East To West Or West To East

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David Morrow

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
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Location
Vancouver, BC
I just completed an IBA Trans Canada Gold ride and among the other things I learned while planning and riding, here's one of the most fundamental things to remember if you're doing an East to West or West to east ride.

I live in Vancouver, BC and started my ride here. Day #1 would be from Vancouver to Brandon, Manitoba. I left at 2AM which was about 3 hours before sunrise. I arrived about an hour after sunset for a total of about 4 hours of riding in the dark. Not a big issue necessarily if you're not in critter country, but some places, like northern Ontario & Quebec have a lot of moose, deer, bears and others who like to inhabit roadways at night.

Circumstances (an errant engine warning light )worked against me and I had to call off the ride at the end of Day 2.

Plan B was to go to Halifax and start again which I did. Going East to West, Day #3 was from Brandon to Vancouver. I had about half an hour of darkness in Brandon and about the same going into Vancouver. Total darkenes riding time - about 1 hour.

Darkness sucks, especially at the end of a long day. Tip number two would be, leave early and ride the dark leg first leaving just enough light to find your destination when you're really tired. I had three day of riding which were typically 19 - 20 hours long. Don't waste daylight if at all possible.

So, if you plan a TC ride or a CC ride, give it a little thought. Do you want to ride with the sun, or against it. North to South rides are irrelevent in this context mostly.

 
Darkness sucks, especially at the end of a long day. Tip number two would be, leave early and ride the dark leg first leaving just enough light to find your destination when you're really tired.
Discovered the same thing this past weekend. Did 1130 miles on Friday starting at 3:00 a.m. The morning darkness hours wisked by in anticipation of the long haul. The return trip I started after the sun came up and wasn't feeling real good when darkness fell and I was a long way from home. I enjoyed east to west ride much more.

 
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