The Way Cycling Should Be: Riding the Cabot Trail

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Douglas Smith

This trip has been on my to-do list for some time now. Finially I had the oppertunity to do it with some friends. We came up with the idea over drinks one night. I’m not really sure how we cam up with it since I barely remember the conversation due to the drinks. We were greeted with the most beautiful and rewarding trip of my life on a bicycle.

To do this trip I had to get a bicycle that could do it smoothly. I had an old touring bike I was commutting on that I had taken from my father since he had left it in a shed and was not using it. I had found a crack in the frame and decided I would get that repaired then get a new paint job on the bike that had spotty rust. ProWeld repaird the frame and Precision Power Coat in Burnside painted it with Granny Smith Green. The product was beautiful. The green shined in the sun with metalic fine glitter. It was just stunning! From there I had to build the bike back up. During my quest to replace the chain rings, chain, and casette, I realized I had to replace the bottom bracket, crank arms, rings, chain casette, rear wheel, cables, and bottle cages. The price quickly rose to levels I did not want. The bike looked fantastic when finished. Although I din’t have time to test the shifting on a ride before leaving for Cape Breton.

Monday April 23, 2012. Drive to Baddeck from Halifax and sleep.

On Monday, April, 23, 2012 we departed from Halifax in a small car loaded with three bikes, three people, and a pile of gear. We stayed the night in a cabin in Baddeck where we start our trip the next morning. We got a good rate on the cabin since it’s the off season and the campground it is in is actually closed. The person managing the Baddeck Cabot Trail Campground was very nice and allowed us to keep our car there for the days we’re on the road with the bikes. The forecast was calling for three days of rain and wind!

Tuesday April 24, 2012. Baddeck to Ingonish

We woke to a damp outside, but no active rain and no real wind. We loaded up out bikes with gear and peddled out of there. The highway was busy full of transport trucks headed to North Sydney. The shoulder was wide and smooth. the road was easy to ride on overall. As was all of our trip. 38kms in while on the Englishtown Ferry the sun came out and the roads dried out. The ferry was a cable ferry. Basicially just a floating platform for vehicles. The man guiding the vehicles was friendly as he asked us where were were headed that night. He had the stong Cape Breton accent. This was the first person we had contacted and was preview of the hospitality and cheer present in this beautiful part of the Provence. It was just before this ferry that we got off the busy highway. From here on in we’ll be on quiet roads along the coast of rolling hills and fog. From here on in we barely saw any traffic. Just the odd car or small truck passed us. Some time into our day, we started to go inland along a ravine. I looked up and saw a hill tower above us. It didn’t sink in what was about to happen. There are three major climbs that are haunting us and we must face them. Cape Smokey is the first and the steepest. We turned a corner toward the towering hill and in dread looked up at the road above. Out west in the mountains, they have big hills. But their roads are long, steady and gently sloping. The roads here are shorter, but not consistant and no gently sloping. They go up. And go up steep. My legs were in pain partway up. I was using my granny gear the entire time spinning my legs with my four panniers loaded with camping gear and food. My granny was not low enough. The bike desperately wanted to go slower, but without a lower gear, I was forced to maintain my current speed. I was not going to stop! Each turn revealed more climbing. Section after section the climbs continued. After some time I arrived at the top in the fog in complete relief. The other two were far behind. From here on in we weer headed downhill. but no particularly steep downhill. We were in Ingonish at this point in search of real food in a pub with beer. We ended up raiding the small grocery store. We asked a local where to eat but the otping he gave us were slim and weak. We headed to one of them which was a convience store that made up their own buns filled with meat. We grabbed them out of the fridge and the lady at the counter heated them up for us in the mircrowave oven. We sat down and feated on cheap awful food. But due to our energy expenditure throughout the day, these appeared delicious. We departed from here to the secret stealth campoing spot. Which was a sheltered concrete pad away from the scheduled rain. We feasted in the shelter on our food we bought in the store before heading to an early sleep. The rain pounded all night onto our roof.

5.5 hours. 110km.

