Road kill

I have to say that I never seen this many dead porcupines before. I think I have seen 50 today at least

, which makes me wonder how many live ones there must be in NS.

So going back a couple days, I did spend a day in Charlottetown where I walked around, saw a parade, ate a yummy breakfast, caught a little of the blues n jazz festival and went on a ghastly tour of downtown. It was quite entertaining. The guide was dressed in period costume and knew his history really well.

Yesterday I woke up early and peddled 62 km to the ferry where I just made it in time. Another minute and the ferry would have left without me. Once I got to NS the sun came out and it really got hot in a hurry. 20 km down the road I hid out at a restaurant/information centre. It was another 65 km to Truro with nothing really in between except what they called a mountain. Dreading leaving I decided to do it and left at 4 pm. I actually did really good time and arrived in Truro at 7:15 where I promptly found a pub n some grub and a beer. I also met a really nice fellow named Ashley and his fiancee also named Ashley.

At 2 ish I found a park and had a sleep till 5 ish. Where I got up and started the last stretch to Halifax of 100km.

Oh I saw a really cool highway it was red. I have never seen red pavement before.  I also saw 3 black hens wandering around Bible Hill first time for that too. Another first was in Cornwall PEI where I saw a tractor in a drive-thru.

And today I was at the half way point between the north pole and the equator.

Location : 4-8 Beech St, Elmsdale, NS B2S 1H2,

PEI Cavendish Beach

So while I was waiting for the shuttle I was swarmed by these really small flies that bit, and by swarms I mean they were all over me. I immediately thought of the song "Little Black Fly" which goes like this... It was early in the spring when I decided to go work up in the woods in North Ontario, the unemployment office they aente to the little apatity and the survey crew, and the black flies always a black fly no matter where to go, I will die with the black flies picking my bones in north Ontario.

So I digress. I met a fellow cyclist as we boarded the shuttle who had similar bike plans as me so we hooked up for a day of cycling. The island boasts a bike trail also from an old railway line so the first 40 km wasn't so bad. Alas the last. 20 km I drank 3 litres of water in the 33 degree Sun going up and down these blasted hills. If the goal wasn't to go enjoy the beach in the afternoon I would have hid out and biked in the cooler evening.

We did a fairly quick tour of the GreenGables property and then headed for the beach. It's what they called white sand but had lots of larger red rocks in it. The water was warm but wavy and murky. So walking in the water was challenging as these rocks kept on getting in the way and hurting my feet. So far Parlee beach still rocks but I was surprised that this was also a warm water beach.

I guess there is a beach called Singing Sand as the white sand squeaks as you walk on it some place in northern PEI.

It was a good thing I didn't wait till evening as they had some small rain storms come through. I would not have enjoyed the bech. 

We heard great music coming from.the.way back so started heading back. Unfortunately we lost where the music was coming from and it became dark.  We ended up sleeping on a nice gentlemans lawn.

We biked back to Hunter River where I had the most amazing cinnamon buns. It was here where Ashley headed off as she was much faster than I was and I was slowing her down. Being 20 something and a toothpick probably helped some plus she had biked completely across Canada from Victoria at this time.

So I peddled up one hill to go go down and up another. I took photo's to illustrate. Eventually I made it to Victoria By The Sea and then to Argyll Beach. It was nit as nice as I was expecting with almost not beach and what was there was all rocks. And it was very windy, but it was scenic.  It was here as I was packing up that Ashley pulled up. Heading on I new she would catch up to me.

So PEI has a variety of towns such as Toronto, Kingston, Cornwall etc. That are common to Ontario.

I was surprised how hilly PEI is, isome how thought it would be flat but it is anything but.  Now each hill is not that long compared to a mountain pass, but they do wear me out.

Charlottetown is a nice city the downtown is quite dynamic and full of life. I had difficulties finding accommodation as there are 2 big events on this week. One being the jazz festival.

I dud bump unto Ashley twice more in Charlottetown and we were to meet for beers at the brew pub but we never did. As soon as I left my room it started to rain and didn't let up till morning. I couldnt complain as this was the first real rain they had all summerit just sucks it happened on my trip.

I tried out the brew pub and enjoyed their meals and beach chair beer.

Oh! I had the most aggressive chipmunk ever. He kept on checking out my bike and trying to eat my cookies.

You can see by the laundry photo how windy it was along the south coast. And I waw the most amusing truck, it had a giant potato on the back.

Something I have never seen anywheres else was a tractor going through a drive-thru.

Location : 204 Hillsborough St, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4X1,

Life's a beach (or 3)

So the ride from Moncton to PEI bridge wasn't to bad although the heat and me don't get along. I should have started out earlier. I stopped in at Shediac and got a picture with the lobster. And then I went to possibly the best beach in Canada.

Parlee beach is an ocean beach where the water was 23 C, the water clear, small waves a great sandy beach with no rocks. Whe wind was calm and the life guard told me that weather rarely hits the beach due to its location.

It is better than beaches in South Carolina even which is saying something!

