The Century Day

So far, we have taken it pretty easy. We've been biking on average 40 or 50 miles a day, which really isn't too difficult.

But now we were on a mission. St. Anthony bound! What better time than to attempt the "century day," as it is known in biking language? We have been using kilometers, since we are in Canada, but a real century day is 100 miles in one day. This is regularly done by racers and supported tourists (trips where a van follows the bikers to carry all their stuff), but pulling it off with your bike loaded down can be a bit trickier. Now was the time...

There are 160 kilometers in 100 miles, and we were going to attempt to make it from Sally's Cove up to the Ferolle Peninsula. This was at least 170 kilometers, and we figured it would take most of the day, so we got up early, which was a departure from our usual schedule. (Normally we rouse around 8, eat, lounge around, pack, and get started around mid-day, plus or minus (usually plus), a few hours. Leisure...)

We woke up that morning at 6 am to gale force winds. "Wake up ye salty dogs," Dominic called out, "a gale force is blowin' astern and it's gonna fill our sails all the way to St. Anthony!" Fortunately, he was right. Upon exiting our tents, we realized that the wind was indeed blowing favorably.

We had something like a 25 km/hr (15 mph) wind at our backs. Unless you have biked, you do not fully appreciate what this means.

Consider this: On Dominic and Nick's last bike trip, they climbed Independence Pass, an almost 12,000 foot pass that leads into Aspen Colorado. Climbing for hours, the only thing that kept them going was the thought of riding down the other side. Upon reaching the top however, the other side presented the fiercest wind they had encountered. Under normal conditions they would have coasted down the mountain at close to 40 miles an hour. The wind, however, brought them to a dead stop. Literally. They had to pedal in order to move down the hill. This is the power of the wind.

Wind at your back, however, is a joy, not only for efficiency, but for pleasantries. Moving at a good little clip of 18-19 miles an hour (which we maintained for most of the day) would normally make conversation impossible because of the noisy wind, but we were going with the flow. The noise disappeared and we enjoyed each other's company and conversation as we rode.

Unforunately, Nick realized in the morning that his camera and ipod had fallen out of his bags, and had to ride back (all the way to camp, it turns out), looking for it. He rode back, found it, rejoined the crew, and we set on our way to making 100 miles.