Off north to the Canadian border

    Once up and squared away, Jan cooked a delicious breakfast making sure I was topped off for my ride north. Rick and I loaded up my bike and gear and we shoved off for a twenty minute ride to the rails to trails I would take ten miles before merging onto route 100 north. Once there I assembled the bike and Rick snapped some good parting photos.  What a terrific time I had with him.  I didn’t hang with him during our school years but since then we have become good friends. I settled in for the ten mike teail ride and through Johnson, Vermont before I merged onto Rte 100.  After three and a half hours, a general store came into view, twenty-five miles behind me and it was time for lunch and a break.  The road shoulders were like rte 9J and 22 in New York State. The cars thinned out as I progressed north but the speed of the vehicles and the lousy shoulders made for a somewhat stressful ride.  There were reasonably flat roads along the way but the hills were there to test my endurance. Three hill walkers over Forty-seven miles wore on me but I prevailed.  My goal was to reach Prouty Beach and campsite for the night.  Once there I set up camp in the primitive tent area, showered and pedalled downtown to Newport.  Being Monday all the restaurants were closed. Wendy’s had to suffice.  Turns out the campsite adjoins a rail trail to the Canadian border and once in Canada, a trail goes straight to Quebec City.  There appears to be some road to cover before trail begins but the terrain flattens out, praise Jesus!  No matter how experience a rider is, hills are not a good time. In fact, they suck!