2020 Wanna Try and Make it to Souris Again Today?

Sure... But I need some more time to finish these sandwiches and get dressed. The text messages were flying fast and furious, what with the ride starting soon and all. Saturday we'd been so lazy getting out the door, that we didn't really hit the road until after two, as Caroline took me up on my offer to ride my Versys in the event parking lot just down the street from my apartment, but today we were just using it as a meeting point to tie up some loose ends and gear.

All too soon it was time to roll, and we were off and rolling Eastward, with the idea of hitting East Point and looping back by the North Shore. Grandiose plans for what was now two thirty in the afternoon on a bright but chill Spring afternoon, but faint heart never, umm, If you never swing the bat... Nope. I can't think of the right cliche... We were having fun, and on our way at last!

You don't see these parked on the lawn in Ontario... 

Day Tripping - Charlottetown PE to Souris PE and return.

Charlottetown to Souris and back.

Today we opted to make time and take the Trans Canada across the river and make tracks for Montague, where we would try to pick up the trail that we'd left yesterday when we short turned and came home.

We got up to Pooles Corner just outside of Montague, (which is now a giant circle of a roundabout) where Caroline asked if I wanted to head to Georgetown, and I might have mentioned the Saint George pub in Georgetown Ontario, perhaps a bit eagerly as I fondly recalled their signature dish of Roast Beef served on top of a giant Yorkshire Pudding. Sadly, while quite scenic, Georgetown PE is a bit different from Georgetown ON. Ah, memories...

The George and the Dragon

 In fact, I think the first trip or two that I made to that pub was on my motorcycle back in 2005 or 2006.

It was good. No, it was great!

Everyone needs a fishing boat in their back yard. 

I stopped to get a couple of pictures, and Caroline pulled over to wait for me, then took the lead again where we had a wee adventure on the streets of Georgetown trying to get our bearings, then headed North East on Grafton Street where it meets up with Burnt Point Road, where we wanted to head North West and hook up with 3.  It was a T intersection, but it was covered from side to side in gravel. The only really clear bit was where the locals were making right turns. Caroline headed into it, warned me over the Scala G4s about it, and I watched helplessly as her rear tire swung out from beneath her, and down she went in a cloud of dust, but thankfully she'd scrubbed off most of her speed before the get off.

Did you get it? Are you sure?
Would you mind helping me get this off of my foot now?

This sort of thing never goes unobserved, and a local lady stopped her pick up truck and asked if everyone was okay, and Caroline assured her that she and the bike were fine, but the damage to the ego was  going to be the hardest to recover from. She preemptively posted this on Facebook, so my editor talked me out of the click bait titles for this post.

"She hit a patch of sand on the road and you will never guess what happened next!" 

"How do you keep the rubber side up? Three things NOT to do..." 

She's a trooper and a keeper. I love this girl. Read on.

There was an outpouring of support from our riding group.
I almost felt guilty snapping that shot of her patiently waiting for me to help get the bike off of her ankle.
Almost. 

We got the bike up where she took charge of it and moved it off to the side of the road while I got mine off the road as well.

Her highway bars took the worst of it, along with her mirror which had spun and needed to be sorted out. The only real reminder left apart from the bruised and sore elbow, was a huge crack in her windshield.

Note the crack

Jacob: It was the gravel wasn't it? Almost did the same thing last year coming out of work
Caroline:  Yup, it was the gravel/sand/dirt. Well... to be fair, it was my reaction that was the problem. It was just sitting there doing nothing. Hah.

I gotta tell you, if Caroline had not been leading, it might very well have been my bike lying on it's side in that intersection, and it would be even money as to whether I'd get through the intersection and head straight into the ditch on the other side of the road, or laid it down with too much brake or steering application on loose surface. Thanks for taking one for the team, darling.

Anyhow, I offered to end the ride and turn back, but Caroline wouldn't hear of it, as she was on a mission to get a photo tag, the same tag she'd hoped to get yesterday afternoon, it was the photo of a the underside of a bridge and a bike, so we pulled off at the launch just on the other side of the Souris River where the public launch ramp is, got Caroline her tag shot, then settled down to enjoy a nice cuppa tea, then some ham and cheese sandwiches made earlier in the day.

The Red Isle Riders group that we belong to showed that someone had gotten the tag already, ( I got corrected by Caroline, as it was NOT a Red Isle Riders post, but in another group she belongs to) but the new tag shot was a picture on a public beach, so after our lunch  we headed across the road and took a picture of her bike at Souris Provincial Beach, although with all the wood boardwalk, there isn't much beach to be seen from the parking lot at the moment.

Souris Beach Provincial Park(ing Lot)

Neither of us were enjoying the cool weather as it was clouding over, in spite of our heated jackets and grips, the cold was beating us down, so instead of heading further North along the coast, and up and around to St. Peters, Caroline suggested we head back down to Rollo Bay then turn East and ride a side cut out to Bay Fortune along the coast, where she felt sure she could score a new tag photo for the game, and hadn't seen that stretch of coastline in a dogs age. I was pretty sure I'd "been down that road before" but not recently enough to remember it, so this was another occasion when having poor short term memory can be a good thing.

Just off of 310 there is a fishing wharf out at the end of South Road, where Caroline wanted a tag picture of herself and not one, but TWO boats out of the water. Mission accomplished with perhaps a bit of overkill.

Bay Fortune

Moving pictures!

Okay, mission accomplished, she had her tag shot, and she pulled over to the side of the road to quickly upload it to the group so she wouldn't get tag scooped as had happened yesterday afternoon.

Point to Caroline. (I got an assist)

Tag! You're it!

Lobster season starts soon.

