Life aboard is pretty relaxing – with a routine of swim, eat, chat, nap, and repeat at least twice per day. To shake things up a bit, we took the skiff out for an ice cream at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park on Sunday afternoon ($2 for a giant scoop), and went for a row around the harbour on Monday morning.

Thank-you John and Claire – it was delightful to visit you on your floating cottage. What a wonderful way to spend a weekend

Our morning view.

Scott reading the paper.

Claire out for a row.

Becky has an aunt with MS, and we both know people with the disease, so this is a cause close to our hearts. In addition to funding research, the MS Society of Canada provides support and services to help those living with this disease, their families and caregivers.

In order to participate, we both must raise a minimum of $250. We would greatly appreciate it if you could help with a donation.  Any amount helps. You can donate online by clicking our fundraising links below. An electronic tax receipt for your donation will be sent to you by e-mail.

• Donate to Scott’s ride
• Donate to Becky’s ride

If you are not comfortable donating online, get in touch with us, and we can arrange a donation by cash or cheque.

We made a stop by the main Nortel campus to get a few photos while it was still Nortel. It has been a landmark in our lives, so we thought it an appropriate photo opportunity on our way through. Becky was surprised by the lack of activity – we saw about five people the entire time we were there.

Us with the Nortel tower in the background.

Our final stop before arriving home was to pick up our storage locker key and our mail from the last year. This meant that we were riding through a part of town we would normal not bike around. The streets were busy and construction slowed traffic, but the mid-day drivers seemed nice enough.

We arrived home to a warm reception from our friends Kevin and Ali. They biked to our house to meet us, and Kevin took some amazing photos of us as we made our final pedal strokes down the street.

Arriving home

When we opened our door, and were quite puzzled to find a bunch of food in the fridge. Then we checked the cupboards, and found even more food. Eventually we figured out that our neighbours had stocked our fridge and cupboards with enough food for several days. Thanks so much Pete and Darlene – you guys are amazing!

A fridge full of food! We have such amazing neighbours.

63 km, 3h 50 min, Arnprior to Ottawa

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Becky was  mentally struggling during the ride. Being on the side roads away from traffic was nice, but it was also rather boring and the grey skies added to her glumness, making every pedal stroke a challenge. Shortly after an early lunch stop, we were pulled over by a lady with a camera. It turned out she was a reporter for the local Cobden newsletter. She interviewed us and then gave us some homemade apple sauce and tomatoes fresh from her garden. Her kindness put us both in a much better mood, and made the rest of the ride pleasant, despite the cold grey day.

Riding down through the Ottawa Valley, we saw that it is not only the centre of political power in Canada (the home of the Federal Government), it also has a variety of different sources of electrical power. As we followed the Ottawa River, we passed several hydro-electric dams, the site of Canada’s first nuclear power plant (Deep River) where the precursor to the CANDU reactor was developed, and the current nuclear plant at Chalk River. It was the source of a large percentage of the world’s medical isotopes, but has been shut down due to safety problems – an overview of the problems.

A bit later, we rode past what is claimed will be Canada’s largest solar power farm. We we don’t quite understand why prime farm land in the Ottawa valley was used for a solar power farm. We didn’t think we were exactly in a sun-belt, but apparently West Carleton is quite sunny!

Farming solar energy in the Ottawa valley.

Our last evening before arriving at home was spent visiting our friend Susan, her daughter, and her two dogs. Scott joined Susan as she taught a yoga class that night at her new yoga studio, Hollow Tree Yoga. It is a beautiful studio, and the first dedicated space for yoga in Arnprior. He enjoyed his first yoga class in years – it felt good to be doing something different from our usual morning yoga routine.

Susan and her two dogs Jerome and Hamish. Yes, Hamish is a giant dog!

106 km, 5h 50 min, Pembroke to Susan’s house south of Arnprior

Beautiful view looking down the Ottawa Valley.

See the matching signs?

Nuclear power in Deep River – the trees have all grown in and up such that the scenic lookout isn’t that scenic any more.

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Nice shoulders on Quebec roads.

The one disadvantage to riding along the Quebec side was that the roads were not flat. At times the hills were just as bad at the hills around Lake Superior. They made the ride more interesting, often providing pretty glimpses of the Lake, but also slowed us down and ensured that we were tired by the end of the day. Our first day after Barrie’s place we had hoped to ride 120 km, but only made 98 km. With the shorter distances and decreasing daylight hours, we soon realized that our goal of arriving home on September 15 was no longer realistic. We officially re-forecast our arrival home for September 16th.

Beautiful views of Lake Temiskaming. In the north, there were farms along the shore, but further south the landscape was wooded, similar to Gatineau Park across the river from Ottawa.

We spent one night in Quebec at the beautiful Bannik Campground in Ville-Marie near Fort Temiskaming ($26). The campsites were set in a nice treed area, the showers were clean and warm, and they had laundry facilities.

The continued ride along Lake Temiskaming reminded us very much of riding the along the Gatineau Parkway just across the Ottawa River from home. The hills certainly reminded us of Gatineau, and reinforced that we would not be getting home on Monday as originally planned.

By 5:30 pm, we pulled into the town of Temiskaming at the southern tip of the lake and did a final re-supply – fresh bread and fruit. Our plan for the next day was to take the shortcut along highway 533 directly to Mattawa, saving us 80 km and avoiding North Bay. We first heard warning about the “back-roadness” of this highway from Isabelle at Barrie’s place. In Temiskaming a cottager also warned about the road. Both commented on the narrow road, limited sight-lines and crazy drivers, so we were a bit concerned what we were getting ourselves into.

With the warning of the road, and no campground nearby, we decided to ride out to the rest area near the intersection of highway 101 and 533. This would allow us to tackle highway 533 on Sunday morning and hopefully avoid the worst of the traffic. The rest area turned out to have a nice creek/river flowing next to it and a treed area behind it, allowing us to rinse the sweat and road grunge off our bodies and set up camp with a little bit of privacy. Other than being a bit too close to the road, it was a perfect free camping spot.

Becky went for a quick dip along the shore of the river without incident, but when Scott went for his dip, he was surprised by a car pulling in, and driving toward him. At this point he was standing completely naked in the river, balancing on one foot and attempting to dry off. Fortunately, it was after dark, and the river bank was high enough he could duck below it. The car parked well away, and he was able to finish drying off without further issues.

Making breakfast at the rest area near the intersection of highways 101 and 533.

Our strategy of riding highway 533 on a Sunday morning worked out perfectly. It was indeed a “back-road” in that the quality of the tarmac was a significant downgrade from highway 101. In most places there was no yellow line, and the shoulders were made of loose sand and big rocks. On the plus side, there was very little traffic, and the route was very pretty, giving us many glimpses of small lakes through the mature forest. It had lots of ups and downs, only letting us average 15 km/hr, so by the time we arrived in Mattawa, we were ready for lunch, and to be back on a better road.

