B & K Tour du Canada

We finished A LONG time ago.............sorry.

2009-02-02T21:10:00.001-08:00

Ok, we never finished the blog. We know we feel terrible. We are alive and well and since our last post we have done the following:

-Called her quits on the quest for Newfoundland and instead rapped up the trap by instead renting a car and touring more of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

-Made a ten month pit-stop in Montreal before returning to the West coast.

-Set up again in Vancouver with Fraser Munn as our stupendous new roomate (feels more like a brother than anything else). We've found a place on Main Street. We absolutely love it and plan on being here for a long time.

-Brandon finally admitted to and succumbed to his passion for food and is now enrolled in a wonderful, and highly regarded Culinary Arts program that happens to be 5-blocks from our house.

-Katie finally stopped fighting her desire to be a doctor and has been accepted into the Boucher Institute of Naturopathy where she will begin a four year ND program in September.

-Brandon finally proposed outside of Notre Dame Basilica last winter and the wedding is set for July 25.

So we've come along way and we really appreciate everyone who lent their support to us over those four months. And we really do apologize profusely to anyone who may have thought that we fell off the face of the earth, or that Katie was pregnant or any of the other horrible rumours we heard. All we can say is thank you for sticking with us.

B&K

Day 115 - 118: Dartmouth Bed Rest

2007-10-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

Clearly one night was not enough bed rest. Though our B&B provided a warm, clean and cozy refuge to aid in the recovery process Katie awoke the first morning a nauseous mess. She’s still in much the same state. Certain foods make her stomach churn on sight and even those foods that don’t, still churn her stomach upon arriving in it. As you might imagine, four days without being able to eat properly makes for one exhausted Katie.

Halifax was only a 5 minute, $2 ferry ride from Dartmouth but, even still, only once in our four days here was Katie well enough for us to make the trek into town. The Dartmouth public library, on the other hand, was just down the road from our B&B and became our full time office. The librarians began greeting us with recognition, saving their “how may I help yous?” for the locals. Our one health splurge into town.

Though Katie was barely well enough to eat, the lure of free high speed internet, burnable cds, photogenic recipe magazines and, of course, books were enough to get her out of bed every day. We may not have covered any distance during our time in Dartmouth but we have conducted some very important business such as finding Montreal apartments, booking train rides etc.

For reasons that only make sense to El Cheapos such as ourselves, we decided that Katie was well enough to move back into the tent after three nights in the B&B. We think that it’s probably half because we’re so cheap and half because we were so excited about moving to this particular campsite. Squatting in the city is not exactly easy due to the density of the population and the lack of hiding places. Compounding the problem was our lack of navigational knowledge regarding the area. Our solution: taking squatting to a whole new level. We discovered that the satellite images on google earth are of such a high resolution that you can choose a campsite with pinpoint accuracy. Squatter friendly coniferous forests are just as clearly depicted as multi-acre apartment complexes. Within minutes we had located the nearest forest area and even what looked like a walking trail leading into it.

We have spent our last two nights camping just off that walking trail. Seeing as how Katie really isn’t getting better (in fact sometimes it seems as though she is getting worse), our wallets are getting very thin and both of us really are running out of steam, we think that the last leg of our trip may be nearer than we thought.

B&K

Day 114: Enfield - Dartmouth

2007-09-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

km today: 41.13
total km: 7624.33

Turtle Power!

We’ve decided that we have to do more cycle touring after this trip because we’ve only just perfected all of the tricks of the trade in terms of cheap living. Squatting is a good start, but squatting right next to trucker stops where showers are available is like staying in an all inclusive free of charge. We had to pay for the showers of course, but the provision of free wireless internet and the use of the lounge with cable T.V. while waiting for the shower to be cleaned (a regular occurrence to keep them up to standard) made it seem free.

Squatting now requires no effort whatsoever. In fact, we really do enjoy it more than staying in a campground. We just realized that we’ve gone two solid weeks now without paying for a night. We love it.

Our ride was short today, but it wasn’t quick. We set off on a late departure into the wind and soon discovered that Katie’s stomach was less than thrilled with its breakfast. We took it quite slow and easy to avoid making things worse and decided that it was definitely time to break our squatting streak. Katie was in need of a couple of days off in doors, with a real bed and access to a hot shower. Out came the trusty Lonely Planet and the cell phone. Only moments later we had contacted, literally, every Halifax/Dartmouth hotel, hostel, and B&B listed in the guide book and found that not one of them had any availability. It’s mid week in late September. Why Halifax is the place to be right now, we couldn’t tell you. Once again, it seemed like we might be making our own campsite.

Thankfully, our luck turned as we neared the city. First it was with the spotting of a toonie on the busy Highway 118 shoulder, which, in turn led to the pulling over and spotting a beautiful scenic bike path directly adjacent to the busy Hwy 118. We happily took this path most of the way to the tourist info center where we quickly discovered that there are, in fact, far more accommodation establishments in Halifax and Dartmouth than just the ones listed in our guidebook. We are now staying at a very affordable Dartmouth B&B. We’ve just enjoyed our hot showers and are eagerly looking forward to enjoying our real bed.

Sunset over the "Lion's Gate Bridge" twin that links Dartmouth with Halifax.

B&K

Day 113: Truro - Enfield

2007-09-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

km today: 52.12
total km: 7583.2

A sick turtle.

Katie’s health refuses to return. Though our squat site was quite pleasant (pic) her body could have used at least one night in doors. We decided that we better take it easy today. Only a km into our ride, we discovered the campground we had been searching for last night. Apparently our ride in the dark took us right through Truro and all the way to Hilden, about 8km beyond. Had we known we were so close to the Hilden campground, we’re sure we would have pushed on, lured by the prospect of a shower and the possibility of internet.

With the odd gingerale break and a couple of siestas we made it to Enfield without too much resistance from Katie’s stomach. According to our map, there was a tourist info center and a campground either in Enfield, or in the vicinity (these maps are very hard to read sometimes). After a consultation session with a cashier and all five locals in the lineup behind us at Home Hardware it was decided that the info center and, therefore, the internet was actually at the airport 6km away. The idea of blogging in the airport and then having to find a place to stay was very unappealing to us. It was also pointed out during the huddle that the Irving truck station en route to the airport was a good source for information. As the glowing Irving sign came into view we figured we may as well check it out, especially since another pit stop wouldn’t hurt. We’re glad we did. Posted on the doorway was a sign advertising “Free WiFi” and a quick investigation of the interior revealed other luxuries such as T.V. lounges, a convenience store sizable enough to provide produce and, most importantly, showers.

Autumn leaves.

The next task was finding a campsite. We figured that since it was such a warm evening another night in the tent would be ok on Katie’s ailing body. Especially when we found our campsite right across the street from the Irving. Seriously, we could poke our head out of the tent and see that monstrous sign glowing on the other side of our personal river side campsite.We think that it was probably one of the best campsites we’ve stayed at. We were wholly sheltered by coniferous and deciduous trees galore, had our own personal river and the walk to the Irving was no longer than to some of the bathrooms at some of the bonified campgrounds we’ve stayed at.

Feeling squeaky clean and wonderful, we went to bed happy and refreshed.

B&K

Day 112: Amhesrt - Truro

2007-09-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

km today: 122.5
total km: 7531.0

We weren't kidding, the turtle is back in full force.

This morning's driveway.

