This summer I'll be retracing the last 3 weeks of the Coast to Coast ride in 2002. I had a fantastic time in 2002 and expect the same this year as well. Below are daily collections of my experiences with photos. Hope you enjoy reading the blog. - Brian Cox

Friday, August 3, 2012

Week 1, Day 5 (Aug 3):

Week 1, Day 4 (Aug 3):

Today is was pretty long, almost 100 miles. Got up at the new normal time of 5:30, dragging my self into the school to wash up and brush my teeth before packing up my sleeping bag and tent.

By the time we completed breakfast, we were ready to depart by 7:30. We had a pretty good pace going, by 9 AM we had already covered 24 miles and made a quick stop at the water stop at 25.5 miles.

Water Stops:

Cycle America sets up containers of water every 20-25 miles to keep us hydrated. Without a constant source of water we would have a really tough time on the ride. Sometimes I'll forget to drink enough water and then that evening I'll be taking a another drink of water every five minutes. In some cases, if you don't drink enough water, you won't be able to complete the ride.

Making pretty good time, we made it into lunch by 11:30 and were on the road again by 12:15.

The temperature was starting to rise as we we went along. We planned on an Ice Cream stop in the afternoon, but were not sure where we might find it. We thought that Port Royal might have something, but we blew right through without a store in sight. Fortunately the next town of Port Rowan was quite a resort town with an Ice Cream shop called "Twins". Within a couple of minute of us arriving, the many other riders also found the shop as well. I ordered a vanilla malt that went down pretty fast.

The rest ride consisted of several rolling hills as we would drop down to a stream then quickly climbed back up out of the trough.

Blueberries

About 3 miles from the end we eased back a bit. We were rolling through blueberry country and Lauri spotted a blueberry stand about .5 Km off the road. When the owner and his wife heard about our trip, They offered the pint for free and some blueberry muffins to boot!! Riding bikes allows you to make friends very quickly in a way that isn't possible if you are driving through by car.

We rolled into the Port Dover Composite School by 4:00, put up the tent, showered and headed off to dinner. Port Dover is a resort town and it was a short walk to the lake for drinks at the "Beach House" as the sun was setting over Lake Erie.

Ride Stats:

Distance: 97 miles
Time: 6 hours and 18 Minutes
598 miles since the beginning of the trip
1637 feet climbed



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