Over the summer, Fabrice created a Web page which provides all sorts of information about the club. To access this page, type mosaic on your computer terminal and then go to the heading 'Other University of Waterloo hypermedia services'. Near the bottom of a long list, you will find the Outers Club. We are also still updating our older sources of information: the newsgroup uw.outers, and the bulletin boards outside the equipment room and the Environmental Studies courtyard. And the best way to find out what activities are planned for the next few weeks is to attend the general meetings on Mondays at 7:00pm in ES1-350.
This term, we have once again scheduled activities for Monday evenings after the general meeting. We already had a presentation on leading a canoe trip and a slide show by Eric Praetzel. Future planned activities can be found inside this newsletter. And even though we have something planned for every Monday this term, we would be happy to reschedule some activities if any Outers Club members wish to present something that they think may be of interest to others.
Finally, I'd like to encourage all members to plan and organize their own trips. Unfortunately, both trips planned for the Thanksgiving weekend filled up and we were forced to limit the number of participants. So if anyone is interested in organising other trips - both overnight and day trips - there is plenty of interest amongst our members. And don't forget that the club will give a free term of rentals to anyone who organises and leads one overnight trip or three day trips, subject to club executive approval.
Stuart McIlwainI did my first bike tour at 16 with my highschool. It wasn't that much of a tour: 50 miles a day, two days there, one day whitewater rafting at Wilderness Tours in Beachburg, and two days back (our equipment was carried by van). But from that time on I was hooked. I've done a number of small week-long and weekend tours since, nothing compared to these guys up next, but I can't think I'll ever give it up. Touring on a bicycle has to be one of the most pleasant ways of seeing the countryside and just getting places. And if you think that the bicycle is impractical as long-distance transport, consider this: Waterloo to Ottawa in just four days.
Riding all that distance in such a short time presents a number of problems, a few of which I'll highlight here. Eric Praetzel and Gudrun Wessel have a number of pointers in their articles, so I'll just cover what they missed. First of all, you don't need the fanciest equipment in the world to go on a tour, most any bike will do so long as it's in good working order. Most important, however, is the gearing; most books recommend a low gear ratio of about 1:1, especially if you are carrying heavy loads or riding in steep terrain. I know that riding in Gaspe, some of the hills just about killed me, especially in the interior, and I was riding a modern MTB with its requisite super-low gearing. But on the other hand, you can always walk up the steepest hills.
My biggest problems have always stemmed from the handlebar and the saddle--the connecting points of the bicycle to me. Your bike should be a good fit. Most important in this department is reach. The reach is the distance from the saddle to the handlebars and is determined by the combined length of the stem and top-tube. There are no hard and fast rules to determining reach, but if you feel cramped on the bike, then you probably need a longer stem. On the other hand, if it feels like your handlebars are in the next province, then by all means get a shorter one. The saddle should be adjusted correctly to prevent leg fatigue and knee troubles. A good rule of thumb is that with your butt level on the saddle and your heel on the pedal your leg should be straight.
One of the most difficult things adjusting to is how hard the saddle feels after 8 or 10 long hours in it. I'm not sure what to recommend here since I haven't solved this problem myself. Each one of us is different and will find that a different type of saddle will suit us. Quite simply, if you don't find your current saddle to your liking, you should exchange it for a different one. I recommend that for touring you get an anatomically shaped saddle that is quite wide since a wider saddle will spread your weight over a larger area. Most modern bikes are equipped with saddles that are way too narrow. My worst tour in that respect has to be riding from Waterloo to Ottawa. Out of shape with 12 hour days, 150 km+, I developed just about the ugliest saddle sore you've ever seen.
Finally, eating and drinking. I think it is far more important that you do eat and drink, than what you eat and drink. Aim to stop and have a snack every hour or so. Books and magazine articles will have all kinds of opinions in this area, but I think you should find what works for you. Perhaps you can stand to live off Gatorade and energy bars all day, but if you get your best energy (like me) from a cheeseburger and coke, that's fine. Riding in the Gaspe, however, it amazed me how my sister could live off less than a quarter what I ate; she would order half as much as me, and then give me most of her meal.
There are so many other things to mention, but its much more important that you just get out there. (Besides, this newsletter only has so much space!) So saddle up...
