Ottawa, Ontario to Bridgetown, NovaScotia

(a bluenoser's account)

It was the summer of 2002 and I wanted to get back out on the touring bike to get away from it all and do some long miles and camping.

It thought about going south to do some touring in the mid eastern states and possibly the Atlantic Coastline early in July. However, the logistics of this trip and the timing just didn't make things possible. After looking at some dates and some miles, my best option turned out to be a cycle trip out to the East Coast at meet up with my wife at the Atlantic Canada Bicyle Rally. The plan would be that I would leave a week before her and she would drive out and meet me there.

I had cycled out to Nova Scotia before during my cross Canada trip, but looking at the timing and the route, I looked for alternatives that were a little shorter both in distance and time. After studying maps and calculating routes using Microsoft Streets and Trips I finally decided on a route.

Routes
There are basically 2 different ways to get to the East Coast from Ottawa and some slight variations of each

Route #1
This route basically follows the trans-Canada highway, and is the route that most people take.
Ottawa - Montreal - Quebec City - Riviere du Loup - Edmunston - Fredericton - Moncton - Truro

Route #1a
A variation on the above route, but rather than turn south at Rivier u Loup, stay on the South shore of the St. Lawrence toward Gaspe. If you are feeling adventureous, you can travel around the Gaspe, or less so, you can turn south a Mont Joli and head due south toward Campbelton. Either way, this will put you on the Gulf of St. Lawrence side of New Brunswick.

Route #2
This route heads down through United States and ends up being a slightly shorter distance, but is far more scenic.
Ottawa - Montreal - Sherbrooke - Woburn - Bangor (Maine)- St. Stephen - Saint John - Digby (via ferry)

Route #2a
This route is a variation on the above route, but rather than going to Bangor, Maine, you can head down to Bar Harbor and catch a ferry from there to Yarmouth.

As you can see, the 2 variations on the 2 routes land you in different spots in Nova Scotia, so you really need to take into account where in Nova Scotia that you wanted to go. For myself, I needed to go just North of Digby to a town called Bridgetown. Landing in Digby would be the best option, so basically following route #2. However, once I mapped it out, it was actually shorter to go to Bar Harbor and take the ferry to Yarmouth and cycle up to Bridgetown. This is not to say that the shortest route is the best, but in the interest of time it was my best option.

In all my years of touring this trip was going to be a first for me: starting my tour from home. every other tour that I had been on started remotely and finished remotely. Logistically, it takes more planning to start remotely, as you need to pack the bicycle and all touring equipment up before flying to your start point. Once you get to your start point, you need to re-assemble your bike, repack the panniers, and find fuel for your stove. And you need to think about doing just the reverse when you get to your destination before flying home. This all seems too easy, starting from home with everything packed up.

Before I go on, a little bit about my setup. I bought a new Mikado D'Iberville touring bike in 2002 to replace another touring bike that had just worn out. My old touring bike was a Nishiki Continental and I have replaced every part on that bike at least once and some parts 3 or 4 times. I calculated it out one time and as a rough estimate, I probably had 60,000km and 15 years on it. Most of the parts were no longer available and I usually bought parts from old bike shops and mail order houses. And having gotten used to the Shimano 105 set of components on my Marinoni sport touring bike, I couldn't go back to those down-tube shifters.

I had ridden roughly 2,200 kms on the Mikado since I bought it in the spring and about 2,000 km on other bikes, so I knew I was in fairly good shape. I had taken the bike out fully loaded for a test ride of about 60km and it performed very well. Now it was to time to see its full potential being fully loaded with front and back panniers, a tent, sleeping bag, Thermarest and a handlebar bag. I weigh between 150-160 lbs and carry about 50 lbs of gear. This should be no problem for a touring bike; or so I thought!

Rides

Ottawa to Hudson
Hudson to Granby
Granby to Woburn
Woburn to Lake St. George
Lake St. George to Bar Harbor
Bar Harbor to Digby
Digby to Bridgetown
The Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally

Day 1 (Saturday) - Ottawa to Hudson (Camping D'Aoust)
- I had packed the night before and was all set to go. My wife who is also a cyclist headed off with me for the start and would turn back at around the 40 or 50 km mark. We peddled up to the eternal flame on Parliament Hill where this photo was taken. After that, it was heading east down the parkway toward Montreal.

As with a lot of routes, it really helps to have the experience of others to get you on the best roads and off the beaten path. I had cycled this route before, during the Tour du Canada, so I knew what to expect. After saying our farewells, my wife turned back to Ottawa and I was riding solo again. What an exhilarating feeling to be out on the road being self contained with just the wind at your back, a map in the handlebar bag and a week to get to Nova Scotia.

About 3 hours into the trip I came across 2 cyclists that were also heading to Nova Scotia. Duan and here sister Lisa They had been riding with the group Cycling for Sustainability (formerly: Climate Change Caravan)  across Canada and had left the tour to venture on their own for the 2nd half of the trip. Knowing a quieter good route to Montreal, I pulled them off the highway and onto some back roads to Hawkesbury. From there, our paths diverted, as they were going north of Montreal, and I was going through it.

At Hawkesbury, I had some lunch, crossed by bridge into Quebec and rode near the Ottawa river, and crossed back at ?? on the Ferry. From there it was tailwinds and warm weather, as I rode into Hudson where I had a reservation at Camping Daoust . This was to be my only reservation, as I had no idea where I would be after this point.