At Mattawa we rejoined highway 17, and would remain on highway 17 until Pembroke, where we could get off of it for good. The traffic was quite a bit lighter and more polite than we feared, making for a pleasant ride. Our map showed several towns on highway 17 that turned out to just be a few houses or resorts and had no services (Deux Rivieres and Bissett Creek). We unfortunately passed these as Becky was craving her afternoon ice cream break. Just as we had given up hope, a gas station / convenience store appeared in Stonecliffe and ensured Becky did not miss her day’s dose of ice cream.

We stayed at the Morning Mist Resort ($21) in Stonecliffe. They were definitely more accustomed to RVs than tents, but were very friendly and welcoming. Their sites were huge and they had a nice covered picnic shelter where we could plug in our laptops and check email while cooking breakfast .

As Becky was taking down the tent, she lifted the tent by the poles and shook out the dirt from the bottom of the tent. This was our normal routine, but just as she was about to put  the tent down, she heard a CRACK! The tent was now looking quite lopsided. After further investigation, she discovered that one of the poles had snapped at the join. Quickly she removed the tent releasing any pressure on the rest of the poles. Fortunately, Scott was able to make a temporary repair using one of the hose-clamps he has been carrying. It is nice that we weren’t carrying the hose clamps the entire trip for nothing! We don’t recommend this as a permanent fix as the clamp has rough edges that could cause a rip in the fly – but it was good enough for our one remaining night of camping.

 
Broken and temporarily repaired tent pole.

We had an easy day riding into Pembroke. From here, we would be riding the back-roads home – no more highways. Pembroke was also our last night camping. We stayed at the municipal Riverside Campground ($21) which had adequate facilities – it felt more like camping in a sports fields than a campground. We were glad for access to a table in the laundry room, as it started to rain just as Becky was preparing dinner. After dinner, as Becky was sitting in the tent with lightening and rain all around, she was reminded of our journey around Lake Ontario last June. It was appropriate that our last night in the tent would be so similar to our first!

113 km, 7h 20 min, Bannik Campground, Quebec to rest area

125 km, 8h, Ouest-Duhamel rest area to Stonecliffe

84 km, 4h 30 min, Stonecliffe to Pembroke

We saw these crosses all along the Quebec shore of Lake Temiskaming. We’ve never seen crosses like this before, but we assume that the ladder, hammer and pliers are a reference to the tools used to crucify Jesus. Can anyone confirm?

Lunch by a small lake East of Lake Temiskaming along highway 101 in Quebec.

Welcome back to Ontario!

Our first sight of the Ottawa River. Almost home!

Railway bridge across the Ottawa River.

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Lots of loose gravel on these roads.

After a thorough examination, Scott was diagnosed with a few scrapes on his knee, a small chunk out of the palm of one hand, a bruised butt, and very bruised pride! Fortunately both he and his bike survived, however the seat got another dent from the handlebars, the front sprocket and chain tube filled with sand and the utility bar cracked – good thing we don’t regularly ride at night, since he now has no place to attach his front light.

Our advice: slow down descending hills when the gravel might be loose!

Scott’s scratched up knee – ouch!

After a brief cleanup of bike and rider, we were on our way again. Fortunately the rest of the day was much less eventful. We crossed into Quebec, Scott said goodbye to his faithful utility bar at the Notre Dame du Nord tourist info, and we ended the day at La Bannik; a nice (if expensive) full-service campground near Fort Temiscamingue.

Goodbye utility bar!

98 km, 6h 50min, Kenabeek to Bennik Campground in Ouest-Duhamel

We’re certainly in farm country again – look at the roads, all straight lines and right angles.

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We had planned to camp at the rest area near Swan Lake; however, just before the rest area a campground appeared. In Timmins we decided to splurge for campgrounds for our last few days in Ontario, so with the prospect of a warm shower, we opted for the Swan Lake Campground ($22). The owners were very friendly, and the facilities were quite nice. One of them explained that they were not listed in the Ontario Campground book because it would cost them over $400 to register. We found the book to be useless as very few campgrounds are actually listed in it!

We are now back into farm land.

The next day, we had arranged to spend the night at Warmshowers host Barrie’s “log house” in Kenabeek. We had no idea what to expect, and were delighted when Barrie rode out to meet us. He led us through various farm roads onto a ridge, then into the middle of a beautiful forest.

Barrie lives in a beautiful log home surrounded by forest, with a small stream running out the back. The house is off-grid, so power is provided either by his hydro generator – when the stream has enough water – or by a backup diesel generator. He has running water which comes from the stream and he gets his drinking water from a natural spring elsewhere on the property. When we arrived, his hot water heater was broken (and had been for several years), so if we wanted a hot shower, we were out of luck. Fortunately, we were more than happy to exchange that hot shower for a swim in a small lake nearby. We all hopped into his old VW van and drove down the road following some narrow pathways – that only a local could navigate – to be presented with the most beautifully picturesque small lake, completely surrounded by forest. We only wish one of us had thought to bring a camera! We thoroughly enjoyed a swim in the silky smooth water.

A small peek inside Barrie’s home.

South wall of the house.

After our swim we enjoyed a narrated walk through the woods. The forest on Barrie’s property had burned almost completely in 1920 and was allowed to grow back naturally. After the fire, it began as almost 100% jack pine, but is now about 20% jack pine with a mix of other species. The jack pine is a determinant tree with an 80-90 year lifespan, so as the older trees die they are replaced by different – indeterminant – tree varieties.  In a natural forest the jack pine only grows after a large fire, but forest companies seed with jack pine in their “managed forests” because it grows quickly and can be harvested in only 60-80 years.

To end a perfectly delightful afternoon, we enjoyed some of the best squash soup we have ever had. Barrie’s friend Dada (an Ananda Marga monk)  made the soup using vegetables from Barrie’s huge organic garden. We were also joined by Isabelle, a cycling friend of Barrie’s. A wonderful evening of conversation and yummy food.

In the morning, we were able to do our regular yoga routine in the main room of Barrie’s house. He has hosted yoga retreats here, and he and Dada each do their own morning yoga practice, so the house was used it <grin>. Breakfast was a wonderful meal of quinoa and ground nuts, made exactly how we liked it (because we each mixed our own). Becky really enjoyed the Eastern Ontario taste of real maple syrup – we must be getting close to home! Becky was also delighted when Barrie offered her some coffee and he pulled out her favourite Kicking Horse Kick Ass coffee. Unfortunately, the coffee was whole bean and the coffee grinder required power. This problem was quickly sorted by walking with the coffee grinder up to the garage to start the diesel generator.  Perhaps a bit much just to grind some coffee, but it made Becky very happy.  She can’t think of a better way to start the day than good food and yummy coffee.

