Thursday 15 July 2010

A paved road in Manitoba

15th July: Carman to St. Malo

Odometer: 100 km, Start: 8.45am, Finish: 2.45pm, Avg: 24.0 km/h,
Weather: Sunny then clouded over, Temp: 15-25°C
Mosquito Bites: 73, Hills walked: 0
Road Conditions: #3 (15km). <1m paved shoulder + 2m gravel shoulder (good), moderate traffic. (I rode the gravel). #23, 1m paved shoulder for 20km! Gravel shoulder after that. Light traffic, good road surface. Services at Morris (62km). Ascent: 100m/80m.

Manitoba rocked for about an hour today. I found a road with a paved shoulder. It was smooth and it was bliss…

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Manitoba road with a paved shoulder!

Before that I had to ensure the #3 south from Carman. This was a busy road with a lot of big rigs. It had a <1m small paved shoulder and a large gravel shoulder. With the traffic it would’ve been suicidal to stay on the pavement. Luckily the gravel shoulder was pretty good for a change. Progress was slower riding the gravel but I didn’t have that far to go, so I just tuned out the noise in my left ear and finished it inside an hour.

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Crop rows and wispy cloud

When I turned onto the #23 I was shocked to be presented with a paved shoulder. “This’ll end in a few hundred metres”, I said to myself. (Often the roads around here have short paved shoulder stretches through towns and at junctions). It carried on to my surprise. I saw a sign soon after that read “Pavement Test Site”. Glad to see Manitoba’s at least testing the concept of paved shoulders…

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Part of an "experiment"

Apart from that excitement, today passed rapidly and uneventfully. The roads were very flat and featureless again and yesterday’s strong wind, although a little abated, was still helpful. I made it to another small French speaking town and stopped slightly short distance, not being that sure there was much further on down the road.

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That's more like it...

Tomorrow, if all’s well, I should cross the 49th Parallel and that can only mean one thing…

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Violet flower at the roadside

3 comments:

Hughie said...

I notice you great concerns about paved shoulders... I think you will not like biking in Newfoundland. I'm lucky if the white line is not painted on gravel most of the time.

R & A said...

Lilly fields I am envious

Martina said...

Enjoy the US. You will already be in the US as I write this - so have a nice day!
Mx