Day 40: Startton to Taylor Cove (big trucks, small towns, tiny treasures)

Leaving behind our soft peat beds, we were off for our first full day of riding in Ontario! For most of the prairies, where the towns are far apart, we mainly had the road to ourselves. Now that we are in Ontario we are looking forward to having more towns to visit, cafes to eat at and people to talk to. However along with the increase in towns today we were bombarded with logging trucks and local traffic between Stratton and Fort Frances. With the heavy traffic we were unable to bike side by side chat and share stories, which made the journey seem long and heavy. We were paddling through the gray scrubby buffer-zone between woods and prairie.
We stopped in Fort Frances for a warm lunch and supplies for the next few days because grocery stores are going to be scarce.




Escaping the city and trucks we Zoomed out of town across a long narrow winding causeway, now we are in lake country.

In contrast to this mornings city buzz, we were enjoying the sounds of the lake shores and beautiful hills filled with wild flowers.












Along the road I spotted a patch of wild strawberries and Evan and I stopped to pick a few. Once off our bikes we were able to get a closer look. Normally wild strawberries grow very small and very sweet and you're lucky to get 3-4 plants together, but this was normal strawberry patch! The whole hillside was covered! There were thousands and some were the size of marbles!


After about half an hour we had about 3 cups worth. We got back on our bikes excited to show the rest of the crew our treasure. After meeting up with the crew we arrived at a very unexpected yet special place. Ladies and gentleman, I present my very own cove, Taylor cove. Ed Taylor who lived there was very kind to have us stay and showed us around. It was a beautiful spot on the lake with a rock slab fire pit and quaint washrooms labeled gulls and buoys. A treasure for weary travellers as we arrived late in the evening.


Tomorrow we hope for low winds and traffic like we had this evening. Bit we'll just have to wait and see what the weather and the roads have in store for us....



Distance: 96.60 km
Time on bike: 6:04:16
Average speed: 15.9 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 3216 km
Start: 8:45 am
End: 7:45 pm
Wind: east (medium-head)

Location:Taylor Cove, Ontario