Montreal, QC to Albany, NY (3 blog posts in one!)

Monday

Day 56 Montreal, QC to Ausable Chasm, NY

Distance 123km
Saddle time 5:10 123km
Avg speed 23.7
Max speed 41.5
Total ascent 451m
Total descent 363m

We had a rough start to the morning, a headwind coupled with some pretty brutal roads made for some slow going to start.  We spent about 3 miles on a gravel road which was difficult and slow riding.  One highlight of the morning was watching Kaitlyn deal with a couple of aggressive unleashed dogs while we were riding. We could see them ahead, playfighting, and thought we might get chased (there were 3 reasonably sized dogs including what looked like a shepherd and 2 other dogs).  Sure enough, as we got closer, they abandoned their play and started chasing us.  Kaitlyn did all the right steps: stopped her bike, dismounted so the bike was between her and the dogs and said in a commanding voice, “No!  Go home!”  The dogs slowed slightly but were overall undeterred.  Then Kaitlyn sprayed them with her water bottle.  They took off for home so quickly!  Excellent work!  On behalf of all road cyclists in the country:  please contain your dogs, both for our sake and for theirs (we didn’t/wouldn’t hurt them, but what is keeping those same dogs from getting hit by a car on the road?).

Our last State sign photo opportunity!

After we crossed the border into New York state, the roads improved quite a lot and the wind seemed less of an issue.  We made much better time and barring a few stops (mmmm….ice cream) we got to camp.  We are a bit away from the lake, which was sort of disappointing, because after riding along it for 20 km, I kind of wanted to go for a swim.  There were some like minded people so we ended up shuttling down to the lake for a glorious swim.  Tomorrow we’ve got some climbing as we head through the Adirondacks!

 Tuesday

Day 57 Ausable Chasm, NY to Whitehall, NY

Distance 132km
Saddle time 6:19
Avg speed 21
Max speed 62.1
Total ascent 1739m
Total descent 1826m

Today had the biggest elevation gain of any day that I have ridden so far on the tour (there was one day in NM where the elevation gain was more, but I was sick that day, and the biggest elevation day was to be in AZ, but the tour was suspended due to heat).  1739m of climbing over the course of the day!  And it was not just little piddly hills, either.  These were big ol’ hills.  Two of the hills in the first 50km were over 15% grade and I lost count of the number of sustained climbs (up to 3-4km) at 10-12%.  It got a bit brutal.  Still, it was a really beautiful day through the Adirondacks and along the shores of Lake Champlain.  What an incredible area.  I had a great time riding with Malori, who is a faster climber, but slower descender than I am, which means we end up together at the tops of hills or the bottoms of valleys!   It was gorgeous and sunny all day, and I spent quite a lot of time on my bike reminiscing about previous climbs: Roger’s pass last summer, Box Canyon, a big climb at the end of a hot day coming into Quartzite, AZ, some mountain passes in Colorado, our big climbing day in Iowa.  I am so grateful to have the physical ability to do a day like today, and although I’m exhausted, overall had a fabulous time!  Looking forward to slightly less climbing tomorrow for my last full day of the tour!!!!

The Adirondacks are nicer to LOOK at then to CYCLE over

 

Wednesday

Day 57 Whitehall, NY to Albany, NY

Distance 125km
Saddle time 5:06
Avg speed 24.2
Max speed 47.2
Total ascent 562m
Total descent 515m
 
Today was bittersweet as it was my last full riding day of the tour.  I was feeling pretty bummed this morning and Katie suggested we start my last full day with a prayer, at which suggestion I burst into tears!  I was just feeling a bit ripped off about having to miss the last few days.  Once we started riding, my mood definitely improved and we had a great meandering day to Albany.  We stopped when we felt like it (breakfast at one restaurant, a nice long break at my mom’s SAG, a chat under the shade of some roadside trees, and ice cream as we got close to camp).  I did get my second flat of the tour today.  I hit a pretty sizable rock on the road, which seemed to knock my stem out of the tire.  It was a pretty immediate flat!  But a quick fix and we were soon on our way again.  It’s looking like (barring any flight difficulties) I will be able to ride on Saturday for at least part of the day, so I’m psyched about that! 

Today, in addition to an actual stone, I also hit a milestone!  Last Sept 1, I set a goal to ride 10,000km before next Sept 1.  I hit 10,000km today!  Woohoo!!!

At 10,000km since Sept 1 of last year!

 

Bievenue a Montreal!!!

