Josh Coles

It appears as though i’ve found another public computer.  Let’s recap.

Where am I?

Right now i’m sitting in a library in Dixfield, Maine.  Tonight i’ll be camping in either Rumford or Bethel, Rumford being about 40 Miles from New Hampshire and Bethel being about 20 away.  We’ll see how the rest of the day goes but I’ve been making pretty good time so I might end early today and settle for Rumford.

Anything cool in Maine?

Not really.  2 of my 4 days here have been a Sunday and the 4th of July.  Honestly, everywhere I went on the 4th was a complete ghost town, leaving me to assume that people are all out at campgrounds and out of towns.  These guys are cool though.

Do I smell bad yet?

Kind of.  I’ve been wearing the same Merino Wool shirt for the past 5 or 6 days now and it’s just barely beginning to stink…maybe i’ll wash it.  This stuff is great for keeping the smell away though, if I was wearing a cotton shirt or synthetic stuff for that long I would be completely unapproachable. 

What am I eating?

I’m eating all of the food.  Seriously, i’m amazed at how much food I eat.  Lately i’ve been starting my day with a small breakfast at camp (beans or fruit) and hitting up the first greasy diner I can find for second breakfast, sometimes stuff like this.

That’sa big pile of Ham and Cheese stuffed into french toast with homefries and coffee.  I usually just settle for the standard “Robin Hood” style breakfast, for my Sherwood homies.

Then i’ll usually have elevensies which could be a clif bar/gorp or fruit. Some time around 1 or 2 i’ll have lunch, which tends to be some sort of meat (sausage), crackers, and cheese.  I’ll have icecream if I can find it towards the end of the afternoon, finishing off with supper after I get to camp (somewhere between 6-8). Supper is almost always some combination of rice, sauce, meat, and veggies.

“Maybe i’ll make a little lunchtime road bacon.”

What has the weather been like?

Glorious.  I literally have not biked in the rain once (excluding zipping around Halifax on my day off, picking up gear).  Isn’t that ridiculous?  Yes.  Yesterday it was around 88 or 89 degrees fahrenheit (~31 degrees celcius) and today it’s around the same.  That translates to me being horribly sweaty and overheated going up hills but relatively alright otherwise.  Drinking lots of water.

Hills?

Not yet (really).  The hills will really get bad tomorrow when I reach White Mountain National Forest and they will continue to be an absolute shitshow until i’m out of New York, I guess.

That’s all for now.  I would assume that the next post will come in a few days but it’s hard to tell. 

Thanks for reading,

Josh

The Loneliest Hobo

Hey everyone,

I’m writing this from the visitor information centre at St Stephen, NB, self-proclaimed Chocolate Town of Canada.  Something to do with Ganong, I think?  Once again I won’t be able to add any pictures in this post, but don’t worry, i’m throwing a bunch on Facebook as soon as possible.

Quite a bit has changed since my last post.  We ended up having a great place to stay in Saint John thanks to Tom and Suzanna Inkpen, but unfortunately things went downhill the next morning after Jeff’s Physiotherapy session.  As it turns out he had been developing tendonitis in his right (and my his left) knee and biking certainly wasn’t helping.  After feeling it out for a bit though, he decided that he was able to make the ride down to St. Andrews to celebrate Canada day with his friend Jiselle at her cabin on a lake.

We arrived at St. Andrews about a day before we expected to, thanks to a relatively nice ride backed by an AWESOME tailwind (65.1 km/h highspeed woop woop).  St. Andrews is a beautiful little seaside town that relies a lot on tourism and fishing I suppose, tourism more so in the summer of course.  We spent a bit of time in the town itself but more time out at Jiselle’s Cabin on Lake Chamcook with her and her boyfriend Tom from Fredericton.  It was awesome and we (Jeff and I)  spent Canada day getting drunk on the lake in a canoe then going to a house party above the wharf in town to watch the fireworks*.

*St. Andrews’ fireworks were undeniably better than any fireworks show that I have ever seen in Charlottetown, for the record.

St. Andrews was also the location of my shitshow rack welding experience which I will try to explain as quickly as possible.  Basically, I got a small crack in my back rack (lol).  I found a guy to weld it at a dive shop in St. Andrews.  He screwed up really bad, he fixed it in a hilarious way, now hopefully it’s good. 

I better be off though, I have to round up my passport and whatnot and cross into Maine.  I’ll find a visitor information centre as soon as possible, grab some wifi, and throw as many pictures up on Facebook as I can. 

Until next time,

Josh

So Long, Nova Scotia.

Thanks to the wonders of technology I’m writing this from the middle of the Bay of Fundy. That’s right, smack dab in the middle of my great beautiful friend Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, her big ugly sister, saddling up on the rusty old Princess of Acadia.

Before I talk about our itinerary and whatnot I would just like to say that I’m writing this on my iPhone and unfortunately won’t be able to add any photos this post.

