you were just training for the NYC Century." 

Breakfast anyone???

Mmmm, Mmmm, good!

We got to Coney Island earlier than usual, so the compulsory meal of two of Nathan's World Famous Hot Dogs (one with slaw) and large Coke, was wolfed down at 8:30 A.M. - a breakfast my "tour" riders would have been proud of.

The gang outside Nathan's

Crossing the Tri-Boro.

From there we headed through Queens, and at mile 70 stopped at Tim's parents house where we were served up Meatballs in Sauce, Cantaloupe, and water - just the thing we needed since the rest stops were pitifully under provisioned.  After refueling we went through Astoria, and up and over the Tri-Boro (now RFK) bridge into the Bronx. 

Rounding the corner at the Bronx Zoo.

More route changes in the Bronx took us by the world famous Bronx Zoo.

The Harlem River in the rain.

From the northern tip of the Bronx, we rode down alongside the Harlem River and back into Manhattan finishing at around 3:00 P.M. at Central Park in a light rain.

All in all a wonderful excursion, marking my 20th "Century" (100+ miles in a day) for the year.  A great day of riding with Ben, Eric, Marty, Paul, Tim, Ed and Peter. 

I am amazed at how refreshed I felt at the end.

Note - No Altitude readings since my altimeter bit the dust during the tour.

Editor's note - this posting has been updated to reflect "only" 20 centuries ridden so far this year - I had earlier posted 25, but having had more time to go through my log book identified that I had duplicated data in the process. 



Day 71 – Ad Mare Usque Ad Mari (Argentia NL, Saint John’s NL)

Written in the Toronto Airport Sept 6, 2010 and posted from New Jersey.


I thought I’d close out the trip with the title I used to start the ride from Vancouver, the motto on Canada’s Coat of Arms which translates “From Sea to Sea”.

Another choice would have been “Failure to Launch” which described my tent on the last night of camping in Argentia. Before we went to bed, the outer edges of Hurricane Earl were making their presence known with some blustery winds.

Gone with the Wind!!!

The campsite grounds were basically 2 inches of loose gravel on what appeared to be a bed of concrete (most likely the granite of the Canadian Shield). At that point we went looking for large rocks to try and secure our guy lines and corners of our tents in preparation for what might be a wild evening. After we had finished, the site looked like the base camp at Everest.

At about 10:30 PM, the winds started to really pick up with blustering gusts of 20 – 40 MPH (my estimate based on what I felt then and what I feel when I am riding at those speeds). The large rocks we had used to secure things had been dislodged, and my tent had adopted caved in profile so I went out in my PJs with a headlamp to try and re-secure things. At one point I was holding on to my tent, which was airborne, by a single guy line, and after about 5 minutes managed to secure it around the seat of a picnic table. With that as an anchor point I then secured two other lines, one around the far leg of the table, and the other around a post near the tent. I then moved my heavy bags inside from the vestibule of the tent and onto the windward side of things to keep the floor from billowing up. That seemed to work although the whole tent was shaking, and making a tremendous noise – kind of like trying to sleep inside a wind tunnel. At around 1:00 A.M. I finally managed to “sleep” and awoke shortly before 6 AM.

The campsite, which was full of about 35 tents the night before had only about 6 or 7 still standing, the rest having been either blown apart or blown away, or moved in the middle of the night to a more sheltered space - the riders in those tents had abandoned ship, so to speak, and slept, or tried to sleep indoors, in the camp office and bathrooms. Luckily we avoided any rain and just had to put up with the high winds.

A Cloudy Start

Breakfast was an abbreviated version of the usual (no hot servings, just bread, bagels, cereal and coffee), so we were on the road at around 8 for our ride to Saint John’s. The terrain along the southern coast reminded me of that from my ride in Alaska.

Sunny Skies

Conception Bay

As you can see, today’s weather was overcast, but dry at the start and sunny and in the high 80s later on.

After the climb up Signal Hill

The ride finished with a good climb to the top of Signal Hill, to the cheers of other riders from the group who had taken a more direct route and arrived earlier.

Under the Finish Banner

We also had the family of our only rider from Newfoundland, Murray, with signs to celebrate our achievement - 5,360 total miles of riding in just over 10 weeks.

"The French Connection"

It is hard to believe that it is over, and tomorrow, the friends I have made over the past 10 weeks will be heading back to their respective homes. All in all, as expected it has been a very memorable summer, and as a previous rider counseled me, one sure to provide an endless source of dinner tales.  After 10 weeks and 5,300 miles of riding together, the "French Connection", Serge, P-A, and I finally parted ways at the Toronto Airport.  I am confident that this is not our last adventure together.

Cheers to all, I will be making the occasional update as things wind down once back at home, and I compile my slide show from the 2,695 photos taken since departure. Thank you to all for your words of encouragement and comments over the summer.

Postscript:

I am now back at home in New Jersey after saying goodbye to everyone in Saint John’s this morning.

Before and After

Shape shifting: I got a chance to weigh myself on the home scales and have lost a total of 18 lbs during the 10 weeks. Better yet, along with the net weight loss of 18 lbs, I have converted another 16 lbs of fat into muscle, and now have a 6% body fat ratio. Time for some new clothes as none of the clothes that I wore in June fit me now!

Day 70 – Crossing the Gulf (North Sydney, NS – Argentia, NL)

Fog in the gulf

Today was basically a rest day aboard the ferry. Apparently fog is typical weather for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and we were not disappointed. I had booked a bunk on board and made good use of it. It was interesting trying to sleep as slight rocking if the boat made for an uneasy queasiness – thankfully the Gravol worked.

