Home Sweet Elverson

Had a nice - however quick - visit with friends Jen and Phil in Albany - and have finally arrived back home today. 

660 total ride miles

13 total ride days

2400 total drive miles

24 total days

Would like to give a shout out to all our CouchSurfing and WarmShower hosts - thanks so much for your hospitality along our journey.  

Thanks everyone for following our ride!

Can't wait for the next one -- who's in?? :)

Atlantic Vision

We hit the pavement with all kinds of confidence yesterday - last ride - 28 miles - down to the coast -- piece of cake.  Piece of foggy windy hilly cake.  On the way to the top of Windy Cloudy Mountain - I gave serious consideration to just stop in my tracks and stick a thumb out.  If it wasn't for my tenacious nephew I probably would have done just that - but Nick plodded on, resigned to getting to that ferry. 

Once there, we bought our passage and took some much needed showers at the terminal before boarding. Then we waited - to board, to eat, to watch The Toothfairy, to cross the open water, to hunker down and sleep, and finally to disembark -- roughly 21 hours.

12mile ride back to Jacque's house where we were welcomed with warm smiles.  A quick deconstruct of our gear and Nick, Brit and I were off -- heading towards Bangor Maine and maybe beyond -- eventually stopping in Clifton Park NY for a quick visit with friends before the final push back to PA. 

No Whammies! No Whammies!

flat - flat - flat - flat - flat

That's right I had 5 f!£#ing flats today. Not funny. 

We had a 60 mile ride today that was harder than either of us wanted. Going from the coast heading west, not only meant elevation gain - but headwinds the whole way. Not funny. 

Gonna sleep like a baby - in a tent w/ a sleep pad that doesn't stay inflated. Right after I patch a few tubes. Not funny. 

St John's & Torbay

We arrived on Monday to St John's NL - our first final destination. We arranged a stay with Mayo - a CouchSurfing host in town.  He was also currently hosting another fellow from England who was basically hitching across the upper northern hemisphere - Russia, China & Canada -- has been at it for 12 months!

Nicholas, who is a big soccer fan was delighted to hear that they already had plans to head out to a pub and watch the World Cup finals -- but neither of us were delighted that it was a 30min walk - considering our 55 mile ride into town. But it was nice to be out of the - at this point - dreaded bike shorts and walk around. 

It was a pub by the local university and turned out to be standing room only by the time we got there -- worked for us though.  Game was good in my book - all theatrics aside - and Nick seemed psyched just to be catching the final after missing some games leading up to it. 

Tuesday we explored the downtown a bit and took a walk up to Signal Hill - a historic lookout over the bay at St John's - the location of the final battle in the Seven Years War.

After grabbing a bite to eat at a pub downtown, we hopped on the bikes for a quick 8 miles uphill to Torbay to stay with our current hosts - Chris & Paul.

Today, Chris was kind enough to lend us her Yaris to drive around and see some coastal sights - one of which was Cape Spear - the most easterly point in North America.

Last night Paul (the other one) grilled up some steaks for us to dine on - so tonight was our turn. Oh shit. Neither of us can cook worth a squirt - this is the kind of pressure that puts me into panic mode. What could I possibly make that anyone would like? Tortillas with peanut butter and jam? No. Lasagna? No, don't know how.  Philly Cheese Steaks? No way I'm finding Steak-Ums up here! What to make???  [lightbulb]  Oh snap - I'll make my favorite Bucca di Beppo dish - Chicken Carbonara! I've made it before - just gotta find that website again.  Thanks Google!

Success!! The Carbonara was a hit - all that brain sweating for naught. Phew.

Tomorrow we head backwards - to Whitbourne where we met our German riding buddy -- and then Thursday south to Argentia where we will board the ferry back to Nova Scotia. It leaves at 5:00pm and arrives at 9:45am Friday!!! Ho jeez. 

St John's, Newfoundland Canada

Made it. 

everyone sounds like Brad Pitt

Pikeys! This is best way I can think of to describe how Newfies (Newfoundlanders) talk -- now you have to have seen Snatch - and if you haven't seen it, it's a brilliant British comedy with Jason Statham and Brad Pitt - in it, Brad plays an Irish gypsy called a pikey - and you can't understand a word coming out of his mouth. This is how some of the locals talk - exactly. If you've seen the movie you know what I mean - if you haven't, shame on you - go watch it!!