Wednesday April 25, 2012. Ingonish to Cheticamp

This morning the rain was…raining. We packed up our gear after a light breakfast and put on all of our rain gear. This day started in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The rain stopped after about a half an hour of cycling. Most of the washrooms were closed in the park but we eventually found an outhouse. It was the off season for this place. Restaurants and park services were closed. Eventually throughout the day we were cycling through a valley which was leading us to North Mountain. This mountain tried very hard to break me. Partway up I had to stop to strip down to just my cycling jersey due to the heat. This climb had no ending. My legs were in pain and the climb continued. I started to see snow at the top. As the fog thickened I realized we were nearing the top. From here we had a screaming downhill into Pleasant Bay. Another town with nothing open. The descent was fast. I reached 69km/h and could have gone faster if I stayed off the brakes. The corners were foggy and tight. I had no idea of the sharpness of the corners on the way down. Eric and Navid went a bit fast for my comfort and Eric even took one corner too fast and had to use the entire roadway to exit the corner. The next climb was soon. As soon as we exited Pleasant Bay we were thrown back into the park and up the McKenzie Mountain. This one was not as bad as the others but was the second biggie in one day. We got to the top with ease but realized we still had a way to go before Cheticamp and were running out of water. We divided some of our resources among ourselves and made sure we each had enough fuel to get into Cheticamp. We took a brief stop at the Skyline Trail, because it is not one to be missed. Some of us saw a moose, as is normal on this trail whihc I often call the Petting Zoo for moose. This followed by a smoking fast descent off French Mountain into the rolling hills before arriving into Emily and Scotts place in Cheticamp. They promptly took us to a liquor store, and then to the pub where we found beer and food. This is the first place in a long time with real restaurants and booze! Success!

6.6 hours. 110 km.

Thursday April 26, 2012. Cheticamp to Baddeck

The final day. We are greeted with a head wind and sunshine. Flat roads, beautiful views, and and end to a beautiful trip.

4.4 hours. 88km.

The Cabot Trail is known as a great cycling route and the locals are used to seeing us there. We travelled in a counter-clockwise direction as we believed it to be the best for views based on the maps and other people. We figured we were likely the first people to cycle the trail in 2012 as we were earlier than the regular tourist season. We had perfect weather the entire time and I received a sunburn on my face. So much for all the forecasted rain.

During this trip we encountered extremely nice people and great weather. People would constantly wave at us or lighly toute their horn in greeting. The views were stunning and we as cyclists were treated with respect and dignity. We were people who exist and had the right to be on the road and were treated as that exactly. It was the most incredible place I have ever rode a bicycle and would gladly do so again.

This is what cycling is all about.

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The Bicycle News Article Comments

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Douglas Smith

Been a long time since I posted on here. Today I’ll rumble about the news article commenters. With ever news article on the internet in the major media outlets, there is a loaded entourage of followers who love to comment without holding back because they are protected by their online anonymity. I’ve been known to comment on articles myself. Given a no BS response to articles which are often unpopular.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/83745-bike-lane-delay-downtown-leaves-cyclists-stuck-in-traffic

The article I read today was about a cycling lane on Hollis Street that is late in it’s construction. The commenters label us as reckless yahoo’s who run red lights, ride the wrong side of the street, wrong way down one-way streets, scraping motor vehicles, weaving in and out of traffic, lane splitting, on and off sidewalks and other things. That does describe many cyclists. It also describes car drivers too. Many pass me recklessly close. Run red lights. Don’t stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. Don’t use any common sense whatsoever while driving.

The article was about bike lanes. The main comments that piss me off are the ones who make the following points:

1. Bicyclist don’t pay auto registration or taxes. Therefore they should be responsible for forking out the money for the bicycle infrastructure themselves.

2. Bicyclists don’t pay for insurance and therefore should not be on the road because they won’t pay for damage in accidents they cause.

My rebuttal:

1. Lets ignore the fact that I do own a car and pay these things, and many other cyclists too. I do pay property tax. I do pay income tax. I do pay sales tax. So the only tax I don’t pay (if i didn’t own a car) is the gas tax. At $1.459/L, I should be fucking glad for that one! What do roads costs? A fucking ton. Who causes damage to roads and continues to require excessive infrastructure like multi-million dollar interchanges? Cars require more space. Cars go smashing through pot holes making them bigger. Massive car tires grind up the paint. Car congestion creates the “need” for additional car sized lanes. Bicycles don’t need all this shit. Bicycle tires are about an inch wide and carry about 80-100lbs each. They clearly don’t cause damage to the roads. Cars are not 200lbs.

Shall we talk about the health benefits to riding a bicycle vs a car? What do obese people cost the health care system? Pollution from motor vehicles? Motor vehicle collisions?

2. The insurance point. I got my new car insurance package in the mail today since it was going to expire this May. It’s got a lot of big words like liability, death, bodily injury, death of one or more persons, 1,000,000 coverage. What does a person cost when they are in the hospital? A death? To society? An entire family when found dead in an upside down minivan after a head-on? Yeah, your insurance covers bumpers and dents too. In reality it’s to cover your ass for killing and injuring people. Things that really costs money.