I spent a fair bit of time on the upper deck enjoying the fog and cool breezes and fog which shrouded everything.

Clear Skies over Newfoundland

Once we arrived near the Newfoundland shore, things cleared up and made for some great pictures. I had not worn the pants which I chose to wear for the ferry ride since leaving BC, and it became quiote apparent how much weight I have lost.  They seem to have grown two sizes at least!!!

Our 10th Province

Riding today was a scant 3 miles - basically from the ferry to the campsite with a slight detour to the “Welcome to Newfoundland” photo op, and a quick side trip to the tourist office for a Provincial roadmap.

It is now just shy of 9:00 P.M. Newfoundland time (which is 90 minutes ahead of EDT) and it looks like we will be feeling the Eastern edge of Hurricane Earl tonight - the winds are fairly strong, and it smells like rain.  At least that will give the camp gear a "pre-rinse" before we finish things tomorrow and fly back home on Monday.
I suspect with everything happening tomorrow evening (celebration dinner, goodbyes to the friends I have made over the past 10 weeks, disassembling and packing my bike and camp gear, etc. etc.) my next blog posting will be from New Jersey.

It has been an amazing ride, all 5,420 miles of it, and a wonderful but surprisingly short summer.

Off to my tent beforee it blows away - Cheers!!!

Day 69 - Transitions, to the Edge (Englishtown NS – North Sydney NS)

Downsizing

Posted Sept 4th from Argentia NL

Our last sunny day of cycling on the mainland took us off Cape Breton and onto the mainland of Northern Nova Scotia. Today was a day of transitions as the 5 ton truck which had carried our gear from Vancouver across the continent was not making the trip across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Newfoundland.

That meant repacking our stuff from the two laundry baskets we had for the last 10 weeks into our main baggage, so everything could fit in the van and trailer.

Since today’s ride was a short 26 miles, I took the opportunity to do one final wash, and sleep in before heading out around 11:00 A.M. with Serge, Pierre-Alain, and Jacques.

Bras d'Or Lake

Once on the road we had the usual great views – this time of Bras d’Or Lake on Cape Breton and the bridge across it.

The Bras d'Or Bridge

Fully loaded!

One of the fun aspects of today was to load all (well 30 out of 40) bikes onto the trailer and van for loading on the ferry.  It made for quite the sight.

Camping on the Gulf

Our “campsite” tonight was aboard the ferry which would take us 266 miles across the Gulf to Newfoundland – 14 hours of time at sea. Departure was scheduled for 1:30 AM so it would be a long day. I did manage to stay up to watch the bow of the boat close after the last of the tractor trailers was loaded on. The boat itself was about 300 feet long so it made for pretty smooth sailing. Thankfully Hurricane Earl will miss us, at least for the ferry crossing.

Day 68 – Why Not !!! (Dingwall, NS – Englishtown, NS)

Cape Breton

Today was another sunny day with a relatively short (only 66 miles) route, so we decided to do some extra sightseeing at the beginning. It seems that everyone is getting up earlier with each day, and today was no exception. I still get up at 6:15 A.M., but by that time at least half of the 40 riders had already departed on the route.

White Point

We left camp shortly after 7:30 and within the first 10 miles Marc, Trevor and I opted for a descent off the main route to see the village of White Point, a place Marc had visited last year but the views were shrouded in fog. Our rationale was that it wasn’t even 8:30 so we could afford to see things. The views were much better than last year.

Why Not !!!

Before leaving the port, I saw a boat with a name that seemed to fit the mood for the day. You can see behind us, the climb we had to make to get back up to the main route.

North Shore of Cape Breton on a nice sunny day!

We continued along the Cabot Trail, with spectacular views of both Cape Breton and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

The road seemed to fall off the face of the earth.

The climbs today were a lot easier than yesterday, b ut the descents were wicked steep. I think I will need new brake pads when I return to New Jersey.

Temperatures were in the high 90s, low 100s but the riding was great. After a ride into some very strong headwinds, we arrived in camp shortly after 2 PM, set up camp and showered. Everyone is pretty excited tonight because we are having a meal with meat – hamburgers.

We have a short 24-mile ride to the ferry tomorrow, and our big truck which has carried our gear for the last 9 ½ weeks will not be making the voyage, so we are madly repacking our stuff so that it will fit into a small minivan. A bit of a hassle, but we will manage, as we have for the last 68 days.

It is hard to believe that after a year of planing and preparations, we have only 3 days left in our adventure.

Day 67 Hummingbirds (Lake Ainslie, NS – Dingwall, NS)

Threatening skies

Today was billed as the big climbing day and lived up to its name. We arose to rain and threatening skies, and headed out of camp around 7:30.

Coastal Views

After a short 20 mile ride, we joined up on the Cabot Trail, a spectacular route which hugs the coast of Cape Breton, except when it heads inland and up the 1,300’ to 1,500’ hills.

More of the coast

Where's Waldo?

Along the coast we passed by a lot that had about 100 “scare crows” on display so we stopped for a photo op.

After the first long climb

The route today was 92 miles but the fun began after mile 60 with two steep climbs, one just under 4 miles at a consistent 11% grade, and the next just over 2 miles at a 13% grade. We were pouring sweat on the climbs as the weather was hot, sunny, and in the low 90s. After the first of the climbs, we stopped to refuel, mainly Gatorade and PowerAde for their high sugar content, and an ice cream cone. Since our fuel for the day is mainly sugar and water, I mentioned to Marc who I was riding with that we were like hummingbirds, looking for nectar at every possibility,

The road below.

After some fun, steep descents, complete with switchbacks, we got into camp ahead most of the group – bonus because it meant no wait for the showers!