Today we got up around 7:00 CST - taking full advantage of pillows not being comprised of clothing in a sack. Breakfast and on the road by 7:30 PST.  We pedal pounded out 60 more miles - probably the most scenic thus far!!

We were pimpin some wifi at a Visitor Info Center - letting the sun lower a bit before setting up tents in the nearby grass - when a solo touring cyclist pulled up. Crazy - we haven't really seen anyone on bikes all the way across -- getting sideways looks all the time. His name is Simon - from Germany - fresh out of high school, he's been touring for just over 10 weeks - starting in British Columbia - totaling 8,300km = 5,160mi!!!  Tomorrow is his last ride day - ending in St John's.  Not sure we can keep up, but we might try to head out with him in the morning. 

Bad news - the icebergs have been moved out of the harbor in St. John's!!! WTF!! They towed them out so they weren't in the way of boats or something -- super lame - don't they know we're coming?!?  Might have to initiate plan B - park the bikes and rent a car to find is some bergs. 

Rest days are overrated.

Got close and personal with a moose today - well, not so personal - he was on the other side of a walkway railing at the campground - but he did approach as close as 15ft! I snapped a few shots - and so did some of the locals working - claiming they've never seen one that close.  Lucky me!!

60 mile ride day -- knew it was going to start out hilly - and it did. Ended hilly too. Nice day to ride - mostly cloudy and ended in some minor precipitation - and fog of all things.

Decided to crash at a nice trucker motel for the night :)

2 more days till we see icebergs!!!

Rest day in Terra Nova

Nick and I decided to take a rest day in Terra Nova National Park today. Took a hike (in our biking shoes) through the boreal forest - which is what the park is protecting. The hike was sweet - nice and sunny - kinda humid and buggy - but we had a nice breeze for support. The hike took us along the coast of Newmans Sound to an information center. At the info center we basically rested - but also watched a video about the park and experienced the Touch Tank they had - a place where you could touch and handle starfish, crabs and other sea creatures found along the coast.  After we hydrated, rested a bit (tried to find a ride back) and finished touching, we headed back -- to rest some more at the campsite. The end. 

Let's catch you up.

Yesterday - 8th of July

Can't tell you how many times I woke up that morning - trying to tell how bad it was raining - and deciding it was raining too hard and I should just fall asleep again and the next time I woke up it would be sunny and birds would be singing.  I only got part of that right - after trying it about a dozen times -- I finally got up to a drizzle on my tent and the terribly annoying squawks coming from a pair of crows -- guess it's the only way they can sing.

Anywho - we sang our own little tune while we took down our camp and loaded up our bikes - something about Hakuna Matata --- Nick's pick - we were really trying hard to stay optimistic about our 65 mike ride in the rain - and cold.

Turns out it wasn't too bad - once your wet, your wet -- the only down side is the glasses fogging up.

After reaching our destination - Gander - we rode to our CouchSurfer host Jon's house.  No one was home when we knocked, so we unloaded our bikes on the back deck - borrowed his hose to rinse everything off - and took a rainy stroll down to a restaraunt we passed on our way in town - where we waited to make contact with Jon. Turns out, Jon - who is a helicopter pilot for the Canadian search and rescue - was called out to a rescue in Labrador and not even on the island - not a problem though - he contacted Erinn his gf who kindly let us in and showed us around. Showers then laundry!!  2 very appreciated luxuries.

Once settled in - spreading all our stuff out in the basement to dry - we chatted with Erinn about the area and Nicholas found a new bestie - Kevin, a very energetic German Shepard.

Today - 9th of July

I could have slept in their guest bed until noon - super comfy!

Once up, we started to collect our things - taking what was still wet out into the sun to dry before packing again.  We met our other host Jon - who ended up getting back from his flight super late last night - and was nice enough to get up early to meet us and review our map and discuss potential destinations to visit.  At one point I mentioned icebergs - he got super stoked and asked if we wanted some -- huh?  Yep - he had a piece of an iceberg in his freezer!! Super cool!! He grabbed a hammer and we broke off some pieces and put them in water to drink - ice that's probably thousands of years old!! And to top it off - he showed us a video of the iceberg it came from - they flew over it doing some training and snagged a chunk -- all on his helmet cam (GoPro). I'm hoping he's either able to share the video or send me a couple still shots - it was incredible -- there was actually a giant pool of water at the top in the center - and 2 rescue divers went into it -- totally bad ass!!

