We tried not to disturb him too much and he seemed to do rather well given all the big huge monsters around, but no matter how much he peeped, his parents avoided him until we were packed up and out of the way. Then one eventually, cautiously came to check in but hopped off after a few seconds (though possibly gave junior some food) Junior was not about to be abandoned again so he flapped/waddled/scurried after Mom but she was just too quick and still had other, better behaved, chicks to look after. Good luck Junior - we're rooting for you!
After all the morning excitement, the riding went really smoothly. It was almost all gently down hill with a helpful tail wind, little traffic and nice smooth roads. We were flying along at 35km/hr (well, some people got up to 70, some never broke 40...) and really glad to be because the forecast was not good. After so long of only being concerned about wind, the sun got tired of being second fiddle and was preparing to show its full force. The forecast said high of 36 and after our experience of getting stuck in boiling road tar yesterday (yep, the road was literally melting under our tires!) we were concerned about the heat to say the least. By noon we'd done 70km which was good, but the sun was really scorching so we just had to stop. An hour wandering around an air-conditioned grocery store in Renfrew brought us back to sane (we normally take an hour in the store but this time we were particularly slow - aw shucks). However, going back out was hard, even with the promise of a great lunch. After some wandering around looking in vain for a swim hole, we settled for a shady spot on the side of the muddy trickle they call a river. But even in the shade it was too much to handle, so we started examining options. Biking was out of the question, swimming was a hilly 15km away- impossible, we'd just missed the matinee of Harry Potter part 8 (we were much more interested in 2.5hr in AC than the movie itself) and so in sleepy little Renfrew, the only remaining cooldown option was to loiter at Tim Hortons. So we did and it felt awesome!
3 hours later we finally managed to peel ourselves off the tables/grass (napping outside in the shade turned out to be popular) and get moving again. It was still hot enough to boil brains, but we had 35km to go before dark and time was ticking. It was a good choice. It was a beautiful ride zipping along the Ottawa river and the speed breeze managed to cool us off a little. Still, when we reached Arnprior we were too hot/dehydrated to continue on - until we saw the convenience store. Some of us managed to be reasonable in selecting cool refreshing drinks, while others opted for an enormous concoction of pure sugar mixed with a double dose of brain freeze (AKA a jumbo 4 layered/flavoured slurpy). To each their own medicine, but this time they were defeated by the slurpy. But in a show of persistence, they decided to carry it's remains in their empty waterbottles. In the end we always win!
Then with the light fading it was back on the bikes for a final quick 15km out to the provincial park. Or so we planned... Instead, the light started fading fast, and when we stopped to look at the turn after 6km we realized that the light was fading because a huge black thunderstorm was barreling down on us. We barely made it to the (meager) shelter of the nearby (closed) convenience store before the heavens unleashed their wrath. The parking lot suddenly became a chaos of flying sand and horizontal rain, but under our 1m square porch awning in the lee of the store, the 4 of us were safe. As for the 5th, Alan had judged the shelter insufficient and so had taken off at the last minute for the beckoning sight of an open barn door just down the road. He didn't make it in time, but somehow hung on and survived the gale long enough to get close enough to see the family sitting in the adjacent porch beckoning to him. They'd just been planning on watching the storm, but ended up rescuing first one, and eventually - after the storm had passed - all of us by offering us their back yard to camp in!
So we set up camp, had a nice supper in their "milk room" - a sweet little building next to the barn, to avoid the swarms of mosquitos. And after it all, this crazy day was done and we finally flopped into bed, hot and tired and looking forward to a good nights sleep. After all the events of the day, we felt we deserved (and needed) it.
After half an hour of sweating we finally dozed off, but not for long. The storm wasn't through with us, the earlier "tornado" as Evan called it was just a warm up. Around 1am we were all instantly jarred awake as our tents suddenly collapsed inward. Darkness was no impediment to figuring out what was going on, the lightening was so frequent that it was as bright as day and we each saw our tent poles buckling under the force of the gale. By the time the rain/hail started pounding, we'd managed to get enough sense to reach upward and hold the tents up to prevent the wind from blowing them in on us. But then the rain picked up even more and seemed like it was going to pierce the tent. I started thinking of my options and decided that curling up with my Thermarest on top of me, cuddling my sleeping bag for companionship was the best. Then a bolt of lightening went off right on top of us and there was a terrifying cracking noise as the storm reached it's peak. What were they going to find in the morning? The remains of 3 tents strafed by machine-gun hail, blown halfway across the field then crushed under a fallen tree and us inside holding the poles-cum-lightening rods that fried us to a crisp? It just might be...
Distance: 112.14 km
Time on bikes: 5:19:32
Average speed: 21.0 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 5303 km
Start: 8:00 am
End: 7:30 pm
Conditions: sunny, muggy, thunderstorm!
Wind: west (tail-medium)
Cheers
- The Warpotay Team
Location:Arnprior, Ontario
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