O' Canada

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It felt good leaving Bar Harbor riding through this exciting village. I had a lot of great fun here with the people and the places I visited. It also felt good to surpass 3000 miles as I left Mount Desert Island and turned eastward to Canada; so close I could taste it. Today was cool and cloudy and the wind was at my back to push me along 80 miles into Machias. The hills continued but I powered through them getting used to this new coastal landscape. This part of Maine called ‘Down East Maine’ was very rural and became increasingly desolate with forest and strange tundra like meadows which I think were blueberry fields.

I started my ride today with an easy stroll through Machias where a raging waterfall crashed through the center of the town but the town was quiet and I continued on after breakfast. I took a lonely detour along the coastline to Lubec. This was the most desolate, lonely stretch of road on the whole trip. I peddled through thick forest and along the cool North Atlantic Ocean. I passed only a few lonely houses and cottages for over 30 miles untill I rode into the Lubec area. I rode out onto Quoddy Head, the eastern most point in the U.S. and caught my first glimpse of Canada across the water to Grand Manan Island. I stopped to rest at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse to look at the water and the land of both the U.S. and Canada. Soon the clouds rolled in and the cold urged me to find a place to warm up. In the easternmost town of Lubec, I rode up and down the big hill in town looking for a motel and a place to eat. I also rode passed the bridge crossing into Canada however this crossing only went to a Canadian Island and not the mainland; I would cross further north in Calais. I did not find anything of interest in Lubec so I settled into a Motel and a spaghetti dinner on the western edge of town as the rain started to sprinkle down.

The next day was quite dreary; cold and cloudy and windy. I had to ride back west and around the Cobscook Bay through more desolate forested countryside and north again into Calais. As I rode along the same US highway 1 that I started my long journey on way down in Key West now along the St. Croix River and the Canadian Border, the sun broke through the clouds in a few spots revealing beautiful waterfront Canadian villages and beautiful forested hills on the opposite side of the river. I was filled with joy and excitement to have made it to my goal as I rode into the U.S. border town of Calais. I stopped at the visitor center to figure out what to do next. I looked for info on lodging on both sides of the border and stared out across the river into St. Stephen, New Brunswick at a sunny warm riverside park with red maple leaf flags flowing in the breeze. It looked like a welcoming paradise to me and it did not take long to decide on spending the night across the border. I stopped on the US side of the bridge crossing and observed the cars and pedestrians crossing in and out of the country. This was finally it. I had been waiting almost two and a half months to get here; to reach my goal. My adventure would continue on in a new country and every day spent in Canada would be sweet. I brought up the question to keep going; the possibility to continue longer through more Canadian Territories or to start a new adventure somewhere else. I pondered for a short while and finally crossed the bridge into Canada. I had to stop at crossing station to show my credentials and answer a few questions for the customs agents then I was in, free to roam in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Canada! My first stop would be the visitors center for info on motels in the area. Then it was to the bank to cash out some Canadian Money. This did not work out so well when my ATM card was taken by the machine and I was left with no cash and a receipt that required me to return to the bank in the morning to recover my card. Great, now I’m in a different country without any money. I figured I should check into the nearest cheap motel so I could get my card in the morning. Later I watched the cashier at a Tim Horton’s fumble around with trying to give me Canadian Change from my US dollar payment; a very disappointing evening for my first night in Canada.

It did not take long to get my card back from the bank; I guess you really have to pay attention to which card is accepted at each bank. After going to another bank, I quickly cashed out a handful of Loonies and I was on my way to Saint John. The road was long and hillier than anywhere else I had been through and the weather was cold and windy; by far the most difficult day of riding on the whole trip. I finally reached the edge of Saint John as the rain began to poor down and I checked into the first decent motel I could find soaking wet and chilled to the bone. I spent that night drying off and warming up. I also shaved off two and a half months of scratchy beard growth and it felt good.

