Kincardine-Owen Sound-Kincardine

A popular store for cyclists in Bruce County.
Doug and Patty own Bike Face. We are glad they moved their store
from Durham to Owen Sound.
This is just a small amount of the bikes that lines the property line of the
Bike store in Scone.
The bike store in Scone is in an old mill and this waterfall is right
beside it.


Well the time to pack our bikes is getting close and the to-do list is the priority of the day. I personally have not spent more time getting ready for a trip than this one. It is especially difficult because you know that what you take is pretty much all you will have access to for the whole summer.

Mike assembled the box for my bike out of two regular bike boxes. It is 93" long to accommodate the long frame of the recumbent. Both Terri and I are learning how to break down the bike to fit the boxes and trying not to forget how to reverse everything. We will be there to help each other at the other end so that is very comforting. We considered taking a video we could replay once there. We are renting a van to take our bikes and gear to the airport in London (as well as that of a fellow from a nearby town who is going on the same trip). We will arrange for a wheelchair van at the other end in Vancouver to transport us to the University which will be our base until we leave on Saturday, June 28th.

We have been getting a lot of questions about the specifics of the trip and I thought it might be interesting for you to know what some of the challenges will be. Although we will have a truck carry our gear from campsite to campsite, we are restricted in the quantity we take. We are allowed a duffel bag of sorts that contains our tent, sleeping bag, pillow, air mattress(in my case an 4" air bed). In addition, our clothes etc. must all fit into two laundry baskets, like the black ones Knob Hills Farms used to use for their groceries. Whatever we carry on our bikes is added weight for the day so we want to limit that. However, we must have tools, rain gear, our food for the day, water, camera, cell phone, wallet etc. That can certainly add up and we have been training with all of that on our bikes so we get used to having them and so we can find out what we have missed.

Our most recent long training day was Monday, May 25th. We decided to go to Owen Sound and back. Terri and I met at 7:00 am. The trip there was 96km with strong winds the whole way. It was a bit slow but we felt strong. Once in Owen Sound we stopped by Bike Face to say hi to Patty and Doug(see picture). I picked up the visor I had ordered, we had lunch and set off again for home choosing to go home a different way.

Well...that way proved to be longer partly because we were not quite so familiar with the route. It did take longer and we did miss a turn. A farmer came across us looking at the map and asked if we were lost. We weren't really lost, just wanted to know how much gravel there was on the crossroad we wanted to take. He asked where we were headed and we said Kincardine. He said "TONIGHT"?

One stop we made for a break on the way back was a hamlet called Scone(just outside Chesley) We had heard about this neat bike store. Of course, it being a Monday, it was closed but we could not believe the bikes piled up along the property line(that is the picture above). The store is in an old mill and I guess the guy had to find a place for all the "trade-ins". The picture is just a small amount of what is there. It must go on for a hundred feet and it was taller than us.

Anyway, we set off again with his directions, called our husbands to say where we were and declined their invitation for a ride back. We said we could call if we had trouble. Needless to say the sun was setting as we neared Kincardine. Thank goodness for LED lights. I landed home at 9:45 and Terri just about the same time. Yes it was dark. We had ridden 210 km that day. That is longer than the longest day we will be riding this summer. That is provided we don't get lost. It was a good experience though and we learned a lot about food we need, stops we need and the time we can devote to breaks and site-seeing.

Some other facts for interest sake:
72 days on the road
11 rest days
7,644 km total
daily average 132 km
6 days 100km or less
21 days 101km-130km
22 days 131km-160km
9 days over 160 km
-food we will be eating most often: peanut butter
-calories burned each day 6,000 (jealous???)
-we are assigned a crew to cook with, one supper a week and one breakfast for the whole group(Terri and I will likely be on different crews and they are unlikely to put two experienced cooks together)
-thank goodness for prevailing westerly winds
-chance of rain at some point on the road, in the tent or while packing up...pretty good

Are we ready?

We aren't packed yet, but we both feel our training will serve us well. Having the confidence in our riding takes a lot of pressure off. We do know that we will still be challenged each and every day.

The next blog will likely be done just before we set off for the airport. Our rides between now and then will be around the 80 or 90 mark, to keeps our legs strong but not to tire us out. We just wish the wind off Lake Huron would die down for a little while.

Chow for now, thanks for reading and talk to you soon.

Holly
posted May 29, 2009

No flies on us

Terri and I did some good riding this week. We went to Sauble Beach and Durham, both trips about 148 km return. Both were what we would consider great rides. When women get together there is usually shopping involved. In our case it is in bike shops and the trip to Sauble was no exception. We are frequently picking up this and that for our trip. Hard to believe how many little things have to be put in place for this ride.

Our trip to Durham was on roads neither of us had travelled and a 5k section through the Greenock Swamp was on packed gravel. Not our choice for a road bed but it was short so we managed, until we stopped to take a picture. In the picture of me you can see me trying to keep the hundreds of black flies at bay. We stopped in Dunkeld hoping to find the restaurant open for a break but we were 20 minutes early. We ate our peanut butter and jam sandwiches in the parking lot. We will be eating a lot of these on our trip this summer, they are fast, don't spoil and will give us the ready energy we need. Terri has well over 5,000 km under her belt and I have managed to clock roughly 4200. We feel very strong. We were encouraged by how good we felt after our long rides and how good we felt the next day. Soon we will try back to back centuries. This we did last fall on our fundraising ride for Terry Fox so we are confident.

We were famous this week. On a ride last weekend we were stopped by the local on-line paper for a picture for their web site. The local radio station gets some of their feeds from this on line newspaper (Kincardine Times). So, our venture was put on the radio. A few days later the local paper known as the Kincardine News called us for an interview. That should be in the next edition.

Mike and I are off to the Horseshoe Valley area for a week so I should get some good hill training in. That is provided it does not snow, if you can believe there is a possibility it will.

posted by Holly

It's my turn to try and do a posting on our "blog". Some of you know me by Terri and others by Theresa. Another week has gone by with more training behind us. Sure wish the winds would settle down, though. For example, by cycling Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we averaged 80k each day having great rides out of Kincardine but our return rides were very challenging with strong headwinds. With the strong winds we are so consistently having on our rides and the rolling hills over which the country roads twist and turn, we do feel we are getting stronger for the 10 week adventure ahead of us beginning June28th. Nature seems to come to life in the spring with so many beautiful flowers blooming, the grass so green and the leaves budding on the trees. So, do take time to "smell the roses" and enjoy Mother Nature!! Happy cycling!!