114 km, 6h 50 minutes, Timmins to Swan Lake Campground
92 km, 6h, Swan Lake Campground to Kenabeek

Squash and pumpkins bring fall colour to Scott’s loaded bike.

Barrie, Becky, and Dada in front of a bright barrel of winter squash.

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Welcome to Timmins! It is appropriate that the backdrop to the sign is an industrial plant, if not a mine. This is the Grant Forest Products Oriented Strand Board mill, which has been closed since 2006 due to a contract dispute.

Timmins is a gold mining town through-and-through. As the price of gold fluctuates, so does the job market in Timmins. Whenever there is a significant increase in the price of gold, older mines are re-visited as it becomes economical to recover the smaller pieces of gold. The people in town are accustomed to mines opening, closing, and moving. They recently moved the golf course in order to re-mine the land underneath it, since it had been built on the tailings of a previous mine. They have moved many homes as the land underneath them became a valuable source of gold. It is the nature of a mining town, that the mines – which equate to jobs and the livelihood of the town – dictate the shape of the community.

Timmins is also proud to be the birthplace and former home of Shania Twain (before she got famous and moved to Switzerland). To honour her success and in the hopes of bringing tourists to Timmins, the town built the beautiful Shania Twain Interpretation Centre in front of the Timmins Gold Mine Tour. Unfortunately, the Centre was built on land that is now suffering from sink-holes due to the underground mining. It is also scheduled to be re-mined. It is somewhat appropriate that you must drive through an open pit mine in order to visit the Shania Twain Centre. Apparently, it does not draw the large number of tourists the town had hoped. When we drove by, the parking lot only had one car in it – the Shania Twain Centre SUV!

The empty Shania Twain Centre parking lot.

From our perspective, the Gold Mine Tour sounded much more interesting. The “gig” with that tour, is that they dress you up in old fashioned mining outfits before taking you down into an old mine shaft. It would be worth it just to wear the clothes and get some fun photos!

Tailings from one of the active gold mines.

The picturesque McIntyre Headframe, a landmark that defines Timmins. The wreath on the headframe was made by a metal-working class at the high school.  When Becky first saw the headframe, she thought it was a grain elevator!

Scott and Becky with the statue of Mr. Schumacher. Mr. Schumacher was a philanthropist and philosopher. To this day, his estate gives Christmas gifts to all the kids at the Schumacher school.

The Porcupine (a suburb of Timmins) Miner’s Memorial. This is beside what was a lovely park with ball diamonds, which was dug up a few years ago by an Australian syndicate looking to re-mine the tailings. That was par for the course, but unfortunately there was no money put in escrow for rebuilding the site after the mining, and the syndicate found nothing of value, so just gave up and left. It’s now a weed-filled field. Hopefully Timmins City Council won’t make that mistake again.

The Hollinger Mine tour, behind the Shania Twain Centre. Unfortunately, the tour was not running on the days we were in town.

Becky with Charles and Mary. Thanks so much for such a wonderful welcome in Timmins!

Not so nice gravel road.

Beautiful scenery on a nice sunny day – makes up for the road conditions!

We had not really planned on crossing back into the Arctic Watershed on this journey, so we were taken by surprise when the sign appeared shortly after the Shoals Provincial Park. On our day of lasts we had thought we were finished with all this divide stuff – but alas, we crossed back into the Arctic watershed, and now are guaranteed at least one more divide when we cross back into the Atlantic Watershed in order to follow the Ottawa River home.

Wild camping for three nights with Martin and Nadine filled us with confidence in our abilities. We spent the afternoon doing laundry and stocking up in Wawa, then proceeded to head out of town with the plan of finding a nice quiet camping spot for the night.

When the rest area on the map did not appear, we pulled over onto a boat launch at the Eastern end of Lake Wawa and made dinner. It was picturesque and relaxing, but also too close to the road for camping – especially on a Friday night.

Further down the road, we found a side road that opened onto a gravel pit that was surrounded by trees and ATV pathways. We chose a spot above the pit along one of the sides. It provided us with a view of the gravel pit and surrounding areas, however the area was rather rocky – so we thank the Thermarest Gods that our sleeping pads work well when spread over gravel. Becky did not want to camp in the pit because it felt too much like being inside a fish bowl.

Having picked a spot for camping, we were off to the treed area looking for a place to hang our food. This turned out to be much more painful and stressful than either of us liked. After over an hour of tossing random things into trees and not being able to get a clear line, Becky suggested we just leave the food 100 meters away from us in the middle of the gravel pit – it was late, and our attempts at hanging were not improving with fatigue and darkness. On the walk back to the tent, it occurred to Scott that we could just hang the food over the edge of the gravel pit. Well D’uh! We should have thought of that much sooner. The process turned out to be rather simple and was easily achieved by Scott while Becky set up the tent. We certainly should have thought of “hanging” from the ground level well before considering hanging from a tree.

It was well after dark by the time we crawled into the tent. With our food safely stowed and us camped well off the highway, one would think we were in for a peaceful night. And we were, until 4 a.m. when some random folks on ATVs came thundering into the center of the gravel pit (glad we were not camped down there). They must have caught sight of our food bags with their headlights and upon further inspection saw our tent. We heard:

“Is that a tent?” “Wow”
“Those must be cables over there, we shouldn’t f**k with them”

We’re guessing that the reflective patches of our food bags caught their eyes, appearing to hang in mid-air over the side of the gravel pit. We’re glad that discouraged them from riding that edge, since the path went right past our tent.

After a couple of loops around the pit, off they went. We heard the bumble bee sounds of distant ATVs a couple more times before things were quiet for the rest of the night.

We awoke to a crazy layer of fog, which made it impossible to see the bottom of the gravel pit. The fog meant we couldn’t get a quick start in the morning, as the roads would not be safe. In addition, it meant that everything was wet. Rather than pack up and run, Becky went berry picking – she had noticed a bunch of raspberry and blueberry bushes near the entrance to the gravel pit. For breakfast we enjoyed a feast of fresh berries atop our hearty oatmeal.

Making breakfast on a foggy morning.

Wonderful fresh berries.

Our lunch stop lined up nicely with Potholes Provincial Park, a tiny day-use nature reserve with parking, pit toilets and a trail to the potholes. It was a lovely place to stop for lunch – the trail was rideable for the first 300m, so we walked the last bit and had a lovely lunch beside the burbling creek and the water-carved potholes which give the park its name.

That night, we pulled into Shoals Provincial Park with the plan of just having dinner there. However, our dinner preparation took longer than planned and the lake was nice and warm, so we changed our plans and set up camp at the park. Again hanging our food became a challenge. At the park there were many more trees that presented much better options than in the gravel pit (the brush under the trees was cleared, making it much easier to wrap the line around trees); however, our two tree approach was proving to be not nearly as simple as we first thought (we must have been lucky the first two times we tried it). One issue was that we really did not have a long enough rope – we’re missing the three meters we left stuck in the tree near Thunder Bay! Eventually, we did manage to get the food hung between two trees, but not nearly as high up as it should have been (within reach of Scott if he stretched). Fortunately, we were in a provincial park and didn’t see any “habituated bear” warnings, so did not worry too much about it.

