Day 55: Garden River to Blind River (transitions)

A spectacular thunder storm after breakfast and we were off, with blue skies for the rest of the day. This area is the transition land between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario, getting really warm and more populated. Interesting to note how different people and different communities handle the opportunities for change that the transition brings.



Some people try to make their name by going big...and they are the ones who built the biggest chair in the world. Evan liked that chair.



Others have decided that it is best to be blissfully unaware of the controversies brought by change. That seemed to be Shane's approach today.



Leah and Evan are usually early adopters - drivers of the change process, but there is one tradition which is just too deeply rooted to ever change- and that is the drive to indulge in French fries.



The crazy folks driving the trucks on the Trans Canada seemed to think that speed was the best approach todos the transition to Southern Ontario, and there sure are a lot of them. It is truly a bit weird to be back in the world of manufactured landscapes and people racing to get to the next place. We don't like the Trans Canada.......

My favorite part of the day was our lunch spot at Thessalon, a lovely little town with a nice sandy beach on Lake Huron and a few stores, a big slow moving river and friendly people. They looked happy and the town just looked healthy. No need to try to develop or build a mall, their approach to change is to true to themselves in a quiet way. I liked that.

But change is good too, and it is neat to talk to people who make change happen - like the interesting owner of the bike shop in Sault St Marie who was part of a big coalition advocating for bike paths in the city. Thanks to a lot of work and good timing in terms of infrastructure money, they will soon have a path that rings the city and they are working on one that goes to Sudbury. What an inspiration his energy was. When you travel you can really appreciate how ideas spread with people passing through and sharing experiences.

In the end it is a bit odd making the transition to civilization again. I still prefer the wild untouched areas where we don't need to correct the problems caused by humans yet. Am feeling so comfortable on my bike some days I'd like to just ride forever. What a luxury to be able to be doing this!



Distance: 125.79 km
Time in bikes: 6:07:31
Average speed: 21.1 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 4437 km
Start: 10:45 am
End: 7:15 pm
Wind: West (medium-tail)
Conditions: sun and thunder showers


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Blind River, Ontario

Day 54: Batchewana to Garden River- The "Velorution"

Up at 6am and 40 km done by 10 am... a new record. Why? To arrive at opening time to get our bikes fixed at "Velorution" in Sault Saint Marie. Velorution is a phenomenon. If you ask another trans Canada biker about bike shops, the response is always, "Have you heard about the bike shop in Sault Saint Marie?" We knew it had a free campground for bikers but we preferred our lake and early morning ride to sleeping next to the Walmart. We arrived before 10 and there were already several people in line. They listened attentively to our bike woes and said they would have them done by afternoon. The repair guys were nice but not dramatically inspiring. So we headed to the nearby restaurant for brunch.
It was there that we discovered the passion behind Velorution. The owner, a physiotherapist (he sells you the bike and then fixes you up when you mess up your body on it) came over and enthusiastically started chatting with us. Soon he had joined us for brunch and gave us some insight into what had been accomplished in Sault Saint Marie. He had led the charge to successfully create a multi million dollar 75 km loop bike trail around the city (Glyn would drool as it is only for non-motorized vehicles). He is now working on a trail from Sault Saint Marie to Sudbury (350 km) as an alternative to a particularly bad section of the trans-Canada (we can attest to the need for this one). In short he is hoping to lead a velo revolution, and accomplishing a lot. He figures that to get "your average folks" on a bike, they need segregated bike paths, and his goal is to get everyone on a bike resulting in healthier people and a planet. He has tons of ideas, strategies and passion, hoping we could carry the torch back home. When you see what some places we have been have done, one has to be depressed by the sorry state of bike path infrastructure in NS. We are the laughing stock of the country (could there be hope in Bridgewater Leon?). It is neat to see how one person is making a big difference, though his prime tip is to form coalitions and let the politicians own it as their idea. There is lots to do!
Alan



Distance: 68.77 km
Time on bikes: 3:38:55
Average speed: 18.8 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 4312 km
Start: 7:45 am
End: 6:45 pm
Wind: west ( tail-light)
Conditions: sunny


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Garden River, Ontario

Day 53: Agawa Bay to Batchawana Bay (This is why we do this!)