When is the last time a cyclist killed others when they hit a car? Do bicycles weighing 2000lbs speed down roads at over 100km/h? No, no they don’t. So if we did need insurance it would likely be a negligible amount since we are not a deadly hazard on the road.

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The End of 2011

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Douglas Smith

So 2012 has come and 2011 has ended! 2011 was a great year for me in the employment area.

My greatest achievement for 2011 was getting on at Parks Canada in the winter and working out of Halifax. My time here and throughout the summer has led me to meet some wonderful people and networked greatly. I was given the opportunity to travel to Prince Edward Island National Park and Kouhchibouguac National Park to help assist in teaching the plover camera systems to other people. This experience was great for me to learn more about the plover on a regional level. In the Fall I was able to attend a piping plover recovery team meeting. I was privileged to be able to listen to real scientists debate and discuss real issues related to the piping plover in the atlantic provinces. I am still employed with Parks Canada’s Species at Risk program in Halifax.

Athletically this year was not soo hot. I did some running in the winter up to the Pre-E2C. I did race this but not without the flu. My performance was less than stellar. I competed in some mountain bike races, but non long and gruelling. The most unique and interesting thing I was able to do in 2011 was the first ever mountain bike biathlon in Nova Scotia at Martock in the fall. We were taught in the morning on how to use a gun and how the biathlon works. In the Afternoon mountain bikers were able to race and shoot targets! This sport is interesting and I would like to compete more in the future but the costs of the guns is far too much for me. I’ll stick to regular mountain biking for now. Also on the athletic front is climbing. I began to climb at Dalhousie on the indoor wall semi regularly. This winter semester should prove to be less busy and therefor leave me with more time to climb!

Two trips stand out for me in 2011 for recreation. The first being Polletts Cove in Cape Breton. It was my first time exploring this area on foot and was a amazing experience. This trip led me to the most incredible camping site I’ve seen yet in Nova Scotia! We spent two nights at Polletts Cove under the stars with the horses and my Dalhousie enviro friends. The second trips that stands out was the Keji road trip to Fundy National Park. In attendance were my Keji co-workers Sarah and Chantal of Ontario. We travelled to PEI NP and Charlottetown, Hopewell Rocks, Moncton, and Alma. This was my first time in Fundy and won’t be my last. We had some wonderful hikes in the rain and also some great times at the Edgewater House in Alma where we stayed with Fundy park staff. Edgewater House is one of the houses in Alma owned by Parks Canada for the use of seasonal staff.

I was able to finish off 2011 in a yurt in the Keji Backcountry!

2011 was a great year! Thank you for sharing it with me!

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First River Paddle, and First Plunge

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Douglas Smith

So here is how the story goes,

Alison and I are paddling, and all of a sudden we round a corner and there is a tree across half of the river. The fast half. And there is no way were paddling out of its way and I attempt for land on the other side but we don’t react quick enough and into the tree trunk we go. The tree is more than a foot in circumference, and is horizontal on the surface of the water. The river is flowing under it like crazy. The bow hits it, the river pulls our canoe sideways to hug the tree. We have a keel btw. As soon as the canoe is lengthwise along the trunk, the canoe rolls, and instantly fills with water. Now most of the canoe is under the tree and about two feet of it is visible above water. We shimmy ourselves along some drift wood that is against the truck and is moving a bit more than I wish. Some branches I grab break. Eventually Alison reaches shore and climbs up, then I pull myself out behind her. And there is our boat. Stuck. Then a kayak hits it and mostly sinks. The kayak guy is holding on and I yank his boat out and he then scrambles over and I grab his hand and yank him out.

I see the others running from down river through a field towards us. I’m a bit shaken, and very wet. I don’t at all remember the temp of the water when going in. But the kayak fella claims it was freezing! The others see us all ok and out of the water so they start poking at the boat and pulling at it. Many minutes later it moves under deeper. I had rescued two paddles from the drift wood that were jammed. Then a boat pops out the other side and goes down river. I leap after it, plunging myself into the water. And soon some land sticking out into the water stops me and i keep holding the canoe and manage to pull it out.

Phew!

My camera, throw bag, and shoes were rescued by another boat right after the canoe rolled. We found the third paddle down river 30 minutes later along with my water bottle drifting along. My GPS and a flash light has never been seen since.

So wat did I do wrong?