Sunset at the Shoals Provincial Park.

For our final night before arriving in Timmins, we decided to camp at a park rather than wild camp. The whole act of hanging our food was causing us both too much stress and frustration at the end of the day. We headed toward the Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park but came across the Red Pine Lodge first. They had a beautiful campsite right on the water. It was on the edge of a trailer park with a fair bit of activity, so there was no worry about food storage – we could just leave the bags in our vestibule for the night. After a wonderful hot shower (our first since Aug 31, so it felt rather luxurious), we crawled into our tents and promptly fell fast asleep.

Woodpecker at the Red Pine Lodge campground. 

86 km, 5h 45min – Gravel Pit to The Shoals provincial park
141 km, 7h 45 min – Shoals Provincial Park to Red Lodge campground at Ivanhoe Lake
117 km – 6h 30 min to Timmins

Scott enjoying a beautiful day.

Becky preparing to climb another hill.

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Our beautiful lunch picnic spot.

We stopped for lunch and enjoyed some of Lake Superior – we used (boiled) lake water to make our noodles. We also took that opportunity to dry out our wet tent and tarp since our camping spot didn’t have any morning sun. Just as we were finishing lunch and getting ready to go, a couple of other touring cyclists pulled up. Martin and Nadine have been on the road for 6 years, and are into the last 9-months of a round-the-world bicycle and canoe tour. They have cycled over 85,000 kilometers and spent several months canoeing in various parts of the world. Very adventurous!

Scott chatting with Martin and Nadine.

Since we were heading the same direction, we hopped back on our bikes and enjoyed several hours of conversation. After many days on the road, it’s wonderful to have new people to talk to for a while. When we came upon the Tourist Info Centre in Schreiber and discovered free wifi, Scott and Martin immediately sat down to do their daily Internet tasks. At one point there were all four of us sitting on a bench – Martin and Nadine sharing their laptop and us with ours. We must have made a truely geeky sight. After a brief break, we were back on the road.

Since we were having such a great time together, we decided join forces for a few days while our paths intersected. Given their long journey and ultra low budget, Martin and Nadine almost always wild camp. We would wild camp for one night now and then, but generally we stayed in campgrounds when they presented themselves. Wild camping is definitely cheaper, but requires a little more organization and forethought (at least for us). We normally don’t carry enough water to wild camp, so we needed to plan ahead. Camping with others would make it easier for us, but going for so many days without a campground (and shower) would also be a stretch (especially for Becky).

When wild camping, water is our most critical resource. Unfortunately, in Schreiber, Scott got distracted by the Internet and forgot to fill his water bladder – leaving us without enough water for cleaning. We were OK for cooking, but would not have enough to wipe the salt off of us at the end of the day. For Becky, this is critical, which meant that we had to find a wild camping site with access to water for cleaning. A trick we were reminded of later was to carry some baby wipes, for those times when water isn’t readily available and cleaning is necessary. The wipes are also handy for cleaning up dishes when water is limited.

Fortunately, a river with a pullout appeared just as we were contemplating where to camp for the night. A couple in a car had pulled onto the trail just before we pulled in and they too were looking for a spot to put up their tent for the night. It turned out that following the road brought us to a nice clearing where we could all set up our tents and there was a path leading down to the river (a little steep, but still accessible).

While the girls set up tents and prepared dinner, the boys went to find trees to hang food for the night. Scott and Martin compared methods – giving us one more way to hang food, which required only one tree and less line.

Martin, Nadine, and Scott enjoying breakfast at our campsite.

Our second night together was spent camping just outside Neys Provincial Park. Rather than hanging our food on two separate trees, the boys setup our food to be hung from the same line (with two pulleys and pull lines, but only one base line). This required only finding one “ideal” tree – much less painful.

All our food bags hung on the same tree. Probably a total of 30-35 kg!

For our third night, we decided to stop a little earlier and find a nice location near a lake. Thanks to Scott’s GPS, we were able to find a road with a small patch of lake access about 1.5km down the road. There was no sign of the lake from the road, so without the GPS we likely would never have found it. We saw no signs of life as we set up, so we were able to enjoy skinny dipping in the lake, but later we heard ATVs in the distance – hopefully we didn’t give them too much of a show. The next morning some cottage owners passed us by as we were drying our tents out on the road. Fortunately we could move them quickly!

The view over our little lake in the morning.

Becky giving Scott a haircut.

Martin carries a battery-powered beard trimmer for haircutting, and Becky and Nadine both used it to provide much-needed haircuts.

At Wawa we sadly had to say goodbye. We were heading east to Timmins, but Martin and Nadine had an invite to Interbike in Las Vegas where they were to showing off their well-worn Vaude panniers at the Vaude booth. We wish them well, and hope we will be able to visit one day, wherever they end up.

If an opportunity to camp with other cycle tourists presents itself, we would definitely recommend it – even if it is only for one night. Each time we camped with others, we made great new friends and we learned and shared several new tips and tricks. Everyone does things differently, and not everything works for everyone, but there is always something new to learn.

Becky still can’t believe we did not think of this one ourselves. Martin and Nadine had the same 14-speed Rolhoff hubs we did. They added two chain rings in the front and just manually changed them based upon the terrain. We could have saved much pain and been able to ride a little faster if we had thought to just add the second chain ring. This is definitely a modification we will make when we get home!

89 km, 6h 10 min – Gravel River to Steele River
112 km, 7h 20 min – Steele River to White Lake
96 km, 5:50 White Lake to McCormick Lake
42 km, 3h 15 min McCormick Lake to Gravel Pit (between Wawa and Hawk Junction) – near Ghost Lake

Becky sitting on top of a picnic table at a not very nice rest area. This rest area did not even have outhouses. It was just a pull out on the side of the road with a picnic table and garbage can – which sadly many people chose not to use!

A beautiful view of Lake Superior.

A beautiful and huge mushroom. When walking through the woods at night, these mushrooms stand out so much that they almost glow!

Nice rest area for a dinner stop. Scott was originally attracted by the bikes on the pole. The rest area is provided by the town of Manitouwadge, a former gold mining town reinventing itself as a tourist destination.

Riding a little later at night than we usually like to. Notice how our triangle signs seem to glow in the dark!

Becky and Nadine making breakfast on our second morning.

A nice posed shot – no we don’t normally ride three abreast!

White River – home of the bear that inspired Winnie the Pooh.

Notice how we all have mirrors?

Approaching Wawa.