Day 54 Cornwall, ON to Montreal, QC
Distance 105km
Saddle time 4:18
Avg speed 24.4
Max speed 40.7
Total ascent 179m
Total descent 226m
 
Kaitlyn, Malori and I took a nice leisurely day today.  Katie wanted to ride by herself, so we just toodled our way to Montreal.   It was a beautiful ride, again along the St. Lawrence. We stopped at a patisserie once we were in QC for some croissants and other goodies and then we continued to our camp.  We are staying the weekend at Kahnawake Survival School in Kahnawake, just outside Montreal.  We were having trouble finding a place big enough around Montreal to host us and the people in Kahnawake stepped up to help us out after hearing that we had also been aided by the Zuni and the Navajo while in New Mexico.  Pretty neat!

Entering La Belle Province!

Cool tunnel shot

Sunday we headed to Montreal for an excellent church service at a Presbyterian church in downtown Montreal.  The building was absolutely beautiful.  Then, 5 of us decided to head down to Boul. Rene Levesque as the Pride parade was happening.  I’ve never been to a Pride parade before, so it was certainly an experience!  We loved the dancing and the drums and the environment in general.  Then, Justin Trudeau came walking down the parade route!  I was so excited, I yelled “Justin!!” at him, which led him over for a photo op!  Most excellent indeed!  After the parade, we headed  to Old Montreal for a much needed lunch (mussels!) and a stroll around Vieux-Montreal.  It was a great break from cycling!  This week I only have 3.5 cycling days, as I will be headed to Ontario on Thursday to stand up for my friend Jenn in her wedding (Friday) before busting it back to NYC to make it for the end of the tour.

Brockville, ON to Cornwall, ON

Day 53 Brockville, ON to Cornwall, ON

Distance 114km

Saddle time 4:14

Avg speed 26.6

Max speed 45.3

Total ascent 348m

Total descent 392m

 

Another beautiful riding day along the St. Lawrence River.  We left Brockville just before 8 and we were already treated to goodies at 10km when one of the riders’ parents set up a stand for us outside their house with boiled eggs, tea and homemade cinnamon buns.  Delicious!  By 47km there was more churches, this time with cookies.  Some of the riders decided to do a time trial from here (a race), but Malori and I wanted to continue our perfect pace, so we just cheered as they zoomed past us.  Part way to Cornwall, there was an option to take a scenic parkway over some islands, so Malori and I decided to head that way and enjoy the scenery while Kaitlyn and Katie (the two members of Blue Rodeo who had raced and therefore were more tired) decided to continue on the regular route.  Otherwise, not too much else to report.  I’m well on track to making my 10,000 (if I ride all the remaining miles until I leave for Jenn’s wedding, I will be at 10,050!!!) and things are going well!  I can’t believe this is almost over, I will be very sad to go!!!

Along the St. Lawrence

Ajax to Trenton to Kingston to Brockville

Tuesday
Day 50 Ajax, ON to Trenton, ON
Distance 137
Saddle time 5:27
Avg speed 25.1
Max speed 46.8
Total ascent 944m
Total descent 944m (!!! THE FIRST DAY ON THE TOUR THE ASCENT AND THE DESCENT ARE EXACTLY EQUAL!!!)

I was really excited to ride today, as we were heading through Oshawa – the town where I grew up/my parents still live.  I didn’t sleep in my own bed Monday night because I had to meet a friend/try on a bridesmaid dress and the logistics were too complicated, so I was back in my cozy tent Monday night (it feels like home by now!).  I got up early and rode to Hope Fellowship with Julia and Shannon before the rest of my regular crew left because I wanted to be able to spend some time at the church with the people there.  What an incredible welcome!  As we rode up, there were signs every 0.5-1km with encouraging messages. Then, each rider was cheered in by a crowd of Hope Fellowshippers with flags, cowbells and other noise makers – it was pretty amazing.  Our delicious snacks were crowned by the ultimate SAG prize – a CANDY BAR!! AMAZING!  More than all those things, it was great to spend 1-1.5 hrs getting to see people from the church I grew up in!  I was blown away by all those who came out to greet us cyclists and encourage us!  It makes an enormous difference.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone (I don’t want to list names in case I forget anyone!), but it was particularly special to see some people from elementary school, high school and a lot of the other people I grew up with.  I had a wonderful time.

A candy bar for the cyclists!  Great idea!!!

 

After a long stop, I headed out with Malori at a perfect pace (we only ride at a perfect pace…) for the rest of the day.  I met the mom of one of my high school friends cheering in Newmarket and had a great visit, then headed off for two more church stops: Grace CRC in Cobourg (yummy  crackers and cheese!) and the CRC in Brighton (where we got oliebolien (!!!!!!!!) and ice cream).  It’s the first day of the tour that I ended with more food than I started with.  Ontario, you did us proud from a hospitality point of view.