Today was a perfect example of why we are on this trip. Absolutely spectacular! To properly describe it all would take too long, so let's summarize:

Reasons why today was awesome:
• Woke up to sunshine and blue sky, and all day long none dared to appear.
• Though the sun was hot, the air was refreshingly cool - no threat of overheating!
• A morning of no wind meant we cruised along with ease, and when it picked up around noon, it decided to take pity on us and come from the southwest - a tailwind. It's been too long, we'd almost forgot what it felt like!
• Big hills in the morning, but with all the hard/steep sections coming as downhills for us. We literally flew down into Montreal River, though we were wishing for jackets halfway down as speed + cool lake breezes = chilly!
• Our own private beach for lunch. Crystal clear water, sun, breeze, smooth pebbles and an amazing view out over the lake. Leah even kept her promise and took a (quick) dip in the (chilly) lake! The 45min nap that followed was also near bliss - we weren't so tired to need it, but it sure made things better!


• A beautiful ride along flat smooth pavement with beautiful sand beaches all along the side. Batchawana Bay is an amazing spot, not the Lake Superior you thought you knew - sand beaches, shallow warm water, gentle waves.
• Being able to ride along and smell the juiciest, most flavorful, perfectly ripe huge wild strawberries on the side of the road without having to stop let alone get off the bike. And if we did happen to, we could gorge ourselves on the juicy berries. Leah was in heaven!
• A generous ice cream cone to finish off the ride. First ice cream cone of the trip/summer, though certainly not our last!
• A beautiful, free campsite right on the shore of Lake Superior with a sand beach right in front if us. Thank you Kiwanis Club!
• Superior swimming in Lake Superior. Alan kept his promise to take a dip in the largest, coldest Great Lake and we all joined in. After we invaded the water, it tried to return the favour as the water crept up the flat beach, but stopped just short of the stove. Yes it's a lake, yes it has tides, yes they're random and crazy - watch out!
• An early bedtime leaving lots of time for some good solid sleep.

Let's have some more of these kind of days! Lake Superior, we will miss you.




Distance: 102.06 km
Time on bikes: 5:21:33
Average speed: 19.0 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 4243 km
Start: 9:00 am
End: 5:15pm
Wind: West (light-head)
Conditions: sunny

Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Batchawana Bay, ON

Day 52: Agawa Beach (A gods rave)

Boom boom boom, who knew that weather gods of Agawa like to party! All night they pounded their thunderous music and flashed their strobes. Midway through their frantic rave, their sweat pounded down on our little blue bubbles until both gods and exhausted bikers let the thunderstorm pass and fell into a deep sleep...

I have never seen lighting like we did last night. Unlike the normal sporadic bolts, this storm was constant. There was a fresh burst of bright white light nearly every second. Had it not been pounding rain it would have been quite a fantastic sight to behold from the beautiful Agawa Beach.

Waking up at 10 am is a bikers dream that rarely comes true. Today it did! Although the morning was foggy we enjoyed a really relaxing day at the provincial park playing cards on the beach, doing our laundry and snoozing. Despite the fact that it was the Canada day weekend at an incredibly beautiful spot, the park was only moderately busy and there were tons of free tenting sites. As late afternoon set in and mere moments after we complained that only on our days off would it stay foggy, the sun won out and the whole sky cleared.

We had a beautiful dinner on the beach as the sun went down and went to bed with sweet dreams of North-west winds that would blow us into Sault Saint Marie!

We hope we have some more days like today...

Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Agawa Beach, Ontario

Day 51: Wawa to Agawa Bay (where will we wander?)

As we take this long journey our thoughts often wander. As we travel along the road there are many things to hear, see, find and think.

Some of us sing songs in our heads, and others share their timely tunes. some of you may remember the catchy tune "I believe", from the 2010 olympics, though your probably haven't gotten as tired of Evan's whistle version as I have.

