Day 38: Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada

Day 38: Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada

July 20, 2016

Miles: 63 (that's over 100km!)
 
Fredericton, NB to Hartland, NB



We got up at 7:30 this morning, packed, and were sitting at Cora's Cafe once more by 8:30.  It was a little cool and the wind was blowing quite a bit, but it was still better to sit outside with the sun shining on us than to sit inside.

Di enjoying Cora's gluten free spinach and cheddar crepe

Before we left Cora's, we ordered four fried egg sandwiches to go because we knew we wouldn't find a restaurant on our ride today.  We finished our meal at Cora's and were on the road by 10am.  The first thing we had to do was cross the St. John river.  This was accomplished by using a very sophisticated and impressive pedestrian and bicycle walkway attached to the highway bridge.

View from the bridge walkway

Di heading up to the bridge

View of walkway from the bridge over the St. John River

It was extremely windy as we crossed the bridge.  Unfortunately for us, it was to get even windier as the day progressed.  The wind would prove to make our ride very difficult, but being the optimists that we are, we initially thought the wind would abate before long.  There was no storm system around that we could see, so really, for how long can a hard wind blow?  Ha-ha, at least all day, it appears.  In retrospect, New Brunswick has been very windy; I don't know if that is typical of this area.  We were warned about the hills (thanks Costi), but we didn't expect the wind.  At least the first part of the ride once we crossed the St. John was on a paved trail surrounded by trees, so the full strength of the wind wasn't felt right away.

Di on the Sentier NB trail protected by copses and groves

One of the many scenic vistas afforded by the Sentier NB Trail

We eventually parted ways with the Sentier NB Trail and jumped onto the road.  That's when the wind's force hit us full bore.  The wind was blowing directly into our faces and would for the entire day.  It made climbing the hills a little bit harder, but what's worse is that it deprived us of a rewarding free-fall on the downside of the hill.  The wind was so strong that we couldn't move down the hill without pedaling.  That's just not fair!

Di climbing up (any visible ridgeline is bad news to bikers)

We encountered no small towns or places to take a break, so we just kept riding.  Finally, after riding for over four hours, we arrived in the town of Millville, which had no place to buy food but at least had a picnic table in the town playground.  It was a 34 mile ride to Millville, so our average speed was a pitiful 8mph!  We still had almost 30 miles to ride to get to Hartland, so it looked like we were going to be spending 8 hours on the bikes.  All I can say to that is, "Ouch!".

Geting ready to eat our egg sandwiches from Cora's

We ate quickly and were back on the bikes after only 30 minutes.  We were already tired and wanted to make sure we had as much daylight as possible for our ride to Hartland.  Again, we rode through no towns that actually appeared to be a town, so we ended up having to ride from Millville to Hartland without a real break. That meant we had only one real break for the entire day of riding, which isn't enough for slackers like us.  The only time we stopped was to take pictures and I felt myself more inclined to take photographs as I got more tired.  But it was beautiful country, so that was our reward for bearing the hills andd wind as well as our reason to stop for a breather and to take another picture.

No shortage of hills around here

Riding alongside beautiful farm land

Riding alongside beautiful farm land

Another hill doesn't dampen Di's indomitable spirit

Evidence of farming

About to descend in a weak gravitational field (I have to pedal down!)

More evidence of farming

We finally arrived in Hartland around 7pm.  The wind was still blowing hard and still blowing in our faces.  We had 2 more miles to go to reach our hotel, the Ja Sa Le Motel, but we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food for dinner.  We knew we weren't going to ride those two miles back into town later in the evening!

Hartland has the world's longest covered bridge (take that, Vermont!)

Di got stung three times on her hand by moose flies (guess which hand)

We loaded the food onto the bikes and rode those remaining two miles to the motel.  I guess it was poetic justice that those last miles had to be uphill.

Does anything get this person down?

Finally arriving at the Ja Sa Le Motel

Close-up of the fields behind the motel

We ended up averaging 8.3 mph for those 63 miles, so we didn't quite spend a full 8 hours on the bikes, but it was pretty close to that.  We ate our dinner in our motel room and then Di looked at our route for tomorrow.  She said we are riding 59 miles and it will be very hilly and windy. Tomorrow I will remind myself that bicycle riding is fun.  Repeatedly.