Monday night we visited Kaitlyn Kuipers’ family in Brighton.  They were amazing hosts, and we passed a much too short evening of wine, steak and good company before a good night’s sleep (in a bed this time!).  Absolutely amazing day!

Wednesday

Day 51 Trenton, ON to Kingston, ON

Distance 128km
Saddle time 5:03
Avg speed 24.5
Max speed 48.6
Total ascent 612m
Total descent 628m
 
After a great breakfast of bacon and eggs at the Kuipers, we headed back to Trenton to start cycling for the day.  I was not feeling so hot overall, my legs are still pretty burned (even after trying a few Epsom salt baths, Aud, which I think helped, so thanks for the suggestion) and I just feel a bit fatigued overall.  I’m still loving it, it’s just a bit hard on the body!!

We had a great, leisurely ride through a gorgeous area today.  We had a few stops (a church stop and then we took a detour to Lake on the Mountain, a cool geologic feature where Kaitlyn met a friend of hers) but had a great day and good company.  I can’t really think of anything else exciting that happened during the ride.

Ferry ride!

Once in Trenton, we set up camp and then were treated to an amazing array of desserts by two local churches!  Delicious again!  We had a great time of worship and sharing with some local church members and then I was able to catch a sweet sunset over Lake Ontario while stretching.  Not too shabby!

 Thursday

Day 52 Kingston, ON to Brockville, ON

Distance 96
Saddle time 4:05
Avg speed 23.5
Max speed 45.7
Total ascent 554m
Total descent 559m

Nice short day between Kingston and Brockville today.  The route was absolutely gorgeous, winding along the St. Lawrence river and through the 1000 Islands.  I rode with my dad at a nice leisurely pace.  A number of people had stopped at Ivy Lea to take a boat cruise (we decided not to) and somehow everybody’s helmets ended up linked together on the picnic table after they got on the boat.  I can’t think how that could have came to be!

A helmet mystery....

 

By Ivy Lea there was a beautiful and well paved pathway along the road, so we had a lot of fun, zooming along with an excellent tailwind.  Wherever there was a driveway, there was a roller in the path, so we had fun bouncing over those.  After one particularly excellent one (at the bottom of a hill), my dad said, “That was so fun, let’s go up and do it again….”  I thought he was joking until I saw him riding back up the hill in my rearview mirror to hit it again!

Otherwise a pretty uneventful day for us.  Got to Brockville, went for lunch with my parents and some other riders and now getting some pics uploaded onto facebook!

Travelling through the Tdot

Day 49 Ancaster, ON to Ajax, ON
Distance 130km
Saddle time 5:15
Average speed 24.1km
Max speed 50ish
Elevation screwed up re: I forgot to turn my computer off when I got in my friend’s car and it recorded our whole car trip.

We had a great ride from Ancaster to Ajax today.  It was great to get to ride through some familiar areas, in a different way (ie. On a bike).  We did have lots of stops today (good ones, mostly, but some not so good).

1.       We were riding down the escarpment and I started to recognize some of the terrain, so we stopped by the West Park house (where I lived in my last year of university) to take a picture)

Great times in this house!!!

2.       Fortinos in Hamilton for one of the girls to pick something up
3.       SAG #1, which was parked at Joe Brant hospital, where Sarah Cross works as a midwife (she wasn’t there, but I was excited to see her workplace!)
4.       RBC for someone to get money which led to
5.       Lulu Lemon which led to
6.       Timothy’s coffee which led to
7.       Croissant bakery (OMG, best chocolate croissant of all time).
8.       Bike shop to order a new derailleur hanger (mine has been bent twice now and as they are hard to obtain, I would like to have a new one in case it doesn’t tolerate any more bending).
9.       Then we had to stop because of an unfortunate incident involving one of our cyclists as our group, perhaps not entirely obeying the law, rolled through a red light at a T intersection, only to almost hit a pedestrian, resulting in the need for us to slam on our brakes and one of us to tip over onto the pavement (not me this time).  She and her bike were fine, but there was a need for the application of a few bandages.
10.   Then we stopped on the Waterfront pathway to help an elderly gentleman with a walker who had fallen
11.   Then we stopped at Katie’s mother who was on the waterfront pathway with ice cream cones.

After ALL our stops, we made it to camp, where I was met by my friend Jenn for a lovely visit.  Phew…

A Weally Wonderful Weekend

This blog post title is proof I am spending too much time with my dad!