Not foresee the tree? There were a lot of trees in the water. I should have started the corner tighter. I can easily paddle to the outside of the river to avoid an obstruction. But cant paddle to the inside of a corner. Due to the flow. Is this accurate?

Didn’t get somebody down river with my throw bag while people were poking at the jammed canoe. And when I jumped in after it. Yes, I knew the throw bag was recovered at this point. Did anyone besides myself know how to use it? Maybe not.

Paddle a river that was this flooded? I estimate by the grass in the water, that the water was three feet higher than normal.

No spare dry change of clothing. No dry sack with my stuff in it secured to the boat. Even though it was a short trip, shit can happen obviously.

Beautiful!

Other than that our paddle was incredibly beautiful. Paddled along cliffs, forests, fields, and cows for a couple hours. The Fall colours were in full vibrance and the river was flooded so no worrying about rocks. It was a stunningly beautiful paddle.

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Nova Scotia’s first MTB Biathlon

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Douglas Smith

Photo stolen ruthlessly from Ski Martock's Facebook page. Shot by Andy MacLean of Ski Martock


On Sunday I competed in Nova Scotia’s first ever Mountain Bike Biathlon. For those that don’t know, it’s shooting and mountain biking. Since it’s new here with regards to mountain biking, they offered a session before the race on how to shoot and let us use the club’s guns at Martock. This was the fist time I had ever shot a real gun. A 22 calibre. They showed me how to load it and hold it and all that fun stuff. By the afternoon I was a expert marksman. About to shoot a penny from 10,000 yards. Time to race. The organizers did not seem too experience in organizing races for mountain bikes. The used multiple courses for the various categories and the race was on pre existing trails for skiers. This is all fine, it was the first and it was going to be fun no matter what. We get a tour of the course so that everyone knows where they are supposed to go. Then the race begins a bit after that after we are given skin tight bibs with numbers on them.

I didn’t see many of the regular MTB race crew here. Most were skiers who had not raced MTB before so this was new to them. I had a feeling I was one of the faster people at this race for once. The starts were staggered by 30 seconds. Unlike a mountain bike race where the start is in mass, there are only so many guns and spots in the range to shoot, so we needed to be spread apart. I started in forth and passed all three guys within two kilometres. The first round of shooting was after a 3km loop. I missed 3 of the five targets. This shooting was done from the lying down position. Then I departed to start my second lap but missed the three 150m penalty laps I was supposed to do for missing 3 targets. Ops! I cam in for my second round of shooting. this time from a standing position where I hit 0 of 5 targets. Thanks wind and shaky arms. I did five penalty laps and proceeded to finish the race after my third 3km lap. It was a very short race. I was the first person to finish. After my penalty, I was found to be in second place. After waiting a looong time, there was a small awards thing, and I got to stand up from the mud onto a podium.

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Ride your Riding

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Douglas Smith

Today it rained all day. So far. So what does a person do on a rainy day? Go for a bike ride! Ride your Riding was a ride around Halifax with our favourite MP Megan Leslie. About 30 people showed up in the piss pouring rain at Africville to start the ride to the Market on Terminal Road by winding through residential streets all over the city. The traffic was minimal, and most cars seemed respectful of our presence. Not all were good, but most were. And the cyclist themselves were not the best city riders either. Some did not seem to know how to ride intersections safely and when to take your lane, when to block traffic from passing, and other things. The ride was extremely wet. My favorite part was riding through deep puddles on Purcell’s Cove Road. Some folks behind me got soaked by a bus that sent a wall of water their way. This group included our MP, Megan Leslie.

Overall a great day spent on a bicycle in the rain!

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No Impact Man

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Douglas Smith

http://noimpactproject.org/

No Impact Man is a documentary film about a family in New York City who decide to try an experiment for one year. They practiced a no carbon lifestyle in one of more difficult environments. One of the worlds biggest cities, NYC. The film explores the stages from deciding what to do and how to do it to the emotional hardship in the process. The family was a couple and a young girl still in diapers. In the end they discovered their life was enhanced and better off without stuff. Without a tv they had better quality family time. Without electricity they spent more time outdoors. Without processed food, they had explored the roots of real food and what it takes to produce it. They were healthier, happier and more rich (cite the website above) because of their life changes.