Well, that wonderful smell of baking bread comes from the Wonderbread factory right next to our campsite! It got us thinking. How exactly does cheap factory bread taste when it’s fresh from the oven? We figure it must taste pretty good. Pretty much anything tastes good when it’s fresh from the oven.

Buying bread was actually the goal of our first stop of the day today. There was this brilliant “Ben’s Bakery Outlet” right across the street from our campsite. Over-supplied with cheap bread, we headed out toward Truro. Finally the wind was with us today! We just sailed along the highways. The first and last 1/3 of our journey was on Hwy 104 which is very much like the Island Highway in scenery and efficiency at getting you from point A to B. For the middle 1/3 of our journey though, we detoured onto Hwy 4. The woman at the bakery informed us that this section is the old highway, is much more scenic and avoids a very nasty hill section. The old and scenic part caught our attentions, but as soon as the word “hill” was mentioned we were all ears.

This little detour was a marvelous idea. The road was almost deserted and the scenery really was beautiful. The only unfortunate thing was that we were about 1 week early to witness the changing of leaves. Most importantly though, it seemed as though we went downhill far more than uphill. Our route only involved one major uphill section, a bump of a hill compared to some we’ve climbed, that was followed by an amazing 20 straight minutes of downhill. Not scary 17% grade downhill or anything like that either. It was so fun.

Clouds with real silver linings.

Just 1 week too early. We naively put the idea to rest that these leaves only turn brown.

Perfectly healthy for almost the whole day (the 11 hours of sleep probably helped some), we thought that Katie might be almost rid of her illness. But as we approached Truro her condition took a sharp turn for the worse. Deteriorating rapidly, we decided that taking a room in the nearest hotel was the best idea for the evening. The only problem, there was only one hotel that we passed and it had no vacancy. We couldn’t even find a campground, so it was back to squatting. Every single time we have tried to find a campground or a motel we’ve inevitably ended up back in the bush. At least we’re saving money.

B&K

Day 111: Cape Jourimain - Amherst

2007-09-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

km today: 63ish
total km: 7410ish

It's back!

A 6 pack of eggs and a pot of oatmeal fueled us off Robbie’s lawn and out of Cape Jourimain. We needed fuel today too as the wind that shook our tent and kept us up much of the night was still blowing strong today and, big surprise, it was blowing in our faces. Our pace wasn’t aided by Katie’s new bout of energy zapping sickness. Aches, pains, and nausea plagued her all day. Brandon would even go so far as to diagnose her with delirium. He was dumbfound and flabberghasted as he watched her take out her squeeze bottle of energy gel, take the lid off, turn it upside down, and proceed to squeeze it all over herself AND our Lonely Planet guidebook. Her intention was to take a drink of it but we guess she just forgot to hold it over her mouth. Never again will anyone turn to pages 394-395.

We'd heard from Reuben that New Brunswick bike trails have nothing on Quebec or P.E.I. trails and he was right. This one dissolved into loose gravel and big rocks after about 1km in.

The leaves are starting to change!

It was meant to be a short journey to the New Brunswick - Nova Scotia border, but seeing as how we had no full size highway map for New Brunswick we managed to over shoot our desired turn off by a good 20 km or so. This resulted in our riding a full 55km before finaly making it out of NB. Unfortunately, thanks to the combination of ailments that hindered us today it took us nearly four hours just to cover those 55km, and that was over fairly level ground! It was after 4:00 PM by the time we stepped into the Nova Scotia Info centre, and it was here that we held a lengthy discussion as to the design of our journey’s finale. The info centre lies close to 500 km away from the North Sydney ferry terminal.

We finally found a provincial sign. Who cares that it was on the opposite side of the Rrans Canada and oriented to the West.

We turned 180 degrees and found this, a much more impressive sign. It was kind of odd though, inside the lighthouse was a woman who just stared at us the whole time we were there.

Over a bag of trail mix, some leftover oatmeal, and a few pb^2s we came to a final decision. We’re saving Newfoundland for another time. Instead, we’re going to take a closer look at Nova Scotia and then return to the formerly neglected New Brunswick which houses our new final destination - St. John New Brunswick rather than St. John’s Newfound Land. As we’ve said we were at first disheartened by the prospect of a cross-Canada journey that discludes Newfound Land, but with Katie’s now diminishing health we don’t think that she could make it across those barren and mountainous 908 km.

We rolled into Amherst, ate some Tim Horton’s for dinner (which Katie’s stomach made her thoroughly regret later) and found a brilliant campsite that was right next to an aromatic bakery. Our nostrils were happy as we fell asleep.

B&K

Day 110: P.E.I. - Cape Jourimain

2007-09-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

km today: 94.85
total km: 7343.3

We alerted everyone ahead of time that we were planning on making an early departure. It was just after 11:00 by the time we actually made it out the door. Knowing our habits well, no one had heeded our warning. It was difficult leaving the company of family, but we’re almost on the final stretch and if we hurry we’ll have time to get back to enjoy thanksgiving with family.

Following Gerhard’s instructions, we easily made it onto the Confederation Trail where we were treated to 93 km of peace and tranquility. The trail is far removed from civilization, running through wetlands, farmland and forests. It made it easy to cover the distance to the Confederation Bridge.

"Cruisin together."

At the bridge we summoned the shuttle bus (bikes are not allowed on the bridge). Robbie, our chatty chauffeur, patiently explained and answered the many questions we had regarding the currents, ocean depths and ice strain around the pillars of this 12.7 km monster that links P.E.I. with New Brunswick (it withstood the force of a 9km x 13km chunk of ice that was 3m thick without so much as a shudder).

Apparently Robbie took a liking to us and answered our question of where the grocery store was by offering to drive us straight to it, even though it is 9 km off the route. His kindness and generosity didn’t stop here as he also offered us the use of his grocery store adjacent (and campground adjacent for that matter) lawn as our campsite for the night.

So far we like New Brunswick. We haven’t found a provincial sign yet though.....

B&K

Day 109: P.E.I. Sightseeing

2007-09-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

The day started out bittersweet. We discovered that the ferry traveling from North Sydney, NS to Argentia, Nfld is seasonal and sets out on it’s last sailing on September 24th, three days from today. It’s 385km from Liz and Gerard’s house to North Sydney if we take the ferry from P.E.I. to Nova Scotia, thereby, skipping New Brunswick all together. There is no way that we can even cover this distance, especially since the ferry leaves at 6:00 am leaving us only two days, really, to get there.

This was a huge slap in the face to us. There are two sailing options to Newfoundland: a five hour ride to Port aux Basques on the South Western coast, or a 17 hour ride to Argentia on the South Eastern coast. The former leaves you 908 km from St. John’s via the lonely Trans Canada Highway - the only trans provincial road, while the latter leaves you a mere 133 km from St. John’s. With our diminishing time we were opting for the 17h cruise. The thought of those barren and mountainous 908 km is not so appealing these days as it seems that after over three and a half months and 7400 km this country is finally starting to wear us out (and our wallets for that matter). We were at first disheartened by the prospect of a cross-Canada journey that discludes Newfoundland, but after some tough deliberation we decided that we didn’t want to rush the rest of our trip just to get to St. John’s.