Other whistles come from the variety of bird calls; each very distinct and beautiful. One in particular sings it's beautiful long dee dee dee song and totally has us stumped. One that I do recognize from the walks with my parents is the winter wren.






Sometimes our eyes wander into the ditches lining the highway with wildflowers. Fields of yellow and orange hawkweed mixed with white daises and purple vetch are omnipresent.





And of course our minds often travel home and wonder what our friends and family are up to? How big are the tomatoes? How big are the pigs? What is the weather like there? Back to reality, what's around the next bend? Will we turn into the wind or against it? What would it be like to have a tailwind? Where art though monsieur tailwind?

Today as most days we were working our way against a 20km/h headwind, though unlike the praries, the hills of lake superior at times gave us shelter.

At our not slow but steady pace, we are also intrigued by the signs that approach us. This particular day it's wasn't the variety that caught our attention but more so the lack of it. After accomplishing an amazing feat of 125km we had counted 23 moose signs! All titled "night danger!". Even though we arrived at camp in the late evening around 8:30 pm, we evaded the night terror and did not see a single moose!


















We look forward to our well deserved day of rest in the beautiful Agawa bay!





Distance: 127.89 km
Time on bike: 7:26:02
Average Speed: 17.2 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 4141 km
Start: 9:00 am
End: 8:30 pm
Wind: South ( morning=none, afternoon= strong head)
Conditions: Cloudy with sunny breaks






Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Agawa, Ontario

Day 50: White Lake to Wawa (the critters of the journey)

What a gorgeous day! This blog summarized how I felt about finally having good weather.

Sky a painful blue,
Hills splashed with devil's paintbrush,
Warm breeze at my back.

With gorgeous weather finally, one's mind starts to wander to whimsical things - like thinking about my tripmates, all their interesting little quirks, That led me to imagine which animals we have seen which remind me of these odd tripmates.

First there is Alan, loveable, conscientious Alan. Wayback in the Prairies we passed this gorgeous old sheep dog guarding the sheep. Rather shaggy and scruffy he was, and totally preoccupied with keeping his charges in toe, he reminded me of Alan, always trying to herd us along, trying to get us going in the morning, keeping his eyes on the slower one in the bunch so she does not get lost....Not that he is scrubby looking, but those who have seen the telltale signs of peanutbutter dripped on his sunglasses, or sun block only partly rubbed into his face...he does clearly focus his energy on the tasks at hand more than his image. But is an awesome leader, and for that we love him.

Evan and Leah are the black bears we think about so often. Like the cute cuddly bear cubs we all love, they are so cute together - rolling out of their tent in the morning like two cubs rolling out of a log. Just like sweet black bear cubs they are always thinking of each other, and others, offering help to others,making sure everyone is ok. And then of course there is Leah' unbelievable ability to find berries anywhere. At least 3 cups of tiny delicious wild strawberries that day near Taylor's cove! No wonder they felt at home in White's Lake, the place we went through yesterday which advertises itself as where it all began, the story of Winnie the Pooh that is. And like Pooh, they are always willing to share everything .



And Shane, always the eagle eye, he retains his eagle totem. Like the few eagles we have seen he scouts out the territory every day, arriving first often at a town or potential campsite and scouts out info. His eyes really are always looking East however -to India, and to Chaiti. At night he spreads his wings and visits with her, at least figuratively. We are so glad he has been able to join the trip, and are only sorry Chaiti is missing.

Ginny? Well she is sort of like the antelopes we saw in Alberta. Not because she is so fast, (although she can really whip in a tailwind..... No she is like the antelope, pretty shy. Skitterish around big trucks, happier to be off in the open spaces alone with her thoughts than crowded on city streets.....

But most importantly , there are you all our blog friends- like the prairie dogs you are. From your comfy towns and villages you poke up sometimes , or often, and watch us via the blog. Curious creature you are happy to watch but happy in the knowledge that you don't have to join us in reality.

