The wrap-up: part 1

October 14, 2010

The wrap-up: part 1

Well, a month has passed since I arrived in Montreal, and the trip that brought me here is still dreamlike. And calling it that isn't ascribing value--it was often good and often not, especially near the end--but the reality of riding everyday, with the main care being finding a place to put my tent so that I could sleep at night was definitely a bit different from where I had been before the trip began,and in thinking back on the months I spent on the road, they seem as unreal as real. It was remarkable, when I was there, as well as now thinking back on it, how much the ease of finding a good place to sleep determined my experience of a place; and that seemed to be a thing that changed suddenly by state (as was the case going from North Dakota to Minnesota), and more slowly in the movement from West to East. The change was overall one of increasing difficulty finding places to camp along the way because of more private property or more expensive campgrounds or parks that didn't allow you to stay all night. This meant that to camp, I had to get in late and sort of hide out. For me, that was tough. Perhaps another reason for that was that with no one to hang out with at the end of the day, I had less reason to find places to do that; but in the end I think I'm just a bit too much of a home-body to keep moving constantly: a thought that was a little disappointing for me to realize. One result of these things, and a good one at that, was that I started using warmshowers.org more. Through that service, I met some great people like Gary and Jan, Mike and Rebecca, and Stew and his family, who gave me places to stay, great food, and maybe most importantly, good conversation. I also happened occasionally onto good people who welcomed me into their homes, like Glenn and Trutti, and these were some of the nicest because they were completely unexpected.

Ted and Derek.

Lack of conversation that was more than the usual--where I'd been, where I was going, and what I ate--was one of the things that became most oppressive once I was on my own (after Minneapolis). I suppose it may have exacerbated, or been exacerbated by, the lack of solidity in my sleeping situation, but I don't think that was really a determining factor. In any case, when I did happen upon someone with whom I had the chance to really talk, I'm sure it was a little frustrating for them because of how much I talked! I guess I got a little used to having nobody but myself to talk to. That said, when I got to talk to someone, like when I met Susan, Marlin, and the rest in Bayfield, Wisconsin, it was like Christmas morning. Well, maybe it was like Christmas morning when you've lost your calendar and aren't expecting it. I guess if I learned anything on this trip, it was how important my friends are to me, and if that's the only thing I came out with, then I guess it was worth it.

That's me and behind the clouds behind me is what's left of the sun's rise from the Atlantic.

So how fitting was it that just barely two days after my 160 mile craziness ride from Newcomb, NY, to Montreal (I just wanted to rest), I finally got to meet Derek and Ted in a cafe? We ended up spending the day together and they convinced me (I didn't really need much convincing) to finish the ride with them. There were about 350 miles to go to Acadia National Park, in Maine, and they wanted to swim in the Atlantic. So finish together we did. We got to watch the sun rise from the top of Cadillac Mountain, which I'm told is the first place that it's visible in the U.S. The fact that the sky was cloudy that morning did nothing to damp the fact that the day before we had finally gone swimming (briefly) in the Atlantic, or that we had met one last really wonderful person named Ivey. A really fine end to the trip.
The only thing was that for me, it wasn't the end of the trip.
I had planned on going back to Montreal to visit my brother and then my dad and then my mom, and that's what I did. Now a month later, it's been good, and it's time to get back to somewhere and do something. In a couple of weeks I'll be back in the Bay Area, and I'm planning on starting that time out with a night in Briones and a stop at Rivendell the next day, which somehow seems very fitting because of how inspiring the latter has become over the last few years for some reason....

Now for a few more photos