I tour on a converted MTB. I put on 100 psi 1.25" slick tires and changed the handlebars and shifters to those from a 10 speed. In my European trip I had my fingers go numb (2 per hand) and they did not regain full feeling until a month after the trip. The bike has modern MTB gearing with a 24-36-46 on the front and 13 to 32 tooth on the rear. I used the lowest gears many times in BC but not that much in europe. In europe the hills were not as steep but a lot longer and higher.
I used just a rear rack on all of my three trips. On the California trip, I lifted my bike by the seat and broke the seat. A bike like this is very heavy at the back. But it is a lot cheaper than getting front racks and panniers. Fenders are a must and if you are going into a hilly place; make sure that your brake pads are new or you have replacements. If you are going to rack up some distance (1500+ km) make sure that your tires are in good shape. During the Europe trip my friend was actually using a racing bike with an 18mm front tire and "big" 28mm rear tire. So you can tour on a racing bike; but be prepared to stand for hours when doing long climbs. The highest climb we did was 2km vertical and it was 4 hours of cycling. The last half was through snow, slush and ice.
The limitation on what I take is the rules and regs of the airlines. They will usually allow you 2 pieces of luggage. One is the bike with some gear tied onto it (ground sheet, tent), the other is one pannier with the sleeping bag tied onto it. I take the other pannier as carry-on luggage with my camera and tripod. With the bike and pannier I exceed the 25kg luggage limit, but not by enough to have them charge me extra.
Most of my trips are camping. The European trip was nicer because I did not have to carry a tent, sleeping bag and ground sheet. But it was about $40 per day per person, just for a place to stay. Camping in the USA is < $5 per day and Canada seems to be $5 to $20 per day for bicycle camping! I am fed up with Canada and would rather go to the USA for my next trip.
The USA is much better setup for cycling with more campsites and activities at the campsites. In BC a typical day was 1 hour of cycling, 7 to 8 hours of hiking and then another 2 to 3 hours of cycling to get to a campsite. In California, I could bike to a camp and spend days hiking right there.
In terms of clothing. Be prepared. When I was in Austria and Italy (late September) I was wearing a windbreaker, sweaters, undershirt and a normal shirt as well as 2 pairs of pants + lifa pants and 2 sets of gloves with a balaclava. I was shivering and frozen on the descents (70 km/h peak, 30 km/h thru the turns, upto 15 min. long) while I climbed wearing not much more than cycling shorts and a loose shirt. This was in 5C weather. Remember that higher elevations mean _cold_. This is more true in europe (ie Alps) than in BC. I generally bring one set of good clothes for going out for supper but don't have much more than 2 sets of cycling cloths + windbreaker and rain pants along with lots of plastic bags for the hands and feet. Plastic bags are great to keep yourself warmer in cold wet weather or damp wet weather. The worst thing about clothing is keeping it somewhat clean and dry. Have plastic bags to store everything in and keep the clean from the not so clean. I get down to a ritual of rotating through cloths. I rinse or wash one set while I wear the other. It is a real pain when you have to wear them to help them dry but that is life.
Going out of the country can present problems. In europe it was not uncommon for us to live on chocolate bars or whatever food we had because we never saw any food stores or arrived at a time when they were closed. Generally, it is very easy to get local currency in europe from a banking machine. Just watch out for your daily limit.
As for problems. Oh yes. I have had them. Usually they are things that have never happened before or since. In California I had very cold feet and fingers for some reason. It was colder in europe but there I had numb fingers for the entire trip and severe knee pain which stopped me from pedalling very quickly. I was useless when my knee got cold. In BC, I had saddle sores as well as some saddle comfort problems (chaffing). I used the same bike and seat on all three trips! Vaseline is great for chaffing and some saddle sores. Knee pain and pinched nerves (numbness) take time. I even tried to ride the bike before I went on the vacation. But there is a big difference between riding, unloaded, at 30 km/h and being loaded and only doing 20 to 25 km/h. The only practice that you can get that will be meaningful is to load the bike up and practice before you leave. But it is hard to force yourself to do 6 to 10 hour rides when you are at home.