Our first reaction was to decide that Newfoundland was out of the question and, to instead travel down the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia and then loop up the Bay of Fundy via St. John, New Brunswick back to P.E.I. But as the day went on our spirits were low. For 3 1/2 months we’ve had our sights set on St. John’s as our final destination. It just made sense to us we guess. It was proving difficult accepting the idea of skipping Newfoundland all together and, by means of our route, not having a true final destination.

Late afternoon we called another board meeting. The idea of scratching Newfoundland was really bothering us. Our compromise was to b-line through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and attempt the grueling 908 km ride to St. John’s. I won’t be easy but we figure it is the only way we’ll be satisfied.

All of this mulling occurred over a pretty cool day of sightseeing in Charlottetown (although we’d best go back to see it when we’re not mulling). We started our tour with the mandatory stop at Province House, where the idea of Canada’s confederation was born. From there we walked around downtown, stopping in a few pretty neat boutiques. We got a first hand look at how to make stained glass windows from an artist who allows people to come back to her studio and watch her work. Then it was onto the soap shop where we did some really good spying for “It’s a Beautiful Day Soapworks.” Mom you should really look into doing a chocolate soap. Dad, just imagine the opportunities for your label.

According to Liz this is actually a common occurrence in P.E.I. Granny apparently thought so too.

This was just too tempting.

On our way back we pulled a drive-by on The Royal Canadian Legion Branch #1(!), a site that we were actually quite excited to find at one point, but the anticlimactic site of the public library-like structure didn't inspire anyone to stop in for a pint.

We wrapped up our day with another wonderful family dinner, complete with the 20lbs of carrots that we picked from the garden (our instructions were to “pick enough for yourselves and a little bit more for the rest of us.”) We thought that we had picked a normal amount.

B&K

Day 108: Magdelen Islands - Liz and Gerard's House

2007-09-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

km today:
total km:

After four days of operating on “island time,” having to wake up at an hour requiring an alarm clock was a jolt to the system. We got our second jolt to the system at Tim Hortons, a slightly odd place to have our last meal on this mostly un-commercialized island. It was fast though (well almost - they just didn’t quite understand our impeccable French accents and messed up our order), and we had a ferry to catch.

We cruised down to the ferry dock and right onto the ferry without having to buy or show a pass. We were beside ourselves with excitement. Had we just gotten on for free? Saving seventy six dollars would certainly be a highlight to the day. So we discreetly settled into the journey and read the crossing away. Not surprisingly, we were the fools. The ticket booth is on board (not very well marked we might add) and the army of extremely vigilant ticket police found us before we had even made it back to our bikes.

Arriving on the P.E.I. side was like stepping back in time. It was warm! Like it had been in mid August and it was apparently a “cool” day according to the very chatty tourist information employee. Also surprising was the fact that we now have to get used to greeting people with “Hellos” rather than “Bonjours.” We won’t be butchering anymore French until we’re heading back to Montreal.

Though P.E.I. is, of course, more developed than the Magdelens we still feel like we’re on “island time.” Popular conversation topics are golf, weather and a lot more golf. Confederation trail suited the casual atmosphere to a “T.” Free of traffic (of any kind really) we joyfully meandered to Liz and Gerard’s.Katie was so excited at the opportunity to take a cheesy photo it took Brandon 3 tries to snap a keeper because she kept putting her thumb or head in the way of the sign.

Very necessary barriers to keep out ATVs.

All to ourselves!

The atmosphere at the house was not so serene, but buzzing. We arrived to a VERY excited Granny Joyce who had already been staking out our arrival from the top of the driveway. Open arms and lots of kisses welcomed us in. It was great seeing (and for Brandon, meeting) Liz and Gerard after a highly anticipated reunion. Staying in a waterfront cottage would be a luxury at anytime but enjoying our surroundings with family hosts elevates the experience a number of notches.

It was especially touching being with Granny. It seems like ages ago since she hosted us on only our second night into the trip when we were still so scrawny and naive as to what lay ahead. It’s just so cool how she’s here to see us almost through. She too clearly got a kick out of seeing us again but wasted no time in making fun of Katie’s new “odd” short hair cut. As she told Pat/dad in reference to Katie, “She’s not fat, she doesn’t really look that different, but her hair is short, and it just looks odd.” A few hours in and the insults were rolling, the wine was flowing and we were loving it.

B&K

Day 107: Magdelen Day Four

2007-09-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

km today:
total km:

Our day started off with a bang. We had an exciting breakfast of PB^2M (the M stands for maple spread - it’s fantastic!). We immediately left camp to buy “lunch” aka a box of raisin bran with 2L of milk. It was an excellent excellent way to start off our day. We’re serious too. To us, cereal is a true treat, especially when we have it with real milk, not the powdered stuff we’ve been eating for the last half of the trip.

Fueled, we headed back down south to Ile du Havre Aubert to check out more of the cool boutiques (it was Sunday when we came last and most were closed). It was not easy going today as the wind was fierce, forcing us to a crawl. En route we were distracted by the sight of many a coloured kite zooming back and forth up and down in the sky. Closing in on them we discovered that they were attached to a bunch of surf boards! One of the coolest sports on the island is kite surfing. With the aid of these huge parasails the surfers are able to zoom all over the place without any waves required. Waves only make it a lot more fun for them as they launch off of them gaining like 20 feet of air at a time.

The guy with the pink kite we nicknamed "pinky" (pretty original we know). He's in every picture because he was the best and, therefore, our favourite.

After being distracted for close to an hour we reluctantly tore ourselves away to continue on our slow trek. Our first stop on the island was at “Artisinants de Sable,” which translates to sand artists basically. It is an entire gallery devoted to works of art composed almost entirely of sand. Some of the works were really beautiful and tempting but, even though they assured us that they were hard as rock, we figured that a day in the trailer would revert them back to their original form.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the charms of “la grave,” Magdelen’s oldest and most cultural town, and also where we ate dinner the other evening. The artists here are actually quite artistic, every is completely different and full of genuinely good and unique art. It would be so easy to spend a lot of money here.

We fell asleep very content, feeling as though we’d seen the islands and ready to leave in the morning.

B&K

Day 106: Magdelen Day Three

2007-09-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

km today: 72.1
total km: 7145.5

Feeling ambitious, we packed up our campsite and readied ourselves to head north to the English speaking islands of the archipelago. After remaining stationary for two nights it must have been particularly strenuous for us to pack up because by the time we’d eaten breakfast, organized our gear, and made it onto the road we we’re already in need of a hearty lunch. Two litres of milk and a box of Corn Flakes later we were ready to begin our journey north.

Havre aux Maisons was the first island on our touring itinerary. Almost as soon as we arrived on the island, we detoured off the main highway onto a scenic coastal road. Our first pit stop was at their local fromagerie, or which the islanders are very proud. Unfortunately the white coated, hair netted and immaculately disinfected looking employees were busy in discussion within the factory itself, so no samples for us. From there it was onto the historic Herring smokehouse of which the islanders are also quite proud of. It’s the only one remaining from the glory days when smoking herring was a thriving industry. It’s been turned into a national historic site where a short informative tour is followed by a sampling of the different products.Very pleased with the samples, and informed that it went really well with beer, we made sure to pick up a package before continuing on our tour. Katie’s pretty sure that the excuse to try out some more of the delicious local beer may have been half the reason why Brandon was so gung ho to pick up a package. In the heyday these rafters was packed with skewers of herring.

Our tour of the eastern coast was delightful:
Typical island scene.

Katie's first steps into the Atlantic!