And lastly for those who are regular followers, you are like the"far away bird" the sweet haunting loon like sounding bird which soars high high high overhead in the night sky. You help us remember that home is not that far away-perhaps not much farther than the far away bird who sings so hauntingly thanks for being there and singing to us so often.


Distance: 88.69 km
Time on bike: 5:17:53
Average speed: 16.7 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 4013 km
Start: 9:00 am
End: 7:00 pm
Wind: south-east (head medium)
Conditions: Sunny


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Wawa, Ontario

Day 49: Neys Provincial Park to White Lake (to eat or not to eat)

Eating is a major past time on this trip though we have not discussed it much. It is pretty amazing to be able to eat anything I want and lose weight. And we eat well, doing a grocery store stop every couple of days... macaroni and cheese, pesto, feta cous cous, Indian and Thai curries, etc. Breakfast is always PB on raisin bread with an apple for Leah while the rest of us have granola and snitch a piece of raisin bread.
This morning breakfast was on the spectacular sand beach of Neyes Park on Lake Superior. With waves lapping on the shore, it had the look and feel of an isolated Nova Scotia south shore beach on a calm day (i.e., Hirtles Beach).



We started off cycling with lunch in our paniers but no food for supper or beyond. No problem, there was one significant town on the day's route across the beautifuls hills overlooking Lake Superior- Marathon. It would have a grocery store! It did, but this is where we stumbled into the reoccurring challenge of living in a world planned for cars, not bikes. It turned out that Marathon was not on the main road and it would be 10 km extra round trip for us including a major ascent on the way out. Not a big deal for a car but significant for us especially since Marathon did not seem very appealing seeing the smoke stacks from a distance (the town slogan was "founded on paper and laced with gold").
So we decided to do a very basic supper and breakfast out of the one "convenience" store/gas station on the highway. But this store hit a new low for such places- no eatable food. We asked about small stops on the road ahead and the clerk said there was one. So we called them and they had no food but assured us that a second one just 10 km further would have "something". Perfect as it was right near our camping destination. No one wanted to ride extra down to Marathon... We'd take our chances...
A beautiful, hilly afternoon ride into the wind (as usual) and we arrived very tired at the camp park entrance, having not passed any store. Oops, we can get our site and send someone up the road to get the "something", which by this time was beginning to worry us given the last "store" and the nothing in between. Then the smiling summer student park attendant told us it would be 24 km to the store and back with 8 km of hills for the poor person
among us willing to volunteer. Well no one jumped up to take on this mission at the very end of a long hot day. So what to do?... Beg other campers for food to feed five? Not eat??? Bike the km to the store up the road and try to scrounge a campsite somewhere near there? With our hearts in our hands and no sucker volunteers, we hopped on our bikes and trudged further to the "White Lake Lodge". Now remember this is not exactly the centre of civilization and you cannot always believe what you read. In fact, at this locale, there was no lake and no lodge, of course the "White" was a matter of interpretation. But there was a gas station, a small store and some cabins. The next store was 40km so we knew this was all we had as we enntered the door. Would we eat anything but chips and pop, and maybe Fruit Loops?
The friendly owner greeted us. He was starved for conversation and customers. Eureka! There were noodles, tomato sauce, and the cereal pictured below for breakfast. We would eat!


And to end the story semi happily, there was a small inlet, still water, of a river for a refreshing swim. The down side was that it turned out to be a breeding ground for battalions of mosquitos which attacked us in the evening and morning (the worst yet). And Alan and Leah were faced with the ongoing reality that when all five of us are up for grabs, bugs have clear preferences. Will Alan and Leah be bloodsucked to death in Northern Ontario?? Will they eat or be eaten?? Stay tuned.




Distance: 97.24 km
Time on bikes: 5:18:44
Average speed: 18.3 km/h
Distance from Vancouver: 3923 km
Start: 9:30 am
End: 5:30 pm
Wind: Northwest (light-head)
Conditions: sunny


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:White Lake Lodge, ON