Riding in B.C. California: 100 mi north of LA upto SF by the coastal highway Europe: Munich down thru Austria into northern Italy, train to Zermatt and then cycled into Charmonix BC: From Vancouver, up the coast, ferry over to the island (Powell River), down the island and into Port Albernie; ferry to Uculet; cycled upto and around long beach; back to Port Albernie; out to the coast and upto Nanimo and then the ferry back to Horseshoe bay then to Vancouver. Then I spent a day cycling around Vancouver (did 80 km/h coming down the hill from SFU!). The 2nd week was spent going out to Hope (180 km in one day) and then up the Fraser valley to Lillooet, Lytton, across the Duffy Lake Road (serious climbing there) and into Whister and back to Vancouver. I did lots of great hiking in the Whistler area and rafting in Lytton.
Generally I will ride on any and every road. I was on gravel logging roads for 1+ hour at a stretch but 99% of the trip is on pavement. BC tends to have wide shoulders (unlike Ontario). The pace was typically 20 km/h while cycling, 25 km/h when I had a tailwind or 30 km/h for fast 1 hour stretches. When I faced a slight uphill and headwind that pace could easily drop to less than 15 km/h. BC is free of high climbs but there are lots and lots of 10 to 15 min climbs or even 30 min ones. Only Duffy lake road had some real climbing (1 km descent at the end and a good 800m followed by a pair of 200m climbs). In europe with large climbs, your average speed can be decimated. Some days it was very hard to do 60 km in 6 hours (100 switchbacks and about 3 km of climbing). It depends a lot upon how much you are carrying uphill. Down hill you have to brake down to about 30 km/h for the switchbacks (very rare in BC, all over the place in the Alps). Generally you will see lots of grouse some dear and wolves along with lots of rabbits and even porpoises when swimming in the ocean.
Being on a bicycle guarantees your getting on a ferry. If you are driving a car, you sometimes have to wait 3+ hours to get on! I saw a 4km long lineup of cars when I was there. According to a Japanese cyclist I met, most of the cycling in the mountains is boring, until you get out to Lake Louise.
I've always wanted to get a real hands-on (or should I say, wheels-on) experience of Canada's very east, the oft-quoted "rugged beauty of the Island of Newfoundland", especially since a very good friend of mine moved there recently...and this summer, the dream finally came true!
Having barely managed to free time for putting together all our gear and food and stow it safely in the bike cases and our backpacks, S"oren and I escaped the end-of-term hectic on August 19. We had the bikes, one (mtb) in a cardboard box and one (touring bike) in a hardshell case. We took all kinds of spare parts (spokes, tubes, cables, etc.) and tools with us, but luckily we only needed them at the very beginning and end to get the bikes ready for shipping. Can you imagine, not a single flat tire; this surpassed all expectation! Besides still fearing damage to the bikes during the flight, we were very nervous at the airport because all pieces of luggage had turned out so incredibly heavy. But to our surprise, Canadian Airlines personnel "only" charged us 35 bucks "oversized charge" per bike---despite the previous unanimous quotes of $25---and then put them through special handling, not without plastering them with "fragile" and "heavy" stickers, of course. Finally we could relax and get some sense of holiday feeling as the flight from Toronto via Halifax to Stephenville was pleasantly uneventful. Perfect sunshine and our friend Leonnard (yes, a real Newfie!) greeted us and our unscathed luggage at the terminal in Stephenville.
Enjoying our friends' hospitality, we took the following two days in Boswarlos to get acclimatized by enjoying the beautiful view from the kitchen window across East Bay to the mountains, exploring the huge backyard that ends only right down at the beach, and sampling some homemade moose stew. We also caught up with all the gossip and went to Stephenville for campfuel (you're not allowed to take that on the plane!). Then we re-assembled our bikes and finally packed the panniers. We had two pairs each, which almost tempts you to take too much stuff (now we know that identifying books are not really essential on a hilly bike trip...). But on the other hand, I wouldn't want to miss pulling the sleeping bag nice and dry out of an Ortlieb lowrider even after the most rainy day. Those panniers have roll-top closures like canoe drybags, and are to my knowledge the only existing waterproof bike panniers. We had decided to take most of our food with us in dehydrated form (homemade mixes from store-bought dry ingredients). Despite the extra load, we didn't regret this one bit here--eg. on Highways 360 and 480, signs announced "next service station 143km"...