Different shapes appear in the cliffs with different light.

All of this because of erosion. So cool.

Katie vandalizing the sandstone in the background and the phosphorescent fungi in the foreground.

Brandon taking his turn to vandalize.

It was just too tempting....(etched with an open crab claw found dried on the beach)

The road heading north from Havre aux Maisons was completely uninhabited and flanked on one side by shimmering lagoons alive with birds and fish and crap (Brandon ran out of creativity and Katie thought this was literary gold)...........and flanked on the other side by wind shaped sandy dunes that would look more at home in the Sahara desert were it not for their thin cover of vegetation.

After about 10km we reached the tiny island Pointe aux Loups (it’s more like a mound of sand that is slightly larger and higher than the rest of the mounds of sand around it). It’s still beautiful though, as is everything around here. It was here that we discussed the fact that it was already 5:30 pm and we were only 1/3 of the way there. We took a quick browse of the Maison du Heron, an engrossing little gallery, and came out with an original greeting card. Figuring that this was good enough to validate our journey all the way out we turned around and headed back to our our cozy campsite on Cap aux Moules. Our day was quite eventful and we decided that a trip all the way to the north end would have entailed far more cycling than relaxing.Figuring that we cycle enough as it is, and finding the idea of relaxing far more enticing option, we came up with a new plan to spend our last day covering missed ground on Ile du Havre Aubert (the south island).

Can you see Katie?

B&K

Day 105: Magdelen Day Two

2007-09-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

km today: 25.92
total km: 7073.4

After a full 10 hours of sleep Katie still struggled to open her eyes without her head swirling. Though she hadn’t had sip of alcohol for days, she felt like she was in the depths of a nasty hangover. A slow rising and a slow pace to the day was necessary. Thankfully, we already decided last night that we are going to extend our Magdelenian experience by two days, so Katie’s sickness couldn’t have been better timed.Pushing up our driveway.

With only a quick bite in us for breakfast our first stop was in Cap aux Moules for lunch. Pas Perdus, brimming with character and a local clientele, is a bistro/bar/internet cafe that oozes with island atmosphere. We arrived with no expectations, were immediately impressed with the atmosphere and absolutely sold once the table d’hote commenced. The main feature was, of course, fresh from the sea. We were more than pleased with our ample portion of halibut topped off with lobster sauce. Washing it all down was a pint of the rouge variety of the local brew. Only the blonde is yet to be tasted.

All around us were carefree locals. There was a twitterpated 80 year old couple sipping wine and playfully throwing flowers at each other, young parents joyfully sipping expressos and a lone man kicking his feet up, enjoying the sunshine and his pint of beer. We were so taken with our surroundings that we ended up milling with the locals and losing ourselves in our book for hours.

Finally stirring from the spell, we set off to continue our exploration of the islands. We stopped at many a local establishment, sampling chocolates, baked goods and the local art, some of which is really quite impressive. It took much restraint not to empty our pockets at some of the boutiques.

Once again victims of the island time, it was already 4:30 before we really got going on seeing the island. We only made it to the South Western shore of Cap aux Moules today, and we didn’t even completely finish our tour, but seeing any more would have required us to rush - something that just doesn’t fly around here.

The colours even extend to their boats.

Heading to the lighthouse.

The second this horse saw us he perked up and trotted over to us like an excited puppy. He was super excited when he discovered the carrots in Katie's pannier.

Can you tell that Katie is deathly afraid of horses?

Tried our hands at fishing.

B&K

Day 104: Magdelen Day One

2007-09-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

km today: 54-ish
total km: 7045.0

Thankfully our expensive cruise came with a breakfast buffet at which we baffled the staff with our multiple appearances in the line, even running a couple of laps after the ferry had docked. They told us to take what we wanted and we took it to heart.

As to Iles de la Madeleine, it was love at first sight. Lush green rolling hills, sheer red sand cliffs and deep blue water meet in a dramatic juxtaposition of the colour wheel. Adding splendor to the scene are the electrically hued houses that dot the landscape like easter eggs. Fusia, lilac, indigo, pink, turquoise, green, yellow and burnt orange are just some examples of the colours we’ve seen. Surprisingly, they blend right in. It’s the tans, whites and greys that stick out like sore thumbs. The way of life here is a bit different and the colours just fit the scene. We’re back on island time where the pace of life is slow and relaxed. Stress does not exist here.

The only downside so far is the discovery that we just missed lobster season in this seafood haven. We’ve been told that when in season lobster is so cheap that you can eat it until it comes out of your ears. Oh well, we’ll just have to make due with devouring the plethora of other underwater creatures that are offered fresh daily.

Squatting heaven, only 50m from the campsite.

Perfect lunch spot, beautiful and sheltered.

A better view of our lunch spot (that dot next to the church is Katie talking to mom and dad.)

Not quite knowing where to begin our explorations, we decided to just hop on our bikes and start riding. True to the island time zone, the majority of the shops, boutiques, art galleries, cafes and restaurants were closed today. It was Sunday after all. Our tour was, therefore, purely scenic. Not that we minded in the least:

Riding to Ile de Havre Aubert.

Downtown Le Grave.

Drinking local beer in a local cafe (le Cafe Grave) with a bunch of friendly locals.

On our way back.

B&K

Day 103: Chandler Wait Day - Magdelen Islands

2007-09-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Today was full of grey skies and copious amounts of rain, which we were afflicted with seeing as how we risked waiting till after second breakfast to become nomadic. This turned out to be a bad idea since we got soaked packing up the tent (we were damn fast too, like 8 minutes to get everything packed up).

We relocated to the Metro grocery store, picked up some food supplies and proceeded to loiter outside like a pair of homeless bums, eating sandwiches and reading our book. This is really how we spent most of our day since our ferry to the Magdelen Islands wasn’t scheduled to leave until 11:45 pm. We must really have looked homeless too, seeing as how a nice local woman pulled over and asked us if we knew where we were sleeping that night, and whether or not we needed to stay at her house. We declined, but were touched by the gesture.

The day was still quite enjoyable, other than the slight harassment from a senior citizen. He was actually a very nice fellow, but he kept interrupting our book at some key moments to repeat exactly what he had told 5 minutes before, which was usually something about the train schedule back to Vancouver. Due to this overly curious old man, we relocated to Explorateur Pub/Resto where we, the sole patrons, drank a pitcher of beer and blogged till dinner time.

Way past our normal bedtime, we finally embarked on our “luxury” cruise and found our “deluxe” state room. To celebrate on our holiday from the norm we cracked open a bottle of cognac and paired it with chocolate. Cheapest bottle of cognac in the store and discounted expired Hersheys chocolate enjoyed in our tiny cramped room with the narrowest bunk-beds we’ve ever seen.

First and only time in Brandon's life that he does not have stick legs.

The cruise did actually have a cinema, library, gym, lounge, bar, dining room and cafeteria on board. Pretty posh compared to B.C. ferries. Unfortunately, it was so late by the time we got on that the only thing we had the energy for was to go to bed. We’re such lightweights.

B&K

Day 102: New Carlisle - Chandler

2007-09-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

km today: 77.5
total km: 6987.7

It felt so odd to be backtracking. We worked so hard over the last couple of days only to erase our efforts by drifting back with ease to Chandler. It was fun to race back in minutes over sections that seemed so excruciating before. The funny thing was, it felt like we were breaking new ground for the most part anyways seeing as how the first time around our heads were bowed in effort derived concentration.