We left Halifax on Sunday at about 10 (err, rough morning I suppose) and headed down to Bridgewater along route 3. That’s the old highway known as the lighthouse route that goes all along the south shore of NS. It’s a lot nicer to bike on (small hills, little fishing villages and no big trucks) but takes about an extra 10 km by the end of the day. We saw some beautiful houses, islands, harbours, etc and rolled into Bridgewater at about 6. I checked out my old house from Katimavik, picked up food, and left for my friend Bob’s house about 15 km out of town in Pinehurst.

When we arrived he treated us to a big pile of delicious Chicken Curry, which was exactly what we needed after around 130 km of riding. Bob tours as well and we talked about his most recent trip to Argentina with his son, Tucker. After that we cleaned up with a shower and went to bed (that’s right, at this point we had only slept on beds and couches).

We woke to a breakfast FEAST (The Mertens have free range chickens running around their house) and headed out—again at around 10 (lol).

From Pinehurst we headed further inland towards Kejimkujic National Park and eventually towards Digby.

We did about 80 km and rolled into “Ravens Haven” Campground on Sandy Bottom Lake. Jeff spent no time getting into the water and I trailed a bit behind…it was gorgeous. Our first camping night was great.

Today we woke up, had a can of beans each, and left camp about about 9:30 heading towards Digby. We had a small day so we took it easy, stopping for a second breakfast in Bear River. From there we followed the river out to the Bay on which Digby sits and had a nice slow ride into Digby. We met a real character on a back road by Digby that was getting fairly deep into the sauce for 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon.

In Digby I had the best fish n chips ever out of a chip truck, but we didn’t stick around long because Digby isn’t the nicest place.

So here I am on the ferry, about to leave you to see if I can spy a whale or two…but first, some significant news.

Something that I haven’t mentioned thus far is the decline in health of Jeff’s knees. Beginning on Saturday morning and continuing to worsen since, jeff has had some pretty bad pain in both of his knees. He has already seen a physiotherapist in Halifax, who said that he is unlikely to cause any permanent damage if he continues. That being said, the pain has been increasing considerably since then and unless something miraculous happens at Physio in Saint John, it’s beginning to look like I’ll be on my own for the rest of the trip (likely until after St. Andrews). It’s not ideal, but I’ve been preparing for this long enough that I’m not giving up just because I have to do it alone. Oh well, he’s not a complete right off.

I really have to go now but I’ll be back soon with some more pictures and an update on Jeff’s knees.

See ya, Josh

So it begins…

As most of you should know, we started the trip on Thursday the 23rd and made our way up to Wood Islands.  Jeff has a cottage about 15 km away from the ferry (on the Charlottetown side) so we stayed there for the first night. He has an awesome sauna out there so we treated ourselves to that as well as some beer and burgers after the first day, which was only about 65 km worth of hilly riding (we took the inland route). 

My view all day.

On day 2 we woke up at ungodly hour of 5 AM to ensure that we made the 6:30 ferry to Caribou, NS.  We did indeed make it and fueled up on a greasy ferry breakfast before heading up to Truro. 

Originally day 2 was going to take us most of the way to Halifax, but the weather forecast for Saturday convinced us that making it to Halifax on Friday night would be the best idea.  Including the 15 km from jeff’s cottage, that would be about 185 km…a long day, even if we weren’t fully loaded.

The first leg, to Truro, was a beauty.  Great tailwind, lots of sun, and lots of big smiles.  Coming down on the other side of a big hill called Mt. Thom I hit my daily highspeed of 60.2 km/h, which is a whole lot of fun. 

Unfortunately when we got to Truro and turned East, our great tailwind turned into a nasty headwind.  Needless to say by the 130 km mark I wanted to pull over and curl up in a ball in a ditch and never bike again…but that didn’t happen.

14 KM away from delicious spaghetti.

We pulled  into halifax at Jeff’s sister Carolyn’s house to a BIG plate of spaghetti and a few Propeller beers. I was asleep before I knew what hit me. 

Today (Saturday) we’re taking a rest day in Halifax.  I went to the new Seaport market for some java and other goodies, stopped by the Garrison Brewery for some treats for later, and i’m about to go pick up some final little things at Mountain Equipment Co-op before heading out tomorrow.

Until next time,

Josh

I just want to ride my bike.

I’ve been trying to plan some sort of long bike trip since March or April of 2010.  I started off as 20-year-olds do, with maybe a bit too much ambition.  After catching the touring bug during a breeze of a trip from Bridgewater, NS to Charlottetown, I immediately set my sights for something much bigger: a cross Canada trip in the summer of 2011.

My body could do it, that much I knew.  Sure, a couple fractured vertebrae a few years ago might cause an issue down the road if my bike’s geometry wasn’t very forgiving, but that would be dealt with when the time came.  I was certain that my legs, given a week to adjust to their new, athletic lifestyle, would be fine for a 2/3 month trip across the country.  It wasn’t the physical feat that I was worried about, nor was it rounding up the adequate gear and funds to support myself on the road all summer.  Nope, the issue was finding someone to do it with me.

