Wherever I May Roam: Day 14

After a good night of rest I woke up ready for another day of sightseeing. I took my time getting ready for the day as there isn't a whole lot I wanted to do today. I spent some time doing my morning devotions and then packed up the bike and checked out of the Silver Dart Lodge. It's a pretty old place, but the rooms are clean and well maintained.

I spent a lot of time taking pictures yesterday, so today I felt free to just ride, and it gave me a chance to push the bike a little. I'm always surprised how nimble this big touring bike actually is, for it's size anyway, and I had the floorboards dragging multiple times today. Doing that on a fully loaded touring bike is exhilarating, because you have to lean it way over to make that happen.

In Cheticamp I stopped for a bit of breakfast, meeting a fellow biker I met while getting gas in Moncton a few days ago. He did mention at the time we might meet on the Cabot Trail, but I hadn't thought of that again as I figured that wasn't very likely.

After Cheticamp I didn't stop a whole lot until passing Pleasant Bay. Spotting a few bikes at a look off I decided to pull over to take a picture and maybe have a chat. Two of the bikes left after a few minutes, but one guy stayed and we ended chatting for about half an hour. He took a lot of interest in my trip, having never been out west, and I shared what I could to help him out for a future adventure.

Once I reached Cape North I took the ride out to the small village of Bay St. Lawrence, probably about 15 minutes each way. The weather was starting to move in, so I chose not to take the gravel road to Meat Cove. Chatted briefly with two couples from New York and one couple from California. By the time I got to Cape North it was starting to rain and it was time to try out the new rain gear, which seemed to work fine. I'm a little disappointed that the pants didn't come with suspenders, as they are a little big, something I thought they had when I bought them. They kept me dry though, so that's all that matters.

Another road I didn't take was the coastal loop through White Point to Neil's Harbour. The views were nice, but the road was in awful condition. If there's one negative thing about this trip (other than the constant crappy weather) it's the terrible condition of some of the roads. In the National Park they're great, but the a lot of the roads more off the beaten path are the worst I've ever been on. Hopefully some of the tourist money will eventually go into fixing the asphalt, especially on a road as beautiful as the Cabot Trail.

I took the Englishtown ferry on my way to North Sydney today, as that cut down my travel time and would get me out of the rain sooner. After boarding for the 500 foot or so crossing I began to take off my gloves to get my wallet and pay the $5.25 fare. The man collecting money told me not to worry about it, waiving my crossing fee, and starting a sequence of generosity for me.

I got to North Sydney way to early, around 5:30, 6 hours or so before my scheduled departure for Newfoundland. As I had a coffee and something to eat I was checking the weather for the two days in Newfoundland, and it didn't look good. The forecast was calling for 20mm of rain tomorrow, with high winds, and another 10mm for Friday. The thought of spending all the time getting there and back just to ride in rain and daily highs of around only 10 degrees, and missing a lot of the scenery because of it, didn't sit well. The forecast to the south and west looks good, so I made the decision to cancel Newfoundland from this trip.

It wasn't an easy decision, I'm so close now and may never get here again, but I'm just sick of fighting this constant rain storm that's following me around. The hotel agreed to waive the cancellation fee and after calling to cancel the ferry trip, knowing that it would cost me $50, the guy waived that without me even asking. Rooms were available in Sydney, a 25km ride from where I had stopped, and so the plans all fell into place. As I sit here now the rain storm is raging outside and I'm okay with the decision I've made. I'll regret not seeing some of Newfoundland, and maybe sometime in the future I can fly out and ride the Rock, taking more time than I had planned for now.

Tomorrow I'll head south to Halifax, spend a day or two getting to Saint John, then after that I start the trek back across the continent on a route through the USA. I'm due for a string of good weather, so hopefully that will follow me for a while as I leave the rain here in the east.