First day

Looking at the date, I am amazed by the weather. Night has fallen and it must be 15 degrees Celsius. I packed up my bike yesterday and set out at 4 pm, only to decide that was too late and turn around and go back to the hostel. Night fall is at about 5:30pm. I camped out behind the hostel for a discounted price. The hammock was fairly comfortable, but I was a little cold, I think last night the temperature got down to about zero degrees (Celsius again).
When I woke up I had a bad headache and couldn't eat much food. The stress my final departure was reaching near critical level. The inability to get that tire off my wheel hung over me, my confidence in my ability to fix my bike on the road was at a low ebb. There was a considerable amount of doubt. Would my wheels hold up, would my panniers stay on...etc. I was especially worried about the wheels, they're old.

I took the plunge. I changed my route to follow highway 17. It had two advantages: Brice was riding it, and I'd have to ride 40 miles North to get onto the adventure cycling route.



I left before Brice in the morning. I worried about the bridge out of town, but left before morning rush hour and had the bridge to myself. The air along the highway was a little dirty for the first 15 km, but it was good to get on the bike. I didn't really find my balance on the point on the fully loaded bike, so was holding on a little tight, cramping up my arms and shoulders.

There was a bunch of truck traffic on the road. One semi locked up its brakes coming to a stop at the same traffic light as I. It skidded with me riding about a foot next to it, with smoke from its tires coming up into my face. It put a lot of rubber down on the road.

I stopped for brunch, and when I hopped back on the road I ran into Brice. We planned to meet up at Ashpoo River and camp. Once there Brice knocked on a couple doors trying to find us a place to camp, and flagged down a car. It turned out to be a bust, but ten seconds down the road we found an overgrown cemetery from the 1700s. We camped there.

It was about noon. So, we went for a stroll along the river and checked out an ancient railway bridge. Life is good.