Day22 - new adventures in holding it together...

My eyes snapped open at ~05:00, but after looking at the time I refused to get up.  This cycle repeated until ~06:45, when I allowed myself to get out of bed.  Breakfast started at 07:00.  Slowly crammed in an English muffin, 4 Eggo waffles, 2 cups of OJ and 2 cups of coffee.  I knew there was a town ~50km from English River, but after that I had no idea if there would be anything until Thunder Bay.  Best to head out with a full tank.  I took my time getting ready and was rolling by 08:55. 

The road had opened up some since entering ON, and there was enough clearing beside the road for the wind to now be a factor.  I started my day with a healthy sidewind to complement the rollers - which were becoming longer and more wavy.  The body didn't feel good, but it didn't feel bad - it just was.  I had woken up with a slightly sore left knee, which is new, and yesterday my left ankle had started to bother me a bit as well (also new).  The right ankle, which has been the main problem from the first week didn't feel good, but it didn't hurt that badly.  Yet. 

I rolled along making decent time and soon hit Upsala - the only town I was sure existed along the way, at ~50km.  Upsala has three stores, all in a row.  First there's the general store, then a mini mart/camping supply, and finally a gas station with a restaurant attached.  I pulled into the 3rd option.  They had home-baked goodies there, and I sampled one of their butter tarts.  I wouldn't say that the ladies at Tartine will be waking up in a cold sweat because of these guys, but it was far better than 90% of the buttertarts you're likely to sample anywhere.  Tartine is safe because theirs are still better, and because hey - this was in Upsala.  I grabbed another for the road.  It wasn't until after I had fueled up that I noticed a rack of pies on the far side of the restaurant.  Slice of Pie and coffee: $4.95  DAMN - I have to pay more attention when doing my initial scan - I had only noticed the close rack of baked goods.  Oh well - can't win 'em all.  Upon leaving I asked the clerk about other towns/fuel options and he mentioned a gas station about 25km from Upsala, and another town ~75km from Upsala, of similar size.  Perfect, I thought to myself.  3hrs of riding and then lunch.  He also mentioned (as had the guy at the hotel earlier) that the road was about to get pretty hilly.  Okay - we'll have to see what they mean by that. 

The road continued to roll for about 20 or 30 km and then it did indeed get hilly.  Very hilly.  These hills were longer, steeper, and less twisty than earlier, though just as relentless.  The sidewind also turned into a wicked headwind.  I don't really mind climbing into a headwind as it keeps me cool.  I'm not super fond of descending into a headwind however, and really quite dislike powering into a headwind on the flats.  Seeing that speedometer sit at ~19kph given the amount of work I'm doing just bugs me.  Nothing to do about it but work away however, so I kept pushing.  "Luckily" I got to do a lot of climbing into that wind.  :p 

As I crossed the Continental Divide, it was like a switch went on.  The oven switch.  It got significantly hotter, and more humid.  It wasn't brutal weather like they're reporting in Toronto right now (45deg and 95% humidity), but it was easily in the low 30s.  Good thing I had plenty of headwind to keep cool!  :p

After a good while longer than I had planned, I finally reached the second town - Shabaqua.  I had been hoping for another restaurant like the one in Upsala, with fresh, home-baked goodies.  What I got was a convenience store with a fridge containing some pre-made sandwiches that one could heat up.  Great.  I don't trust fridge sandwiches in North America (in England I'd buy one in a heartbeat - Boots sandwiches are great, and if there's a Pret a Manger around I'm just thrilled).  "Lunch" consisted of an ice cream bar, a bottle of Gatorade, and a stick of elk jerky.  The upside was that I was back on the road fairly quickly...

Back to climbing.  At some point shortly after this, my ankle decided to hurt.  A lot.  It felt as if someone was stabbing me through the achilles with an awl.  It sucked.  The pain would subside for the most part relatively quickly, but always be there in the background - ready to strike again.  And strike it did.  Perhaps not "frequently", but enough such that I lost track of the number of times it happenned.  This made climbing more challenging and I was reduced to limping along rather than my usual uphill struggle.  Now I'm no natural born climber.  No-one's ever mistaken me for Alexi Grewal, and unless we're talking about a short, steep, "power climb", I'm typically one of the last ones up.  But this reduced my normal climbing "prowess" to something far sadder still.  Well, sometimes life kicks ya. 

Not too far out from Tbay I noticed a snack stand mid-climb - so I pulled off down the road to investigate.  I knew that I didn't want to eat anything as the climb was still going up and it was still pretty warm out - but I could have gone for a cold drink.  I bought a pop and knocked my bag over, popping open my chips - so I ate those too.  Then it was back on the road, climbing ever so slowly and tentatively, waiting for the pain to strike again.  It didn't disappoint.

Finally I made it to town and after a quick Safeway stop for some recovery fuel, I had a choice to make: follow the highway East and find a hotel on the way out, or head downtown to see what Tbay is all about.  Naturally I went downtown.  I wasted about an hour and a half, noodling about town looking for an option that wasn't totally sketchy.  As in, $50 motels with cars on blocks in the parking lot sketchy.  Finally I pulled the plug on my search and decided to get back on the highway.  I really wanted an ice bath, and a Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Quality Inn, or some other national brand would likely have a bathtub I wouldn't be terrified to sit down in.  After rolling around looking for the way back to the highway, a couple of friendly locals flagged me down and informed me that the route I was on would indeed take me back to the highway - but that there were some "significant hills" if I went that way.  The pointed me down another road that runs parallell to the lake, which would also join up with the highway.  I thanked them and took their advice.  I didn't need to be limping up any more hills on a busted ankle. 

This new road took me by some absolutely stunning properties (right on the lake - go figure), and judging by the massive stacks of firewood that many of them had, one can infer that the winters here are extremely long and cold.  I rolled along, running out of water and wondering where I would end up staying.  No water meant that "stealth camping" was out...  One of the locals had told me that there was a hotel on Hwy17 just after Lakeshore Drive joined up with it - but that "it used to be a normal hotel, and then someone bought it and has redone it".  I wasn't expecting Opus or the Waldorf Astoria, but my hopes for a nicer hotel were buoyed. 

What I got was a hotel that was still under construction, and closed.   I consulted my map and there was nothing East for at least 40-60km.  The next town of significance was 80km.  It was after 21:00, and I had been on the road for over 12hrs.  I was not about to roll another 4.  I had passed a hostel not too far back, so I turned around and tried them out.  It's run by a very nice couple who charged me $20 for a single room (shared bathrooms).  Okay, so no ice bath tonight.  But at least I have somewhere to stay. 


STATS:

Total Elapsed Time: 12:30
Actual Ride Time: 10:00
Total Distance: 219.62km
Avg Speed: 21.9kph
Max Speed: 57.7kph


A pretty darned good buttertart:

Hills, hills, and more hills...

The Continental Divide

And the other side of the sign...