Becky and Nadine sitting under the Wawa goose.

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On the Thunder Bay – Nipigon section, there are a few segments where the road is in terrible condition and the shoulders are pretty much nonexistent, but we suspect those will be fixed by next year. There are many segments with new pavement and adequate (4 feet) or wide (greater than 6 feet) shoulders. At Nipigon, highway 11 and 17 split, with highway 17 following Lake Superior and highway 11 heading directly East (and a little North). Once we passed this point, the traffic on highway 17 was greatly reduced, giving us nice windows of time without any vehicles in view.

We stopped to see the Terry Fox monument just East of Thunder Bay. Becky was a little disappointed as she was led to believe there was an 8 meter tall Terry Fox – the moment is bigger than real life, but not that big! Having seen the monument and taken the requisite pictures, we were back on highway 11/17. At this point, it was truly awful, with no shoulders and really rough roads. Fortunately, we were able to detour quickly to a coastal road (Lakeshore Drive) which was beautiful, mostly flat, had nice shoulders, and no traffic.

When we got back on highway 11/17, we met a couple who were walking down Yonge Street; that is, they were walking the entire length of Yonge Street from Lake Ontario in Toronto to Rainy River (all 1900 kilometers of it). Given where they were (just outside of Thunder Bay heading West, they must have been at it for the whole summer. When asked why, there answer was pretty much similar to ours “why not?”. We never did catch their names, but wish them well on the rest of their journey.

We stopped for the first night at Wolf River Park ($20), a beautiful campground in a bight of Wolf River, such that they had River on three sides of the park. We had a nice walk in site right on the river, which felt like we were all alone – except for the sounds of trucks driving by on the highway and the occasional train – seems you can never escape the freight trains in Canada! A chipmunk also reminded us to keep our food bags closed when we’re away from camp, even for a few minutes

Mr. Chipmunk, demonstrating that we should keep our bags closed

For the second night we stopped at the Gravel River Motel ($15). They mentioned camping on the sign out front so we asked. It seems like the campsites behind the hotel are almost never used. They have a shower hut with a nice hot water shower, and a pit toilet, although the restaurant is not too far to walk. The campsites are overgrown with an amazing variety of mushrooms. We have included some pictures below – anyone know which ones are edible? (We didn’t so we had to pass on the fresh mushroom stir fry – maybe next time).

102 km, 6h – Thunder Bay to Wolf River
85 km, 5 h – Wolf River to Gravel River

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Scott acting as ‘rail meat’ on Mongoose

Becky relaxing after her race, with the Sleeping Giant in the background

Unfortunate, the weather took a turn for the worse and we ended up with two solid days of rain. So rather than suffer through riding in the rain (with a nasty headwind too), we opted for additional rest days. We are lucky to have such great friends: Suzanne, Karl, and the girls (Linnea and Mila) who hosted us throughout our stay in Thunder Bay, and happily let us stay the extra time. It was great to visit as well as relax. With Becky eagerly volunteering to cook since she had access to a real kitchen, we can definitely tell that we’re ready to be home soon.

Suzanne, Mila, Becky, Linnea and Karl

Ingredients:
3-4 eggs
1/2 onion (yellow sweet is best, purple also works well)
1 small zucchini (optional)
1 teaspoon curry powder
Salt
Olive oil

Directions:
1. Chop onion into small pieces.
2. Add onion, olive oil, salt, and curry powder to the frying pan. The
amount of oil you need depends upon whether or not you have a no-stick pan.
Be a little generous with the amount, as it makes the onion sweeter.
3. Chop zucchini into 1 cm squares – and set aside.
4. Start cooking the onions – if you can simmer on your stove, then cook
them slowly, to bring out the sweetness.
5. When the onions are clear, add zucchini and fry for 2 minutes.
6. Crack eggs directly into frying pan, then quickly stir to scramble them.
7. Keep stirring as the eggs cook to prevent burning. Cook until they are
the texture you like.
8. Enjoy.

Feeds two hungry cyclists in combination with oatmeal.

Our other last for the day is time zones. Today, we entered the Eastern Time Zone. We will no longer be needing to lose an hours sleep when we feel we need it the most – like just before riding a 140 km day!

Our route into Thunder Bay brought us by Kakabeka Falls, nicknamed ‘The Niagara of the North’. While Scott was viewing the (very impressive) waterfall, Becky answered many questions about our bikes and our journey. While stopped at the park, we also used their nice shaded lawn for some afternoon yoga before hopping back on our bikes and continuing to Thunder Bay. We also decided that we weren’t vehicles, and thus didn’t need to purchase two $5 parking passes.

Kakabeka Falls.

Becky describing our bikes and our journey to passer’s by at Kakabeka Falls park.

In Thunder Bay, we are staying with a friend from church, Suzanne, and her family. It is wonderful to be welcomed into a family and have a roof over our heads once again. We are looking forward to a night or two of rest in a comfy bed, as well as visiting, relaxing and resupplying.

So far Canada has been a wonderful adventure. We only wish we had more time so we could ride a little slower and spend more time visiting the various places along the way. We are definitely feeling the effects of long riding days, and hope the brief rest in Thunder Bay will recharge us for the last push to get home.

145 km, 7h – Huronian Lake Rest Area to Thunder Bay

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By 6:45 pm, we pulled into the Bunnell campground at Atikokan. We must have
looked confused, since a friendly couple called over to us to offer a site
beside theirs. Just a patch of grass and a picnic table, but it was all we
needed. Later, we discovered that up to three tents were allowed per site,
so we decided to share a site with Wendy and Peter. This made for a very
cheap camping night, at only $5, including free firewood and nice hot
showers.

This also gave us a chance to visit with Wendy, Peter and their friendly
springer spaniel Casey. They had just returned from a 19 day trek into
Quetico Provincial Park, which sounds spectacular. Lots of little lakes,
fishing and beautiful solitude. Another inspirational couple; they retired
early and are spending much of their time in the wilderness of Canada and
the U.S.

As dusk approached and dishes needed doing, the mosquitoes came out in
force. This was the worst bought of mosquitoes we have experienced since
Labrador. Fortunately, we had the mosquito head nets.

We were slow moving when we awoke, and a heavy dew left everything quite
wet. We still try to avoid packing up the tent and tarp wet, which
definitely slows us down on a damp and overcast day. Our plan was for a
long ride, leaving only a short relaxing ride into Thunder Bay the next day,
but this wasn’t in the cards. A strong headwind and rolling hills made for a
very slow day.

Before lunch, we crossed paths with an Albertan couple riding a tandem.
Wendy and Andy were out for an afternoon ride, enjoying the quiet road and
pretty scenery. After sharing a few trip stories, we learned that there was
a restaurant up ahead that had free Wireless Internet. We had not
anticipated any services on the road, so the restaurant was a nice
bonus, and Internet meant we could let the people with which we are staying
in Thunder Bay know when to expect us. Of course Internet is always a time
sink, so we had a longer lunch break than originally planned.