Google Photos suggested this Panorama...
I added it as it shows the lobster traps on the wharf waiting for the big day

And that was Bay Fortune. I quite enjoyed the 310, although both of us were now on high alert for dirty corners, and I could see that Caroline was still a bit shaken up, as she was holding back, and rightfully so, as it I'd really rather not ask her to help pick my bike up off of me today, so slowing down a bit made perfect sense.

There was one more bit of 310 that caught my eye, and it reminded me of  my rip across Northern Quebec and Labrador, en route to Newfoundland across the Trans Labrador highway, and that is stunted pine trees in a tundra like vista. I see it quite a bit out East, but usually on a very small scale, and it always catches my eye when I do. I made a point of going back for this one, but am rather disappointed how the camera seemed to catch all the foreground, but almost nothing of the background of trees short and squat in a carpet unto the horizon.

the tundra of the sub-arctic Prince Edward Island

I totally retouched that photo. Cropped in to eliminate the foreground, then increased the colour saturation so the vivid contrast of coniferous green pine would show against the browns and reds of withered and dry foliage of last year. Just for giggles, I'll show you a picture from the Trans Lab for comparison:

Somewhere between Labrador City and HVGB

Pretty much the same as above.
Should have just copied and pasted

Thankfully there weren't nearly as many black flies out on the Island as compared to Labrador, sort of none right at the moment, which suits me just fine, thank you, and I didn't resort to leaving Caroline for black fly bait while I skedaddled with my skin still covering my bones.

Caroline was pretty sure she was going to have a sore elbow for a couple of days following that ride, and we split apart as we crossed the Hillsborough River bridge as we entered Charlottetown proper, I to my bat cave (poorly lit underground parking at my apartment building) and she to her respite in the sun further down the road aways...

Tune in next time to hear how she sourced and replaced her windshield without my help. ;)

This coming weekend is looking nasty, but thankfully we didn't get the snow that Halifax and Saint John got today, just some wee flurries that are pretty much already gone and done that state change thing, solid to a liquid. Snow to rain.

Cheers!

P.S. Oh, remind me to do that darned oil change and sort out why my headlight decided to suddenly stop working.

2020 The Quarantine Rides Begin

I saw a cartoon today...

A time Traveller appears before me

Time Traveller: "What year is this?" Asked the traveller,

Me:"2020 says I."

"Ah, the first year of 'Quarantine'!" Says he. 

Me: "              " :(

Overlooking the Greek River on Point Pleasant Road PE

 Day Tripping: Charlottetown to Calhoon's Wharf and return.

A late Saturday lunch with the geese! 

And so Caroline and I started the season with our first of many weekend rides, but we also chose to ride responsibly, and that to us, meant social distancing and avoiding unnecessary stops and use of common facilities, such as coffee shops and restaurants, so we packed along a late lunch snack, and a thermos full of tea, then headed East to locate a spot to get tucked in to the grub along with a nice cuppa. 

It's early yet, but some seed potatoes are going in this weekend

A tributary of the Greek River

We stopped a few times along Point Pleasant road to take some pictures, as I was enjoying how clear water looked.

And being from Ontario originally, I love seeing the tidal marshes etc.

Another spring time view of Greek River
from Point Pleasant Road looking North East

We are really not making much time along this road today, but Caroline and I were both enjoying the scenery and she mentioned that there was a Photo Tag game underway in the Red Isle Riders group, and she needed a picture of a bike and a bridge to claim the tag, so I obliged with a couple of pictures.

Thankfully you can't zoom in and see how dirty these are. :)

Look how clear that water is!

You can still see some of the wind damage we experienced here last September
 that took out quite a few mature trees. There are many falls in the woods. 

Caroline mentioned that we had passed a road leading out to a wharf "back there" and asked if I minded having a look. Why would that bother me? I've been rubbernecking all day long.

We headed back to "Calhoon's Wharf Road" that led us out to an isolated unused fishing wharf that had a couple of swimming rafts still piled up on it. A perfect place to have our "Social distancing" lunch and tea break.

The Versys is going on to 97,800 kilometres today. 

There were four Canada geese out there, and one seemed determined to defend his rights somehow, and Caroline enjoyed our hard boiled eggs and crackers with cheese while sipping our tea trying to come up with the what's and why of the Greek River drama society players. I think a male was defending his right to the area and his female which was up on the shore. I wouldn't be surprised to see some goslings out that way later this summer.

Do not zoom in, Quarantine hair on display. 

I'm going to get into trouble for that last bit. We both have been having hair moments during this COVID thing, and my response was to hack it off in my bathroom and ask Caroline to repair what I couldn't see. That was a few weeks ago, and it's grown back. Caroline keeps threatening to borrow my clippers, and I keep volunteering to help her. :D

It was getting on to four o'clock and somehow we had expected to be up around East Point and on our way back via Northside Road (16) but that was clearly not going to happen, so we packed everything up and decided to follow Caroline out to Gaspereaux PE along 17 that would take us into Montague.

Murray River North PE

Poverty Beach Road and 17

North on 17 heading up towards Gaspereaux now.

So we meet a couple of other riders out braving the chill Spring air

Lobster season starts at the end of the April, which is very soon now. 

I stopped just south of Gaspereaux on 17 to get a couple of pictures of Graham's Pond and the wharf there.

My heated jacket was having a harder time keeping the chill out as the shadows lengthened, and I was pretty happy to be back in Charlottetown before the sun went down, where Caroline and I agreed that we needed to start earlier if we were going to enjoy our Sunday ride as well.

Cheers from the Island!

COVID-19 Impact:
And that is where the rides will stay until we put this virus behind us and it becomes safe to travel again.We also packed our food and declined to stop anywhere for incidentals. We paid at the pump while refuelling and were very careful not to bare hand the fuel pumps there. I have to admit the roadside thermos of tea and snacks was a lot of fun!