Neverending Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario is too big.
8 days (I think?) in and the scenery hasn't changed much. There are some nice spots once or twice a day but for the most part it's the same old boreal forest and muskeg along the highway.
Anyways, another chilly morning in Marathon, but the dew was manageable this time. I lightened my load a bit for the day by sharing some dried fruit for Guy's oatmeal. We split ways for another day, heading away from Superior and towards White River.
Not too much to say about the 95 km to White River. The hills weren't quite as bad today but the wind was on and off in my face. Actually, the wind in Northern Ontario is quite an experience. It can switch 180° in less than 100m from headwind to tailwind and vice versa. I swear the other day that I saw the wind blowing in opposite directions on either side of the road.
After passing through a stretch of mostly wilderness, I made it into the small town of White River (population: 1000 on the dot). The town's claim to fame is that the bear that inspired Winnie the Pooh was bought here by a Canadian soldier heading to Europe. I did the brief tour around town, and found Guy at a gas station.
With no camping options from here to Wawa, another 90 km away, we both agreed that the free camping on the lawn at the visitor center was our best bet. We were asked to wait until the center closed at 8 pm to set up tents so we settled in outside the visitor center to mooch power and wifi.
I did some minor chores (fixing my handlebar tape and refreshing the writing on my bags) and decided that it was easier to not cook tonight so I just snacked and bought some ice cream.
The visitor center free camping became pretty lively. We met a couple hitchhiking across Canada, and then a student from Michigan driving across. Then to the amazement of Guy and I, Risto rolled in at 7:00 pm, having pulled a 180 km day from Terrace Bay in one shot. Amazing, and it kind of made Guy and I feel like wusses for taking easy days.
I woke up during the night, and during a trip to water the grass, looked up to see some of the clearest stars I've ever laid eyes on, despite the streetlights in the visitor center parking lot.
The next morning, I woke up well rested, early and feeling pretty strong. It was 90-ish kilometers to Wawa, and I was determined to push on further than that and finally do a longer day.
Once I got over the morning's hill I caught on a tailwind and engaged the powerful thighs to fly down the other side at warp speed. The speed was sadly not meant to last though, as 30 km from Wawa the wind pulled a typical Northern Ontario 180 and came right down my nose at 20 - 30 km/hr. As if that wasn't bad enough, the last 20 km to town was mostly uphill again.
Still, my speedy morning meant I made it to Wawa by 11:45. I raised my arms in victory as I coasted into the first Tim Hortons in almost 400 km. While enjoying my customary donut lunch, I used the wifi to research the last 220 km to Sault Ste Marie.
With no obvious groceries in that distance, I topped up in Wawa and took a quick lunch at the big goose statue before setting off for a quick 30 km to Lake Superior Provincial Park.
Once again, Google Maps proved it is not great at estimating elevations, as my two easy uphills were actually quite long and steep. Eventually made it to the (very expensive) campground and gathered some firewood from the abandoned campsites. Guy showed up shortly after, to my relief, as it meant I could split the campsite fee. As we started up our cheery little campfire, we were cheerily informed by another campground denizen that there was a burn ban in Algoma. Close one there!
After some planning on the weirdly good LTE and my first shower in 4 days, Guy and I decided to do another night together at Pancake Bay, another expensive Provincial Park.

Getting some mixed signals here.

Camp Cyclist at the White River Visitor Center

Not much to say. It's a big goose.

