Day 56: Best campsite ever - Sault Ste Marie

km today: 92.4
total km: 4284.4

We fell asleep under the stars without our fly on and our vents open. Upon waking, we were greeted to a sunrise framed by the door of our tent. Grogginess overpowered the desire to take a picture in the early hours, but we did capture the scene once we were actually awake.
Common household rules apply here too.

We did not want to leave our little campsite but the temperature was rising rapidly. Luckily the hills had mellowed out and we had a fairly flat ride for most of the day. The saying goes save the best for last, and the hills followed the slogan precisely. About 30km from Sault Ste Marie we encountered the steepest ascent of our journey since leaving B.C. Although we were fresh from our lunch break we reached the peak light headed and glistening like we've never glistened before. There was a thick layer of sweat on us that made us look like we'd been working over-time in the sauna.

Our arrival in Sault Ste Marie (or the Soo) marked far more than just another campsite destination. This is our estimated half way point of our journey!
Thanks to a tip from Andrea and Kelly (the Campbell River cyclists who were heading west) we found the bike shop Velorution. It has a dirt park, coffee shop and a pro bono cyclist's campground. It's not just a bike shop, but a bike culture.

We wanted to celebrate our milestone with a border-run to Michigan, but they don't let you walk across the border (our bikes were being serviced). We settled for an 18" pizza and a pitcher of beer on, possibly more appropriate, Canadian soil. Perfect.

B&K

Day 55: Rabbit Blanket - Best Campsite Ever

km today: 96.2
total km: more than 4000!

River mouth just past Katherine Cove (even spelled right).

Today was hot and hilly. The climbs were steep and relentless. The only service between Wawa and our campsite was at Montreal River, 73km into our ride. Because of this we had to carry our cans of food all the way from Wawa, the added weight of which resulted in a broken spoke on Brandon's back tire. We didn't try to be mechanics this time but, instead, decided to attempt the 230km to Sault Ste Marie with a wobbly wheel (seeing as how we are in Sault Ste Marie now, we'll spoil it by telling you we made it).

To cool our hot and sweaty bodies off when we arrived in Montreal River we indulged in a 1L container of M&M ice cream. Oddly, we probably could have gone for the 2L. Although we could have camped in Montreal River, we had inside info from a group of cross canada cycling vets. Our campsite of choice lay 20km beyond Montreal River and was well worth the extra effort. We had our own private section of Superior's waterfront. We cooled and cleaned off by bathing in the lake, marking our first time swimming in a great lake (we only dipped our toes into the water the day before).

Chocolate protein milk and a glorious sunset makes for a perfect combination.

B&K

Day 55: Rabbit Blanket - Beest

Day 54: White River - Rabbit Blanket Lake

km today: 126.1
total km: ? (we forgot the book again! we suck we know)

We started our day off by saying goodbye to Winnie.
A short distance out of White River we neared an impressive milestone:
An even shorter distance later we reached it:

Our day was broken up into the ride to Wawa (96km) and then the extra 30km to Rabbit Blanket provincial park where the closest campsite was located. The ride to Wawa was great! Not only were there no hills, but we actually had a real tail wind the whole way. We totally flew there, and were at the tourist bureau by 3:30pm. But the real highlight were Wawan masterpieces (here you go Pat/dad):
Our personal favourite.
Michelangelo eat your heart out.

But seriously we have fabulous news. Our beaver tally has finally graduated to one! We spotted him as he entered a culvert on his way to the other side of the highway and proceeded to wait like rabid paparazzi on the other end. Midway through the photo shoot he decided he'd had enough of posing. He started slapping his tail against the water and diving underneath. We're unsure if this meant that he wanted us to bugger off, but we took it as an indication to leave him be.

When we arrived in Wawa, we felt so great, that we chose to go the extra 30km to Rabbit Blanket campground. This section was much hillier (they were steep too) but the cooler evening temperature and the aiding winds made it very enjoyable. Both of us agreed that this was one of our best days yet. Really adding to the splendor of the day was the unexpected appearance of Old Woman Bay as we descended down a 7% gradient hill. The water was a bright clear blue and the radiant evening light lent a golden hue to the sandy beaches and surrounding cliffs. It truly was breathtaking. Without conferring, we pulled over, ripped our sweaty shoes and socks off and ran barefoot through the sand and into our first great lake. Though still 10km from our campsite, the thought of eating dinner anywhere else was out of the question. Our packaged Subway sandwiches may not be the meal of choice for such a grand setting, but to us, fast food has never tasted so good.We were inspired to change our dead batteries (hence no beach pictures) when we found this neurotic little guy trying to squeeze his way into the zippered compartment of Katie's pannier where the trail mix was.

Moose tracks - evidence that they do exist.
Last climb to our campsite.

B&K

Day 53: Marathon - White River

km today: 97-ish
total km: nearing 4000!

Coffee break. At a $1.99 for a thermos of coffee and a face sized doughnut, we are now regulars.

