Day 41: Taylor Cove to Mine Center (The Battle)

It all started out beautifully as any day should. A leisurely wake up at 8am on the shire of a beautiful little cove off Rainy Lake. Two brave souls took the opportunity for a beautiful but brief dip in the lake while the rest of us lounged around the cozy stone fire pit. It was a paradise, but we couldn't stay, there's still 280km to Thunder Bay and the weather forecast is calling for a good dump of rain tomorrow. So we packed up camp, said endless thank yous to good old Ed Taylor and then were off. After such a good start, what could happen?



We found out as soon as we hit the main road. Turns out beautiful Taylor Cove is quite sheltered, but as soon as we got to the road, the full force of the wind hit us and almost knocked us over. The battle had begun...

Slowly but surely we crept forward rotation by rotation. As soon as we thought we were getting somewhere the wind would hurl a gust at us to make us waver - both on the road and in our minds. We nearly tumbled onto the shoulder with some of the stronger gusts, but somehow we found the strength to cling on and keep going.

With the mental acuity of a ninja ("Be the knife, slice the wind") we crawled forward into the gale. The road did everything it could to aid us, fresh smooth pavement as beautiful as weve ever seen, strategic curves to limit the fetch of the wind, gentle uphills to give us shelter as we climbed the lee side and sweet downhills that we could glide down and get a slight respite from the aerial onslaught. It helped, and by the first rest break we were tired and a little uncertain, but not totally without hope. It was hell, but we were surviving.

However, the elements must have sensed our hesitations and realized this was their chance to stop us for good. The gale intensified, and for the extra push, the gods threw down some rain. What poor foolish souls could preserver through this?

We did, we fought, we struggled, but after another hour we had to resign ourselves to an honourable draw. At the end of the battle, the score stood as follows:

The Savage Easy Wind: 30 (km/hr)
The WarPoTay Bike Brigade: 30 (km travelled)

Thus settled, we quickly set up camp and fell into our tents and slept til supper to rest our weary legs. Here's to hoping for better lick tomorrow - the wind is supposed to be an easy 15km/hr from the east (oh for the days when that seemed so terrible) and the rain has reduced from 40mm to 5mm. There is hope, tomorrow is another battle, and this time we may emerge victorious!

And there's one thing you, our loyal followers, can do to help (or at least have some sport from our misfortune). We need some strategic advice, need to know how to plan our efforts in the war saint the wind. To be specific, what we need is information (or guesses) as to which day we will finally get a tail wind so we can focus our energy then. So comment away, we want to hear from all of you, and the winner will be greatly rewarded for their aid :) Let the betting begin!

Distance: 30.56 km
Time on bikes: 2:18:21
Average speed: 13.2 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 3247 km
Start: 10:15 am
End: 1:45 pm
Wind: east (strong-head)


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Mine Center, Ontario