Superior Cycling

After a toasty night in Haven Hostel, I woke up a bit late, my phone not switching over the Eastern Time yet.
Still made it downstairs in time for the continental breakfast, where I made quick work of a stack of toast, a pot of coffee, and the remains of a blueberry cheesecake while chatting with another cycle tourist (sorry! Forgot your name already).
By the time I got my grocery shopping done and hit the road, it was already 10:30 and about +22.
I stopped in at the Terry Fox monument to pay my respects and top off a water bottle. Side note: a lot of tap water around Superior has a weird salt/alkaline aftertaste. Hopefully I don't get sick again.
I am now firmly entrenched in the Trans Canada Highway and not super happy about it. Since it is the only road east from Thunder Bay, it has an absurd amount of truck traffic. Not only that but the shoulder situation is hit and miss. You can go from beautiful, 2 meter wide paved shoulder to a 6 inch paltry strip, to no shoulder at all with no warning. You think that the main (and only) highway across Canada would be nicer. For shame Governments of Canada and Ontario.
While sitting down with an ice cream cone, I had a woman ask me how I could stand the heat. I honestly thought it was a cooler day until I checked the weather and saw it was actually +31. I guess I'm just used to it now.
Only went 100 km to Nipigon, and headed down to the campground for some expensive Ontario camping along the shore of Lake Superior. I met two other cyclists Guy and Risto (the Trans Canada is apparently crawling with us), and despite feeling a bit anti social, ended up having a long chat about our trips so far, Thunder Bay accomodations and the crazy dude yelling his head off a few hundred meters away.
Instead of a shower, I opted for a swim in the lake. Superior is definitely a bit chilly, rivalling some Yukon lakes for temperature. Or maybe this heat wave has made me soft?
Prepared a gorgeous dinner of instsnt noodles with smoked fish and broccoli slaw, accompanied by a beer of course.
Waking up in Nipigon, I stopped to say goodbye to Risto and Guy before heading off east along the shore of Superior. The weather had shifted dramatically, from +32 the day before, down to about +15 in the morning. I expected the worst: bad shoulder, scorching heat and extreme traffic. However, I was pleasantly suprised by relatively wide, well paved shoulders, cooler temperatures, and low traffic (it was a Sunday). Lake Superior was often hidden by a screen of boreal forest, but the 2 or 3 big climbs of the day brought me to some great lookouts.
All in all, I took a fairly relaxing day. I stopped for some mid afternoon pizza and coffee at a combination Pizza Hut-Subway-Robin's Donuts-Gas Station-Motel before heading to my final destination of Terrace Bay. I had heard from a website that there is free camping allowed at the beach and I had told my two cycling buds from the Nipigon campground about it the night before.  As I was pulling up the last hill to Terrace Bay, I heard someone shouting from behind me and, lo and behold, it was my new friend Guy (Risto opted for the provincial campground 20 km back).
We popped into the visitor center together and confirmed that we would be allowed to camp on the beach before sitting down at the gas station next door for coffee and fig bars.
Going our seperate ways for some fast snack shopping, I went on ahead to the beach.
And it was amazing. The fog off Superior was rolling across the grass-dappled beach, and a small river rushed over a series of rapids into a deep, still lagoon beside the bay.
When Guy showed up, he was just as excited as I was. I do not think he has done much wilderness or free camping so when we set up our tents and got a beach fire going, he was quite pumped.
Just as we were ready to call it in for the night, a german hitchhiker joined us on the beach for the night, so we stayed up a bit later to keep him company.
The next morning the dew was unbelievable. My tent has taken some poundings from various thunderstorms but the dew on the beach was thick enough to swim in and my poor tent was soaked.
Guy and I exchanged chilly greetings in the dense fog and agreed to meet up in Marathon, an 'easy' 80 kms away for a shared campsite. We hit up the small grocery store and then I left Guy behind to fill his bottles while I got on the road
Keeping in mind the fog and damp, I started off the day wearing gloves and my rainjacket, and strapped on my blinking taillight for extra visibility.
What followed was not really the easy day we had expected.
The elevation profile for the day resembled a roller coaster viewed sideways, and I managed to somehow experience headwind from all four cardinal directions.
It ended up taking about 5 hours to do the 80 km to Marathon, counting a lunch break with Fred, a german cyclist I had met briefly the day before.
Finally getting into Marathon, peddling downhill and only doing 24 km/hr into the wind, I took a coffee break at A&W. While I got settled from groceries to last me two days to Wawa, I got a message from Guy that he had locked down a spot at the campground.
Turns out that Fred was in the spot next to us too, so I did some laundry, and then settled in to eat as much as I could (have to reduce the weight in my front panniers), and chatted with Guy and Fred for the rest of the night before catching up on two days of blogging.
Tomorrow I head away from Superior for two days through White River until Wawa, where I rejoin the lake and the first Tim Hortons for almost 450 km awaits.
Guy's mantra for these remote, hilly days around Superior: "It's not a race".
My mantra: "I'm on vacation"
Basically, no need to rush. The towns are far apart and there isn't much between them so may as well take it easy.

Paying homage to a Canadian hero

Fun times on the Trans Canada. Where does the bicycle go?

The Arkel Factory Race Team lined up at the Terrace Bay Visitor Center

Good advice. 

