I had my doubts about doing the Kingston 600, August 5th. My wife and son had bad feelings about this trip. They always meet me in Kingston after the first 400. I should have paid attention. My son had had a feeling I would get hit by a car during the Coureur du Bois 1000. I did not only because I pulled away from Bob Kassel and ET in the wind. When they were hit I would have been for sure.

It turned out everyone was right.

Initially, I checked to see if I could use the 1000 km Coureur du Bois as a 600. No such luck. At first, it seemed I would be riding alone. That had me thinking. Since I decided not to do BMB this year because it interfered with meetings and practises for my son; Andrew's first attempt at competitive hockey, I had not been training that hard. I did alot of kilometres on my fixed gear but did not do any hills.

I felt the difference last week during the Foymount 400, when I just could not get anything going throught the hilly section. I am not the fastest climber but I get through and recover quickly, USUALLY. But not this time. I finished.

I decided two days before the ride to take my Bianchi. It would be it's last trip as a double with a 50-39 and a big 12-32 on the back. It started out as a 12 speed 70's , with campagnola components. I had upgraded the brakes and derailleurs. Still campy though and had recently installed a set of Veloce 8-speed shifters. They were designed for a triple so that was to be the next upgrade but I was still waiting for the right size bottom bracket. The mechanic who put it together for me had said 7 speed shimano wheels would work fine with them. I had ridden it for two weeks without a problem.

Saturday morning, at 0500 I started out with Mark Draper. I was quicker than Mark and pulled away. I had asked him if he had gotten a room Kingston. He said no and was going to ride through. I wanted to get to sleep in Kingston as soon as possible.

Everything went well until I missed a left hand turn on 22 coming into Hyndford. I had pedalled up the hills out of Hyndford when I realized what I had done. Rather than backtracking I pushed on I think it was highway 60 to Eganville. It was all gradual uphill ,through construction but I made it gaining a 5 extra kilometres before the checkpoint.

I got over Foymount Hill even though I had to use just a 39x26 for most of it. My gears kept skipping when I put them any lower. At the top, of the hill I flipped the bike over and adjusted the gears so they would go to the 28 without a problem and the 32 with a little skipping.

About 10 kilometres later while standing and powering over a hill my chain broke for the first time. A link snapped. Fortunately, I had a chain breaker with me. I had to drop a couple of links but still could go on. Mark caught me. I passed him again.

After Schutt hill, the chain broke again. Fixed it dropped a couple of links. With each shortening of the chain my gearing was reduced. I had maybe three gears that rode well. There was alot of skipping otherwise. My old system of using bar end shifters on friction mode would have enabled me to adjust, but with indexing no such luck.

I tried my cell phone. No service. After several attempts, high atop a hill, I got through to my wife. The reception was bad. I said I was packing it in. I did not feel good about the chain. I asked her to pick me up in Denbigh. I told her I would try to make it to Denbigh. Big Mistake. After that hill, I entered the no cell service area stretching all the way to Maberly, over a 100 km by the cue sheet.

I got to Denbigh about 5:20. I should have stayed in one place. Instead, I went down to the chip stand on 41. Mark was there eating. I ate an order of fries and the last of my peanut butter tortillas. And attempted to use a landline to contact my wife. No service. She had to have entered the no cell land.

I circled Denbigh going up Bridge Street off the 41 and onto the 28 to the juncture of the two by the Swiss Inn/ Restaurant ( I should have told my wife to meet me there or at least have stayed there.) By 7:45 I had decided to go around one more time. No luck so I decided to continue towards Kingston expecting to see my wife along the way.

My wife had gotten to Denbigh at around 6:00 PM. She went to the General Store on Bridge Street. She went back up 28 to 514 looking for me. Between 8:00 and 8:30, parked at the Swiss Inn/Restaurant at the juncture of 28 and 41, my wife said to my son "don't lock the door". He did and the car keys were locked in the car. They were forced to wait until 10:40 for CAA. During that time, the Inn closed. So they were left in the dark and cold with the mosquitoes.