We finally packed up - most of the stuff being dry -- said our goodbyes - grabbed some breakfast and were off.  It was a 54 mile day - potentially one of the hilliest - ending up in Terra Nova National Park. 

Have you ever been riding - up a big hill - I mean a really big hill -- and you're giving it all she's got - you know your in that easy granny gear -- but you try, one more time - just in case -- to see if you maybe didn't shift all the way - and you CAN find an easier gear -- not super shocked but disappointed that it didn't work? Have you ever tried it again on that same hill - maybe just a little further up? Well - that's the kind of hills we had - and the kinda shifting I repeated over and over :)

In all, it was a great day - partly sunny - partly cloudy - some tailwinds - some headwinds - and smooth roads.

Camping for the night in Terra Nova -- all showered up and ready to sleep. Might spend the day here tomorrow and hike around -- we'll sleep on it. 

We caught the tail end of the Salmon Festival! (literally)

52 miles from South Brook to Grand-Falls Windsor today - catching the last bit of their Salmon Festival -- started on Thurs and ended today -- headliners were Maroon 5 & Pitbull (playing separately of course). We didn't catch either if their acts - we made it for the free burgers and dogs though - thanks Grand Falls-Windsor! Other activities included - balloon animals - very amature wrestling - and some sort if reptile show -- the whole town seemed to be there. 

The ride was good, but we are both tired - haven't had any luck finding a place to camp in town -- there is a park 4 miles back the way we came - might have to try that - or maybe poach a site somewhere here - time will tell. 

Granny gear the whole way.

We started out the morning (yesterday) fairly early - needed to make 60 miles on a stretch that we've been told has little to no services. Stocked full of water (added 3 liters to our carrying capacity) - all we had to do was pedal thru a post-tropical storm hitting the island. The night before I searched my magic phone high and low for any definitive weather or warnings for the area we were riding through - didn't come up with much. I read that Nova Scotia got some damage - that's fairly close -- read that there still might be winds along the coast up to 110kph - which is about 70mph - holy shit, the coast seems close (island). Not having read anything specific or hearing danger in any of the locals voices, we decided to try it -- still having the storm (and 79mph winds) in the back of our minds. Once we hit the road we quickly became aware that we were going to be facing a strong headwind the entire day. We were barely moving - our initial average was 8mph - literally pedaling our asses off in our granny gears and the skies were getting worse. Then I had my second flat on the trip - fortunately it happened at a campground and we pulled in their parking lot to change the tube. Since I have panniers on my bike - and it was a rear flat - I have to take everything off in order to remove the wheel for the repair - not awesome, but easy enough. So, standing there with my bags off - in a campground - with forceful winds (nothing remotely near 70mph) and not real sure how harsh the storm would get -- we debated calling it a day and waiting out the storm in the campground. Which is what we decided - no sense in destroying our legs if we didn't have to. 

Campground time in the rain and wind - as you can imagine - isn't super exciting - but we did have a couple openings to go on a sweet hike atop some cliffs above the lake we were camped at - and got most of a game of War in.  After that it was off to the tents - fixing tubes - reading - and sleeping.

Today looks fabulous - blue skies and a light breeze -- a tail breeze at that! And we're off. 

Rained

To be continued…

… rained all morning but we pressed on and it's been blue skies for the second half of the day!  Will still have to dry out some stuff (tent included) when we find our camp spot. It's been about 57 miles today and we are going to try to add another 20 -- easily our longest day.

Today turned out well - ended up putting in 74 miles today - Nick's longest day ever!  We are camping for the night - outside of Springdale NL -- have shelter close by if it gets nasty, but I don't think we're expecting much at this location. Hoping to ride 60 miles to Grand Falls-Windsor NL tomorrow. Will keep you posted.  

Amen!!

Praise the bicycle gods - they have been working their god magik with Njord to keep the wind at our backs!!  We had a stellar ride day -- nice and sunny to start - with an amazing tailwind the entire way - a blessing two fold, for the help down the road and to keep us cool while riding. Had a quick stop at the Steady Brook Falls along our way to Deer Lake - where we're camped for the night. 

Please visit icebergfinder.com to help you understand how excited I'm getting!!!!

Happy 4th!!!

