Distance: 80km
Cycling Time: 4 hrs 4 min
Average Speed: 20km/hr
Terrain: Best yet! A few long, gradual hills and then the longest downhill of the trip yet - 5km or so right into the campground!
Weather: Sunny and hot!
Mechanicals: 0 (we are on a good streak right now...)
We were ecstatic to swap our rain pants and jackets for shorts and short-sleeved shirts today! The sun was shining and the temperature was hot - almost enough for us to forget about the soggy day yesterday... almost. We loaded up on breakfast at the hotel, and luckily had the same waitress as last night so we didn't have to explain our excessive eating - juice, tea, fruit, yogurt, toast, hashbrowns and a 3-egg omelet, all nicely topped off with a round of toutons with syrup and molasses (I have to get my fill while we are here!); this seems to be slightly more than the typical breakfast fare for the Mount Peyton Hotel guests...
After stocking up on some groceries in town we headed out for Day 8, feeling quite thankful for the warm sun at our side. The going was pretty good today, with a few hills to warm up our legs and then rolling, rolling the rest of the way. The terrain the past few days has been similar - boggy marshes lined with wind-toughened coniferous trees and infusions of wildflowers all along the road. I haven't mentioned the flowers yet, but they have been consistent throughout the trip so far - wildflowers of all colors, white, yellow, orange and purple. Beautiful!
I have been very excited to see a moose, or perhaps even a caribou on the trip, but so far they have been hiding from us. Sean keeps saying that the further west we get, the more likely we will to see some, so I sure hope this is the case! Today we had to be content with the fresh tracks we spotted across the highway - black bear tracks! The bear had come out of the woods, down through the muddy ditch and right across the newly paved black asphalt, leaving a clear trail for us to see. Sean commented how the tracks closely resemble a human footprint. We both said that it was too bad we hadn't rolled through there a bit earlier, as we might have actually seen the beast! (Maybe we shouldn't have ordered the extra toutons...) Unlike the Rockies, it is very rare to see bears on the Island - I suppose with so much land for them to roam they don't have much reason to interact with humans - a very good thing.
We have both found our legs to be holding up quite well so far, our "training regime" of riding back and forth to work for the two months before the trip seemed to be good enough prep! Legs aside, Sean is still suffering from the ailments of sitting on a hard, small bike seat for so many hours per day. We met a couple at the visitor center in Gander and they suggested we buy a padded toilet seat cover and strap it onto his saddle! At that point we just laughed at the idea but now I am starting to consider it for him....if we do get to this point, I will be sure to post some pictures of his "custom bike seat" for your viewing pleasure.
We rolled into the Kona Beach Campground at the civilized hour of 4pm and were greeted with a fantastic surprise! As we turned off the highway into the campground I noticed a woman standing by the entrance waving at someone; I looked behind me assuming she was waving at someone else, but then realizing we were the only ones there I thought she was shouting words of encouragement at "those crazy cyclists!" As we got closer I realized it was Suzanne, Sean's sister! Suzanne and Sean's parents, Bernetta and Kevin, had driven out from Corner Brook to surprise us on our second last night of the trip! Seeing them was surprise enough but then we found they had brought a fully-stocked cooler of fruit, cheeses, sandwiches, Bernetta's specialty - homemade cinnamon rolls and COLD beer. What a welcomed feast! It was great to catch up with them and soak in the hot sun at our campsite right beside the lake. What a life!
Ironically enough the campsite next to us was occupied by three other cycle-tourists, Chris, Mike and Ian from California and Massachusetts who are cycling from St. John's to St. John, New Brunswick. We had crossed paths with them at the Bellevue Beach campground previously, but this time we shared a campfire and enjoyed swapping stories about the previous cycle tours they had done and our experience so far on the island. This made me feel as if we were really traveling as one of the aspects of traveling I love the most is the interesting people met and the stories shared.
To another great day on the road...
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