The theme for the day was Dead Frogs At The Side of the Road. And they all seemed to be lying on their backs. I must admit to being nervous about this stretch as the length was a little intimidating. At supper the previous night, there was some talk among the newbies (like me) about how we were going to get through it. According to the map, it was supposed to be flatter than the ride to Brighton but there was supposed to be one nasty climb about 40 km in, in a town called Rednersville (I’ll refrain from making the obvious joke).
I started out around 8:15, with a couple from St Catharines who were staying in the same place as me. Pretty soon, we were passed by the three guys from the U.S. and we followed them the first 40 km to the top of the nasty hill (for the record, I walked it – I didn’t want to blow my knee or potentially my left pedal with 80 km to go). We rested at the top for a while only to see another guy from the group not only go up the hill, but back down in and back up again. His wife’s explanation was that they were from Massachusetts and all they have is hills up there so it’s no big deal to them.
It got a little dicey riding through Picton, where a yellow Trans Am tried to cut us off, and when I got caught at a light the rest of the group I was with got so far ahead I couldn’t catch up. I spent a big chunk of the ride to the Glenora Ferry trying to get back to the group and I overextended myself and decided that missing the ferry wasn’t too bad because that meant I could have an extra 15 minutes rest.
While riding on the ferry I got to talking with a local who was out on his bike and he told me it’s a great day for cycling on the other side as the Loyalist Parkway is mostly flat and there is a nice tailwind. When I got back on the Parkway and saw that he was indeed correct I dropped the hammer for the first time on the trip and really got some speed and KMs under my belt. I had almost 40 KMs on this stretch and it was a lot of fun, the kind of riding I wanted to do on this trip.
I stopped twice along the way, once at a spot along the highway where a very large ship was docked and being loaded. I stopped, drank some water and watched them for a while. The next was at a Chip Wagon where I had a hot dog and Pepsi, which energized me for the last 20-25 KM. When I reached Bath, which was the 100 KM point acccording to my cue sheet, I felt pretty damn good.
I got to the St Lawrence College Residence at 3 p.m., just over 6 3/4 hours on the road. I must have broken through some barrier physically because I was not tired hungry or hurting. Even the charley horse in my leg is gone.
Bring on Prescott.