Back in NYC,

All in all, my bicycle tour was a success! I had a great time, met lots of cool people, went to new places, drunk a little too much, ate lots of good food, partied, rode my bike, and did it again the next day! As Marco put it, we were like rockstars without a band!

picture: me and my bike(in a box) waiting for the bus to the airport.

Here is a brief write up of the trip broken up into places we stayed, no real need to write up on the first two days because all we did those days was sleep eat and ride our bikes, actually the first three days were some of the longest of the trip. I’m going to go right ahead and be a self serving douchebag by giving Kye, Johnny, and I pats on the back for making it to Montreal Canada in three days at a distance of ~400 miles.

picture: outside the first bar we went to in Montreal

Montreal, this was a cool laid back city, though there was a slight language barrier as French is the first language spoken there, but since many people also know English, it wasn’t too much of a problem. We arrived at a bar after a long ride up from Burlington Vermont. The bar was a popular messenger hangout and we were greeted by a bunch of locals there as well as people that traveled in for the bike ride to Toronto, some of which were familiar faces from the NYC scene. Long story short I met lots of cool new people during the two days I spent there including France, and hung out at a few bars, went to a party, and took part in a race, and a scavenger hunt.

Picture: this is Keven from Boston, he fractured a rib during a bike accident in Montreal and still did the ride to Toronto, he's in his fifties and is tougher than you and I!

Picture: the group in Montreal taking a picture before saying bye to some of the people we hung out with during the time we spent there.

Campsite about 50 miles outside of Montreal. We left Montreal at about 5pm, why so late, I don’t know, maybe secretly we didn’t want to leave. Now we’re in a group of about 15, all with the intent to ride to Toronto for the Messenger worlds, and we also have a support vehicle, thanks to Austin, from NYC. We didn’t get to the campsite until about 9pm, not many of us had lights on our bikes, and let me say when it gets dark outside the city, it really gets dark! Camping sucked, because I didn’t have a tent! I wasn’t the only one, so myself and four other guys slept under a tarp we tied around a few trees. I didn’t get any sleep as I spent all night swatting away mosquitoes and other bugs that wanted to eat my ass alive, and it was so hot and humid that I couldn’t just bury myself in my sleeping bag to escape the torture. Worse camping experience ever!


Ottawa (the capital of Canada), wasn’t as cool as Montreal. We only stayed one night, but we did go to a bar there and met some nice people. This was a side trip away from the route planed by the main group, so it was only Kye, Johnny, Marco, and I. One thing to note about Ottawa was that the alcohol situation sucks, actually this is true for all of Canada. I don’t drink much anyways, but when I’m on vacation or occasionally on the weekends, I tend to let loose. Anyways, in Ontario, you can’t buy alcohol at any ol’ corner store like you can here in NYC, if you don't want to go to a bar, you have to go to a store called, you guessed it “The Beer Store” and the beer store is only open till 9pm during the week on average, and I was told it closes even earlier during the weekends. Also Alcohol is generally more expensive in all of Canada, although I don’t know all of the details, I was told that It has something to do with government taxes. So for instance at the bar we went to, I paid $4.25 for a glass of pbr on tap, where as it probably would have cost me $2.00(maybe 2 and some change) here in NYC, and that was supposed to be one of their cheap beers...sheesh!

Prince Edward, Ontario. First I would like to say that the ride from Ottawa to Prince Edward was a killer, not because it was the longest day of riding (although close @ ~140 miles), but because we were working on only a few hours of sleep. By the time we got to Prince Edward to meet up with the larger group, we were all dead tired and looked like we had been through battle. Luckily we had a place to stay, thanks to the cool bike shop owners we met in P.E. They let us (all 15) crash in their barn which they used to store bikes. There wasn’t much room for sleeping, I was on floor space cramped between a bunch of bikes, but I was happy to be indoors.

Campsite in Oshawa, Ontario. With about 90 something miles of riding, this was an easy day of riding compared to the previous one. I got two flats during this ride, on the second flat, Kym (the only girl on the ride) stopped to help me out by offering an inner tube. We rode together for the rest of the ride, and ended up getting a little loss, but between you and me, I didn’t mind because there are far worst things then getting lost with Kym ;)
The camping was so much better than the first night of camping, the temperature was cooler and there were not many mosquitoes out, I slept like a baby under the tarp and in my sleeping bag, poormans camping at it’s best!

in Toronto

Ok so now I'm at one of the computers in the hostel that I'm staying at here in Toronto Ontario. I arrived in Toronto yesterday.

Quick update on my trip so far(only got 30mins of internet time):

Kye, Johnny, and myself made it to Montreal in three days!

Day one we rode to Albany NY. This was a very long day with lots of hills/mountains, looking back on it this was geographically the hardest day for us, but thankfully it was the first day, and we or at least I was well rested. We did about 159 miles that day, the longest I've ever done in a day. I stayed at a cheap hotel in Albany, while Kye & Johnny camped just outside of Albany (long story as to why we didn't just share a hotel room).

Day two we rode up to Burlington Vermont to meet up with Jacobs who was riding from Boston. I knew we were going to meet up with Jacobs, but I didn't know we were going to Vermont to do so, although this wasn't really that far off course, it's right near the NY boarder, and now I can say I rode my bike to VT as well. As far as the riding went, well it was another long day on the bike. less severe climbs, but still and all day event. We got a little loss in Burlington as we were trying to find the hotel. Oh and Kye got chased by a big dog, was kinda funny actually.

