Camping in the rain … again!
July 9th, 2008 by becky
87 km, 5 hrs, 30 min.
Today didn’t start out as hot today as yesterday, but it was still pretty muggy. It threatened to rain a few times – a few drops trying to cool us down without much success.
We started off by riding along the Prescott-Russell rail trail. At first the bugs were horrible. We had experienced a few spots yesterday where they were bad on the side roads, but the trail was much worse. You needed to be going more than 18 km/hr in order to be rid of them. I’m not sure what kind they were, possibly deer flies. However, once the trail left wooded areas and was surrounded by farm fields the flies were gone. I do wonder if this is related to the lack or forest or the amount of pesticides sprayed on the fields!
We jumped off the trail just before Vankleek Hill. Of course, this meant we ended up climbing Vankleek Hill! We stopped for a delightful lunch at Mary’s Country Kitchen on main street. The chicken pot pie was excellent.
We made our way on familiar roads to Hudson, were we caught the ferry to Oka. The Oka ferry was interesting. It was a barge towed by a power boat rather than a ferry. They broke all the rules I had learned regarding towing safety! Scott and I were stuck standing at the front of the barge right behind the tow lines. If anything were to go wrong, we would be in serious trouble. Apparently, the government has decided that this ferry no longer meets safety standards and they are in the process of upgrading it to a shiny new boat that is self-propelled. We saw the new boat, but it appears that the Oka side does not yet have a dock, so it isn’t in operation yet.
Here are some photos of the Oka Ferry:
We are staying the night at Oka Provincial Park. It is a beautiful park with nice wilderness camp grounds and a fairly long sand beach. The only negative is that the showers cost 25 cents. We decided to go for a swim rather than pay for showers! The water was nice and refreshing and warmer than Ron and Wendy’s pool!
Just as I got back to the tent after brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, the rain began. It is really quite amazing how we manage to be inside the tent just as the rain starts! It will be another wet tent morning. I think it has rained every single night we’ve stayed in the tent. So far we’ve managed to stay dry.
So far, so good.
| Partdistance | Parttime | Partspeed | Distance | Time | Speed | |
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0.000 km | 0s | - | 0.000 km | 0s | - |
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10.035 km | 45m 10s | 13.33 km/h | 10.035 km | 45m 10s | 13.33 km/h |
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9.969 km | 56m 53s | 10.52 km/h | 20.004 km | 1h 42m 03s | 11.76 km/h |
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10.024 km | 49m 11s | 12.23 km/h | 30.028 km | 2h 31m 14s | 11.91 km/h |
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10.039 km | 2h 10m 02s | 4.63 km/h | 40.068 km | 4h 41m 16s | 8.55 km/h |
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9.949 km | 34m 22s | 17.37 km/h | 50.017 km | 5h 15m 38s | 9.51 km/h |
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9.986 km | 32m 55s | 18.20 km/h | 60.003 km | 5h 48m 33s | 10.33 km/h |
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10.042 km | 1h 01m 02s | 9.87 km/h | 70.045 km | 6h 49m 35s | 10.26 km/h |
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9.979 km | 42m 38s | 14.04 km/h | 80.024 km | 7h 32m 13s | 10.62 km/h |
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7.751 km | 1h 00m 31s | 7.69 km/h | 87.775 km | 8h 32m 44s | 10.27 km/h |