one would of thought that after the paintball debacle, i would have learnt that organizing trips right in the middle of exams is risky business. one would be wrong. in the end, only dave and myself where willing to sacrifice our academics to get sore behinds.
we left sunday morning from way out in beaconsfield. the air was brisk, the skies clear and our legs fresh (i hadn't touched my bike since october). we took quiet boulevards up to ile bizard, then crossed to laval on a quaint ferry (we were the only passengers!). cycled past some expensive properties at the west end of laval and finally crossed a damn bridge to the north shore. we cycled west through oka, alternating between the secondary highway and the bike paths. the marshes were soggy, lac de deux montagnes was still a bit slushy and the birds were noisy :)
we marvelled at the intense competition between tobacco vendors in the indian reserve and scared the canada geese every chance we got. we passed the massive carillion damn and eventually crossed the ottawa river at hawksbury. there was a biker convention brewing in hawkesbury and unfortunately it was the kind with leather jackets and tatoos so we left quickly and plunged deep into rural ontario.
we were looking for food. dairy queen was yummy but didn't fill us up. it was easter sunday so many places were closed. we finally got to a grocery market but it was closed (technically the door was open but the dude inside wouldn't let us buy anything!). so we headed to the next grocery market 15 km down the road. then we got to the train crossing and the damn train was going sooo slow! traffic built up in both directions. when the train literally stopped in its tracks, many drivers lost patience and turned around. dave and i just stood around and poked the train until it kept moving.
we finally made it to the grocery store, bought some yummies and were on our way. by now it was hot and we were sunburnt. we zipped along under the late afternoon sun until we got to a pretty little meandering river and decided to pitch our tent along its shores. we asked the elderly couple if we could camp on their property and they were happy to oblidge. so we walked our bicycles down to the shore, passing under an EVIL THORN TREE. at the time we naively thought it was "just a really big thorn tree". in any case, we pitched the tent, had some munchies and slept soundly, despite all the canada geese.
on monday we hit the road and went 10 meters before dave realized he had a flat. i instinctively checked my back tire and sure enough, i had a flat too! we were sitting there on the road changing inner tubes when the kindly old lady who owned the property walked by with some friends. we assured her that everything was a-ok...when she came back from her walk 2 hours later we again assured her that everything was a-ok. eventually she drove by with a pick-up and gave us a lift to a neighbor who had a compressor (my hand pump had crapped out). after ascertaining that the EVIL THORN TREE had puctured dave's *spare* inner tube, we tried our hand at patching the tubes. this didn't work too well...we eventually got desperate and used one of my smaller tubes and managed to get some air in his tire. oh yeah, the compressor couldn't get up to 50 psi so we had to use a hand pump in the end anyways!
we finally got back on the road and cycled 20km in the cold rain before stopping for breakfast at a casse-croute. coming out of the casse-croute, i pointed out that to balance the trip karma, we would have to get assailed by the swedish bikini team. unfortunately, for us (and the swedish bikini babes ;), my arrogance didn't go unoticed. the EVIL THORN TREE must have sent some evil minions after us... a few km east of rigaud, dave's back tire went flat again. at this point we had used all our spare tubes, most of our patches and my pump wasn't working properly. close inspection of the tube showed no less than 4 new punctures which wasn't too surprising because the inside of his tire was soaked and full of sand. luckily i have family is those parts so 1 hr later we were high and dry at my sister's place and we spent the rest of the day playing grand turismo 3 with my brother in law. all's well that ends well!
trip stats:
distance biked: 150km
average speed: 20km/hr
max speed: 55km/hr
#1 finishes in gt3: over 20 (yeah baby!)
ciao for now!
nick