Background Story: New Brunswick, 2013

Rob Harris and I put a lot of work into the 2013 Dawn 2 Dusk rally. We pre-ran the roads for weeks, and were caught in some seriously nasty weather before the rally even started. On one particular day, I ended up with a flat tire, a mild case of hypothermia, and rode right through the middle of a herd of deer. But we knew we’d pieced together the best route yet, with a leg through Nova Scotia’s famous Advocate Harbour and the “mini-Cape” run north of Antigonish.

But on the day of the rally, about 45 minutes into the ride, we  thought about just cancelling the whole thing. It was a cold, crisp September morning and there was a lot of frost along the side of the road – potential trouble on the backroad twisties. When we hit the marshes of Memramcook, we saw this mist. The last thing we needed was a fog bank freezing on the road.

Rob, who was riding ahead of me, stopped to take this shot of my “slow group” as we sped through the marshes. I pulled over and exchanged some worried words about road conditions, but ended up pushing on carefully.

At the next gas station, we took an extended break to warm up and hoped to see the frost burn off, but it didn’t burn off – it got worse.

The riders were already out there, though, and in the end, everybody stayed safe and we pulled off the longest Dawn 2 Dusk rally we ever did, rolling into the Aulac Big Stop just as the sun went down. The hard prep work was worth it, and we were pretty happy we’d pushed on, despite the cold and fog.

Of all the Dawn 2 Dusk rally photos, this is my favourite. It shows what the rally was all about – putting in a full day’s ride, no matter the weather conditions.