Day 96 (July 31): Neil’s pond to St John’s

Day total: 107 km

Trip total: 7510 km

Random numbers: 1 flat tire, 1 surprise welcoming party, 8 sandwiches, 10 extra kms, and 1 hill walked.

The sound of rain in the morning meant that we got to sleep in a bit and see if it would stop…and it did! We still decided thought that we’d try and find somewhere shelter down the road to have breakfast in case it started raining again. Sadly, before we could get on the road though, Victoria discovered that her back tire was flat, Grrrr! With Mikael’s help though they had it fixed in no time!

We got riding and stopped about 5 km down the road at a convenience store slash motel. We purchased some toasty beverages and settled in to eat our breakfast of delicious sandwiches (from Chris and Larry’s again) and read. We noticed a sign in the store that said you weren’t allowed to bring in food or drink from outside the store…..but we decided to be rebels and ignore it and hope for the best. While we were inside it started raining and we were pretty glad to be inside for a bit. By the time we were ready to go the rain had basically stopped…perfect timing! We left agreeing to meet at butterpot provincial park for lunch.

The ride to butterpot was nice but turned out to be a little further than we’d thought (about 50 km), so when we got there we were only about 30 km from St John’s! It almost seemed silly to stop and take a break when we were so close to our final destination for the night, but we were tired and hungry and decided we needed to recharge. The people working at butterpot provincial park were super nice and explained to Victoria that there was a picnic site and a beach in the day-use are of the park and that there was also a separate campground area. Victoria explained this to Haley when she arrived, but apparently she mis-communicated and Haley started riding towards the campground area, saying she was going to check it out. A few minutes later when Annika and Mikael arrived, Victoria decided they should just follow Haley because she probably found a lunch spot in the camping area. Little did we know that the road was long and full of many steep hills! When we got to the camping area we found Haley and she decided we should not have lunch there because we’d never want to leave again on account of the many steep hills. So we turned right back around and climbed all those hills again. When we got back to the entrance we decided to try the day-use area….the road was just as long and hilly so halfway down we turned back. Long story short, after an hour of riding up and down (adding an extra 10 km to the day), we ended up at a picnic table very near to the entrance of the park. We managed to have a good laugh about it over lunch.. riding to St John’s wasn’t enough for us, we had to add some extra hills.

After consuming our remaining food (Victoria expertly finishing off the peanut butter) and sunscreening up, we were headed to St John’s!! The last bit of the ride went by super fast and before we knew it we were taking a photo with the St John’s sign. Then, after almost breaking some traffic laws (no bikes are allowed on the highway bridge into town), we turned off the highway and had to stop to check the map. We were going to be staying with Volker, Cecilia and Mikael’s good friend, while in town. Haley was having trouble figuring out the map and after about 5 minutes Mikael asked if we wanted him to lead the way to Volker’s….he knew the way the whole time! haha, so we were off. St John’s is incredibly beautiful….and built on a hill. We walked the last steep hill together because Haley couldn’t get into her easiest gears. We thought back to the beginning of the trip when we’d walked the last hill into Mission BC and thought that it was pretty appropriate to be ending the trip in the same way! When we rounded the corner and onto Gower St. and got back on our bikes we saw Cecilia waiting for us in her apron and bright red slippers, waving and smiling, it was amazing. Soon however, Cecilia wasn’t alone, Courtney and Scott and Courtney’s parents happened to be on the street too on their way to dinner! Such a crazy awesome coincidence! So we had a little welcoming party to greet us in St John’s. We all had a good laugh about the serendipity and absurdity of it all.

The rest of the night was amazing with Volker and Cecilia preparing an incredibly delicious meal and hanging out all together and telling stories up on the roof top patio. Such a perfect evening! …And almost surreal to have made it to St John’s!

Thanks to the Mi’kmaq of Ktaqamkuk and the Beothuk peoples on whose lands we rode.. Simply stunning.