Where am I going?: A complicated answer to a simple question - Heading for a (Colourful) Fall - CycleBlaze

Where am I going?: A complicated answer to a simple question

I had a really hard time trying to summarize my route:

Great Lakes? Not quite.
Eastern North America? Sort of.
Canadian Shield? Part of the way.
Eastern Time Zone? Sounds ridiculous.
Into the wind? Absolutely, but not specific enough.
St. Lawrence watershed? How dull. Who tours a watershed?

Hm, how about a loop around Lake Ontario? ...though it's less than 1000 km to circumnavigate Lake Ontario, so a six-week tour means I won't be anywhere near the lake, even at my pace...

Meh, close enough.

After labelling my route, I then had a hard time figuring out why I would ever tour in a densely populated, too-expensive ($40+ for an unserviced tent site!) part of North America at a time when it'll be rainy and overrun with tourists who are watching everything but the road. Not prime time for cyclists, so I'll be talking to myself again, too.

So why would I do this?

-Potential for spectacular fall colours.
-End of bug season. I have a little problem with forgetting I'm riding a bike when I encounter overreact to painful insects.
-It'll be affordable if I stay in areas with public land.
-Summer heat causes me to die.
-The Canadian Shield is stunning.
-No major divides to cross! In theory, this will limit the amount of climbing I have to do. In theory.

I have a start point figured out thanks to an offer of accommodation. At first I thought the rest of my route would be determined by where I have the best chance of seeing amazing fall colours, but some quick research suggested that would be an exercise in frustration, as weather throughout the spring, summer, and fall affects the timing and spectacularity of the peak. And even with hitherto perfect conditions, a rainstorm or hard frost can wipe out an entire forest of colour overnight.

As others flee in terror, this is what I'll be heading for.
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Naturally, the 2016 colour season is looking very unpromising thanks to a widespread drought this summer. Without summer rain, trees get stressed and colour comes late but leaves drop early. I was secretly hoping for a couple of hurricane remnants to visit my tour route, though by August the drought was severe enough that any strong winds would've been really bad for the already-weakened leaves. And by September, rain becomes damaging instead of helpful.

I know those long range, 14-day weather forecasts are useless, but at the end of August, I checked it anyway. What I saw was an unbroken string of little sun icons--unbroken until the day before I start my tour. For that day, there was a little sun icon with a couple of raindrops. After that, it was all cloud and rain.

Of course. I was not even remotely surprised to see that, it just means the world is working as it should.

Conclusion: Planning for leaf-peeping is futile.
Strategy: Find a scenic route and enjoy whatever it has to offer, colour or no colour. Even six weeks of rain will be an improvement over the past year.

Yes, I'm only saying this because I know the odds of getting six weeks of constant rain are so small that it's extremely unlikely Nature will be able to call my bluff.

And yes, this is a vague route description, but given my touring history--planning to bike to Denmark and ending up in Estonia--I can't responsibly provide any more detail at this time.


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