Ottawa to Fredericton - Day 11

Monday, September 17 - Grand Falls, NB - 46 km

I slept a solid 10 hours last night. In fact, it was already light out when I woke up. I hoped that my body was using that time to heal my knee. I boiled some eggs on the steps outside as I prepared to leave. After feeding and packing I hit the road about 08:30 into a thick fog. My knee started bothering me right away. In fact the pain today was the worst it has been. I rode for about an hour through the fog until it finally lifted as I reached Saint Leonard. Why do all French towns begin with Saint? I stopped at a small grocery store and re-supplied with food, as I was planning to cross the Plaster Rock Provincial Game area, which is about 120 km of wilderness. I figured I would need two days worth of food. I also bought some ibuprofen to see if that would help the knee. I rode on. Several kilometers further the knee was really sore. I was moving very slowly, when I should have been flying as the wind was calm, and the terrain fairly flat. My thoughts began to stray to aborting the trip. As the miles slowly passed, I finally decided to abort the trip at Grand Falls. I reached Grand falls and stopped in the park overlooking the falls themselves. I rested for close to an hour, took pictures and ate some lunch. I got back on the bike and rode around town noting the location of various things and looking for a cheap motel. The only one was by the falls, which I figured would be expensive as it looked fairly fancy. I turned east and rode up a very steep hill on the 108 to see if there were any motels out that way. After this hill I noticed that my knee had been fine this entire trip around town after lunch. I passed a grocery store and stocked more food and decided I would keep going east. Just after that decision, the knee started hurting again. I stopped. More indecision. Do I keep going and attempt to cross 120 km of wilderness, or do I go back to town? In the end sanity prevailed and I rode back to Grand Falls and checked into the motel for 2 nights. It turned out to be relatively inexpensive. I sat for several hours considering what to do. I considered trying to rent a car one-way and finish the trip by driving. I considered finding out where I could catch a bus or train, and finding out if I could easily transport my bike and gear this way. I also considered shipping my bike home from here and then hitch hiking the rest of the way. Finally I spread out the maps and calculated how far I have left to go, vs. how much time I have available. If I leave Wednesday, I have 9 days to reach Halifax, preferably 8. If I bike overland into NS, it is about 650 km. If I ride down to Saint John and take the ferry to Digby, it is only 550 km. In the end I decided to try and make St. John by next Saturday, 4 days of riding an average of 80 km a day, following a rest day tomorrow. I will catch the ferry to Digby and take another rest day, and then 3 days of 80 km a day to Halifax. This still leaves one day to spare. At least this route will be somewhat populated so I can abort relatively easily and get a car/bus/train if I need to.

Grand Falls has cool bike racks.

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