2013 The Cape Traverse Ride

Richard Point PE

Here I found myself with a bike in the parking lot at quitting time. Simply riding home just wasn't feeling right, and as my sister is a vegetarian, I thought perhaps I'd head into Summerside or Kensington and hit up a Grecos for one of their donairs. You know the ones that are easy to find in Atlantic Canada, but back in Ontario where I'm from, I know of only three outlets, and all of them are an hour away or more. 

That was the plan, but when I headed out on The Trans Canada highway, I thought perhaps I'd make it a shorter ride and simply take some back roads along the coast into Borden-Carleton and hit the Subway sandwich store in the Visitors Centre, or so I thought.

Crapaud PE to Borden-Carleton PE

While my Garmin 60Cx may be old, but it's rugged, waterproof, and armed with a topo map of Canada, can be a great tool for following the coastline of the Island. I found myself stopping for this picture seconds after I'd turned onto route 10, I found the Tryon River at low tide and just waiting patiently to be noticed. It's a beautiful area, and with spring, just beginning to come to life again after a cold, windy winter season.

Tryon River at low tide

It's a fixer upper...

Garmin said that this was a road, and Google Maps claims it's there too, but people respectful of farmers skirt the perimeter of the fields, and folks, when it rains, you are going to need a four wheeler or some good knobbies.

The Suzuki is running well, and brilliant for these stop n' go photos.

Try to get your GSX-R down this "road". :)

I think I'd best stop here at Cumberland Cove PE

Richards Point PE at low tide

Richards Point PE at low tide

You need a bridge to cross this baby, unless you know something about hydro-lock

Cape Traverse United Church

Wharf Road view of the bridge

Engineering test area for the bridge?

Confederation Bridge. Cape Journiman New Brunswick is on the opposite side of this ribbon of concrete

Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and more than a decade after its construction, it endures as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.
More about Confederation Bridge here

A hotel named for the MV Abegweit? It's for sale if you were wondering...

The MV Abegweit was an icebreaking railway, vehicle, and passenger ferries which operated across the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, connecting Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick. There were two vessels named Abegweit that serviced this route between 1947 and 1997.

The word Abegweit is derived from the Mi'kmaq word for Prince Edward Island, Epekwit'k, meaning "cradled (or cradle) on the waves."
More on the MV Abegweit aka Abby here

Confederation Bridge as seen from Borden-Carleton PE

Yet another Adventure by Garmin©

I came home to find my nephew Tyler had been out with his brother Ryan as well.

2012 The Tryon Point Ride

It really wasn't much of a ride, as the forecast was calling for snow flurries and rain, so I had pretty much decided that I'd enjoy the day watching movies and sorting out some odds and ends, when my brother-in-law Kirk walked past me wearing his riding gear saying something about taking his new-to-him BMW 450X out for a spin.

It took a awhile for me to find all my gear and get suited up in my insulated overalls and heated jacket, and by the time I had the bike running in the driveway on choke, I figured with the angle of the sun I would have a few hours before it started to get pretty cold.

Okay, I'll just take it out for a short rip and put it away...

It was cold! My helmet fogged up immediately at slow speeds, so I picked up the pace and headed north up Dixon road for it's sand covered chicanes, then back down County Line towards Kinkora and the Irving station. If I could handle the cold on my neck and feet, then perhaps I'd extend the ride after topping off the tank with fresh gasoline, otherwise, I'd turn about, throw some Stabil in the tank and call it quits.

Kinkora Irving

It was the Prince Edward Island version of a cafe race. I stopped at the Irving, topped off and had a smoke, and reveled in the joy of letting out the clutch with a bit of wheel loft and I was off again, but my choice of the Trans Canada was suspect, as it became the type of ride where you tuck your knees in as far as they will go, hunker down in your seat to get less windblast on your neck. I could feel the wind getting through my boots, and knew that when the light quit, it'd be more than I could handle.

I will admit to plugging in my heated jacket and thoroughly enjoying the heat it provided as I raced down the road towards Crapaud...  I was wishing I'd worn my balaclava in addition to my neck warmer, but oh well, you can't have everything.




Well, the goal was to have fun, not blast around on the TCH, so I took the first turn and headed towards the South Shore of the island, but over the past couple of weeks, the ground had soaked in a ton of water that turned the clay roads into muck, and I wasn't wearing any dirt armour, so I gingerly took a few dirt roads to find them in decent shape provided you avoided the wet bits and away I went on a combination of groomed gravel and asphalt until I ended up at the entrance to Tryon Point Road. 

The pavement ends here and carries on part way to the point.

This is where the road turned into soup. You could see the tracks of farm vehicles that had sluiced through the muck and left their tracks and ruts behind, and I decided discretion was the better point of valour and I rode back towards the asphalt.

Full stop. You're on a dual sport fella. If you go back with your tail between your legs you might as well buy a GSX-R 600, mount scrubs on it and only take it out on warm days to pose at Timmie's.

I did a U-turn, sucked in my breath, tightened my girdle and went for it. (In first gear while standing on the pegs) Okay, now I feel like a BMW pilot, so time to kick it up into second and enjoy the feel of the back end skating around (now that I found I had good purchase with the front). I was no Shane Watts, but I did my thing and came out of it with only a bit of muck on me and the bike. 

That's soft ground, that is.

Well, the shadows were lengthening and it was time to get this bike onto the other side of the estuary into Victoria-by-the-sea for the second-last stage of the ride.

The harbour is battened down for the winter.

And after chatting with a gentleman out for a winter walk, I pointed the bike back towards Crapaud and home after lofting my wheel once more towards the sky, content to roll it into the garage to wait for better weather in the spring.

Or perhaps not...  To paraphrase my friend Tommes, "Not the last ride of the season, but the first ride of the winter season."

Cheers!