After a long, windy, rainy, and super hilly 10 days in Northern Ontario, all members of Camp Cyclist were looking forward to a rest day in Sault Ste Marie.
While checking for Warmshowers hosts, I stumbles upon free camping at one of the local bike shops and decided to give it a try.
Good timing, as the bike shop was holding their annual party/sale (but mostly party) the next day. And with rain in the forecast until Sunday, it seemed like a good time to not be riding a bike.
Since it was so early, I left my gear at the shop and headed downtown to do some shopping and check out the brewery scene.
While sipping my first glass, a younger woman walked over and introduced herself. We had a couple beers and talked about sustainability and other hippy things before she invited me to go hang out at her place.
After imbibing some hunger-inducing substances we biked over to the store and bought fixings for a dinner. She invited me to hang out with her friends that night and I had nothing better to do so I biked back to the shop and grabbed my stuff. While there, I discovered the other members of Camp Cyclist had both arrived.
After biking back to my new friend's housr, we grabbed her buds and went downtown to enjoy some live music, beer, bbq, pool and getting drenched by a steady rainfall. Walking back to get my bike, I narrowly dodged a lightning bolt that touched down about 250m away.
I didn't get back to the bike shop until 2 am, so I set up my tent through a haze of exhaustion, inebriation, and rainfall before passing out.
Day two in the Soo.
Started the day with a hangover and another trip for donuts, which I am starting to become well known for liking. I sat around drinking coffee at the bike shop for a while, bought some new socks and a new chain, and then started thinking about the days plans. Risto and Guy were already downtown so I slapped a pannier on my bike and took off to find a grocery top up and maybe get a beer with the cycle friends.
The rain eased off a bit, and without the gear on my bike, I was enjoying a nice little ride, so I decided to bike along the main downtown drag.
Unbeknownst to me, there was a parade that day.
I found myself coming up on the tail end of it and decided to have some fun and ride through the parade. I was slightly out of place, heavily bearded, hungover and riding a battered touring bike but no one kicked me out of the parade and I had fun peddaling between floats and waving to kids.
After meeting up with Guy and Risto, who had seen me go by, I decided to bike back to the shop for the party.
Great idea! In addition to coffee and sale prices, they also brought out big trays of baked goods, hot dogs and opened a beer tent. I spent the rest of the afternoon stuffing myself.
Guy and Risto showed up later in the afternoon, so we went to have a beer together at the tent and discovered that since the party was officially over, beer was free. Sat arouns drinking with the guys and the bike enthusiasts until I was invited to join the bike shop crew on a brewery ride. It was starting to rain again and I felt bad for ditching Guy and Risto two nights running, but I had to accept an invitation for group rides and beer.
I soon learned that the employees of Velorution bike shop are totally nuts.
Our ride to the brewery was a 45 minute, winding sprint through the bike paths, traffic lanes, parking lots, and forested singletrack of Sault Ste Marie. All in the pouring rain with a bunch of yelling, drunk cycle enthusiasts. Back to Outspoken Brewing for beer until closing time, followed by a few more porch beers before a 12 am Wendys run and another late bedtime.
I woke up Sunday morning, hungover again, half my clothes muddy or still soaking wet, and contemplating another rest day. Eventually, I decided to suck it up and do at least a few kilometers, as another 'rest' day in Sault would probably kill me.
Guy, Risto, and I all got breakfast at Tims before splitting up. Guy planned on doing a slightly longer day, while Risto wanted to stay in the city one more day to get stuff done. Perhaps we will meet again on Manitoulin Island, perhaps not. It was good to have them by my side (sort of, we never rode as a group) through Northern Ontario.
No comments:
Post a Comment