With the slow going and clouds threatening to release some wet stuff on us,
we opted to pull into the Rest Area at Huronian Lake. It turned out to be a
nice little rest area – certainly adequate for camping for the night – and
the lake was not too cold, such that we enjoyed a quick dip to rinse the
road grunge off of us.

After dinner, we decided that we would try a new method for hanging food. In
the past, we haven’t had a lot of luck figuring out how to hang it high
enough – rarely succeeding in getting it more than 6 feet off the ground.
Finding a tree with a horizontal branch which is strong enough to hold our
food, cooking gear and toiletries, and is at the correct height always
proves problematic.

In our latest method, if you can find trees the right distance apart, the
branch height is almost immaterial. Here
is how we did it.

What you need:
2 pieces of line long enough that one line will go up one tree to the height
you need, across to the second tree, and back down, plus have enough spare
for tying down. So, let’s say the hanging height is 4 meters, and the trees
are 8 meters apart, you would then need at least 4×2+8=16 meters of line.

1 pulley wide enough to fit the line. (In a pinch, a loop tied in the rope
will work, but the pulley makes things much easier when dealing with heavy
bags).

1 square shaped rock about 2 inches across – in a pinch a round rock with
do.

The procedure:

1. Identify two trees between which you wish to hang food. Ideal trees are
about 2 meters apart and have solid branches 4-5 meters high.

2. Take one line (line A) and tie the rock around one end of it.
Caution: If you don’t tie the line to the rock solidly, the rock will
slip out of the line when tossed – possibly ending up in the middle of the
woods or worse hitting something you don’t want to hit. Trust us!
Rather than a large rock, we also tried to use a mesh bag full of
smaller rocks. This worked well for the tossing portion of the procedure;
however, the bag was easily caught on branches. In the end, it jammed on a
branch 5 meters in the air, and we were forced to abandon it along with
several feet of our precious rope!

3. Coil line A ensuring there are no knots or snags in the line.

4. Stand on the non-rock end of line A, so it doesn’t get away from you.

5. Using your line-rock throwing skills, toss the rock end of the line over
the branch of the first tree (tree A).
This will take some practice to perfect. Again, trust us!

6. Use the weight of the rock to ease the rock end of the line back to the
ground. You should have both ends of the line in your hand with the bight
looped over the branch. Untie the rock.

7. Secure the ends someplace so you don’t lose them.
Trust us!

8. Repeat steps 2-7 with the second line (line B) and second tree (tree B).

9. Tie one end of line A to one end of line B, using a smooth knot (a reef
knot works well).

10. Tie a bight (loop) into line A on the same side you tied A to B and
secure the pulley to the bight. The placement of this knot should be such
that it ends up in the middle of the two trees when the line is tightened.

11. Take the free end of line B and run it through the pulley.

12. Hold on to the free end of line B and gently pull on the middle of
line B such that it feeds line A from tree A to tree B. Keep pulling until
the knot is at ground level. Note that as you do this the pulley will rise
out of reach, hence the need to be holding onto line B through the pulley.

13. Untie the knot between ropes A and B. You should now have rope A strung
between the two trees, and rope B fed through the pulley with both ends on
the ground.

14. Adjust rope A to ensure the pulley is in the middle of the two trees.
Securely fasten both ends of the line to the attached tree trunk. (A few
wraps and some half-hitches usually works well).

15. Secure food to one end of the line B, and use the other end to raise it
between the trees.
If your food bags are heavy, this can be a challenge. Our approach has
been to have Scott stand under the bags and push them up while Becky keeps
the line tight. Once the bags are above Scott’s head, he comes and helps
Becky raise them to the top. We are carrying 35-40 lbs (15-18 kg) of food
and related stuff.

16. Secure line B to a tree.

17. Fall asleep, secure in the knowledge that your food is safe. (Unless
you’re in Yellowstone Park, where the bears know to chew through lines until
the food falls to the ground).

If you look really close, you can see the bags hung nice and high in the air.

Rainy Lake cottage to Atikokan – 117 km, 6h40 min
Atikokan to Huronian Lake Rest Area – 75 km, 4h 30 min

Download GPS Track in GPX format

We quickly rode into Fort Frances and started the many chores on our list: get stove fuel at Canadian Tire, veggies at the farmers market, do laundry, find Internet and update blog, and stop at Safeway for some groceries. Our quick set of chores took us 5 hours (oops).

We did get to the Farmer’s Market for some yummy vegetables and elk sausage, and also bought our first basket of Ontario Peaches for the season. Local produce is so much yummier than the stuff we get most of the time.

Small but sufficient farmer’s market in Fort Frances.

It was mostly as a result of our extended Internet time that we left Fort Francis at 4 pm. We had hoped to make it to the first set of listed campgrounds 70 km away, but we were not riding that fast. Time was ticking and Becky was getting hungry. We decided to stop at a spot on the side of the road with lake access and make dinner. We would then ride a little further up the road and find ourselves a spot to camp for the night. While we were enjoying dinner, a car pulled up with a couple in it and the gentleman asked: “Are you planning to camp there tonight?” Our first thought was that this was someone from the area who didn’t want cyclists around, but after a brief discussion of our plans, he invited us to stay at his cabin for the night.

Becky making dinner by the side of the road near Rainy Lake.

View from our dinner spot on the side of the road near Rainy Lake

Now, when complete strangers pull over in their car and make such a generous offer, you have very little time to size up the situation. Are they scary people? Are they mad or just a little crazy for inviting random cyclists home for the night? Looking at the time, it didn’t take Becky more than two seconds to accept their offer. After all, taking advantage of such offers is something we promised ourselves we would do if we could and a night at a cottage certainly sounded more appealing then wild camping, with the added bonus of getting to meet some of the locals.

We finish our dinner, clean up, repack, and we are off to Ed and Colleen’s cottage on Rainy Lake. When we arrive, we were given a room inside (such an extra delight to have a bed for the night). After a brief discussion, we happily join in the evening cottage tradition – enjoy a bottle of beer while watching the sunset, then change into swimming gear and head for the sauna. We got ourselves nice and toasty warm in the sauna and then cooled off quite quickly with a jump into Rainy Lake – which is normally warmer at this time of year, but this year the weather hasn’t been too great – then repeat 3 or 4 times. This must be the best way ever to end a day of cycling!

The sauna building on the lake at Ed and Colleen’s cottage on Rainy Lake.

We had a lovely time getting to know Ed and Colleen, and are very grateful that they took a chance (or took pity) on a couple of wayward cyclists. For reference to other cyclists – they aren’t crazy axe murders looking for fresh meat and for anyone thinking of stopping to talk to two crazy recumbent cyclists having dinner on the side of the road – neither are we.