I had stayed in this campground with the Tour du Canada (TDC) group the year before, and the owner was quite shocked when I showed up wearing my TDC jersey, as he wasn't expecting the group for another 2 weeks. After calming him down showing that it was last years shirt (in my best broken French), he gave me a better rate and took me to a campspot. Unfortunately the campspot was quite noisy and it was only 5:00 pm. Things were sure to get worse on a Saturday night! As I didn't need any services, the owner took me to a private area away from everyone where I pitched my tent in the peace and quiet. The campground is very clean and the showers were great

I'm a quiet sleeper and someone came setup camp about 20 yards away. I didn't hear a thing.

Day 2 (Sunday) Hudson, Quebec to Granby, Quebec
Up early, a quick breakfast, and I was on the road to Montreal at 7:00. I'm still amazed at how long it actually takes to make breakfast and pack up.

At this point I was still following my maps from Tour Du Canada, as it can be quite confusing at the best of times getting through Montreal by bike. If you know where you're going, it is actually quite a pleasant ride. Coming into Montreal, I heard a ping, and stopped to see that I had a broken spoke on the non-freewheel side of the back wheel. Strange.  I stopped in Old Montreal at a couple of bike shops and finally found one that had spokes. I thought I would replace it that night.

I made my way through Montreal and headed south on the Route Verte . This was a new route for me and it was going to be my path for the next couple of days, but I was getting very discouraged, as it was not well marked and I had to constantly stop and ask directions. Things turned worse when the dark clouds rolled in and the rain started. Parts of the the Route Verte are on paved paths and parts are on crushed stone paths. Unfortunately, I seemed to hit the crushed stone paths during the rain, and I and the bike became a mud mess.

Later in the afternoon the weather cleared and I had some paved paths to travel. Unfortunate, but I wasn't making good time being on these paths. I made to a campground "Velo 2000" near Bromont at 7:30 that night. It was late, and getting dark, so by the time I showered and cooked some food, it was getting dark. I took my back wheel off to replace the broken spoke, and found that there were 2 broken spokes, and unfortunately I didn't have the correct spoke wrench for the nipples on the new spokes I bought. Arghhh...

I could hear thunder and lightning in the distance as I went to sleep.

Day 3 (Monday) Granby, Quebec to Woburn, Quebec - Just north of the American Border
Up at around 5:30 but didn't get on the road until 7:30. A few misc. bike tweaks that didn't get done last night, and it was a wet morning packing up. I took the paved path to Waterloo, then onto the road 112 which was definitely a lot faster. A short stint on the bike path in Magog, then on highway 108. Wow, some big hills in here. I was down to the granny gear in no time. As I rolled slowly to the top of the hill in Lennoxville, I broke another spoke. This is getting ridiculous.

From there, it was on to Sherbrooke to see about getting a few more spokes and to get the wheel trued properly. I went into a bike shop in Sherbrooke, and they quoted me a 2 day turnaround on getting the wheel trued. Any bike travelers can forget about getting any type of timely service at Velomania. From there it was back to Lennoxville and onto Cookshire. There are some more big hills in there. The weather was hot and muggy and I had a heck of a time with some of those hills. Especially in Notre Dame des Bois. I really should have done more hills in my training.

The road got more rolling, as I cycled into Woburn to look for a campground. Apparently the nearest one was 20km north which would end up being a 40km detour by the time I came back in the A.M.  It was getting late, so I decided to stay in town at Motel Arnold.  It's certainly not a 5 star resort, but it's clean and dry. I was able to dry out my tent from the night before and fix my wheel.

Day 4 (Tuesday) Woburn, Quebec to Lake St. George, Maine
I woke up to the sound of pouring rain. And boy was I glad to be in a nice warm motel. The rain just kept coming and coming, so I waited for it to let up, had some breakfast then decided that I better get going.  The weather got worse before it got better.  I crossed the American border and was the only one in sight, so no line ups. (This is in direct contrast to the trip back where there was a 3 hour wait!)  There were some big hills to start the day off, and my legs were sore from the day before.

I crossed the Appellation Trail and stopped to talk to some hikers. Each of us thought the other was crazy to be doing the trip we were doing. As I travel with an altimeter on my bike, I knew that I had basically been climbing since I left Montreal, and I hit the highest point, just before Sugarloaf. From here on, it was all downhill to the Ocean. Across Highway 16 from Kingsfield to North Anson had some good size hills. Lunch was in Madison for a great homemade burger at a dairy bar. Ohh that was good.

I checked the map and there weren't too many campground marked on the route, so I decided to take the southern route and see if I cold find a campground on Route 3.  No Luck. It turns out that all the campgrounds are marked on the map, and there really aren't that many of them.  I ended up going to Lake St. George State Park.  It was dusk by the time I got into a site. At $20 US a night for a campspot, that is the most I think I've ever paid. I wasn't about to argue, as I had already done over 200km and it was dark.

As I was setting up camp, someone from another campspot came over and offered me some food.  They had seen me come in late and knew it must have been a long day.  After setting up camp, I joined Chuck and his wife for Chili. Thanks Chuck for your hospitality/generosity.  After that, it was a well deserved shower, in one of the most disgusting showers I have ever been in. I would have expected better from a State park, especially at that price.

There was lots of noise at the campground, but at least it's warm and dry.

Day 5 (Wednesday) Lake St. George, Maine to Bar Harbor, Maine
 

To be continued .... expect an update mid april /05

Day 6 (Thursday)  Bar Harbor, Maine to Digby, Nova Scotia

Day 7 (Friday) Digby to Bridgetown, Nova Scotia

Day 7 onward. --- The Atlantic Canada Bicycle Rally