Musings, in early August of 2008...
Puzzles: Where? What?
If you followed my travels in the spring and summer of 2008, you know that I haven't been planning this trip. Thoughts of a summer trip were wandering around in my mind, but a decision? That was a long time coming.
It was just a week away from my departure date when I finally made up my mind. Yes, I finally know where I'm going, and I think I know what I'm going to be doing.
You do want to hear about my arguments with myself before I spill my plans, don't you?
Possibilities... too many dreams
I'm heading to England next month to do some hiking and to attend a photography seminar in the lake District. That trip involves a long plane ride, so I thought I'd try to stay closer to home for this summer trip. Note that I said try.
My problem wasn't a lack of places to go. It was a combination of my decision to stay (sort of) close to home - in the northeast corner of the United States or spilling over to the bordering provinces in Canada - and of coming up with too many ideas of where to go and what to do. That's a good problem to have, isn't it?
I started with the thought of getting my bike and me to North Station in Boston so I could hop aboard a train to Portland, Maine. I was going to head away from home along the coast for a bit, then I was going to turn to the south and west to head back to my home base. One of these days I'm going to do that trip, but it doesn't feel right for now. I think my problem is that this is an area that I wander in on a somewhat regular basis, so it's not new territory for me. And I think I need something a little different.
Next my eyes turned to Quebec, to Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, a fjord and a lake. I'd thought that I'd ride along the fjord, around the lake, and back again. The area still looks interesting to me, but the more I looked the more I suspected that riding around the lake would mean riding around the lake in the woods. That may or may not be true, but I'm not willing to take that chance. Don't get me wrong - woods can be beautiful - but I'd rather not be surrounded by trees for an entire trip. And it's a really long drive to get to what would be my tour jumping off point. Nope, not now. A visit to Quebec will need to wait for later.
Then I had a really wacky idea. Well, I classify it as wacky only because I'm stuffing this vacation into a week. My idea? I was going to take the train to Portland (accompanied by my bike), then take the ferry from Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. And then? Then I was going to ride around the edges of the Bay of Fundy, following the road through Nova Scotia, across the connecting land to New Brunswick, into Maine, and then all of the way back to home in the northeast corner of Massachusetts. That sounds like a great ride to me - but it would take me longer than a week. Another not now idea. Hmmm... I wonder how long I would need to (comfortably) ride around that beautiful body of water.
Do you see what I mean about too many ideas?
Ah... a decision!
My eyes wandered over maps once again. That's it! New Brunswick! I want to wander along the section of the province tagged with the name Acadian Coastal Drive, from Bathurst east to the Acadian Peninsula, then to the south along the east coast, beaches, water views, and then... I'll head to the west along the Fundy coast. And you know me, I need to stop at Acadia National Park in Maine on my way home. Two Acadias!
My trip has morphed into riding and hiking, day trips as opposed to a pure bike tour. Two activities... I'll be sandwiching some walking - along the beaches on the eastern shore of New Brunswick, at Hopewell Cape, and at Fundy National Park - with some riding - in the area around Bathurst, in the Acadian Peninsula, and in Acadia National Park.
Rolling waves from different bodies of water will fill my vision, from Chaleur Bay separating my home for the first couple of nights in New Brunswick from the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to Northumberland Strait. And then... the Bay of Fundy and on to the Atlantic Ocean. Tell me, who defined the boundaries between water bearing different names that seems to an unknowing eye to just flow together?
Oh, you're right - I'm sure there will be trees surrounding me on my wanders around the province, but there will be water too... Now, if only I could find a way to make the water stay in the bays and oceans and out of the air...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Table of Contents
For now, please use Blogger's list of posts in the sidebar to follow my trip in reverse sequence. I plan to flip this blog on its head so that the posts flow from oldest to newest (like the table of contents in a book), adding a real Table of Contents and a Page by Page sidebar entry, and adding (better) next and previous links at the bottom of each post.
I probably won't be able to make these changes for the next several weeks.
...Denise, January 19, 2009
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