Becky, Colleen, and Ed on the deck at their cottage on Rainy Lake.

70 km, 4 hr Devlin to Rainy Lake cottage

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By 1 pm, the rain seemed to have lighted up and we hoped it would stop for the day. We packed up and hopped on our bikes. Within an hour, the rain picked up again and didn’t stop for the rest of the day. As we approached Sioux Narrows, the rain lighted up, so we opted for camping at the overpriced provincial park ($27.25). Fortunately, they had a dryer, so we immediately headed to the comfort station to dry out our wet weather gear and take a warm shower.

Clean, warm, and dry, we headed out to the day use area in search of a picnic shelter so that we could make dinner without standing in the rain. The picnic shelter turned out to be huge, with six tables and a nice empty table-free space. The campground was almost deserted – we saw only three other occupied sites when we were at the comfort station. Knowing the park was empty, we hoped they would allow us to set up our tent under the picnic shelter rather than moving back up the hill to a formal site.

Our stuff all sprawled out in the picnic shelter at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park.

Upon entering the picnic shelter, Scott noticed an owl in the tree – at first he thought it was fake, but then it moved. Becky was fascinated by it. It didn’t seem to be bothered by us, so we setup our dinner preparations on the far side of the shelter. At one point, a chipmunk came running through the shelter towards the owl. We expected the owl would have dinner as well, as it swooped down on the chipmunk. Fortunately for the chipmunk, it dodged the attack and froze half way up a tree. Later we watched the owl catch and eat some tiny field mice. Becky found it fascinating, since this was the first owl she’d seen in the wild. It was definitely habituated to people.

Our friendly neighbourhood owl at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park.

The campground attendant drove by and told us we could indeed stay under the picnic shelter if we wished. As long as the wind didn’t come from the south we would be well sheltered. We spent the night nice and dry under the shelter with the fly off the tent listening to a constant drumbeat of rain. By about 3 am, the rain finally stopped and the skies cleared.

With a nice sunny day, we were able to dry out most of our gear before starting out for the day. The hills were rolling but the wind was mostly at our backs, making for a pleasant day on the bikes. We stopped at the side of the road for lunch – a brief miscommunication as Scott had hoped to pull into a boat launch and enjoy lunch by a lake but failed to communicate that with Becky who was protein starved at the time and just needed food (oh well).

After making slow progress in the morning, the hills leveled out and our average speed increased significantly. Our map showed many small towns after Nestor Falls, but we soon discovered there are no services between Nestor Falls and Emo. We had hoped to camp in Emo, but there were no official campgrounds, so we stopped for pie – which turned into a stop for dinner. At dinner we learned that the nearest official campground was on the far side of Fort Frances. Just before we left the restaurant a nice gentleman came out and told us that we could camp at the Devlin ball diamond if we were not going to make it to Fort Frances.

We had high hopes of making it to Fort Frances on departure, but the sun soon told us we needed to change plans. When we saw the ball diamond in Devlin, we pulled in. There was a nice place to setup underneath the concession stand so we would be covered for the night, and they had several picnic tables. Unfortunately, the bathrooms were locked, so we had to use the nature option. There was also no water available, so Scott ran back to the local convenience store and purchased a 4L jug of water ($2). All-in-all a good day’s ride and a comfy and free place to sleep.

60 km, 3h 45 min – Longbow Lake to Sioux Narrows
129 km, 7h – Sioux Narrows to Devlin

Download GPS Track in GPX format

We have discovered that camping in Ontario is ridiculously expensive – I suppose we should have known, as we recalled it being expensive, but did not remember it being this bad! The list price on the Provincial Campground website ranges from $35 down to a mere $27 per night! These are basic campsites without RV services. So tonight only, we splurged and forked out $32 for a campsite at Redden’s trailer park – fortunately, it is a nice site near the lake and down a hill from the highway, so we should not be hearing traffic all night. As a bonus, the campground store is also an LCBO (Ontario liquor store), so we were able to have a cold beer with dinner.

Pretty view of Longbow Lake from the beach at our campsite.

As Becky was purchasing her after dinner snack, she ran into another touring cyclist, Matt – who turned out to be one of a group of 3 cyclists going the other direction and heading to Vancouver for the winter. We shared tips and tricks about the road ahead and passed along our Alberta / Saskatchewan map. Unfortunately, the campground here only allows one tent per site, and it was full, so we wished them well, and they headed on to Kenora. Good luck and safe journey to Jessica, Robbie and Matt!

Jessica, Matt, and Robbie

43 km, 3 h – Clearwater Bay to Longbow Lake

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By the time we got on our bikes and left, the weather was looking rather threatening. Within 10 minutes of leaving a drizzle started – so we donned our wet weather gear and kept on peddling. Unfortunately, the rain held all afternoon. We stopped in Anola for lunch and to warm up a bit; in addition to the wet, the temperature was only 14 degrees making any thought of stopping a chilling idea. After talking to the folks in the restaurant about what services lie ahead, we decided to head north up highway 12 towards highway 44 and the town of Beausejour, which was only 30 km away – rather than riding 60+ km further in the wet.

Just as we pulled out from lunch, we spotted another touring cyclist in the distance. He was on Highway 15, and moving fast, so even if we had been going that way, we likely wouldn’t have caught him. With a mental shrug for lost opportunities, we headed north. A minute later, we saw a bicycle approaching in our mirrors – the cyclist had spotted us and decided to come and visit. We were soon happily chatting away with Dharma and his dog Rowan. Dharma had left from Vancouver Island with Rowan and his B.O.B. trailer a few months back, and is headed for the east coast. In the downpour, we felt pretty overdressed in our full raingear – by comparison, he seemed quite comfortable in a t-shirt and sleeveless vest. We had fun sharing stories of our rides, but in Beausejour he wanted to press on, and we had had enough for the day.

In Beausejour, we checked into the small Motor Hotel for the night ($70) with hopes of drying out a little. There is another hotel in town – the Superior Hotel – but the cheapest rate they would give us was $94 plus tax, which was a quite a bit more than we were willing to pay if we could possibly avoid it. The reaction of the lady at the hotel was quite comical, if a bit annoying at the time:
Lady: You’re all wet! What will you do with all those wet clothes?
Scott: Hang them to dry?
Lady: Don’t get the carpets all wet!
Scott: We can look for another place to stay if you wish.
Lady: No, that’s OK
At this point we figured our wet, muddy bikes were going be a big deal, but she never said anything about them. She later lent us her kettle, and was quite friendly in her brusque way, so we’re guessing she’s just like that…

The next day started with a pocket of sun – we could see clouds both in front and behind us. We quickly got organized and were riding by 9:15 am (early for us). Helped by a nice tailwind and good roads, we made it to Whitemouth just as the clouds gobbled up the sun. Whitemouth has a great little bakery and coffee shop with super friendly people. We enjoyed a first lunch of cabbage rolls just like Becky’s Mom makes, and yummy cinnamon buns.