We finally had a tail wind, just not for the whole day. The highway curves so much and we passed so many bodies of water that the wind direction changed constantly. There weren't too many hills though, so with the help of the infrequent tail wind we still made really good time to White River.

About 40km away from Marathon, and 60km to White River (so pretty much in the middle of nowhere) we came upon this monstrosity (there were 2 other buildings as well):

Williams gold mine.
A suitable name for the gold mine's driveway

The highlight of the day was getting the chance to finally document one of our bear sightings. It required Brandon coordinating having one hand on the camera and the other hand on the air horn and handlebars while peddalling at the same time. Unfortunately, he didn't catch a shot of the bear as it stood on its hind legs and sniffed him as he went by it. At this time, Katie was being an wise coward on the other side of the road.



Another en route novelty:
.......So it's how far?

We made it!

Quote of the day:

Brandon: What do you think they would serve at the restaurants in the town of Winnie the Pooh's origin?
*both pondering*
Katie: anything with honey I guess....
Brandon: Roast bear.

There are no campsites in Winnie the Pooh's home, but the tourist center allows free camping on their lawn. Sharing this freebie spot are John and Joan, the humbling 66 year old couple who began their cycling journey from Victoria a week after we did.

B&K

Day 52: Schreiber - Marathon

km today: 98-ish
total km: ?

Another foggy day with a fierce headwind. Luckily, the hills were not as bad as the two days before. Plus, we actually made it onto the highway at a reasonable hour (10:30am by the time we'd finished our leisurely coffee at Red Robin).

Event wise it was a pretty standard day. Got up, rode our bikes, set up camp in an overpriced and under-maintained campsite in the otherwise nice town of Marathon. We stuffed ourselves full with an entire rotisserie chicken atop of 1kg of perogies dressed with 500mL of light sour cream with a side of broccoli. It may rival our usual favourite of whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce and broccoli. In light of this, we'll just let our pictures speak for themselves.
More fog.
Notice the semi's headlights 50m in front and to the left of Katie.
A perfect spot for lunch. We sure did get a lot of honks of encouragement.
Misty mountains and trees.
Another view.

B&K

Day 51: Nipigon - Schreiber

*For today and tomorrow's accumulated distances you'll just have to wait because we forgot to bring the journal where we log the numbers*

km today: 92-ish
total km: ?

We were greeted on the road by a fierce headwind; the strongest we've had since heading to Swift Current. Coupled with the winds, we were averaging downwards of 12km/h. Due to an overestimation of our physical fitness we decided we didn't have to leave till until 1:00pm in attempting to cover the 104km to Terrace Bay (our originaly planned destination). Considering that Terrace Bay is not in the title of this blog, we clearly changed our plans.

Along with the headwinds, there was plenty of notable scenery that kept us from making it to Terrace Bay. Included in our sightings was a red fox which we immediately scared off by yelling at each other "Look a Lynx!" The sightings that we did capture on film are as follows:
First good peak at Lake Superior.
Rocky cliffs in the background. Some dork eating peanuts in the foreground.
A "superior" pose.Inferior pose (Brandon's idea).
First real hills since B.C.
Checking the wind direction (note the grass blowing the exact opposite direction that we were heading).
Sudden lake-born fog (and yes, this was the same day and the pictures are in sequential order).
This whole segment of the highway was literally carved out of the landscape.
Katie riding. Brandon playing in traffic.
More hills. More fog.
Misty lake.
Wildflowers lying just in front of the lake from the picture above.
Like we said, we started late.

B&K

Day 50: Thunder Bay - Nipigon

km today: 107.7
total km: 3673.9

We got off to our latest start yet today. We weren't on the road tackling today's centurion until 2:30 PM. Thankfully, our tardiness ended up playing to our favor in the end as the usually crowded Trans Canada became far less populated once evening hit.

Our first stop of the day was at Mr. Fox's famous memorial. The final steps of his "Marathon of Hope" were taken on the Courage Highway (which is still the Trans Canada) just outside of Thunder Bay.
If you look really closely, you may be able to see Lake Superior in the background.

Our flat tire count is now at 6, and is Katie's very first contribution to the tally. When the tube blew it sounded like a gun had gone off, much more explosive than any of our previous blows.

The landscape is ever changing as we continue going south east. No longer are we seeing stunted pines in a mosaic of swampy marshes, but now see aspens, alders, firs, spruces etc (Brandon is cutting off our tree recount). It is much more lush and much less buggy. Adding to the beauty were the red rock rock cliffs, burning brighter in the setting sun. Unfortunately, we have no pictures because Brandon was too busy singing his way into Nipigon and Katie's camera is out of commission at the moment.

After a surprisingly good dinner at the 24h trucker ridden husky restaurant, we were off to bed.