What would it take for me to do that? How could I change my life for the better? I’m not a smoker, but could it be compared to smoking? Dropping the consumerism lifestyle, the tv, make frequent trips to the market or starve, and travel only by foot or bicycle? Right now my life is busy. Very very busy. I’m a full time student with a part time job. I’m involved with many things as a volunteer at school and out in the community. Search and Rescue, Intramural, NS Road Safety Youth Committee, Biology Society at Dal, and my cycling and exercising squeezed in everywhere. My diet has gotten worse in my life. Stress is up, and time crunched to nothing, all on top of a sour living situation. Maybe a change is just what is needed. Can I bite the bullet?

I think I can if I can fix my living situation and start to be surrounded by positive people who can contribute and encourage. Right now I’m a poser. I am going to make it a goal to seriously attempt to do my part for this world.

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Use Your New TV Properly

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Douglas Smith

So for eons we have been watching tv. I remember wooded framed tvs on the ground, then black plastic ones. These tvs have been around for a long time and all the worlds content was made for them. The content was in a 4:3 ratio. Meaning that that width was 4 units to the height of 3 units. Theatres used to use a different ratio. They used 16:9. A width of 16 units by a height of 9 units. When the movie was later made for video release so people at home could watch it on their own 4:3 tvs the sides were cut off and the movie filled the entire screen.

Today all you can buy for tvs in the a/v store are wide screen tvs at approximately 16:10 ratio. So whats the problem with this? All of our content we get at the video store and through our cable company is still at 4:3 ratio. Unless you have blue ray or some fancy premium HD service which is available in a select few channels (more all the time). Thats all ok. When you’re not watching HD content using the full screen your remote has a button to make it display the content in the centre tv, and show black on the sides. Thats great! There is even a setting on some tv’s so the tv makes the adjustment on it’s own! Perfect! The problem is the people. Every time I see people watching the tv they have 4:3 content horrendously stretched out to to fit their tv! Everything on the screen is now much wider and looks ugly as shit. People all look fat, cars look low and wide, balls look oval, and so on. This is a massive distraction for me and I can’t stand it. Why the hell can’t people just watch the content as it was intended to be watched?

Now I have several friends who may jump up and say I’m complaining about them and how they watch their own tv. Just relax, It’s not about you, it’s about society as a whole. Almost everyone does this and I do not mean to target my roommates specifically although they are guilty, and have a tv that is capable of automatically choosing the proper viewing ratio. Just remember, the cars are not shaped like pancakes.

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Halifax Road Users

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Douglas Smith
Point Pleasant Park by Douglas M Smith
Point Pleasant Park, a photo by Douglas M Smith on Flickr.

This occurs a lot to me. The road has rules. If everyone follows the rules the city would be safe and smooth. I come up to a stop sign on my bicycle and wait for traffic to clear so I can cross and continue to the other side. But wait, a car stops in the middle of the road. Are they waiting for me to cross? I’m not a pedestrian at the crosswalk! I’m a road user who does NOT have the right of way. Don’t stop for me! You have the right of way and you should use it! (you, being the car). You’re not being nice by letting me in. You’re being annoying and obstructing traffic. You’re not allowing the road to function as the rules do.

But then what is even worse, are the fucking bicyclists who don’t follow the rules! I’m a bicyclists. I don’t pass cars when it’s unsafe. I stop at red lights and stop signs an look. I give the proper right-a-way to other road users at 4-way stops. I use my signals and have lights and reflectors (if I get hit, the hitter is going to have to find a damn good excuse for not seeing me). I don’t ride on the sidewalk. Car drivers are angry, frustrated, ignorant, safety hazards. Some of these descriptions could be eliminated by cyclists following the rules of the road. Then we could have their support for cycling infrastructure, because drivers would think we would use it properly and not waste the cities money. The biggest complain I get from drivers who do not cycle are about the lack of cyclists following the rules. And I have no argument against it. I see it all the time. Cyclists bombing through red lights, down one way streets the wrong way and so on.

I have a dream that all road uses follow the rules of the road so we can all have better respect for each other. And I know I’m pretty close to perfect (except when I’m on a multi-purpose trail that crosses the road. I ride across. It’s a multi-purpose trail, why the hell not?).

Next up, my wide screen tv rant!

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Break time at end of pockwalk lake. 35.7km in.

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Douglas Smith

Went for a nice long ride today to get my muscles aching like mad. Worked to. I cycled from my home in Halifax, to Bedfor, up the water pipeline to Pockwalk. Bushwhacked around their fence, and onto the logging road. Then around the lake, onto the property traverse to Bowater, down to St Margarets Bay. From there all rails to Trails back into Halifax.

Total distance of 87km in a time of 5 hours and 11 minutes. Man do I hurt right now!

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