Our next stop was Rennie for a second lunch and a break from the cold. When the sun left us, the temperature dropped down to 14 degrees. Manitoba certainly is not experiencing a typical summer. In Rennie Becky heard a garbled story about a cyclist ahead of us who had been shot at. We wondered if something had happened to Dharma?

Welcome to Rennie Manitoba.

Shortly after Rennie the highway turned into Whiteshell Provincial Park. The road quality degraded almost instantly and the traffic went away – no more trucks passing us. There was also a shift from farm land into Canadian Shield country with lots of small picturesque lakes. Halfway between Rennie and West Hawk Lake, the sun came out making the scenery that much more enjoyable. With the Shield we also got hills – and Highway 44 being a minor road at this point, some of the hills were rather steep; however, they were all pretty short so we could enjoy the rolling hills as a nice change from the flattish prairies.

We stopped in West Hawk Lake for our requisite afternoon soft ice cream break to discover that Dharma was at the restaurant. He had just finished up a meal and was about to hop back on his bike – so it was nice to have caught up to him. Apparently, he had been shot at by a passing car – he figures it was likely paintballs they were shooting. He was delayed a little in Rennie when he called the police and gave a brief statement. Unfortunately, he did not have a license plate number, so there was not much the police could do. It was a late model, dark green Japanese sedan, but there are a lot of those.

Dharma joined us for our journey across the border into Ontario. We took pictures at the first Welcome to Ontario sign – which wasn’t that impressive. At the visitor information center (which closed at 5 pm grrrr) there was a much nicer sign, so we paused again for another set of photos.

Dharma, Becky, and Scott being welcomed to Ontario.

A nicer welcome to Ontario sign.

We had thought there might be a campground in Clearwater Bay, but were sadly disappointed. There was an seasonal RV park with resort type structures on the lake, and a trailer park which required reservations – neither of which looked good for tenting. We continued up the road to the Clearwater Bay Market (a truck stop) and inquired there about tenting. The manager there said we were welcome to tent either near the gazebo or in the septic field – we chose the septic field as it was nice and flat and well protected from traffic and lights. In hindsight, it also meant that the tent was wet, as not too surprisingly the field had an underground water source! Oops. Fortunately, with our entry into Ontario, the weather improved dramatically – much warmer in the morning, with the sun making an appearance.

75 km, 4h – Winnipeg to Beausejour
150, 7h 30m – Beausejour Manitoba to Clearwater Bay Ontario

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We are off to Oka Provincial park tonight (hopefully before the thunder storms).

Tomorrow we are hoping to make it to Montreal.

It was hot and humid day. We had a late start which is not too surprising given how late we got in last night. It was nice to have a brief visit with Ron and Wendy at breakfast.

Throughout our ride today we were both tired. I think it was a combination of not enough sleep and all the work necessary to pack up the house. The heat certainly did not help. Fortunately my neckband is working like a charm. It makes a significant difference, such that I’m not overheating anymore.

We decided to take a “shorter route” that involved less traffic, rather than following the documented “cycle route”. The advantage was the shorter distance, the disadvantage was gravel roads, more hills, and no services. We went 40 km without so much as a corner store.

Lunch break.

The post-lunch hills!

When we rolled into Plantagenet, I saw an ice cream / dairy bar, so we stopped and shared a banana split (our first of the trip). It felt so good to have something cold in the heat of the afternoon.

We then stopped by the depanneur(corner store) for some gatorade. When I asked about washrooms, the girl behind the counter mentioned that their might be some at the motel just down the road (before the highway). We didn’t know there was a motel in Plantagenet and thought we’d have to go to Alfred another 10 km away, so it was very fortunate. We likely wouldn’t have seen the hotel otherwise – it was behind a restaurant, and all the signs were pointed away from the road we were on.

Not 5 minutes after we were settled in our hotel room, we heard the crashes of thunder and the skies released sheets of rain. Seems we just missed another storm!

	Partdistance	Parttime	Partspeed	Distance	Time	Speed
	0.000 km	0s	-	0.000 km	0s	-
	10.002 km	1h 08m 29s	8.76 km/h	10.002 km	1h 08m 29s	8.76 km/h
	10.005 km	51m 58s	11.55 km/h	20.007 km	2h 00m 27s	9.97 km/h
	10.048 km	44m 01s	13.70 km/h	30.055 km	2h 44m 28s	10.96 km/h
	9.965 km	1h 24m 36s	7.07 km/h	40.020 km	4h 09m 04s	9.64 km/h
	10.008 km	35m 46s	16.79 km/h	50.028 km	4h 44m 50s	10.54 km/h
	3.379 km	36m 26s	5.56 km/h	53.407 km	5h 21m 16s	9.97 km/h

We looked up some friends from church who lived in the East end of Ottawa (Orleans) so we could at least get further than Downtown Ottawa. Ron and Wendy happily invited us into their home for the evening. They live right on the Greenbelt near the river, so our first day’s ride was mostly on pathways.

As we prepared to leave out, several of our neighbours came out to see us off. Thanks Darlene, Rachel and Sheri! As we rode up the street, John and Athena honked their goodbyes, as did Eric a bit later. We don’t usually appreciate car horns while riding, but these were different somehow. It was really nice to receive the well wishes of those that live around us.

Most of the route to Orleans is on pathways. We were struck by how nice the east end Ottawa River pathway is. Neither of us ridden on it before. It is too bad that we just discovered it as we were leaving the city.

Two short segments of the route is on roads. In both cases, our new “slow moving vehicle signs” (thanks Mary and Hugh) seem to be quite effective, since vehicles passed us very slowly, leaving lots of room. Quite different from what we normally expect from Ottawa drivers. We were riding at night with our lights, but I’m sure that when the drivers saw the large signs, they slowed down. Either way, we felt completely safe on the short segments of road.

After 38 km, we arrived at 11 pm and promptly jumped into Ron and Wendy’s chilly pool. It felt really good, and revitalized us for a brief chat. By 12:30 we were completely exhausted. The day had started early, and was filled with packing and running around, so it was no surprise that we collapsed into bed.

	Partdistance	Parttime	Partspeed	Distance	Time	Speed
	0.000 km	0s	-	0.000 km	0s	-
	10.014 km	1h 02m 36s	9.60 km/h	10.014 km	1h 02m 36s	9.60 km/h
	10.022 km	39m 51s	15.09 km/h	20.036 km	1h 42m 27s	11.73 km/h
	9.976 km	45m 06s	13.27 km/h	30.012 km	2h 27m 33s	12.20 km/h
	6.639 km	29m 14s	13.63 km/h	36.651 km	2h 56m 47s	12.44 km/h