Also, if you are very observant, you will see that the numbers on my days are screwed up, so today I decided to fix it and I'm not going back to correct the old ones and who really cares what day it is, anyway?

Day 48 Breslau, ON to Ancaster, ON
Distance 72km
Saddle time 2:33
Avg speed 28.1
Max speed 46.8
Total ascent 408m
Total descent 494m
 

Perfect day for a ride!

A great, short ride from Breslau to Ancaster.   Today was punctuated by getting to see some people I haven’t seen in a while!  First of all, Alexa joined us again for 2 days of riding (she rode LA to Colorado Springs with us and we are thrilled to have her back).  Then, my cousin Alida was waiting on the route for us with a sign (she rode the 2005 tour, and it was great to see her!).  Then, Matthew Campbell (coordinator of Ride 2012, which I rode, and Ride 2014) joined up with us for the day (well, not with ME – he’s crazy fast, but with the tour) and then at Redeemer my other cousin Micah was here to greet us.   Plus a nice fast sunny day through beautiful Ontario = one happy Ava.  Headed to the Tdot now to see some other great friends for Jenn Engelage’s Bachelorette!

A cheering section!!

 

Day 49 Sunday

I don’t normally write a journal entry/blog post for Sundays/weekends but today was so great, I feel it warrants a post.  I have the privilege of standing up for one of my best friends for her wedding this summer (Jenn Engelage) and last night was her Bachelorette party.  It was planned by the other bridesmaids, as I’ve been a wee bit absent this summer, and it was a BLAST.  We met at a condo in Toronto, had a delicious dinner (each cooking our own stir fries over individual flames) and then headed out on t town.  Definitely good times.  This morning, I got to visit one of my other best friends, Kat Upshall, in Toronto on my way back to Ancaster and then a third best friend, Sarah Cross, met me for some QT and to come to the celebration service.  Super special! 

 

The celebration service was amazing!  The auditorium was PACKED!!! and the worship/speakers were amazing.  We walked into the auditorium to everyone clapping for us –it was pretty impressive.  As we walked in, three rows into the auditorium, I saw my Uncle Warner and Aunt Betsy, who I haven’t seen in a few years!  I was so excited I gave my Uncle Warner a big hug.  He didn’t recognize me, and apparently after I gave him this big hug and then kept walking he turned to my Aunt and was like, “who was that?”  Guess I should probably try to hit the Buesink family gatherings more often!!  There were lots of people to visit with: my grandma and Aunt Bea were there, cousins Micah and Alida, several church members from Hope Fellowship and my Aunt Lillian.  I got to see some of the Burwell gang (Henry and Marg Kooy and John and Catherine Byl).  It was really awesome.  Then Sarah and I got to have a nice dinner and visit and we’re back on the road tomorrow!  Whirlwind weekend, but so amazing!!!

Full house for the celebration service!

Relatives and Road Cycling = perfect combo!

Day 44 London, ON to Breslau, ON
Distance 130km
Saddle time 6:00
Avg speed 21.6
Max speed 46.1
Total ascent  804m
Total descent 736

My dad and I left camp today and only rode about the first 3km of the route before taking a Southward turn to Ingersoll to visit my Uncle Norm, Aunt Mel, and my cousins Ryan, Jennie, Ang and Jason.  Ryan was working at the fire hall, so the rest of the clan (including Ryan and Jennie’s three kids!) met us in the parking lot with Tim Horton’s.  We had an excellent visit for about an hour before Ryan got a call and we decided to head out.  We headed north and hooked back up with the Sea  to Sea route quite a bit behind most of the riders (all the SAGs were already packed up, which we were counting on).  We stopped in Bright, ON for ice cream (at the post office of all places, but Bright is not a really big town and I think the post office might be the only store).  As we headed on, we ran into Kaitlyn, Katie and Malori, who were a bit behind the main group as well as one of them had a phone interview that morning.  My dad and I continued with the 2 of us, and had a great, leisurely ride through beautiful Southern Ontario farmland.  I know I’ve said it before, but it sure is great to be home.  After riding through much of the States (which is beautiful), I still would have to argue that Canada is the best!

Visiting at the fire hall!

 

When we got to camp, I had a little joke for my parents.  They hate getting into camp and then finding that someone has set his or her tent to close to theirs, so while they were both in the shower, I got some willing co-conspirators to set up their tents VERY close to my parents’ tent.  The look on their faces when they got back and could hardly get into the doors of their tent was priceless!  Definitely worth moving all those tents!