This is what the hay rolls look like after they are finished being processed.

Remember this windy image from two days ago?

What the trees look like on a normal day.

Starting off our day was particularly entertaining. Our last shower was back in Perce so, as usual, we were over-due for a cleansing. We trucked down to the nearest campsite (the Moulin Rouge - which we now know translates to the anti-climatic “Red Windmill.” Why does every thing sound so much cooler in French?) where we explained to the owner that we didn’t need a campsite, just the use of his shower and immediately realized how hobo-ish the whole scenario sounded. He clearly saw the humour in the situation, laughing the whole time and enthusiastically pointing us in the direction of the shower. After our cleanse we hung out for a while and soon realized that we are the first cross Canada cyclists to have come through his campground. Like so many others he thinks that we’re a little bit crazy.

Lunch break.

Now, after downing near an entire pot of sloppy joes, we are settled in our familiar campsite behind the Chandler hospital. Our cruise is booked for tomorrow night and we’re looking forward to a full day off.
Snuggled up and recapping the days events.

B&K

Day 101: New Carlisle - New Carlisle

2007-09-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

km today: 41.96
total km: 6910.2

Drying our gear on the clothesline.

Breakfast of champions, pork and beans and boiled eggs on whole wheat toast. Well, we were excited at least.

No there are no typos in that title. We really did start and finish our day in the same campsite we squatted in last night. The reason why is that the wind was even worse today. We were clocking speeds of 7 km/h going down hill, and our average speed was a tremendous 10 km/h. The ride from here to Bonaventure, the nearest town at only 15 km away, took a whopping 1 3/4 hours. Throughout our journey we were both blown clear off the road so many times it became routine. Sometimes the gales were so strong that they actually stopped us in our tracks. At that pace it would take us another 2 days after today just to reach the border to New Brunswick (a destination that we should easily have reached by the end of today).

Really not going anywhere fast.

While lunching in Bonaventure we brainstormed ways to abate our frustration and came up with a solution that we are both very excited about. Rather than fight the headwind for the next few days we decided that it would be much easier just to turn around and glide back to Chandler where, on Saturday evenings, there is a plush overnight cruise to the Magdelen Islands. And from there it is a quick hop skip and a jump to PEI.

One remaining? We must not have been that hungry.

We’ve been hearing praise about the Magdelen Islands for almost the entire journey. With Plan A (the now abandoned plan) visiting the islands wasn’t in the cards because they only offer the cruise on Saturday evenings. Given our massive delays over the last two days, it’s now only a short wait till Saturday!

So after a bit of touring of Bonaventure we sailed back to New Carlisle (it only took us 30 min this time) and set up camp again in a really great spot actually. We’re pretty proud of our squatting abilities these days. Our campsites are way better than those offered by bonified campgrounds. Tomorrow we head back to Chandler and then wait for our cruise! We’re both pretty excited.

B&K

Day 100: Chandler - New Carlisle

2007-09-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

km today: 77.5
total km: 6868.2

It's comfy on the inside though.

Frustration. That’s the word of the day. We’re back to the hate side of the love/hate relationship with the wind. It was strong, relentless and in our faces for the whole day.

Realizing right from the get go that it was going to be a difficult day, we followed up our breakfast of left over stir fry with an Olympian meal at McDonalds. Did we mention it was 200 m (downhill) from our campsite. It seems like ever McDonalds comes with it’s own unique army of old men who meet every morning for coffee, perch in the same seats and discuss who knows what. Today the discussion revolved around two crazy bikers from Vancouver. It was almost entirely in French, but we’re pretty sure we laughed at all of the appropriate moments.

Only 15 km into our day we took our first, and already necessary, break. It was a nice oceanside lookout complete with the contrasting addition of a swaggering beer drinking bum, who also happened to be on a bike. With obvious common ground between us, we ensued a very entertaining conversation involving broken English, a lot more broken French and a lot of charades. He told us he has an “anglaise francaise speak (talking hand-puppet action) sisser in Vancouver.” He then pointed us towards a good spot for “take pitchers,” where we did, in deed take some pictures:
After returning to our bikes we thanked our new slurring friend for the advice and for “pour la trois......helmet saves” (thrice did he retrieve Brandon’s helmet after the wind had blown it down an embankment). He gave an understanding laugh, and we carried on.

He insisted that he take a pitcher of us.

No sooner had we taken off, we stopped again. This time for lunch. It was just one of those days.

We had wanted to make it to New Richmond, however, even after pedaling for 5 1/2 hours straight (that’s only pedal time too) we could only make it as far a New Carlisle a mere 75 km away. Making use of the fool proof formula in which towns marked in bold on tourist maps are large enough to include all necessary amenities. New Carlisle is typed in bold. It does not have all of the necessary amenities, most important being the grocery store. Dinner was 3 cans of family sized pea soup, 3 cans of pork and beans and 1 can of mixed vegetables all purchased from the “Ultra Deppaneur” (a convenience store). Thank goodness it was “Ultra.”

Descending a hill at 10km/h moments before the rains hit us.

B&K

Day 99: Perce - Chandler

2007-09-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

km today: 45.45
total km: 6790.1

Seeing as how cooking indoors with a Naptha stove is sorta dangerous, we forwent our usual oatmeal breakfast and traded it in for PB^2 sandwiches and TV instead. Much easier anyway.

Our plans for after breakfast were to pay tribute to the pierced rock, but since it required us to pay money as well we didn’t even bother! It was rainy and cloudy anyway, and the free view from the beach is actually far more dramatic, we found out upon further research.

Instead, we passed our time informing people that we were not still en route to Quebec City. It was a VERY lengthy blog session which only ended once our hunger got the best of us. After enjoying our lunch for breakfast so much we decided to move straight onto dinner, switching our usual lunch from PB^2 sandwiches for hot BBQ chicken sandwiches.

By then it was already 2:00 pm and really time to hit the road if we were going to make it anywhere that day. We made it 10km down the road before taking an hour long pit stop. St. Johns can wait, hunting for semi-precious rocks is clearly a mandatory part of any Gaspe Peninsula trip.

Maybe we shouldn’t have delayed so much though. For almost immediately after hitting the road the rain started, and did not stop. We were cold and wet by the time we arrived in Chandler. Ignoring the urge to check into a motel, we snuck under some trees behind the Chandler hospital. Somehow exhausted, we quickly cooked a hearty dinner and went to bed.

B&K

Day 98: St. Georges du Malbai - Perce

2007-09-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

km today: 35
total km: 6744.1

Our first view of Perce (that's its famous perched rock in the background).

Another chilly morning. It seems as though cold is the new norm. It certainly makes it easier to stay hydrated during the day though. We actually have to remind ourselves to drink any water at all.

Along with churches and fromageries, this is a structure that no town is without on the Gaspe Peninsula.

It was a fast and, therefore, glorious ride to Perce. The hills of Perce are pretty steep and stunning, and we actually had the energy today to truly appreciate them, rather than curse them. Too bad the lighting wasn’t better for photos though. There was an unfortunately heavy cloud cover all day. We’re hoping tomorrow will bring us the light we need to even come close to capturing the Rocher Perce (pierced rock).

This one's for the parents.

The view after a 180 degree rotation - the cliffs are getting redder!

The view from the top of that 17% descent.

