I got up early and on the road by 7 am to ride the North Mountain on Cape Breton. It was cloudy but the forecast didn’t look bad. I had arranged for Des to pick me up at the top to ferry me down the other side which was really steep and partially under construction.
I started out with dry roads, then a light mist after three miles, which soon turned into a heavier mist and by the time I got close to the top, a heavy rain. I was soaked from the inside from sweat and doubly soaked from the outside from the rain. It was a cool 60 degree rain so when I got in the heavy rain, I finally put on my rain jacket to hold in what heat I had. As it turned out, I rode faster than I tho’t I could to the top and had a half hour wait for Des. In the meantime, I weighed my options; go on and risk hypothermia or go back to camp. By the time Des showed up, the top was socked in, I was cold, and my common sense said to abort the ride, which is what I did.
So I came back with Des, got hot choc and crawled into my bed to get warm. I am happy that I rode the mountain but don’t need to prove anything and I really don’t like riding in the rain. I just wanted to climb that hill. It was 13% for two miles of it so I felt really good about myself.
By noon, it had cleared enough that the sun could poke through. Then I felt bad for not riding on. Michael, Dave, and Karen decided to ride to our next destination starting around 11 o’clock. since Sat was predicted to be heavy rain all day. No one likes to ride in the rain so Des decided to take everyone’s bike ahead to the next destination and then bring the other three riders back. So I hitched a ride part way in the van and rode almost to the end. They stashed all the bikes at our next accommodation and returned and picked me and my bike up on the way back. We have a bike rack on the van so tomorrow we can ferry all the riders and our gear as well as my bike. At least I got some riding in. Missed a good section but that’s life.
While we were waiting out the morning rain, Dec and Janice taught Kendy and me a card game. According to Janice, us Americans are pretty competitive. We sure laughed a lot. Played again after dinner last night.
Serious Janice checking the score.
Kendy made tacos last night for dinner. We have two small barbecue grills so cooking can be a challenge but everything has been really good.
No one has gone hungry.
20.4 miles today. 3684.5 total
BikerAl Across America 2018 