On the 22 of August, under a very cloudy sky, we finally started our trip! The first leg took us about 62km from outside Stephenville to the TransCanadaHighway (TCH). It had a nicely paved wide shoulder and turned out not even half as bad as locals had warned us of (we later discovered those other sections, too). Very soon we also found out the importance of tucking your shirt into the shorts on stops along the road, as well as dressing up like mummies as soon as we'd found a campsite: Blackfly season was far from being over in those parts! On most days, we did around 60-70km, with considerable deviations in both directions, though. The second day, we took a beautiful dip in cold Blue Pond on our way as well as experienced our first (and nearly only) breakdown: S"oren's bottombracket kept loosening! Of course, the only tools we didn't lug all the way there were the ones we needed! But luckily, newfies are a real special folk: Nowhere else have I ever met so many helpful and friendly people! Two guys from a Corner Brook bikeshop pedalled on their mountain bikes up the hill to where we were at the tourist information centre and brought tools to help us fix it. After Corner Brook, there were long descents (almost scary so heavily loaded, but I soon came to appreciate every bit of momentum they gave).
The sky cleared and the weather became increasingly warm and friendly over the next week. The paved shoulder on the TCH narrowed, and we were glad to escape all the trucks by turning onto Highway 430, the Viking Trail, that would take us all the way up the coast of the Northern Peninsula to St. Anthony. Newfies like the understatement: While they call their huge lakes "ponds" and some rivers "brooks", they refer to the mountains as "hills"---and there are many, many on "the rock" (=the island). Although we dreaded the end of our hearty homemade bread, we were soon glad about every gram of food consumed. But like the guy from Corner Brook said, for every uphill there's a descent to follow, and we sure got our share coasting (or shooting?) down towards the South Arm of Bonne Bay fiord at speeds well over 50km/h. It was almost too fast to take in the beautiful scenery of famous Gros Morne National Park. There was still snow on top of the Tablelands mountains to the south of Bonne Bay. The car ferry from Woody Point across the bay to Norris Point is no longer in operation due to government funding cuts. But "Captain" George Anderson takes pedestrians and bikes over on his private boat, so we didn't have to backtrack up those mountains. But still, by the end of the day we found we had laboured enough to earn the luxury of staying on Berry Hill campground for two nights (of course, this as the name suggests, is also situated on a hill!). The day in between we took three very distinct shorter trips: an interpretive walk around the tidal pools below the Lobster Cove lighthouse, a hike up to the summit of Berry Hill, and another down to Baker's Brook Falls on long boardwalks throught truly enchanted forests and bogs. Like some of the following days, it rained that night and we were happy to have the tarp to cook and eat our delicious spaghetti under.
Thanks to great tailwinds and the only flat section of the entire trip, we covered 190km over the next two days. This included a 4-hour break to take a boat tour on Western Brook Pond. This trip, although a bit commercial, is well worth it: You really get to appreciate the majesty of the deep fiords hanging valleys and rounded mountain tops the glaciers left after the last ice age. The photos I had seen before from Norway were nothing compared to this!
On Sunday night, we had the perfect campsite--or so we thought at that time. It was right on the beach, with a beautiful sunset and bearable numbers of bugs. Our dilemma started around 4.30 am the next morning, when we awoke to creaking tent poles due to the storm blowing outside... To make it short, this was the most miserable day of our trip; the gusty headwinds kept blowing the rain into our hoods and made it really hard to hold the bikes straight on the road. Just at the worst point, on the bridge across Castors River though, a pick-up truck sent from heaven stopped and its driver insisted on giving us a ride all the way up to St. Anthony. A civil engineer from Corner Brook, John was about to build the first public indoor swimming pool in St. Anthony. He dropped us off at a B&B, the pure luxury! It was like two worlds meeting: After a week of cycling and camping in the bush, we weren't used to speeds of more than 60km/h anymore, nor to carpets and tablecloths... We had delicious (and nowadays rare) Atlantic cod at the Lightkeeper's Cafe, and explored Fishing Point Park as well as the museum and craft store of the Grenfell mission. In the late 1800s Dr. Wilfred Grenfell founded this mission and its hospital to provide medical services to the scattered settlements in northern Newfoundland and Labrador. After replenishing our G.O.R.P. we left civilized St. Anthony again for an out-of-town campground. In the end, the lift by truck was really great because it gave us another day at the tip of the peninsula which we used for a 65km side trip to L'Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site. Like Gros Morne Park, this site has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The remains of Nordic-style sod houses discovered here suggest the establishment of a Viking settlement about 1000 years ago. Some of the houses have been reconstructed, so you can get an impression of how dark life must have been in those times (the only "windows" are the openings for the smoke in the roof). There are also many walking trails on the site; nice for getting a break from the bike saddle, to see how bakeapples grow and perhaps to catch a glimpse of the Labrador coast across the Strait of Belle Isle on clearer days.
