After 30 years of living in Canada, I saw my first moose today! Does that mean I can now move somewhere without winter?

The night before last there was a crazy thunderstorm in the middle of the night. The rain woke me up and the lightening lit up my tent like daytime. When I got up in the morning it was like nothing had happened.
Last night there was some crazy wind, and I mean flatten my tent on me wind. It was relentless and very loud. I was up for a few hours, hoping it was almost morning, but it wasn’t even midnight! When I got up for real at 7:30 the campground was nearly cleared out. I think everyone bailed in the night. I wonder where the hell they went? As a consolation, said wind pushed me up a few hills today.
And hills there were. I found the high part of these highlands. I had a huge climb for breakfast, the hard mountain for lunch and two mountains for afternoon snack. I was probably never much higher than 1500 feet, but the ride was steep and hard. Every time I’d roll into a lookout spot the people would stare at me like I was an alien. ‘WTF are you’ kind of thing. Or maybe WTF are you doing.
Getting out of Meat Cove was me leaning forward on my bike trying to keep the front wheel on the ground. But I knew that was coming.

North mountain was the first mountain and toughest. It started easy but kept getting steeper and steeper until I actually had to push my bike a few hundred meters through a pass. Between the grade and the wind I just plain couldn’t pedal it forward. I don’t think I passed 20 kph on the descent either because it was just as steep and so scary as hell. I white knuckled the brake all the way which was a lot of work too.
French and Mackenzie mountains weren’t quite as bad. They were more like one mountain with a huge flat top. The only level ground I was on all day was up there. That’s where I saw the moose. The descent for this one was also pretty frightening but also spectacular. I wish I didn’t have this ridiculous fear of heights.


And that was my day. I didn’t take many pictures because the views were distant and would be lost in photos. Plus, I was on a mission to get to camp ASAP lest another few hundred meters of ascent appear out of nowhere.
Tonight is probably my last in a tent. Cheticamp is another campground in the national park. I’m too tired to go see whatever natural feature is here. I think it’s a river despite being very near the ocean.
Tomorrow I am going to ride as close to Sydney as I can and maybe even right to it. We will see.
It’s almost over. Unless I take the ferry to Newfoundland that I pass tomorrow…
What a jock Chaddo. So proud of you. Get some rest and hope tonight’s sleep is a peaceful one. Safe travels. You’re almost there. Love ya, Ma
Sounds like quite a ride. Seeing the moose had to be exciting.