We still tried to capture the grandeur but, let us tell you, the photo does no justice.

On such an overcast day these guys caught our attention almost as much as the rock.

Arriving so early gave us time to do absolutely nothing. Which was just what our legs wanted us to do. Thanks to our $30 hotel room, we are now fully caught up on the atrocity of Brittany Spears’ comeback.

B&K

Day 97: Riviere au Renaud - St. Georges du Malbai

2007-09-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

km today: 59.99
total km: 6709.1

The campground was eerily silent when we woke up this morning and remained so even as we left. Everyone else was still in bed sleeping off hangovers. It wasn’t even that early either as we had taken our time this morning. Due to our tired bodies, especially our sore legs, we had decided to do a shorter day today.

Bidding farewell to the sea of RVs.

Though still hilly, the terrain was much more mellow, and we easily biked the first 22 km into the town of Gaspe. We are now experts on the life and times of Jaques Cartier. He landed in the then uncharted Gaspe in June of 1534 and proceeded to claim this Asian roadblock (North America) for the king of France. All it took was the erection of a wooden cross.This is just a replica....yes we were disappointed too.

We figure that he would be pretty unimpressed with the commercialization of his name. Road names are one thing, but his name is emblazened everywhere, from motels to strip malls, and his portrait is found in every town establishment, even in the restaurant bathrooms.

After a quick snack we hung out in a funky internet cafe and attempted to update the blog. The blogspot.com website was having extreme issues and we were forced to loiter elsewhere on the web, while excepting many a coffee refill. The coffee even comes with a personal sized pitcher of steamed milk. By 4:00 we were jittery and starting to regret the decision of buying and devouring a 50% off 1 kg blueberry pie. It was time to do some serious detoxifying.

Riding out of Gaspe we found these, the manufacturing site of wind mill propellers. It's hard to gain perspective until you stand right next one.

A couple of hours of riding was not quite enough to cleanse ourselves, but all we had time for before the sun disappeared in what we’re sure would have been one of the more spectacular sunsets we’ve seen had the northern half of the Gaspe peninsula not blocked our view.

B&K

Day 96: Riviere du Madeleine - Riviere au Renard

2007-09-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

km today: 91.28
total km: 6648.6

Leaving our windy campground.

The view from our campground.

Only the newest of flags have not been frayed by the wind.

Today was hard, absolutely exhausting. Next to the days spent tackling Blueberry Paulson and Allison Pass in BC this was our hardest day on the whole trip. The hills were long, numerous and, most troubling, steep. We have no idea what the Quebecois road planners were thinking when they were planning how best to get over the many mountains found during this segment of the Peninsula, but it was not ease of ascent. All of the hills just went straight up and were between 10 and 15% grade! Katie couldn’t even bike up some of them, but was forced to push her bike up. When it came time to descend the hills it was absolute madness. We both broke our previous speed records. Katie was going 70 km/h and Brandon got up to 77 km/h!!! Seeing as how the speed limit was maximum 70 km/h, Brandon was actually speeding.
See those jagged teeth like mountains in the background? We went over straight over those.

We were shocked by this...
........until we found this (note the changing leaves - a sign that we better get to Newfoundland fast).

Katie making her way up an 11% grade hill.

The other side of that hill was this long 10% descent where we set our speed records.

The first few hours of biking offered spectacular seaside and mountaintop views that made the pain worth it. For the remainder of the day the inland highway gave very little in the way of distraction from the pain. To boot the heat from the previous night carried over into today. We wouldn’t minded having one of the cool days that we’ve getting used to. There were some wintering moments though. Every so often we would ride through an extremely localized microclimate, and we would hit and ride through a wall of cool air with a width of 20m or so. So odd, so refreshing.

We took lunch in Grande Valee, our hoped for stop for the day before, and dined on the usual PB^2 sandwhichs dipped in the last of that amazing maple syrup, choosing to save our left over pasta for a later snack. This was an unwise manouvre. We should have switched our order, for our second lunch had a slightly tangy, vinegary flavour created by the unusual heat of the day that powered the fermentation of our tomato sauce. Clearly not enough tang to keep us from indulging though. Just for the record there was no ensuing food poisoning.

Pretty Riviere au Renaud.

A couple days withought showering combined with our full day of climbing lent us our own distinct bouquets, as they say in wine country. Not particularly foul bouquets, but just ones that had something to say, and that warranted a splurge in RV land. The campground actually turned out to be a happening place. The army of RV pilots were gathered in the common room enjoying, what we were told, was essentially their annual hoe-down. When we first passed by to do our laundry we witnessed a boisterous scene of wine, fondue and guitar sing-alongs. When we passed by a second time at 11:20pm though, we witnessed a chaotic mess, where the guitar was almost completely drowned out by the yee-haws, stomping and clapping. Thankfully, our campsite was safely positioned under some trees on the opposite side of the campground where an adjacent babbling river lulled us to sleep.

B&K

Day 95: Sea Shack Hostel - Riviere du Madeleine

2007-09-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

km today: 80.6
total km: 6556.3

True to form, we got off to a leisurely start, as we always do when we stay indoors. We have developed a set, efficient routine involving autopilot roles over the last 3 months. Not working around the familiarity of the tent throws off this routine. We unpack things in unfamiliar places and must search for them when it comes time to put them away the next morning. It’s frustrating because there is actually much less work to do, but it always takes much longer.

The view from the dining room.

Moving out.

Usually our tardiness is not a hindrance. But with the steadily decreasing amount of daylight, our tardiness today did hinder us. Our plan was to make it about 20 km further than we did today but we quite simply ran out of daylight. We weren’t even tired and easily could have continued. The terrain was easy and we were well rested due to the frequency of our picture taking stops (pretty much around every corner).

The scenery today was truly spectacular, much more so than the days before. We had heard that the scenery gets more beautiful just east of Saint Anne des Monts (our hostel was on the very eastern edge of this municipality) and the rumours proved accurate, as we discovered literally around the first corner after exiting the hostel driveway.

This was pretty much at the top of the Hostel's driveway.

This is a new hazard.

Katie magically emerging from her pit stop in this seemingly impenetrable wall of foliage.

Brandon sporting the Alfalfa.

More glacial sculptures.

Stretching.

There were just so many picture opportunities. Especially since the Canadian Atlantic was in it’s prime today. It seems as though it was in its niche wallowing under a carpet of grey clouds, breathing mists that shrouded the coastline and transformed it into layers of featureless shades: not feigning cheerfulness under sunny blue skies. It just felt right.

You can really see the traces of the glacial retreat.

There was only one low point today, when Brandon’s tire was pierced by a shard of glass from one of many carelessly thrown beer bottles, this one happened to be a Labatte Blue beer bottle, further strengthening Brandon’s distaste for the beer. We just don’t understand why people are so ignorant and selfish.

One of the cooler parts of the day was discovering the fact there is a different village in every bay, which means, basically, around every corner (they are very big corners). They are just tiny little fishing villages, most of them completely devoid of signs of life with a few white box-houses scattered over the land. It’s only about every 3rd or 4th village where you find a functioning grocery store and people milling about.

A lone veteran fisherman.

When it really was getting too dark to bike we finally gave in to mother nature and began looking for a place to camp. We were lured from our usual squatting strategy by the sight of the $5 camping sign pointing in the direction of the lighthouse watching over the town of Riviere du Madelein.