Bay of Islands

Rest day in The Brook!  Nick and I decided to take a rest day in Corner Brook today since we were lucky enough to have place to crash and be able to explore some sights with our awesome hosts!!  

The day started off slow, but that's how we roll. Once up, we went for a walk around town - we buzzed through downtown the night before on our bikes, so we had an idea where things were. Today was very overcast and often threatened to rain on us, but we only caught a sprinkle or two - kinda nice for our stroll.  We stopped in a few shops and hit the grocery - but nothing too exciting to see except for the giant paper factory along the water - and that was mostly buildings with steam and massive piles of logs.  If I had to sum Corner Brook up in one word - it would be - hilly! Two words - uber hilly!

It wasn't until the party posse (Charlotte & Bruno) got home from work that the awesomeness started! They offered to drive us to the Bay of Islands - to have a campfire on the beach - hike to some cliffs for amazing views - and ultimately the sunset.  We were totally down. It took about 1 hour (not sure the metric equivalent) to drive out to the beach where we cooked wieners on a drift wood fire.  It was quite lovely and as I'm typing this, almost sounds like the perfect  romantic date - they even had a kite to fly -- it was sweet!!  The drive there was through some small fishing towns nestled between some incredible views of the bay and mountains - including the tallest mountain in Newfoundland - approximately 800m tall - not entirely massive - but impressive none the less considering it juts right out at sea level.  Once we got to the beach - collected fire wood - ate a bit and chatted -- we then took a nice hike up to a rocky cliff that looked down on the beach and out to sea where the sun was setting.  Wish you could see the pics - although the don't do it justice.

Surrounded by water and nothing to drink.

"So I catch this chipmunk trying to make off with our goods -- and I shoos it away - only to discover - the prick chewed through the zipper on my pannier -- and I'm like fookin A."

-P. Pfaehler

Ride day 3 - got an early start - rustled Nick's tent around 7:30.  Feeling good about the day's ride - started off with a little road construction - as we were stopped by the flagger (stop/slow signer) I asked how far the next has stop was... considering we were down to a bottle each I wasn't too psyched about the answer -- 40 miles. Thank god for Peas and Pears!!! (Rich) But that really only helped us limp along. We were basically out of water and just stopped to fill our bottles at a stream -- when we came across some homes and proceeded to knock on doors. Found two very friendly ladies - who promptly filled up our bottles with water AND ice!! Life savers. Gonna have to revise our water storage to meet the demand.  We successfully made it to Corner Brook - where we are now CouchSurfing with Charolette & Bruno - also roommates Jessie & Devon.  Very cool people - chatted and had dinner with C&B - both from Quebec. Had brief conversations with the others and hope to chat more tomorrow with them - J is from British Columbia and D is a local.  More to come as we will be here for another night - resting our bums tomorrow and checking out the area. 

Scenery has been beautiful - however, not yet what I expected - and it sounds as though it might be necessary to deviate from the highway to view the fjords and grassy landscapes of my dreams.  We are currently riding through vast forests of conifers with a smattering of disiduous. Tons and tons of lakes - and as the trees aren't especially big, it makes the views across them seem especially distant and vast.  We keep hearing about moose - and passing prime habitat - but have not encountered any. Mostly frogs and those damn chipmunks!!

Barachois Provincial Park

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!!

Started off the day with a quick 10mi ride to a gas station/diner to replenish our severely depleted water supply and grab a bite to eat. Right.  In celebration of the nation's holiday, I chose a traditional burger with fries & gravy - delish - although, maybe a bit much to eat and immediately hop on the bike for the miles to come. Right. I did survive the gut bomb I crested - and the big bad hills - and the blistering sun --- Nick isn't exactly sure how the ozone layer is doing at this latitude - but still didn't apply the sunscreen. Right. 

Today was a 43mi day - big long hills but nothing extra steep. Right. Good second day to get our legs going and still keep them motivated for tomorrow. Right. 

Flashback to last night. Right. We stayed at a campground full of campers - the people all seemed to know each other and spend weeks at a time at the site. Right. After taking a little nap in the tent, falling asleep to the sound of rain, we woke to a little activity in the building next to our tents. Right. Turns out they were all gathering around a fire inside - some cooking wieners - others just chatting -- all getting their beer on. Right. Nicholas slipped in first and got the lo-down and then brought me over to meet his new acquaintances. Right. We ended up sitting to the side - listening in - trying to interpret the strange accents. Right. Before you knew it, it was fireworks and loud music - a Newfie hoedown! Right. We ended up chatting with a few folks and one nice fellow - Leroy - offered us some beers - and was going to have us for lobsters if we were staying a second night! Right. We ended up going to bed way before the party was over, but we had to get some sleep so we could get our ride on today. Right. 

