Day 15: Upper Musquodoboit to Halifax Airport

September 13, 2003

It was a chilly 8C when I got up at 7AM. The tent was soaking wet because I wasn't camped under a tree. I was out of cereal and milk so I made tea and ate cookies and bananas. On the road at 8:25. The sun was shining and the temperature was rising rapidly.

I continued west, in a relatively populated valley. Rural but there are a lot of houses alongside the highway. In Centre Musquodoboit I found out where all the log trucks were headed. On my right is a huge pile of logs and a giant crane to unload the log trucks. The logs are chipped and transported across the highway in a conveyor.

Logs waiting to be chipped and sent over the conveyor to the pulp mill.

On my left is a paper mill. Fortunately I was upwind from the paper mill and didn't smell a thing. But the big plume from the paper mill was visible in the sky for many miles downwind.

Pulp mill at Middle Musquodoboit. Where all the log trucks have been going.

I continued on to the town of Middle Musquodoboit which is the main town in the valley. It has a supermarket and several other stores as well as a high school and a junior college extension campus. No restaurant, though. I stopped at the supermarket to buy donuts and some rope. The high school is very unusual looking.

The countryside became gradually less populated as I traveled west. At Elderbank I turned west on a road that has no traffic and no houses or power lines. After a few km I took the turnoff for Dollar Lake Provincial Park. The 3km road to the park climbs 100 m and drops 100 m. Half the distance is gravel. I didn't see any cars on my way in but a few people were there when I arrived at noon. The lake is very beautiful and has a nice 300 meter long crescent beach. The temperature was 22C and rising steadily. I walked around for a while and even went swimming. The water was chilly but tolerable and it felt good to wash off a bit after not showering last night. By the time I left there were 30 people at the beach. The temperature was forecast to get up to 27C (81F). This is probably the last good 'beach day' of the year.

I got back on the road at 1:15 PM, biking in short sleeves for the first time on this tour. I need to ride steadily with no more long stops to make it to the Halifax airport in time for my flight. The road climbs steadily for several km and I had a bit of a headwind. The airport is at 150m elevation. I got to the southeast corner of the airport at 2:25 PM but it took another 30 minutes to ride around the perimeter of the airport to the passenger terminal

The tour started and ended at Halifax International Airport.

While changing clothes in the bathroom I talked briefly with the Australian touring cyclist I had met 11 days earlier in Sherbrooke (he saw my bike outside the bathroom and came in to say hi). I got a bike bag and it didn't take long to pack up the bike. Definitely faster than taping up a bike box. There was no line at the check-in counter so I was all checked in at 3:45. By then I was very hungry because I never found a place to stop for lunch. So I wolfed down a Burger King meal at the airport. I departed at 5PM, changed planes in Toronto, and arrived in Chicago at 8PM. I was home by 9:30PM (11:30PM in Nova Scotia). Everything went smoothly. I was glad to have at least one summer-like day on the tour.

Distance: 78 km (48.4 mi)

Climbing: 540m (1782 ft)

Hiking: 2 km (1.2 mi)

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,287 km (799 miles)

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