As I was getting close to the Confederation Bridge I stopped for a pop at this shack along the very rural highway and I was stund at the # of people who stopped there for bite to eat. It was a steady stream of people and they all knew each other. It was really novel to listen to them talk about going out mackerel fishing.

I did get a couple of pics showing the length of the brdige.  At the info centre on the NB side you call and get a shuttle over. The bridge looks fine for biking so I don't know why no biking.

The bridge is an amazing marvel of engineering, to think a 17 km long bridge through an ocean channel where massive iceflows are a problem.

This area is very proudly Acadian as you can see from.the power posts and flags. The day after I cane through was Acadian day which would have been fun to see.

And as the sun was setting my feet touched down in our only island province.

St. John NB to Hartwell Rocks.

St John feels like a fishing town and the tide here is a amazing. So they call it the reversing falls, but in reality its a reversing flow of water. Can you imagine a large river of water having its flow stopped and reversed such that it actually flows in reverse? That's what happens here. It's an amazing show of the power of tides.there some rapids and whirlpools that show.

Oh I didn't get a chance to go to it but there is a whirlpool near St. Johns. I also didn't walk in any caves here either which I wanted to, I must have missed the turn.

But the road to Hopewell is pretty with a few stretches along the coast. There is a beautiful park call Fundy Park that you could spend a lot if time in exploring. I alas passed through them.

I did try a lobster roll which wasn't that fantastic and clam chowder that was also mediocre.

At Hartwell Rocks it was amazing... Yes I am using that word a lot. You can walk along the beach and walk through and around these massive rock out croppings.  And the tide here is huge. On average its a 12m vertical change and it can be upto a 16m change. The tide will rise by upto 2-6m an hour! When most tide changes around the world are measured in a couple of feet that makes this truly cool.

Also very common along here is covered bridges.

In Moncton I found a cool brewery pub called the PumpHouse which is worth checking out for the beer and the food. Plus it has the coolest draught dispenser, 2 fire hydrants!



Location : 330-344 Noel St, Moncton, NB E1C 4G9,

Freddy town (Fredericton)

It was mostly overcast and a bit foggy when I arrives here. I wasn't in town long but I did bike a bit of downtown and the river.  Downtown is quaint and lots of history. Alas I had to skip.the history. I did visit the lighthouse and the world's largest pin hole camera. At least I suspect it is the largest as I could walk in it. 

Oh in Woodstock I had deep fried pepperoni which seems to be a maritime delicacy.

Location : 330-344 Noel St, Moncton, NB E1C 4G9,

Over the hill

So the day from Edmundston to Grand Falls was wet, cold.and miserable. It is the worst day thus trip. I even quit early at 4 found a warm supper then camped and slept till.morning. I was so cold, wet and miserable. I wanted to give up.

It was a mildly hilly day with a moderate criss wind. Just enough to notice and throw rain at me. I barely did 75 km.

The next day was overcast and threatening but didn't rain. It was a very hilly day and a very strong head wind that fisted to 60 on occasion. But I did make it to Heartland. The bridge here is very cool and crazy long. It's a good hike to get across. I stayed at the only BnB in town and ate at the only restaurant. The restaurant had amazing meals all homemade so not you McDs fare. But the price was quite reasonable. I had a squash bisque that came with a prostito bread. The lobster club had a home made pomergranite dressing on the salad. I finished the meal off with a maple bread pudding that was also yummy.

Oh when I went through Grand Falls they had the falls turned off! How rude!

Location : 79-109 Waverley Ave, Moncton, NB E1C 7T8,

C'est pleut! (It is raining)

The trip from Rivière Du Loup to Edmunston was a mix of cloud and Sun. The day was gorgeous as it wasn't to hot.  There is an old railway that runs to Edmunston which has been converted into a gorgeous trail. The first half is all up hill at a gentle incline of 2%. The second half is all downhill at 2% and the 3rd half is generally flat.  It must be the gravel trail that slowed me down as those km seemed rather long. It took me the day of biking to make it to the little town on the North side of Edmunston called St. Jacque.

I did meet some nice people on the trail. One gent from Germany was biking the trans-canada trail. And another couple strangely enough from Cochrane who now live by Quebec City were doing a small excursion down to Edmunston. It is sadly funny that they left Cochrane for the same driving reason that I have. They were hounded by bi-law enforcement over the stupidest of things.  I have the same issues myself.

But back to the trail. It winds along through the forest through and by many small towns. It also hugged a very long  big beautiful lake.  There are many places to stop and rest as well as tent. I was surprised that there were way-stations that you could stop at and eat.

So this must be a very very popular trail.

I was happy to finally reach NB and did a little dance at to border. The town of St. Jacque has a nice provincial camp ground next to a beautiful botanical garden. It was late so I just peeked at the garden.  The town was funny. There was a Tim Hortons, a small convenience grocery store, a couple of lunch type restaurants, a single pub and a sex shoppe. Yes of all things. And there wasn't even a liquor store.

So I stopped in at the pub and met many many nice people and pushed my donations to over $240.

Location : 382-392 Connell St, Woodstock, NB E7M 5G5,