Heat waves and relaxed days

Another rainy morning. This time in Atikokan. Between the drizzle sluicing across my rain fly and the long day I put in the day before, I opted to stay in my sleeping bag a bit longer. By 8 am, the sun was out and I was on the road by 9:15.
I was still feeling pretty weak in the legs so I kept the pace low and planned lots of breaks to Shebandowan; 120 km away.
Lucky for me, the wind is on the move, and was blowing from the southwest today, granting me periods of tailwind-assisted speed.
Still a fair number of hills but I played it safe and let the legs rest as much as possible. My plan to take plenty of breaks went off without a hitch. Notable break at the North Quetico store and restaurant resulted in getting my empty bottles filled with not only water, but also a generous helping of ice. Seeing as the weather cranked back up to 30+ with the humidex, this was an amazing treat!
I eventually pulled up to the Shebandowan Shores Resort, hoping that I could put my tent down for the night. It ended up being one of those RV Resorts that is full of more or less permanently parked RVs, but I was led to a grassy spot on the lakefront by the owner's home. After taking a swim in the lake, the owner offered me some dinner and being a good bicycle tourist, I accepted. All in all, not a bad day.
An early bedtime led to a 5:30 am morning, and feeling decent, I decided to get out of bed and get moving to avoid the heat as much as possible. Probably a good plan, as it was another +30 day in the sun.
Getting out on the road, my legs were still pretty shaky, but it was only 95 km to Thunder Bay so I could afford to take my time. After about 45 mins I rejoined the Trans Canada, which I will have to take as far as Manitoulin Island. Yes, I'm well aware of joke that Canada only has one road, and for a few hundred kilometers its true.
I took a side trip to Kakabeka Falls. I had originally heard of them from a student's presentation in a physical geography course and in the course of researching cross Canada trips decided they were worth a visit.
Not earth-shaking or life changing, but the falls were certainly a nice spot to rest and relax a bit.
Heading off towards Thunder Bay, I soon passed a sign letting me know that cyclists and pedestrians were not allowed on the highway. Since the alternative at that point was to turn around and ride 37 km uphill back to the Trans Canada main branch, I opted to just keep going. The police going by me seemed not to care one way or another.
First stop in T Bay was at a bike shop, hoping to find a new bottom bracket, as mine is getting very creaky. The shop mechanic searched around and couldn't find a matching replacement so he opted to clean my old one as best as possible and offer some critique on my homebrew bike repairs. Unfortunately, despite tightening up the BB threads, it still creaks quite a bit. Hopefully Seault St. Marie has something.
Following that, I hit up the two breweries in town and then checked in to Haven Hostel, paying only 5$ less for a roof and soft bed than I would have payed at the Thunder Bay KOA campground; yeah, camping in Ontario is $$$.
Since I was spending money anyways, I went out for two dinners and then walked back to the hostel to crash.
Super hot in the dorm I was in but I had it all to myself so I slept like a baby.
Still only seen the barest glimpses of Lake Superior so far between the buildings but keen to get out and ride it.

So it's all downhill from here? (Haha no)

Dinner and dessert graciously given to me at the Shebandowan Shores Resort

Admiring Kakabeka Falls

Resting my legs with a before dinner beer at Haven Hostel

Manitoba Review

Hmm what do I say about Manitoba? After the Yukon, it's the place in Canada I am most familiar with. Well, here's my thoughts on a few weeks spent on a bicycle in my second homeland.

Days spent in Manitoba: 16
Rest days: 9
Kilometers pedalled: ~ 680
Days spent in headwind: only 2 yayyyyyy
Max temperature experienced on the bicycle: +46 (with humidex, while shopping in Winnipeg)
Average daily high (with humidex): +32

Best baking: Arborg Bakery
Best beer: Trans Canada Brewing, incredible variety, tasty pizza and friendly staff. Excellent on all fronts.
Best Campground: Probably Minnedosa, but the Provincial Park campground at Winnipeg Beach is also really nice and affordable.
Best small town: Probably Arborg? I was delirious with heat a lot so memories are hazy

Good impressions: Lots of wildflowers in the ditches, and towns were generally better than in Saskatchewan. Municipal campgrounds were generally nicer and located away from train tracks. The bugs were not bad at all, which surprised me.

Bad impressions: THE ROADS. Good luck finding a paved shoulder in Manitoba, and if you enter a town or city, be prepared for your poor bicycle to take a beating from the potholes and heaves.
Manitoba has yet to discover the concept of rest stops as well, so I was forced to take a lot of breaks basically standing on the side of the road. Just now realizing that visitor info centers were strangely rare too.
Also, it's difficult to find good coffee in Manitoba. At least there's microbreweries now.

Final comments:
Not a terrible place to ride a bicycle, aside from the road conditions. Would have been more enjoyable if the temperature had been about 10 degrees cooler each day. Better than Saskatchewan at least.