Since I had a long day of riding the day before, I was able to spend the whole next day exploring the city of Saint John and observing the huge tidal changes. Saint John is the port city with the largest tidal changes in the world; 24 feet between high and low tides. Truly amazing. Today was cold and rainy again and the city was covered in dense fog all day. I spent a little while riding through the quiet neighborhoods of eastern Saint John and stopped to see the reversing falls at low tide. This is when the flow of the St. John River normally flows down river into the Bay of Fundy over a ledge between a narrow opening creating swirling white water rapids. Later, I spent the majority of the day inside the bars and shops around down town Saint John. It is a beautiful old city with a compact urban city center. The old buildings are built edge to edge with a completely different front façade from one building to the next creating quite an interesting look. I visited a great city park, King Square, on top of a hill at the end of one of the major streets then ventured through shops and indoor fresh markets along a six block long pedestrian corridor connected by skywalks or underground tunnels without leaving the warmth and safety of the indoors. What a great way to get around when the weather is as foul as it probably usually is in this part of the world. While looking for another place to stay for the night, I stopped back by the Reversing Falls at high tide when the Bay of Fundy fills back up and pushes ocean water back through the narrow opening of the mouth of the St. John River creating another white water rapid, this time going up stream, the reverse direction than normal. The Falls really do reverse and it is quite an amazing sight to see.

The weather in the morning was cold and drizzly and the dense fog continued to shroud the city. I quickly rode down to the ferry terminal to get out of the rain and waited to board the huge ferry that would take me across the Bay of Fundy to Digby, Nova Scotia. It was a long three hour ride through a view of nothing but fog; I watched a movie for my entertainment. When the Clouds and fog finally broke, we were near land and it did not take long from there to dock at the Digby Harbor. I stopped again at a visitors center before entering the town of Digby then took a short rest break here to take a few pictures and gather info on the area. It was past noon by now and I had a long day of riding ahead of me. Worst of all, I started out with a headwind alongside a rather busy highway. Soon I turned off onto the much less traveled Evangeline Trail. I traveled along this scenic road for the rest of the day and the sights were most beautiful. It was a picturesque coastline with small coastal villages, farmland, and windswept hills of grassland and forest. I passed two massive lonely churches, one made of gray granite and one amazing church claiming to be the largest wooden church in North America. I would believe it, it was quite a grand sight to see. The majority of this land, called the Acadian Region had a French influence and if I had needed to stop somewhere I would have had to try to communicate in French. Further down the coast, the weather turned dreary again and I was able to hitch a ride from a nice construction worker who took me through a long portion of road work and back to a nice clear road again. From here it was only a short distance to Yarmouth, the last city on my long journey where I checked into a nice hostel as the rain began to sprinkle down. The hostel was in a wonderful old Victorian house and I was glad to get out of the cold rain. Coincidentally, the only other traveler staying here for the night was another bicycle tourist named Barbara. She was from Germany and was touring all the way around the perimeter of Nova Scotia. We celebrated the end of my tour at a local brew pub with great food and brew and shared our travel stories and experiences. I was very happy to have someone so nice to celebrate with at the end of my journey and enjoyed to hear about her bike travels. I think she definitely encouraged me to continue bike touring as much as possible especially in Europe.

The next day was much nicer, sunny with clear blue skies but cold and windy. I checked out of the hostel, washed my cloths and then sent off one of my bike bags full of all my biking gear back to Colorado, I wouldn’t need any more biking clothes. My biking adventure would be over for now as I started my return trip to the US and eventually back to Colorado. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the shops of Yarmouth after eating lunch at a great little café. The big Cat Ferry back to Portland, ME would depart at 4:00 pm. I boarded the boat with all the other motorcycle tourists and watched the town of Yarmouth grow smaller from the back deck of the ferry as we slowly departed the Yarmouth Harbor past fishing boats and the Yarmouth Lighthouse. Soon the huge frothy wake of the giant ferry boat blocked out all sights of the Nova Scotia Coast on its way back to the US. I spent the five hour ride watching movies and drinking Nova Scotian beer. As we neared the Maine coast, the strong blinking light of the Portland Head Lighthouse directed us all the way back into the Portland Harbor. The water in the harbor was calm as glass and the lights of Portland reflected perfectly as we glided into the international port; a perfect view for the end of the trip. I answered a few questions at the customs stop then was free to check into the Inn at St. John and prepare for my return to Colorado via train rides and flights and visits with east coast friends and music festivals in between.

This trip has truly been an exciting adventure where sights were seen and many great new friends were made. I will never forget the experiences that I lived through and the knowledge I gained from those experiences as well as the unforgettable friends that I was so fortunate to gain. I will look upon the world in a new light and hope to take these experiences onto new adventures in the future. Thank you greatly to all my supporters along the way, you certainly pushed me along every day to the end.

Good-bye for now from the end of the road.

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Photos

West Quoddy Lighthouse
The easternmost point in the US

Canada!
getting prepared to cross the border

fishing in Nova Scotia
Leaving Yarmouth Harbor

the Yarmouth Lighthouse
My last view of Canada