Tour Day 0--Deer Lake

Day 18—Thursday, July 1 (Canada Day) 2010
Corner Brook to Deer Lake 
33 miles
(Driftwood Inn)

We spent the morning exploring the area west of Corner Brook on Hwy 450W up the Humber Arm—through the little villages of Halfway Point, Benoit Cove, Frenchman’s Cove, Lark Harbor, Bottle Cove where we could look out at the humpy Guernsey, Tweed, and Pearl Islands in the Bay of Islands. Many of the little fishing villages we passed through had colorful orange and green fishing boats and plenty of lobster traps and fishing nets and floats. A couple of villages were revving up for a Canada Day parade: kids in balloon bedecked carriages, bikes, and even a wheelchair, many wearing the red color of the flag’s maple leaf.

View from a little restaurant where we stopped for a snack



Zebra rocks striped with quartz

There were several clear, stony streams crossing under the road from the massif above, on which we could still see snow. We got out of the car to photograph a particularly picturesque stream and let a hoard of blackflies into the car. I was bitten several times on the head and Suz was bitten under her chin. Our mantra for a mile or so was “Kill! Kill!” as we smashed them against our scalps or the windows on which they lit.

Butterfly that landed on the road near the bridge over the stream

We drove through Blow Me Down Provincial Park—very lovely park situated on a peninsula between Lark and York Harbors with private campsites in thick woods, but no campers yet. Oddly they had backpack fire extinguishers at several intervals and instructed campers to use them in case of fire. Surely they did not mean forest fire?

After this we were thinking about lunch and remembered the salads we’d left in the Belle Inn fridge. When we got back to Corner Brook we zipped back to the Inn and snagged them out of the fridge. Ate them along the highway in a raft outfitter’s parking lot.

When we got to Deer Lake, we checked in at the Driftwood Inn, stashed our bikes and bike rack in a “secure” basement room, and went to the room to reorganize. Suz is understandably nervous about this her first long ride, so snapped at me when I asked her to repeat something I couldn’t hear. Of course I am tired from all the driving and anxious about the ride also, so snapped back. We got into it for a few minutes, but looking at it objectively, we’re getting along pretty well for two so dissimilar women who did not know each other a little over a year ago. We’ve been together, confined in the car or in our rooms, for nearly three weeks now, even sleeping in the same double bed several times.

Suz stayed in the room to relax. To give us a break from each other, I drove to a nearby Insectarium and Butterfly House. They had acquired a group of leaf cutter ants and you could see their fungi chamber and the queen in her chamber. I took a bunch of pix, bought Suz a little "I'm sorry" gift in the gift shop, and then returned to the room to clean up and get ready to meet the other riders and the ride organizer in the hotel dining room.

We met in the Driftwood Hotel’s Jungle Jim's restaurant for our orientation session. Gary was the tour leader, assisted by Andrew and Ed. No introductions of riders or ride leaders. No last names. Met only Claude and Marshall who sat at our table, and a small family of three: Joanne, Tom, and their son Will. Gary handed out route sheets and a commentary sheet but did not go over or explain either.

When I asked the price of a tube if we needed it, Gary said that it was included in the ride price. All of us sat at separate tables or stood with no place to sit in the loud restaurant crowded with other patrons — poor place to meet; poor introduction to the ride.

After the “orientation,” we each loaded our camping/ride food into a plastic milk box-type container in the Budget truck, labeled our luggage, took the snacks and food we wanted for the road tomorrow, and then retired to our rooms to pull out our riding duds for the first day and to “organize” once again.

It is 9 pm and we are about to climb into bed to read our route sheets and our books for a bit. Tomorrow's the big day when we start our 10-day tour up the west coast of Newfoundland and into Labrador.