The Great Branch Hangover

Branch, Newfoundland that is.

The following is an excerpt from my personal journal dated Thursday, September 21:
'Headache. Nausea. Rain. Hell. Woke up on the slope I pitched my tent on still in my clothes and with no water. Woke up to The Grays just arriving back with Greg after sleeping for less than two hours out at his house. They were chipper. Suggested eating breakfast right away and hitting the road. They were obviously still drunk. I laughed in their collective face, got some water from the nearest house and went back to sleep. We all woke up a couple hours later. Not rested, just too uncomfortable to sleep any longer'

Yes, that was a painful morning. Must be the altitude or something, but I sure was hungover. After a little sleep, so were the Grays. This pleased me of course, misery loves company. It was raining all the while. Luckily, the hall was being cleaned so the doors were open. The gentleman cleaning it offered us the foyer area to cook our breakfast and dry out. Thank you! The road to recovery began. Angie, bless her heart, cooked us up a big batch of pancakes with coffee while Terry and I spread our tents and gear out to dry. Locals were in and out all day saying hi to us and inviting us to spend another night. Alas, we had a schedule, loose as it was. We dragged out our time there and finally left Branch at about 4:00 in the afternoon, feeling markedly better. Goodbye Branch, thanks for the memories!

The Great Branch Party

Branch, Newfoundland that is. Branch is located another 25 km down the road from the Gannet's Nest Pub. As it turned out, there was a big party going on there that very night.....
After our visit to Cape St.Mary's, Travis toured us around the community of St.Brides, where he grew up. Beautiful little community with amazing ocean front properties for cheap. I think Travis will be spending his Fort McMurray dollars on a new home there. Anyway, after our tour we picked up a couple beers and went back to the pub? We cooked up our Petey O'Keefe (I love saying that name..Petey O'Keefe)salmon in the yard outside. We even used his recommended method: boiling it with onions and spices. Delicious. I'm going somewhere with this, really. Sooo, after dinner we all jumped in Travis's truck and made for Branch and the big Irish party. There was a group of traditional performers from Ireland doing a tour of Newfoundland and happened to be in Branch for what turned out to be the party of all parties. The place was packed, standing room only for the performances. When they were all done, the dance floor was cleared and a band pumped out music for the rest of the night. Newfoundlanders sure know how to party. The dark rum was flowing heavy, and as the bartenders got to know you, it flowed even heavier. I think Terry, Angie and I personally met every person in the community. Word was getting around about the off-island bikers crashing their party. Travis lined up a yard for us to camp on about 100 ft from the hall. I stayed up late but The Gray's represented and were the last ones out. As if that wasn't enough, they even went for a drive with one of the locals (Greg) out to his place for another drink. Just when you thought they were hardcore, after an hour and a half of sleep they got up and drove back to the Branch hall. Greg dropped the Grays off on his way to the docks where he was leaving for a 3 week tour of duty on a fishing boat! Wow. I always thought I had stamina but I guess I'm not from Newfoundland. Hats off!
Terry, Travis and Greg getting into it.

Cape St.Mary's

Ok, I've been home for over two weeks now and still haven't finished off the rest of the story. So whether anyone will ever read these posts or not, I must complete this blog.

The pictures on the previous post show some of the crazy hills we rode up after we left the O'keefes. The first two were probably the first and second hardest hills of the entire trip. Luckily, the views were so incredible we didn't seem to mind. Petey O'keefe told us to stop in at the Gannet's Nest Pub a day's ride away and tell them that he sent us. It showed up just in time. We hadn't travelled that many kms but they were tough ones and it had just started to rain. We happily entered the dry digs and promptly ordered a beer to reward a hard day's pedal. We soon were joined by Travis. Travis is a young guy who works out in Alberta and was home for a break with his parents (who own the pub). Before long, Travis was driving us out to Cape St.Mary's ecological reserve, home to thousands of nesting Gannets, puffins, and many other birds. It is what the area is well known for. That, and the cod fishing off of Cape St.Mary's. We had mentioned to Travis that we were going to go check that out the next day so he offered to drive us there instead. It's a 13 km one way road and it was raining. Terry, Angie and I decided we could live the "cheat" and took him up on it. It was incredibly foggy out there, you could hardly see 50 ft in front of you. Very enjoyable just the same.

Amazing Newfoundland Coastline

First day of riding in Newfoundland

Here's Terrie, Angie and myself just getting started into our Newfoundland journey.

Outside the Sobey's grocery store in Placentia. Planning and dividing up our food for the next 4 days.

True Newfoundland Hospitality

Ok, on to Newfoundland.
After our fun filled ferry ride that I mentioned earlier, I was invited by Terry and Angie to join them on their tour of the Cape Shore Loop. How could I refuse such a gracious offer from such fine people as The Gray's. So after doing laundry and buying groceries in Placentia, we headed south along the barely inhabited coastline. It turns out that the Cape Shore Loop is home to the steepest and longest hills in all of Newfoundland. Dark was setting in as we screamed down the good side of one of those hills into a small community called Big Barresway, home to 18 (people). Luckily for us, one of them was on the road and we asked where we could camp for the night. In his family's backyard was the answer. It turns out that this family (the O'Keefe's) has a long history of taking people in. They are in the low spot between two of the long steep hills. So when people get stuck because of weather or fatigue they somehow end up at the O'keefes. You couldn't meet nicer people either. Their hospitality and good nature was so genuine, it should make the average person feel truly humbled. After we set up our tents and cooked dinner in the front yard, we were invited inside. Close family friends had just lost a loved one and came by later that night to celebrate her life. True Irish wake style. It was an amazing thing to be a part of. The funeral was just that day and yet here they are inviting us in to share food, drink, music, laughter and tears with them. The next day as we rode out of the community with half a salmon that Petey O'keefe gave us (he caught it earlier that week), we knew we had experienced as genuine a Newfoundland experience as you could hope for. Newfoundlanders are the warmest people I have met in this country and the O'keefes are shining examples. It was an honor to meet them. Thank you Petey, Anita, and all the rest of the crew!!

Check out this link to see video footage of the good old fashioned Newfoundland kitchen party!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvXHu-6V1MQ

Trailer Park Boys and Alexander Keith's

Way back when, I mentioned the Trailer Park Boys. I'm now trying to play catch up with some of my adventures. It feels a little different now that I'm back in BC but I'll do my best. Well, if you didn't know already, popular canadian tv show; Trailer Park Boys is filmed and based out of Dartmouth and Halifax. The funnycool thing I learned while there is that they stay in character and costume all the time. The friends I stayed with had a few stories of seeing them in the liquor store or out at the bar (mostly Ricky and Julian). I guess people are always going up to them and offering Ricky pepperoni and buying them drinks, etc. If you don't watch this show then this really means nothing to you but if you do watch the show....remember in the 2nd season when they get Ricky really drunk so that he passes out and doesn't mess things up when the rest of them robbed the grocery store to get food for Ricky's wedding. Then Ricky wakes up in the vehicle, comes in the store to buy some smokes and ends up in a shootout against his buddies. I stayed just a few blocks from that store! Talk about a brush with fame.


I never did see them at the liquor store or the bar.

The other thing I wanted to mention is the tour I took of the Alexander Keith's Brewery. On this trip I didn't shell out money to do tourist things very often but this one was well worth it. The Brewery has tons of history and still has marks in the wall where horse drawn carts carried away the beer. They do an excellent job of the tour with a full cast of characters and you get a couple mugs of Keith's in the old underground, stone tavern at the end. If you ever make it to Halifax, I highly recommend it!