September 3 - Day 71
St. John's
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Of course it is a tired rider that faces the day today. We had a good breakfast on board the ferry, the sun is shining, the winds are forecast to be favourable, and a little adrenaline kick knowing that this is the end of the journey keeps me in a positive mood. The ferry unloading goes as smoothly as it could have and we are on the road without further delays at 10:00AM, about 3 hours behind the original schedule. There are some good hills to climb today but with the favourable winds, one level stretch of 20-30 kms goes by very quickly with my speedometer quite often over the 40kms/hr. Just about the whole group stopped at the first restaurant at about the 60km mark in the day and it is a good thing we did since there was nothing else for the next 60kms. I hit a real lag after this due to exhaustion and some really good hills but still made it to the outskirts of St. John's. I could see Signal Hill off in the distance and my GPS said it was a straight 13kms to it. The adrenaline started to kick in again making the last part of the ride easier. My mind was working pretty much on auto pilot so I did not even remember to dip my wheel although I did try to keep a lookout for Mile Zero but did not bother with it too much since my destination was in sight. The bottom of the hill loomed before me and it was the steepest section of road I had ever done without stopping. The worst was actually before the hotel we were staying at halfway to the top. Reviewing the GPS later, most of the steeper sections going up were over 10%. There was a small cheering squad at the hotel encouraging me on and as I got closer to the summit, another larger group was up there cheering me and the other riders up the last 1/2 kilometer. It was an overwhelming sense of relief when I did get to the top knowing that this was it. I had made it across the whole country totally on my own power (even though I did have to walk 3 of the hills) with only one injury and no serious health concerns. After congratulations and a couple of phone calls to family it was an easy coast down the hill to the hotel and getting my bike taken away by Bill's Cycle for packing. Thanks to them for being patient due to the late arrival of the ferry delaying us. After a good cleaning and some food, it was off to bed for a solid 6 hours sleep that was needed.
Sunrise from the ferry.
Fulton trying to get that perfect shot.
Final sunset over the beautiful St. John's harbour.
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