Oh - forgot to mention - I had the first flat tire of the trip today. Right. Hope that was the last. Right. 

Gotta go get our laundry out of the washer. Right. 

1st ride day

What a beautiful morning - sun shining, birds singing & not quite as many mosquitoes biting - thanks for all the prayers!

After a quick hot shower and some breakfast, we hit the road around 10:30am. 

We ended up riding 73km today -- a much more impressive way of saying 48mi.  Speaking for myself, it was tough - not tough like the locals described - tough like I should have trained more.  There were hills, but nothing terrible - it's just a different story with 60 more pounds hanging on the bike.  Hoping a good nights rest will facilitate lots and lots of muscle fiber repair!!

Got off the road and set up our tents just in time - getting a little rain shower at the moment. 

Please feel free to comment on the posts - if you tried earlier, I apparently had that option turned off, but I think I've gotten that taken care of. 

JT Cheeseman Provincial Park

local: Where are you headed?

us: Across the TCH to catch the ferry on the other side. 

local: *smile with a snort* Really? Oh.

us: *look at each other*

local: It's hilly. *shake of head*

us: Not the whole way - right?

local: *hand guesture with palm down - fingers moving up then quickly zooming down - repeat 3-4 times. 

me to Nick - I hear it flattens out.

On a side note - we need you to please pray for one of 2 things - your choice. 

1 - that all the mosquitoes and biting fly thingys in Newfoundland die. 

2 - Natrapel 8 hour - starts working and doesn't mean 8 hour bug attractant.

Thanks in advance.  

out to sea

Just boarded the ferry that will take us across to Newfoundland. It's officially happening - past the point of easy return!  

Yesterday's drive started at 5am in Boston and ended at 11pm (Atlantic time zone) in Sydney. We made contact with Jacques - a host on warmshowers.org - who, considering the late hour of our arrival, was nice enough to leave his garden house open for us to crash for the night. 

It was a beautiful sunny morning and at 6:30am we finalized our packing and were ready with all our gear by 8:00am. Once finished, Jacques invited us in for a complete breakfast and some conversation. A retired instructor for the Canadian Coast Guard - he moved to Sydney from Quebec and is a driving force for the biking community in the area - hosting road and mountain cycling events.

We did one final check - loaded the bikes - and said goodbye to Jacques & Brit. We had a 12 mile ride to the ferry - a good warm up on the quiet Sunday roads to get a feel for our potentially overloaded bikes. Nicholas is towing a B.O.B. trailer and I am bogged down with front and rear panniers.

There was an initial scare when, at the gate, they told us they were totally full and couldn't accommodate us.  Wishing I had made reservations, I took a trip to customer services and with a huge sigh of relief they were able to squeeze us on today's ferry.  Good karma?

The last to get tickets but the first to board -- we kinda had the boat to ourselves for a bit as the autos waited their turn to be parked below deck. We were expecting huddled wet conditions exposed to the elements -- but it's quite the contrary and I am no longer dreading the 18 HOUR ferry back (this one is about 6). There are multiple decks with spacious comfy chairs - many televisions - and even a cafe/ice cream shop. Deluxe - with barf bags everywhere you look!!  Hoping to avoid using those.

Ship is moving - on our way.

Peace & Blue Skies

Sydney, Nova Scotia

We (Nick, Brit, both bikes & myself) made to the end of the continent - tomorrow we take the ferry into the unknown.  I'd say wish us luck - but we don't need any - it's all part of the adventure!!

Still no luck uploading pics - will keep taking and trying to deliver. 

On our way!

Nick and I got started on our 20hr drive to Nova Scotia yesterday - making a late stop in Boston at my friend Shari's to catch a few Z's. 5am wake up to finish the remaining 14hrs -- making good time - almost time to brandish our passports. 

FYI - the mobile Blogger app isn't letting me post pics -- hope it works at some point - cause I'm not even sure if Canada has libraries.

Newfoundland or busts!!!