Hello Ontario

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning feeling under the weather. I think I must have drank some bad water somewhere in the last few days.
A few drops fell on my tent as I contemplated possibilities for the day. A good sign in the bicycle touring world. A rainy day is a cool day, comfortable for riding so long as the rain doesn't get too fierce.
Eventually I made the determination to ride 90 km to Fort Frances and call it a day there. Between my stomach bug and the fact that Google Maps revealed 0 campsites from Fort Frances to Atikokan (150 km), doing a short day seemed inevitable.
As I left Rainy River, I passed through short stretches of wooded prairie fields. I was more or less constantly rained on for 60 km to Emo (great town name), where I topped off my electrolytes and took a lunch break.
After Emo, the boreal forest began to close ranks around me, and a short ways out of town, I was faced with my first real-looking hill for weeks. With some trepidation I began up the ~1.5 km long slope. However, my dormant climbing muscles kicked in immediately and fueled by a week of Winnipeg binge eating, I flew up the hill at 20 km/hr with a smile on my face. I guess the endless tedium of the prairies was getting to me, because I enjoyed the rolling hills from Emo to Fort Frances more than just about any stretch of the prairies.

Once in Fort Frances, I did some shopping, and headed off to the campground. It was an interesting place for several reasons. Beautiful lakeside views but facilities were a bit run down. Tenting was in a big field and my nearest neighbour casually explained how he had been kicked out of his house for marital issues and had just come back from the parole office. He then spent the rest of the evenung split between making very awkward smalltalk or staring at me from 50 ft away. Needless to say, I kept my bear spray, knives, and the Ontario Provincial Police phone number nearby that night.

The next day, I woke up to a decievingly nice sunrise and fixed breakfast. No issues with the neighbours but as I was packing up to hit thw road, a huge, low thundercloud began dumping overhead. My previously dry tent soob becane waterlogged and I was trapped inside for 2 hours waiting for the storm to blow over. To make matters worse, I discovered that one of my water bottlea had leaked, soaking a book, some dinner rolls and my tent bag.

Finally hitting the very soggy roads at 9:30, I was not looking forward to the long ride to Atikokan. Sure enough, it was a pretty awful day. 145 kilometers into a unforgiving and unrelenting 40 km/hr headwind, with over 1000m of climbing thrown in. All in all, one of the hardest days on the bike so far.

The ride through the rocky escarpments of boreal forest seemed nice enough but I was too focused on making Atikokan by a reasonable time to enjoy it.

The town of Atikokan itself was a welcomw refuge. It was small, and gave off a Northern BC vibe, but it had the requires amenities of groceries, beer store and coffee shop.

The campground is also quite nice. It is tucked away into a quiet forest with decent and well-kept facilities. I opted for a recuperating evening of (free) showers, beer and dinner before heading to bed.

Hopefully that will be the last of the really tough days, as I will be in Thunder Bay on Friday and campgrounds seem to become more common from there.

Note: I've had to write this post 4 times as tge blogging app keeps deleting sections during the upload. Very chapped.

 

The tinest little chapel in Emo

One of about 100 picturesque, lilypad-dappled ponds I passed in Northern Ontario

One of about 100 picturesque, narrow-shouldered hills I gritted my teeth up in Northern Ontario