Day three was the ride across the border into Canada and into Montreal. We crossed the border in New York next to the border of Vermont. I expected to see guys there with big machine guns asking to cheek all of our stuff, but the border crossing was rather uneventful, which was fine by me. Oh and the roads in Montreal suck, I got two flats on a section of Highway that we probably shouldn't have been traveling on by bike, but it was the fastest way to get to the bar that we had to get to, for the meet up with the messengers in Montréal.

gotta go more update when I can, including the ride from Montreal to Toronto.

I'm not dead

Not much time to stay on computer.

In Montreal now, having a great time.

My ride to Toronto starts today.

I'll do a proper update when I can.

Later.

I'm off!

Tomorrows the big day!

I'll be meeting up with the guys at 5:30am 7:30am in Manhattan where the ride will begin. If everything goes as intended, I'll be in Albany at this time tomorrow.

Oh...and as you already may know, they'll be lots of rain tomorrow...damn! I knew there would be rain at least once or twice during my trip, but I was hopping that at least the first day would be nice, whatever, it's going to be warm out at least. The show must go on!

Gotta get some sleep soon.

I don't know when I'll have computer access to update this next.

Later

And wait, it gets better!

So last night at the bicycle film festival, I was introduced to a guy that’s also riding up to Toronto from NYC for the CMWC’s along with 3 other dudes. I was invited to join and at first I declined, I mean...crap...I've been planning my trip seriously for the past two months though the idea has been in the back of my head for even longer, I couldn't just change it like that! I also brushed off the idea because their ride is longer (800 + miles). The extra mileage is because the group is riding to Montreal first to join with a larger group of cyclist also riding to Toronto. I kinda hate to change my plans on the fly like this, but I couldn't pass up riding in a group, I'm in!

The departure date is now June 4th .

The rides going to be more grueling, for instance the plan now is to ride to Albany in one day rather than two days like I had originally planned, this means 140 something miles in a day…meaning that bringing my fixed gear bike would now be even more of a crazy idea, so I've decided to take my road bike. I didn't originally want to take my road bike simply because of the plane trip home. If something were to happen to my track bike, I would cry, but if something were to happen to my road bike...well...I would cry more ;) , but I'm going to bite the bullet and take my chances, with over 800 miles and longer days on the bike, I don’t have a choice.

Another big change is sleeping arrangements. There will be no hotel/hostel stays until I get to Toronto, now it’s all about couch surfing or camping along the way, meaning now the trip will be cheaper, but I'll have to pick up a sleeping bag this weekend. To be honest the camping part hasn't been fully planned out, I'm definitely ill prepared for it, I won't have a tent because I’m limited to what I can bring, so I'll have to hope that someone else has room in theirs, or I'll find some other place to sleep for the night. I also watch too many nature shows, so I’ll have bears on my mind while camping, especially in Canada! I know bear encounters are rare, so I’m not too worried…but still…I mean, a bear might mistake me for a chocolate candy bar :)

aaaaaa....ok, good luck with that.....

Some people go to the Caribbean, some go on a cruse, some relax at home(all are fine options mind you), but for my vacation I’m riding my bicycle over 500 miles from New York City to Toronto Canada!

Why Toronto? Well that’s the location of this years Cycle Messenger World Championships. I mean what better way to get to a cycling event then to ride there, sure I might be too beat to actually compete once I get there, but the travel there will be half the fun, and as long as I can get to Toronto safely it’s a win win!

I’ve done two bike tours in the past. Last year I did a ride from San Louis Obispo, CA to San Francisco (~300 miles, picture on left), and about two years ago I did a ride from Boston to NYC (little over 200 miles). This will be my first Solo unsupported tour, meaning that I’ll be carrying everything I need, or buying it along the way.

Some people probably think that it's a bad idea that I'm doing this ride alone, maybe they have thoughts of masked murderous on the side of the road waiting to get me, or me being ran off the road by a crazed driver, and I’m not saying this isn’t possible, but I think I’ll be alright, hey if anything happens I’ll have my health insurance card on me, but hopefully I won’t need it, because I’ll be in Canada at the time where health services are free! ;) Ok seriously, I'll be fine, if you can ride your bike in the chaotic streets of Manhattan, or the speedway drivers in Staten Island you can ride mostly anywhere. Yeah shit happens, but that’s where my health card and band aids come into play ;)

The bike: I’ll be riding my fixed gear bike, the Spicer.

The route: I planned my route with the help of Google maps and advice from other cyclist via mapmyrides.com. Basically I head north to Albany along route 9 then west to Buffalo on route 20 and then hug the cost of Lake Ontario up until I reach Toronto. This isn’t the most direct route but it’s simple, and will (cross fingers) keep me from getting loss or needing to look at my map often.

The plan: Leave NYC June 5^th for an eight day ride to Toronto, where I’ll stay and enjoy the sights and festivities for five days, and then fly home. Ride early in the day, chill out at the hotel/hostel at night with stops for food and drinks in between. To keep to my schedule I plan to ride rain or shine.

This ride is going to be an adventure!