Two different vans, a blue one and then a white one slowed to check them out while they were waiting. Streetwise, they pretended to go towards the rooms at the Inn like they had a place to stay and each time the van drove off.

Meanwhile, I had gotten to Vennacher and was on my way on the 509 to Plevna. It had just gotten dark and my chain broke again. I fixed it in the dark. Tired, unsure of my repair I tried to set myself up to sleep by the side of the road. Unfortunately, an overly curious fox kept checking me out.I remounted and rode part of the time and then dismounted and walked when I did not like the sound of the chain or when I thought I was so tired the I might fall off the bike. I finally made it to Plevna around 11:00 PM.

My wife had contacted the OPP to look for me at about 8:20. Unfortunately, she had forgotten the cue sheet I had given her back in the motel room in Kingston. She phoned the Days' Inn who gave her part of the information from the cue sheet over the phone. She didn't have a pen so she could only remember some of it. The hotel promised to fax the route to the OPP but didn't. When Teena spoke to the OPP at 11 they called the hotel & had the sheet faxed to them. They then told my wife that she shouldn't ride the route looking for me because they were doing it. She drove straight back to the hotel as instructed. But the police didn't actually drive the route until about 3 am. At that time they had 2 officers in the car & they drove the route slowly while looking for me. Another patrol car searched 28, 514 & 515 & the rest of the route. Still later the police tried to find me through GPS via my cell phone & would have if I hadn't turned it off to save the battery.

Meanwhile in Plevna about 11:00 PM, I had pulled into the lumberyard of the Home Hardware. I knew I needed to sleep off the ground away from bugs and animals. I selected a pallet of plywood sheets covered in plastic about 5 feet off the ground. The plastic was wet and cold. I found some cast off plastic wrappings in a scrap box,& made sure there were no bug. I put one sheet on top of the damp plastic covering. I opened my space blanket. I took my rear bag off my carrier to use as a pillow. I had earlier put on a sleeveless undershirt under my jersey, and put on arm and leg warmers. I put my rain jacket over that. I lay down with the space blanket over me and second sheet of plastic I had found over that. I ate, drank, used my puffer and settled down for a fitful sleep. I woke frequently from occasional cramps and from the cold when I discovered I had uncovered myself while shifting around.

Any police looking for me would have never seen me. I had camouflaged myself as part of the pallet of plywood and my bike was hidden out of sight amongst even higher pallets.

I got up about 7:00 AM. I had a gel, some fig newtons and lemonade and started pedalling. I knew from previous years that I would have cell service near Maberly.

I was seriously worried that something had happened to Teena and Andrew. At Palmerston Lake, I stopped used a phone booth and got through to Teena on her cell. They were surprised to hear from me. They thought I was dead. I yelled why had they not stayed put but then again I did not.

What a relief. We arranged to meet in Maberly where I knew there was cell service. I said meet at the juncture of 36 and Highway 7. I was still at least an hour from Maberly. Teena and Andrew had to contact the police and checkout.

I got to Maberly before they did and called them. They were at Sharbot Lake. I told them to look for the Ice Cream Parlour on the corner.

"Watch for the sign. NEW TAKEOUT MENU. " I went in and had a coffee and an ice cream.

When they picked me up, they told me the Days' Inn had not charged them for any of the long distance calls made to try and find me. They also told me an odd story that sometime during the night Mark had arrived at the Days' Inn and asked to stay in our room because Teena had picked me up and taken me back to Ottawa. Only problem was Andrew and Teena had not picked me up and I was sleeping on a pallet in Plevna.

Afterwards I realized I had ridden the worst of the trip. I might have been able to ride all the way to Kingston if I had not waited for Teena so long. I probably would have got in around two or three in the morning. I got in around two the previous year and rode the last 200 after a short sleep. It would have been quite a story riding most of the route almost single speed. But then again I think this was quite a story anyway.

I learned alot: pick a definite meeting place. eg. at the corner of 28 & 41
stay put carrry 2 space blankets
leave my cell phone on
may be get a GPS
never neglect hill climbing

As for Super Randonneur, there is always next year better still Randonneur 5000.

Bill Pye

Randonnuering Stories