I could not get moving this morning. After sleeping in, I had a very slow start, and didn’t finish packing up until about 11. Once I hit the road, I had to head back to Windsor before continuing onto Halifax. I stopped at the Tims there for a snack and to use the wifi, because it turns out downloading different navigational apps really ate up my data and I’m almost at my limit. While I was there, a man on the patio started chatting with me and asking all about my trip. He thought what I’m doing is so cool, but was surprised I was out biking on such a hot day (I think it was the high 30s with the humidex). I have to say, as much as I normally love the heat, I did find biking all day in this heat to be a bit insufferable, but I’d rather take the heat than the cold any day.
From Windsor I took the highway 1 which cuts straight down to the south shore of the province. And along the route I had to pass over Mount Uniacke. It was nowhere near as steep as the mountain I had to climb to get to Cape Split, but it did seem never ending. At least I was getting some nice views, but the view of forests gets old pretty quickly, so once I reached Lakelands, at the top of the mountain, I was seriously happy to see something other than trees. It was really pretty up there, and it looked like a lot of people had cottages around the various lakes. I was tempted to go cool off in one, but it seemed the access to all the lakes was through private property. Also, since I had such a late start to the day, I figured I should keep going to Halifax.
I stopped in the town of Mount Uniacke to eat and was texting my cousin who I’m staying with in Halifax. He scared me into thinking I had another mountain to climb after Uniacke, but that didn’t end up being the case (he thought I was on a different highway), so at least I just had to cross over the one mountain today.
I have come to realize over the past few days though that Nova Scotian drivers are terrible. There’s not a shoulder on a significant number of the roads here, but I was staying on the old highway, which runs parallel to the new multi-lane highway, so I feel like if drivers are in a huge rush, they should just go on the big highway instead of ripping past cyclists on the only road that we can be on. It’s like the drivers here never got the memo that they’re required to give cyclists a one metre berth when passing. All the other provinces I’ve been in the drivers have generally been very considerate towards me, and then the Nova Scotians just seem to get road rage anytime they have to share the road with a slower vehicle. Like some of them squeeze past me so close I could probably touch them, rather than waiting the 10 extra seconds for oncoming cars to pass and then go around. I’ve seen cyclists in Toronto riding around with pool noddles strapped on their back rack to remind cars how much distance they need to give while passing. After today’s ride, I want to get a noodle that extends 90 cm out from my bike with a razor blade on the end, so the next time a car tries to dangerously squeeze past me, they’ll fuck up their car in the process.
Once I started getting close to Halifax I recognized the generic suburbia that I have to pass through to get to most large cities...the big box stores, the multi-lane roads with no cycling infrastructure and drivers who are seemingly shocked to see anyone outside of a car, the sub-developments full of cookie-cutter houses, the soulessness... I had to pass through that for a solid 90 minutes before reaching Halifax proper. Finally I made it to my cousin’s neighbourhood. All that stood between me and his house was a terrifying multi-lane roundabout, and a really steep hill. It seems as though many of my days end with steep hills, which feel ten times worse than they really are when they come after the 100 km mark. But finally I made it to Thor and Heather’s place, where they welcomed me with a bbq, beer, and a real bed indoors. I’m going to spend a few days exploring the area here, and enjoy being with family and a place to sleep that actually has walls.
Total distance: 106 km
Total elevation: 1,166 m
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