B&K

Day 49: Thunder Bay Day Off

km today: a few around town
total km: pretty much the same

Thunder Bay is a great place for us to have a day off and get all of our errands done. They have everything we need. The city itself is a sprawling mass due to the fact that it is really two cities merged together linked by suburbia. This makes walking anywhere nearly impossible and biking anywhere just difficult enough a to keep us focused on necessary errands.

Amidst our chores we stumbled upon yet another cross Canada cycling duo. Kelly and Andrea had started in Halifax and were heading back to their hometown of Campbell River! What are the chances?

We did discover why pancakes are served in the Finnish style. Thunder Bay is home to the largest Finnish population outside of Helsinki. There is even a little Finland. Taking in the food at a well reputed Finnish restaurant was todays only distraction. We dined at the 88 year old Hoitos, which came about to provide the Finnish bushman with hefty portions of affordable homecooked food. The tradition is kept alive to this day, which makes it a perfect spot for two hungry bikers. The five dollar rye cold smoked salmon sandwich was a treat.



B&K

Day 48: Shabaqua - Thunder Bay

km to Thunder Bay: 70.1
km cruising around killing time: 25.2
total km for the day: 95.3
total km: 3548.0

Breakfast was just as amazing. We had eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, juice and Finnish pancakes. If you have never had these (we had never had them) they are amazing. They are more like crepes, delicate, moist and delicious. Not heavy or glutinous like Aunt Jemima's. We left fuelled, literally, thanks to the seven cups of coffee that accompanied breakfast. Even still, we had to fill up our thermos before we left. We had a relatively short day and didn't feel the need the rush, thus our first break came midway between the treck from the house to our bikes.

Our second break came 1km later on the other side of the intersection. We were stopping to buy more food obviously. There, we met a couple more members of the cross Canada bike community, John and Joan from Victoria, who had apparently been riding with Reuban (our Kiwi connection) and Ryan (our Taiwanese tie) both of whom, as stated in previous entries, we've been travelling with on and off. It's beginning to feel like we are a part of a little cross Canada community.

Our third stop was the famous Kakabeka Falls along the Kam River. They don't have Niagra's volume, but they are actually higher making them a pretty impressive sight, and a great spot for another coffee break.

We found a new form of refuge in the dorms at Lakehead University where $30 gets you a familiar, worn, closet-sized room typical of any dorm. There is free very high speed internet, a kitchenette, laundry facilities that are 1/3 the price of those at UBC and there are no bugs so we are happy!

B&K

Day 47: Atikokan - Shabaqua

km today: 142.3
total km: 3452.7

This was our most poorly planned day yet. We had to do about 140 km in order to reach some amenities. One would assume that we would have left early in lieu of such a long day, especially after the previous long day. We however, failed to leave Atikokan until 11:30 am. What were we thinking? We don't know. Part of the reason we were so delayed was because we met Santa Clause. Seriously. Even his driver's licence shows it via name and photo.

He was a pretty cool guy though, and once an avid biker himself. He also completed a cross country tour, in 1952, and averaged "206 miles per day!" We think he might be telling some tall tales as well, but they definitely kept us entertained. He built and rode the world's largest bicycle (the wheels alone were 13 feet high). When he wasn't biking, he was setting other abstract world records. We're not sure what exactly this record broke, but it involved pushing a wheelbarrow leaden with 301 pounds for 22 miles in 7 hours, 1 of which was taken up by dinner. The weights of choice: a monkey wrench, a brick, a man playing an accordion and a small rock.

There was very little time for pictures as our sole focus was getting to Shabaqua before dark, hence the lack of photos. This was pretty cool though. The other side informed us that we had just ridden out of the Arctic water shed.

We finally arrived in Shabaqua to discover that there was really not much there. This would have left us stuck in the mud seeing as how we had absolutely no food or a stove to cook with (ours just died). Luckily for us, there was this: After setting up our tent in their yard, Mary fulfilled our dreams we'd been having for the last 40 km of our ride by providing a table with a bottomless vat of spaghetti and meatballs alongside equal portions of bread, salad and juices. And she surprised us with a choice of dessert. Apple pie a la mode or brownie a la mode. It was heaven. Especially when we had no idea where we going to stay or what we were going to eat. Did we mention we were ill prepared?

B&K

Day 46: Fort Frances - Atikokan

km today:145.0
total km: 3452.7

Sunrise from our campground.

This was a necessarily long day. There is nothing in between Fort Frances and Atikokan but a bug infested campground nowhere near any amenities. Not our cup of tea. There were a few highlights amongst the mostly repetetive scenery. We saw our first wolf of the trip. It was quite accidental really. We caught him silently sulking across the highway as he stared us down. It made us wonder how many other members of the animal kingdom we have passed, oblivious of their presence.



What do you do on a boring ride? Have a wonder bread photo shoot of course.

Another highlight (like we said, it was a bit of a boring day) was our improvisation upon realizing we had not packed enough lunch to get us to Atikokan. Somehow we always overlooked this convenience store menu item. A full box of cereal and 2L of milk split between us and we were full and happy.

Floral foreground.
No beavers here.

B&K