The start of something big (6/1/23 Thu)

The day of the big trip is finally here. Even when I try to be prepared there is always something that just drags out until the bitter end. Those sparkplugs ate up my last days, and I only had 1 week between triips. I really wanted to reset myself, bike and gear for this new trip, and spend as much time with Anne as I could. One week seemed too short.

I went to sleep at midnight and got up around 0700. Purposefully I didn't rush the morning. Coffee, breakfast, loaded and started the dishwasher, washed some dishes and double checked my lists. Anne had an appointment, so she left just before me. I took my shower and put on the clothing I had prepared.

Leaving the house I just started following the route, and actually didn't know how it got me to Montreal. I thought it went up through NH and was surprised when it headed for Concord. Seems I was going to enter Canada on the Western edge of Vermont. Fine by me, I just went with it, and didn't spend any effort to take nicer roads. All this is home, I want to see away. Everthing went smoothly as I traveled familiar roads, passing by the Shelburne VT exit before turning North for the boarder crossing. One final refueling before the boarder, where I collected my passport, license and registration together.

I reached the boarder with another car, whom I let go ahead of me. They pulled upto a gate just as the next gate over cleared and I was able to drive up too. The boarder agent was a very nice woman. She asked some simple questions that I stumbled on. How long are you going to be in Canada? Not thinking I said 1 week, my normal 9 day vacation timing. Then said wait a minute I'm going to Alaska, it's two weeks. Then I rethought that I said I was really going to Dawson City in the Yukon, and it would be more than two weeks, then Alaska before re-entering Canada. She asked if I had been planning this for awhile, and I said two months ago I was layed off and started this plan. I mentioned how it was a little easier last year going to Newfoundland becuase ArriveCan was an online pre-screening so this part was quicker. She agreed that was ONE nice think, but everything else about Covid-19 sucked. I agreed and completed putting back on my gear to ride away.

Now in Canada, I hadn't replaced my earplugs or set the gps or bike to kilometers. Turns out the bike can't be changed while riding it. So the gps was what I converted. That was good enough but then my directions changed to km as well. As a first stop I decided I would find my bank and get some local money. The first branch I found was in a construction zone, so I continued past. Which really confused the gps, and over the bridge into Montreal I went.

Almost immediately there was slow traffic and I had a hard time telling if the gps was trying to u-turn me back to the missed bank... After reseting the destination I knew the gps was taking me someplace I wanted to go. But now it was into heavy slow traffic and lots of exits. I would see that I needed to take a left exit in 5.2km and get over. Only to fine 3 or 4 prior exits before mine, and sometimes the lane turned into exit only. Next time I would have to exit right and have play the same game, but with onramps added to the game. Eventually I figurd I reached the boss level of that game when the temperature hit 100F, our speeds ranged from 0 to 13 mph and an ambulance passed to my right (when I was in the rightmost lane). Most of this time the road was sunken and seemed very much like a canyon. When the ambulance passed by I noticed there was an odd half raised shoulder/sidewalk that must enable this trick. Once past the Montreal traffic boss level the speeds would pulse up and down with a sea of brake lights. It lasted at least an hour before I located another bank and then sat in the shade for 15 minutes before doing my banking. Then slowly re-organizing my documents, bike display units, and money, I went to the closest gas station to refuel, refill my water bladder, and empty my bladder.

That stop meant I wouldn't need anything for awhile, but I would log some seat time before finding a Tim Hortons. I was able to use their wifi to check the forcast. The skies looked dark but I had skirted the storm cells all day. Forcast looked like I just missed this one. I took my time eating a sandwich, muffin and coffee only to look up to see what the laughing was about. Then I saw it was pouring down very heavy rain. New customers came in drenched. I looked out to see a river flowing past my bike. Helmet on the mirror with open face sheild, and riding pants draped over the seat, next to my rain gear and umbrella. So I stayed put and just watched as a few more waves of hard rain washed over everything.

Once the rain stopped I found the helmet wet, but the pants not too bad. I decided that I could hit more, but should ride out of it. So I opted to put the rain jacket over my dry riding jacket but, leave the pants uncovered to air dry. Good plan, but failed as I continued riding for hours along the rain line. It would be dark then light and sunny. Often I would see the sun and think I was clear just as the rain hit (with sun just head). Repeat for an entire refueling. I had picked a wild campsite that was the perfect stopping point, until time slipped by and my GPS ETA was 30 minutes after dark. Not bad if it was a known campstie, with other backups nearbu. This was none of that, locatedd in a large provential park, with nothing for many kilometers. I was concerned about distances between gas stops already, and din't need more issues. Eventually I gave up and went to a closer pay campround just before dark and pre-rain. Good call but I had to just ride around and pick a spot because the office was closed and all in french.

I used the bug head net for tent setup. Then jumped in the tent to remove damp gear and start typing. It's poured a few times while I wrote this. I'm dry, bug free, but sharing the tent with a lot of smelly damp gear. So it's now 2315 and all I have left to say is "good night tent full of mush."

Update (6/2/23 Fri)

Photo added from inside the tent of the mosquittos awaiting my exit. The bug headnet is needed, the bug situation is real, no joke. I choose to just packup and pay my bill. Skipped coffee until the first gas stop, an hour and a half into my day.