As usual, it was chilly setting up, eating dinner and doing the dishes in the bathroom sink. As we were finishing our clean up we heard the wind pick up, so we dried our fridged hands ($5 camping does not include hot water) and readied ourselves for the rapid trip back to the tent. When we opened the doorr though, it was like stepping out of a refridgerator. With the strong wind came a rise in temperature that must have been about 10 degrees. It was actually too hot to sleep in our sleeping bags, an unusual but welcome change.

B&K

Day 94: Matane - Sea Shack Hostel

2007-09-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

km today: 104.76
total km: 6475.8

Katie doing "the turtle" again (Brandon's new favourite Katie pose).

We woke up to the coldest temperatures we’ve experienced yet. The upside of this, we packed up in record shattering time. Our dishes were obviously dirty due to the lack of facilities thus we couldn’t cook breakfast, nor did we want to anyway. McDonalds was just around the corner. There were so many reasons to go there and so few not too that we were just forced to go there.

“I’m so excited right now you can’t even imagine.”

McDonalds actually ended up being way more enjoyable than we should ever admit it was. Plus, it gave us the energy and caffeine buzz to ride for hours. And boy did we need it. Today was not an easy day of riding. The wind, still as chilly as the previous days, shifted against us, blowing in more of a cross-tail direction, leaning more towards cross though thus Katie dubbed it a “crail” wind. With it came rain clouds that threatened for most of the day and finally drowned us for the last 3 hours of our ride. To add some insult to the injury, we swear we rode up twice as long as we rode down.

See that neon yellow speck on the road? That's Katie.

A major highlight of the day was finally officially meeting the Atlantic Ocean at Cap Chat where the title of St. Lawrence River is exchanged for Gulf of St. Lawrence. We were pretty stoked because this now means that we have officially ridden coast to coast. Technically we could quit right now, but we have this whole Maritime Provinces business to attend to.

Cap Chat is home to Canada's largest wind farm. If you look closely you can make out the world's tallest windmill standing at 110 meters high (it's the one that looks like a Kitchen Aid attachment).

The coolest thing about the Atlantic is that it’s exactly as we imagined it to be, windy, cold and grey, practically indistinguishable from it’s granite shore. Though the elemental aspects of the day should classify it as miserable (and it was in many ways) we were so excited to experience the Atlantic as raw as we dreamed it would be that we were as happy as if it had been a tropical in Thailand.

“Have you ever seen anything so uninviting.” -Brandon

Randomly, we arrived in Thailand. Already wet and not in the least bit thrilled at the prospect of spending another night shivering in the tent, we decided it was absolutely time to stay indoors. Sainte Anne des Monts has one option for el cheapos, other than squatting. Luckily for us it turned out to be an award winning hostel that is accessed by an unassuming rough gravel driveway that winds off the highway and down a steep hill towards the beach. The last corner is rounded to reveal a grass roofed tiki bar laced with Mexican hammocks and surrounded by adorable bungalows. We were hooked at first glance and that was before we saw the hot tub. The hostel itself is definitely one of the nicest we’ve ever been in. Alone on the coast with an all wood interior and an upstairs lounge that looks over the ocean it feels more like we’re staying in an expensive beach cabin rather than a youth hostel.

To celebrate our coast to coast accomplishment, we busted open a box of wine. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from touring the wine regions across Canada, its that boxed wine, especially juice box sized, is cause for complete uproar among self proclaimed winos. Our motto: a container is a container.

We think that this may be the single greatest cyclist friendly invention.

B&K

Day 93: Rimouski - Matane

2007-09-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

km today: 94.83
Total km: 6371.0

After re-considering last nights accommodation situation, we’ve decided that our in-town location was so far from sneaky that it was slap in the face obvious. First there was their the janitor still cleaning as we set up and made dinner, and then there was the arrival of the employees this morning both before and during our pack up. Fortunately no one seemed to mind. The grounds keepers even took a liking to us, taking a break from mowing around us to chat as we packed up the last of our gear.

Looks kind of like a giant yellow turtle.

Not wanting to disturb the peace any further, we headed off to find a place to buy coffee and eat our breakfast. The shell station more than sufficed, as it not only had coffee, but an in store bakery that was pretty good. We added fresh apple streudels and hot coffee to our breakfast of left over ground pork pasta, “Sweet Morning” chocolate oatmeal bars and yogurt. We’re beginning to really enjoy the randomness of our breakfasts.

Jardins des Metis are said to be a must see attraction. They are 40 acres of immaculately manicured gardens that have been growing for almost 100 years. We took the detour, rode up to the entrance gate, discovered it was $12 per person and that we couldn’t by the attendant and so decided to just eat lunch in the parking lot instead. It was a very nice parking lot though, and there were many other people eating their lunch there as well.

After lunch we continued our beautiful ride to Matane, hugging the Saint Lawrence “river” (it looks and smells more like the ocean now, as the other side is barely visible and the shoreline is laden with mussels and seagull - but we can’t officially celebrate until we reach Cap Chat tomorrow) the entire way. Needless to say, we went quite slowly due the many necessary stops for jaw dropping picture opportunities.

Brandon thinks the reason he breaks spokes on his front wheel (instead of the usual more heavily burdened back wheel) is because he's "so frickin hardcore" (by the way, if you can't tell he's doing a killer wheelie).

These are actually a common sight on the Gaspe Peninsula

The sprawling St. Lawrence "river."

A nice little waterfront house.

Certainly looks like an ocean to us.

By the time we arrived in Matane it was already nearing six, which meant that the sun was setting and it was getting chillier by the minute. We were ready to find a camp ground. The combination of terrain and frequency of villages means that squatting is becoming increasingly difficult in these areas (as last nights experience should illustrate). We were more than willing to shill out the big bucks for a campground. But the only campground within range, we found out, is now closed. A local suggested that we just go camp there anyway, a proposal that we were more than willing to accept. However, after a few turns of the wheels, the bitter cold wind coming off the adjacent river got the best of us, and we plonked ourselves down right there, approximately 100m later.

B&K

Day 92: Riviere du Loup - Rimouski

2007-09-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

km today: 109.95
total km: 6276.0

We can already tell that we are nearing the Atlantic. It feels like winter. We were so cold all day that we needed to wear our fleeces, even though a lot of the km covered were uphill. We didn’t even take that many breaks today, because whenever we stopped we chilled instantly. On the positive side, we made it to Rimouski in pretty good time, despite our loss of the beautiful tail wind that we had for the previous two days. Today’s wind still came mostly from behind, but every so often a fierce cross wind would attack us, causing us to wobble and veer and fight to ride in a straight line.

Most of today was spent viewing farmlands, as highway 132 led us through a beautiful valley that wound amongst rolling hills checkered with golden wheat and green pototoe crops. Every so often we’d catch a glimpse of the St. Lawrence, now so wide that its opposite shore is a misty shadow. It only seems to grow more and more beautiful as it races to meet the salty waters of the Atlantic.

Shivering uncontrollably as we descended into Rimouski, all we could think of was finding a place to stay fast. The first campground, though enticing and well equipped, required a 10km detour to the nearest grocery store. Like any cycle tourist knows, you never backtrack. Our next plan was to visit the tourist info center to locate the next nearest campground. This plan too fell through, when we arrived to find the neon “ferme” glowing in the window. Plan c was to stay at the local college residence, but a quick phone call determined that there were no rooms available. At this point we were plum out of plans, and the sun had almost set. We decided to start riding east and hope for the best. A few very chilly (but pretty) km later,

and we discovered that behind a closed “Dejardins” credit union was a perfect sheltered spot camp. Finally we are getting our moneys worth for all of their $2 transaction fees.

