Awe & Wonder

Day 83. Fredericton to St John. 90 miles. 5153 Mi TTD. 5300 FT elevation. Weather Pleasant with a cold morning.

I left Fredericton before the sun came up. I’d even been to Tim Hortons before it was light. The town had a nice paved trail as I left, and of course, it was near water, the St John River. As has been the case often on this trip, I was in complete awe and wonder of the world around me. It is an incredible place, and I feel profoundly fortunate to be in it and experiencing so much of it on a bicycle.

On a bicycle, I see it at a pace that allows me to appreciate it. On a bicycle, I smell, hear, and feel everything around me. It’s incredible. Of course, an hour later, I’m swearing as the trail briefly turns to rocky crap and I have to find an alternate route. Yet, I’m still in awe.

My original plan was to stay in Fredericton while my bike was repaired. The bike shop was so quick with repairs (I wish they had taken longer – see below) that I decided to head to St John. These were my last miles in New Brunswick. The paved path in town and then a nice dirt path eventually ended, and I was on the shoulder of back roads. Despite the distance and the significant elevation changes, I still have to conclude that New Brunswick is a tie for first with Quebec in terms of being a wonderful place to bike.

Once again I was impressed that Canada has all the water. We really should be better neighbors and maybe even adopt the metric system so that we don’t look like idiots to the rest of the world.

I had to use three different ferries to get to my destination. In each case, they were river crossings. Typically, I would pull up just as the ferry was leaving. Thankfully, the crossings were relatively short, and so the delay was minimal and generally appreciated. Even without the water, New Brunswick is beautiful, but when the water is stretching between the green, rolling hills with exposed rocky cliffs, it is incredibly beautiful.

Of course, water seeks the lowest level, and so every time I came down to a ferry, I typically had to go up from the ferry. The elevation changes today were in line with a British Columbia day, but it was still beautiful and brought me to the seaside city of St John. Which is not to be confused with St John’s in Newfoundland.

A 90 Mi day is always a significant undertaking. Unfortunately my friends at the oldest bike shop in Canada don’t know how to seat a new tire. I had to take time repeatedly today to pump up my tire and eventually I added more stands sealant to it. Any sort of delay on a long day is annoying but one that could have been avoided with a little better care at the bike shop was especially frustrating. Regardless I have a new tire.

As you learned in my previous blog, I finally figured out how to avoid pushing my bike up flights of stairs in the back halls of hotels. Perhaps shockingly, I still haven’t figured out how to reserve motels. It should be obvious to me by now that Hillside or Hilltop Motels are not my best choice. Yet, here I am once again at the Hillside Motel. I’m literally up above St John.

However, pedaling through and above, Saint John allowed me a chance to see the incredible tides in the Bay of Fundy and the very busy harbor. If you look closely at the picture, you’ll see the black line along the harbor. That’s about 30 ft of rock exposed by this evenings tide, and the tide changes as much as 64 ft if my memory is correct. It looks like I probably could have gotten here on a cruise ship, but I still am enjoying the bike ride.

Saturday, I will take a ferry from St John New Brunswick to Digby Nova Scotia, where I will begin my trek across Nova Scotia from west to east.