Finally on the evening of September 1st, the Northern Ranger, Marine Atlantic's coastal boat between Lewisporte (Nfld) and Nain (Labrador) entered port at St. Anthony. We needed this ferry to avoid going all the way back on the Viking Trail; it isn't easy to find roundtrips on Newfoundland since most roads simply lead to the last settlement on the coast and then end. What makes trip planning a gamble is the fact that only the ship's departure time in Lewisporte is fixed at two week intervals. Then the boat goes up the Labrador coast to Nain and comes back down to Lewisporte via St. Anthony stopping in the little port on the way according to demand. So we had kept pestering the coastguards (also extremely friendly people) for the past couple of days for the precise departure time. The next boat comes a week later, so of course we didn't want to miss this one. Unfortunately no chance for whale watching again, since the 13 hours on sea were mostly overnight. A merry group of seniors on cruise luckily all retreated to their cabins soon and left the entire lounge to us.
On another fine day we left Lewisporte via Route 340, survived a short stretch of the TCH, and kept cycling south on Highway 360. In order to catch the southern coastal boat in Hermitage in time to make it back to Boswarlos before our booked flight home, we needed to cover those 250km in two days! Given the "hills" on the route, an impossible task. So we decided to once more depend on the friendliness of the locals and try to hitchhike another pick-up truck. Despite the sparse traffic on this road, we were lucky again as eventually a retired teacher stopped and took us and the bikes down to where he had to turn right towards Head of Bay d'Espoir. The next day we made it (by bike!) to Hermitage, where we were kindly offered a campsite on the abandoned playground besides the graveyard. It wasn't far from there to the dock where the coastal boat left at 8 am the next morning. This boat ride to Burgeo took only half a day although we stopped at many little fishing ports along the way. Typically the entire community would gather at the pier to welcome new arrivals or wave goodbye.
From Burgeo, we took Route 480 northwards. Cycling through and camping in the barrens was a very special experience with great views, fresh spring water, blueberries and an amazing pink and orange sunset. After that though the clouds gradually closed in on us until we got wet again just before reaching Barachois Provincial Park off the TCH on September 6. Once more the tarp served really well, although it was a bit scary to see it flapping wildly in the strong wind (that from behind had helped us across so many more hills during the day).
On the 7th of September we were back in Boswarlos, where in our friends' cottage we could slowly get used to life with steady walls around us again. Before disassembling the bikes once more, the next day saw us cycling to Fox Island River on the eastern side of Port au Port Bay in order to cross the 1000km mark. All in all, this was an absolutely great trip, and I am very thankful for the nice weather ("best summer in 50 years!"), the friendly people and the beauty of the island---it is really more like a jewel than a "rock" and we're sure to be back sometime to see its eastern half!
I'd like to mention that the Newfoundland and Labrador Cycling Association (Box 2127, Station C, St. John's, Nfld, A1C 5R6) publishes the brochure "Newfoundland by Bicycle". It describes 14 shorter tours. We for our part though had taken topographic maps of most of the route and didn't rely much on the brochure. Highway maps are available from Dept. of Tourism and Culture, P.O. Box 8730, St. John's, Nfld, A1B 4K2, 1-800-563-6353. With the exception of one sideroad all roads we cycled were in extremely good shape; some just recently paved, like just for us!
The equipment we took is essentially what you'd have on any backcountry camping trip, ie. tent, sleeping bags and pads, campstove, fuel and pots, clothing and food, always trying to travel as light as possible. An large extra tentfly was much appreciated against rain and wind, although we were extremely lucky with the weather and didn't use it all that often after all. About the clothing and food: Besides making sure you are equipped for any kind of weather, you might want to consider taking bike touring shoes (they have pretty rigid soles ensuring an even spread of pressure over the entire foot) and padded bike shorts and/or tights--remember, when biking, every wind is a headwind and you'll appreciate any possible reduction in resistance!
Especially in hot weather, it is absolutely essential to have at least two waterbottles per person, and also make sure you have enough left to use at a campsite out in the bush without convenient access to freshwater.
Pictures from the trip will be shown on Monday, November 7, at 7.30 pm after the General Meeting.