Days 23-26: I get by with a little help from my friends, "rolling rest days", and the meaning of "touring"

Day23

I had a really good night's sleep in the hostel and woke up at 07:00.  Nope.  Closed my eyes and woke up again at 08:00.  One more time.  Back to sleep, and woke up at 09:00.  Ok this time you really do need to get up.  I dragged myself out of bed but I was moving slowly and was definitely tired.  The hostel had food for sale with somewhat odd, but very low rates.  30c for an egg, 35c for a slice of toast, etc - all self serve.  I made myself some eggs and toast and had a glass of OJ - a fine breakfast for the princely sum of $2.50.

Rolling by 10:30 but I wasn't going anywhere fast.  The initial plan had been for a ~200k day to Terrace Bay - but rolling out at 10:30, and especially feeling like I was, that just wasn't happenning.  Adjusted the plan to a rolling recovery day and planned an easy roll to Nipigon ~100km down the road. 

Just as I got rolling I passed a group of touring cyclists.  My brain hadn't fully turned on however, so I just said "good morning" and went on.  I was really dragging, so after about an hour I pulled into a gas station for some fuel.  Just as I was packing up to leave, the group arrived - so I went over to say hi.  Not being in any sort of a rush, I opted to hang out with them while they had their break.  It started to rain, so we went inside the restaurant to wait it out over coffee.  This is a cool group that came together on the road - 2 sisters from Windsor, 2 Law students from Ottawa, and a French Canadian. 

They had been on the road for a while longer than me - 2 of them having left Vancouver over seven weeks ago.  We ended up riding together all day.  We took a detour to Eagle Ridge Canyon, where they have the longest zipline in Canada.  It ended up being a 14k detour, over some clay roads that turned to mud in the rain.  When we got there we were greeted by a woman with all the charm and grace of the woman in MB who owned that snack stand.  The price for the canyon walk (~20min) was $20, and the zipline $60 - on top of the $20 for the walk.  We opted to pass, and it started to rain hard - so we took shelter under the awning of the building.  Then another guy came out and told us that we had to leave.  "If you aren't buying tickets, you're trespassing - you need to vacate the property NOW"  Another charming small business proprieter.  He started to get agitated and went off about "forcibly removing us" and blah blah blah...  We took our time leaving, but did get out of there.  I thanked him for his kindness and told him that I trusted that it would not go unrewarded. 

Back onto the main highway.  I had been hoping to find a bar along the way where we could stop for lunch and watch the World Cup final, and we passed a sign outside Dorion that advertised a hotel with a tavern.  Sweet!  We rolled up and found a burned down building.  D'oh!  Across the street there was a gas station with a chip wagon in the parking lot. I guess that's lunch.  A decent burger and some fries and a coke went down and it started to rain again.  Awesome. 

We got rolling again and it rained on and off - alternating between beautiful sunny skies and warmth with cold rain.  One stop for repairs (thankfully in the sunshine) and we were rolling again.  More rain.  More sun.  The group fractured a bit as we made the final push as one of that girl's knees blew up and she had to limp it in on one leg.  We stopped at a gas station in Nipigon to regroup and the guy there was kind enough to let us use his boat wash station to clean the mud and crap off our bikes.  Dinner at the Husky (with another charming waitress) and then we crashed.  There was some sort of Dept of Oceans and Fisheries convention in town so we all ended up in one hotel room with 3 double beds.  Sweet...


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 9hrs
Actual Ride Time: 4:39
Total Distance: 100.64km
Avg Speed: 21.6kph
Max Speed: 49.3kph



Day24

Up at 07:00, we packed up and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  Too bad we hadn't realized that was an option when we ate diner at the Husky.  Breakfast was good, and then the group split up a bit - one heading to the drugstore, another to Canadian Tire, and the rest of us to a grocery store.  Jamie went ahead because he wanted to get a bit of a headstart "being slow" and the rest of us rolled out in small groups - eventually hooking up further on down the road. 

It was a gorgeous day - sunny with some clouds, warm but not too hot, and some of the best scenery since leaving BC.  It was also really great to be riding with other people.  We weren't sure how far we were going to make it today with a couple of injuries and some mechanical issues, but we knew that there were plenty of options for both shorter and longer days.  It ended up being a very short riding day distance wise, though we were on the road for a LONG time.  Lots of rest stops, mechanicals, food stops, picture stops, and a ~2hr break on Lake Superior just chilling out on some awesome granite slab. 

We only made ~85k to a campsite in Rainbow Falls, but it was an amazing day on the road.  Perhaps this is what "touring" is all about...

Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:15 hrs
Actual Ride Time: 4:20 hrs
Total Distance: 86.17 km
Avg Speed: 19.8 kph
Max Speed: 71.3 kph



Day25

I awoke fairly early, but didn't feel like getting up - so I just rolled over and went back to sleep.  Finally deciding to get up at ~ 06:30 I slowly started to prepare for the day with the others rising shortly after hearing me up and about.  We took our time breaking camp and then went for a walk to explore Rainbow Falls.  More pictures and messing around, and we didn't leave the campsite until 11:20. 

We rolled for ~14k and then stopped in Schreiber for breakfast.  Well - we tried to stop for breakfast.  We pulled into what we thought was the only restaurant in town, and waited ~25min before being able to get a table.  Then after about 10min some of the locals told us that if we wanted coffee, that we should just get it ourselves - that's what they all do.  Another 15min went by before someone came by to take our order, but then informed us that they were out of eggs.  And bacon.  Well that's not going to work...  We finished our coffee and got out of there having wasted a little over an hour in total.  Not more than 100m down the road we came across another restaurant with a lot of motorcycles in front.  This was a much larger place, (with supplies!) and had a fantastic meal.  They make all of their pasta in house, and had made an amazing cream of broccoli soup.  One tiny fly in the ointment was that the girls (who both don't eat meat) accidentally got a "spinach shell" with beef in it, which kind of killed the meal for her.  That kind of sucks, as it was a really good meal. 

Finally rolling at ~14:20, we were on our way - well overstuffed with and all with massive food babies.  Rolling slowly, we made halfway decent time - stopping occasionally to take pictures and to let everyone regroup.  It was a challenging day, with lots of climbing and longer, more sustained rollers.  The girls' folks were planning to meet up with us in Marathon, so they were stopping trying to get cell service every once in a while with not much luck.  Their parents found us and told us that they had also found Jamie - who had taken off on us the day before and never come back.  They took everyone's bags (I kept all mine "for purity" and Seb kept two) and told us where the campground was.  The girls and Guillome took off on their newly unladen bikes like a flash, and Seb and I rolled out the rest of the way.  Seb was feeling the effects of his leg infection and the antibiotics, so he was feeling pretty rough.  We just took it easy and rolled it in to the campsite just before 21:00.  There the girls' folks plied us with food, drink, and fantastic hospitality.  We also met up with Jamie again. 


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 10:00
Actual Ride Time: 5.39
Total Distance: 114.88 km
Avg Speed: 20.3 kph
Max Speed: 66kph


Day26

I was up fairly early again, but not moving particularly quickly - go figure.  Today was scheduled to be a pretty short day.  Between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie there are decent towns about 100km apart - and pretty much nothing in between.  Combined with fairly challenging terrain, a larger group, and various injuries, that sets the distance pretty well for us at ~100k/day for several days.  Because of this "luxury", we can roll late and take our time. 

We didn't get going until 10:00, and then went pretty much less than a kilometer to town as Guilommne had to look for supplies.  The rest of us went to a coffee shop.  Groceries, and we were on our way by ~11:00.  Rolling reasonably well, we stopped several times for fuel, pictures, more fuel, nature breaks, etc and made White River by 19:30.  This is the home of the original Winnie the Pooh (where it all started) and they have a super friendly attitude toward camping and cyclists.  We set up a "tent city" on the (covered) deck of their Welcome Center (with me hanging in the trees nearby).  As we were rolling into town a guy had yelled and waived to us from a motel - so I waived back.  While taking pictures with the Winnie the Pooh statue, he came over and introduced himself.  He's also a cyclist, on tour from Indiana.  He used to camp but now stays in motels, and offered us the use of his shower "it'll cost you a story".  We chatted for awhile over at his place and it turns out that he's done a lot of touring, an crews for RAAM every year.  A really cool guy who's done a LOT.  He also told us where he'd be staying tomorrow night, and offered us the same deal.  What a great guy - I am consistently impressed with the most excellent people that I've met on this trip. 

Tho mosquitoes came out in force, driving everyone into their tents fairly early. 


Stats:

Total Elapsed Time: 9:30
Actual Ride Time: 4.59
Total Distance: 100.23 km
Avg Speed: 20.0 kph
Max Speed: 54.1 kph


The crew, riding in the rain

Somehow they always manage to string up powerlines in EVERY scenic view...

That was actually pretty steep...

The gang, minus Jamie

Sebastian imitating Jesus...

For Courtney - "icing" in Lake Superior

(apparently), THIS is touring...

Rainbow Falls

You wouldn't expect much from a restaurant likt this, but it was AWESOME!

Kickass soup

Chicken parm with house-made pasta

Peloton!

Sebastian's "soul popsicle"
Quote: I feel like I got beat up by Jesus.  That's how bad I hurt...

Support!

Coffee & ice cream - the post breakfast snack of champions!

Marathon

Manitouwadge

White River - the original home town of Winnie the Pooh