It is very, very difficult to convince somebody to set aside 3 months of their life to bike across Canada with you.  First of all, it’s expensive.  $1500 in gear and about $3000 set aside to sustain yourself is pretty expensive for most students who don’t want to pull it out of their student loans.  I can’t exactly say “hey man, do you want to bike across the country with me next summer?  You’ll have to put about $4500 into it, FYI”.  Well, I did say that to a lot of people, and didn’t have any luck. Not only was it important to find someone who can commit their time, but I would have to find someone that I would want to bum around with for a few months without beating them down with a bicycle pump.  At some point last fall I realized that a cross country tour wouldn’t happen — not this time, at least.

Where to next?  The maritimes were too small to do a big, fun, and impressively adventurous trip.  My instincts told me to look towards Québec and Ontario, but even that didn’t interest me (at the time).  Instead I settled on something more interesting: Florida.  

What?  That’s like, really far isn’t it?  Yeah, it is, but it’s a hell of a lot shorter than hopping on at Victoria and going straight across to Halifax.  

Victoria, BC - Halifax, NS = ~6000 Km

Charlottetown, PE - Miami, FL = ~4000 Km

That was my plan for a while.  Check out all of the cool major American historic sites along the way, eat deep fried everything at every little roadside diner I could find, and frolic with gators in the Southern sun.  It was shorter, cheaper, and way more interesting!  So who’s in?…Anyone?…No?…Shit.  Still, I couldn’t find a biking buddy.  That is, until Jeff Dohoo came along.  

That’s pretty much how it went.  I met Jeff in my American History Pre-Reconstruction class in fall 2010 and, after noticing his cycling shoes in class one day, asked him about biking.  He said that he had recently bought a Surly Cross Check, and I asked him if he wanted to bike to Florida with me.  He paused for a second and said “you know, I could probably do that”.

Fast-forward a couple of months, during which time we had kept in contact and tentatively agreed to do the trip the following summer.  Unfortunately one day Jeff admitted that due to lack of money and the amount of spring courses he would have to take, he would not be able to bike to or from Florida.  Fortunately, he offered that we do something a bit shorter, and that leads us to today. 

The Trip

It is now exactly one month before I leave on my summer adventure with Jeff.  Here’s where we’re going, by means of cities and towns that are relatively recognizable.  

Leg 1

Charlottetown, PE > Halifax, NS > Bridgewater, NS > Digby, NS > St Stephen, NB.

This will take us down to the US border crossing at Saint Stephen, NB.  With a day in Halifax, this will take us about 8 or 9 days.

Leg 2

Saint Stephen, NB > Bangor, ME > White Mountain National Forest, NH > Burlington, VT > Debar Mountain, NY > Ottawa, On.  

This is the entire section of our trip that goes through the United States.  We basically skim through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Upstate New York and cut up to Ottawa.  Depending on how much time we give ourselves, this will take us about three weeks.

At this point, being the super busy/important student leader that I am, I have to throw a weird twist into the trip.  When we get to Ottawa I’ll be hopping on a train headed to Hamilton, where I’ll be attending CASA’s annual Policy and Strategy conference from July 24th - 29th.  During this time, Jeff will be visiting family around Ottawa and generally exploring.  I’ll be back by the 30th of July and we’ll head out again, North this time.

Leg 3

Ottawa, On > Montréal, QC > Drummondville, QC > Québec, QC > Moncton, NB > Charlottetown, PE.

From Ottawa we’ll make our way up to Québec City, stopping by in both Montréal and Drummondville (among other places).  Montréal is an obvious stop, but I want to go back to Drummondville, where I lived for 3 months when I did the Katimavik program.  This trip will bring me to two of my Katimavik communities, the other one being Bridgewater, at the start of the trip.

After hanging out in Québec City for a day or two we’re going to take the train to Moncton.  This isn’t because we’re lazy (well, maybe), but rather because I want to get back to PEI and enjoy the summer.  I’ll have warm beaches, a job, and a girlfriend waiting for me at home and I would like to get back sooner rather than later to take advantage of those things.  From Moncton, we bike triumphantly home to Charlottetown by August 8th or so.  

Here is a link to the Google Map route of the trip.  Routes are generalized, don’t forget about page #2. 

So there you have it.  It’s going to be one big, stinky, sweaty, fun bike ride.  Actually, it’s going to be as much a camping trip as it is a bike trip, for most days don’t go over 75Km (that’s not very far for a day on a road bike).  

I’m going to try to update this thing with pictures and stories as much as is possible during the trip.  I hope you enjoy my blog and douse me in moral support when possible.

Leading up to the trip i’ll make a post about my gear.  

Until next time,

Stay greasy.