Sharbot Lake to Calabogie was a beautiful but tough ride of 133k with 1,970m of climbing, climbing and more climbing!!! The toughness was more than compensated by the remote ride through forests and by many lakes. I saw almost no one except for a few ATVs. Luckily when I was almost out of water I went through the tiny village of Levant that had a community park and building that had tap drinking water.
The route started on the K&P rail line, which had a perfect newish surface for about 10k and then it reverted to rough trail with lots of water puddles. Most of the route was on pretty reasonable dirt roads, with a few rough atv trails.
It rained on and off through the afternoon, causing me to stop many times to put on and take off my rain jacket and pants.
In the afternoon my right shoulder became very painful even with multiple Voltaren topical applications and at least four ibuprofen 400 pills.
About 5:30pm I arrived in Calabogie and my extremely painful shoulder told me to stop. I found the cheapest room at the Calabogie Motor Inn. They even provide shop towels for your bike! Had a shower and then went for dinner at the Redneck Bistro. Also got a steak wrap to go for tomorrow’s fuel.
Tomorrow I will ask pharmacist in Renfrew (lunch stop) what I might take to reduce the pain in my shoulder. It feels like I will have to reduce my daily distance to maybe 100k max and therefore hopefully be able to still do the eastern 2,000k portion of my planned ride. About 100k will be Shawville, QC for next night, where they allow camping in the municipal park.
My blogs from this 2,000km bikepacking trip and others are available at:
https://gregbikingwithoutborders.blog/
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https://instagram.com/gregbikingwithoutborders
http://www.bikeswithoutborders.org/ Please donate. For ~$100 we provide a repaired used bike, lock and helmet to a marginalized person, empowering them with mobility.
Happy Trails!
Greg Andre-Barrett
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