Breakfast today was French toast and we were ready to leave at 8.0 am. Everyone was out of camp early as we were starting to climb the Cabot trail later in the day. My bike troubles started as soon as we got out of camp and from thereon, every 5 km I would have to stop, dismount clamp and tighten the crank arms so that i can keep on pedaling. Ron and Byron patiently rode with me as sweeps and helped me the whole day as much as they can. At km 45, my bike gave up on me and the crank arm literally came off as i was just starting to go up a hill. I was a little disappointed as the only alternative was to take the truck. We saw the truck and pulled it over. Ron and Byron insisted that i take Adam's mountain bike and still continue today's ride. I was very much interested in doing today's ride and agreed to it. We changed pedals and lowered seats and I confidently moved on.
I quickly realized that it was tough to switch gears and without using all of them it would be impossible to climb up 13% grades of North mountain. I stopped in Cheticamp to see if I can find the truck but we didn't find it. Byron noticed a bike store in Cheticamp and while Ron and Byron waited at Tim Horton's i went in to store to see my options. Andre at Velomax bike shop had just opened up last week and went out of his way to help me in any way possible. He offered me a ride to camp while he still tried to convince me that i can borrow one of the bikes in his shop and complete the day's ride. I was mentally tired and it would have been tough to arrange logistics of Adams bike.I passed the message to Ron and Byron and although they wanted to stay back to help me, i asked them to continue before it was too late.
At 5 pm, Andre wrapped up his bike shop and we embarked towards Dingwall. The Cabot trail is really beautiful and driving it wouldn't make you appreciate you its beauty. But today it just wasn't meant to be it seems. Just few km's before camp we saw Fred with Ron and Byron on road and we picked up Fred as he was pretty exhausted.
We got in to camp around 6.45 pm and all the riders brought their
bike troubles to Andre who had a busy evening. I set up camp and spoke
to people who mentioned that they had a real tough day. I am extremely thankful to Andre who was the angel today and come to rescue. I wish him luck as he sets up his bike shop and travel/training rides in Cheticamp and on Cabot trail.
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| Here it goes |
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| The images don't do justice to the fantastic views today |
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| Some nice roads today as we entered the national park. |
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