On the road again

Winnipeg was a good spot for a long rest. I had battled almost constant headwinds and heat across the prairies and was intensely drained.
Aside from all the family and friends from my university life to visit, I also had a list of things to do or buy before heading east.
I won't go over my rest week, but I stayed in Winnipeg from Friday June, 29th until Sunday, July 8th.
Leaving Winnipeg on Sunday morning, I had a bike full of food, with new, fatter tires mounted. It took only an hour to get back into the swing of touring.
Luckily, Sunday traffic was light, and the wind was more often than not at my bike. With the sun behind clouds all morning, it was a great day to get back in the saddle.
Well, aside from a 15 minute dousing by a passing rain cloud and the general lack of highway shoulders.
I opted long ago to avoid Kenora and the Trans Canada, instead choosing to travel south of Lake of the Woods and through Northern Minnesota to Rainy River.
Unfortunately, this means I missed out on a small bicycle tourist ritual of seeing the monument to the longitudinal center of Canada, which sits east of Winnipeg on the Trans Canada. However, even if I didn't see it myself, I have now passed the middle point of Canada. Taking into account my tendency to wander north and south and the Vancouver Island warm-up, I can probably say I am also halfway through in terms of raw pedalling distance as well.
Anyways, the only camping option in southeast Manitoba a reasonable distance from Winnipeg seemed to be in Woodridge. The access was provides by a triple digit highway, which usually does not bode well. Sure enough, I turned off Highway 12 and encountered two midly upsetting revelations:
1) A road of very dusty, very loose gravel
2) a sign indicating that Woodridge was about an hour down said road
What ensued was a pretty intense hour of fishtailing through piles of gravel, getting coated in dust by passing traffic, and general frowning.
Pulling into Woodridge at around 4 pm, I purchased a powerade, some lemon tarts, and some candy from the general store before heading to the campground I slogged so hard to reach. To my amazement, I discovered that the campground was home to at least 5 different varieties of wild berries, all in perfect ripeness. I gorged myself on blueberries and saskatoons in the forest, discovered zero ticks (bonus!), cooked dinner and settled into bed by 10 pm. Back home in the tent after a week of beds and pillows. I passed on showering, as I just came off a 8 day rest of showers and civilization and must cultivate the bike tourist aura once again.
The next morning I awoke to find light blue skies with not a cloud in sight. An idyllic sight for the average person, but an ill omen for the bicycle tourist. The sun is not your friend when you are riding 5 - 10 hours a day on open blacktop.
A very berry breakfast later, I packed up and hit the road. More gravel to reconnect with highway 12 but in better shape. A light tailwind danced at my back, and I easily blew through 90 kilometers of mixed forest and small hills to the US border.
The border officer seemed to question my sanity in cycling across Canada and doing it in almost the least direct route possible, but he let me into his country so its all good.
I took lunch in the town of Warroad, Minnesota, where most of the town was dominated by a sprawling window and door factory. The rest of town seemed dedicated to hanging as many US flags as physically possible. I could practically cut the freedom in the air with a knife. After some donuts and coffee, I continued on towards Canada again.
Very hot afternoon in the sun and I had to make an emergency and clandestine stop when I felt the Manitoban blueberries forcibly coming out the other end.
I eventually crossed back over into Canada around 5 pm, at the town of Rainy River, Ontario. I sluiced the sweat and sunscreen from my skin at the nearby wading pool and settled in. As I was cooking dinner, a man in a mobility scooter rolled by missing a leg and most of his teeth. He talked at me for about 30 seconds, during which time I understand zero words.
Looking ahead it seems camping in Ontario is very expensive, so I may have to start doing some stealth camping again.

Berry booty bag

USA. USA. USA. 

10$ in my pocket and Luna bars 10 for 10?

Hello varied diet

Side story: Time and Bicycle Touring

In lieu of describing my Winnipeg rest week in boring detail, here's some 11 pm thoughts on how long distance bike touring affects my view of time:

Time is weird on this trip. It's almost completely thrown out the window as a concept, except when I need a brewery or bakery to be open.
I generally wake up shortly after sunrise and decide whether or not to begin my day or go back to bed based on feel.
Do I feel I got enough sleep? Do I feel particularly motivated right this second? How hot does it seem like it will be today?
I will admit I do check my phone or the spedometer on my bike (still set to Yukon time) before making a final "out of bed or not" decision, in order to avoid making an accudental 4:30 am start. I did obsess over time quite a bit at the start of the tour. When I would leave camp, when I would get to the next town, how late I would ride. I'll admit, these thoughts are still in the back of my mind most of the time I'm turning the pedals, but they don't really affect my mood or speed much anymore. I just ride my bike and worry more about the heat, or the disconcerting pain that sometimes creeps into my knee, or whether I collected an unseen tick the last time I stopped to water the roadside flowers.

On a larger scale, days blend together. I don't usually think of the timeline of the trip in terms of days and weeks. My main measure of passage is individual memories. Places I have passed or things I saw. But even these placemarkers are becoming scrambled in my recollection. I am starting to have a hard time grasping how long I have been on the road. I long ago stopped bothering to count the days. Now, when asked how long I have been on the road I simply reply "since May 8th", although May 8th, 2018 seems as long ago as my graduation from university 2 years past.

While in Winnipeg, I feel like my brain is slipping back into the old university pattern. Even though I've only been in the city for a week, it feels more like I never left after finishing classes. The bike tour seems like it has happened in another life.

When I think of finishing the tour in 2 months or so, the idea has no real impact.
The last two months seem immeasurable so it's almost inconceivable that the trip will ever end. Until now I have also passed through mostly familiar country; places and highways I have driven through before. I wonder how the totally unknown lands east of Manitoba will affect my perception of time. Will all the new sights and experiences make the days stretch even longer? Or will it be so exciting that it passes in a flash?