B&K

Day 91: Saint Jean Port Jolie - Riviere du Loup

2007-09-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

km today: 100.37
total km: 6125.8

On our way out of our “campground” we checked out the very impressive sculpture garden which, we suppose, really is a must considering St. Jean Port Jolie is the sculpture capital of Canada.

From there it was full speed ahead along “La Route Verte.” The tail wind that squashed us flat last night was at our backs for the whole ride. It was a cyclists dream, though there was a fair bit of road construction. With the wind at our backs we still flew over the gravel sections with barely enough time to read the road signs, all of which were lying on their backs blown over. We certainly pitied the poor people who had chosen to cycle West today.

We’ve been told that the scenery around the Gaspe peninsula is simply breathtaking. The views yesterday were, in our opinion breathtaking, and the views today were better yet. If the best is yet to come, we’re pretty excited.

Ancient fishing contraption.

You will be shocked an amazed to hear that we are actually paying for a campground. We decided it was time to shill out the $20 when we realized that our helmet hair resembled Astroboy’s haircut. We’re pretty disappointed with ourselves for succumbing to societal pressures of cleanliness.

B&K

Day 90: Quebec City - Saint Jean Port Jolie

2007-09-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

km today: 101.77
total km: 6065.4

We left Roger and Christiane with invitations and eagerness to return. We took our last cruise down the beautiful riverside cycle route and said goodbye to beautiful Quebec as we hopped on the very bicycle friendly ferry heading to Levis.

Chateau Frontenac is reported to be the most photographed hotel in the world, and it is probably one of the biggest hotels we've ever seen.

On the other side of the river we were met with a brilliant tailwind to go along with our beautiful cycle path that met us right at the ferry dock. Did we mention that we like “La Route Verte?”

The rising elevation was hardly work at all with the generous push from behind. In fact, even with the hilly terrain, we managed to clock 94.6 km in 4:30:00.

Don’t think that we flew by and didn’t take in any of the scenery though. The scenery was just as beautiful as the riding conditions. Farmland mosaics along the shores of the widening St. Lawrence, the maple leaves beginning to change colour and cute little towns thrilled us for the entire ride. Another of the typical churches of the area, this time showing just how old they are. This is actually one of the younger ones too.

Arriving in Saint Jean Port Jolie in good spirits we set to finding a place to stay. Our first suspect was the town park which, under further inspection, we found disallowed camping. Seeing as how the sun was already setting, we decided to explore the outskirts of the park anyway. As we wandered through we heard a man yell “Hey!” We looked over to see about a 50 year old man clad in matching black pants and jacket embellished with an official looking crest. As we froze, he came speed walking towards us, speaking in rushed French. When he realized that we were French illiterate, he asked “Camping?! Is that for camping?” pointing at the trailer. Hesitant to confess our motives to what, we assumed, surely must have been a park ranger, we paused momentarily before replying with a hushed “Yes......” Instantly he became excited as he explained to us the location of the very best camp site in the park. Moments later we were here:Beautiful sunset from our beautiful campsite.

We swear that our free campsites keep getting better. But this one did have a draw back in the end. A tail wind that treated us so well all day beat us to the ground, forcing us to relocate midway through dinner preparations. We attempted to set up the tent, which soon resembled a sail that demanded both of us holding on for dear life to prevent it from blowing away into open water. Anchoring it required throwing in everything we had save the bikes.

B&K

Day 89: Quebec Sightseeing Day 2

2007-09-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

There was far too much to see, do and absorb in one day, hence, another day was warranted. It was a perfect, leisurely day. We enjoyed another breakfast with Christiane while Roger slept in (he had been up very late on the computer managing Warm Showers) and then headed back downtown.

A shortcut.

Did we mention Quebec is touristy?

There are several very realistic wall paintings scattered throughout the city.

Not having windows meant that you didn't have to pay window tax.

This is a recreation of Canada's early days when early colonial farmers would don their favourite 16th century costumes and commence hoe-down duels against the Native Americans who apparently wielded a mean harp (we gave a pass on their album).

Before enjoying the sights of Quebec we headed to the public library which, by the way, has a fountain in middle of it and almost, as you’ve noticed, completely updated the blog. Our growling stomachs objected to our completely finishing though, and we headed off for lunch on the waterfront. After lunch, we lost ourselves in the city for a few hours before heading back for dinner, on time, may we add.

The four of us enjoyed each others company during appetizers, dinner, dessert
(which was a special dessert just for us cross Canada tourers)

and for many hours after that. It wasn’t until the discotheque music from the party next door became too much to bear that we relocated to the living room where Roger drowned them out with his own music selections. He’s an astute DJ, switching records flawlessly at the end of every song, moving from jazz to classical to rock, quizzing us at random intervals and always managing to stump us with his keen musical knowledge.

The night went on for many hours, and it wasn’t until afterwards that we realized that we had quaffed a bottle of Bordeaux, followed by a bottle of ice wine (it was actually made of apple cider) and some snifters of cognac, all firsts for us. We went to bed with warm bellies and classic tunes playing in our heads.

B&K

Day 88: Quebec City Sightseeing Day 1

2007-09-11T07:01:00.001-07:00

Our gracious hosts made us feel pretty pampered this morning. After sleeping in a bit we wandered into the dining room to find a table set for two along with a collection of cereals, breads, juices, and even “our choice” between instant coffee and Italian espresso. It was a good way to start our day.

After breakfast we readied ourselves to go

Bonus! Our sunscreen doubles as body paint.

and then hopped onto a beautiful bike path that headed straight downtown. True to form, Quebec city, like the province itself, provides many an artfully crafted cycle route. The first stop on our tour was in a waterfront bike shop where we had no problems locating replacement tail lights, even when we stated “Je cherche un derriere lumiere.” The salesgirl laughed and responded “we have lots.”

From the bikeshop, it was a quick hop, skip, and jump to the attached waterfront market where the vendors/famers are selling their own beautifully grown and displayed produce. This made for an appetizing stroll and a good meeting spot for lunch with Roger who works about a block away.

After lunch we were ready to get into to the heart and soul and explore one of the continents oldest cities (it’s turning 400 in 2008). We started in Old Lower Town with a tour of Place Royale, then squeezed down “Le Petite Champlain” (one of the narrowest streets in North America).
That is according to Lonely Planet though, which also says that Rebecca Spit is a lovely sandy beach.

After that we hiked up to the walled fortress of Old Upper Town. Did you know that Quebec is the only city in North America that is still completely walled? A maze of narrow streets, bustling tourists, bumpy cobblestone and colourful facades eventually opened up to the sweeping green slopes of the Citadelle alongside the shiver inspiring Plains of Abraham. You just can’t quite understand how truly impressive the British conquer must have been until you see just how steep the cliffs leading down to the Saint Lawrence are.

A very european Quebec street.

Just beyond this cool roundababout was one of the most breakneck hills we've encountered.

Luckily she doesn't have vertigo.

Katie reenacting "The Battle of the Plains of Abraham."Brandon reenacting the battle.

Don’t think we didn’t eat during the day. We had our fair share of french delicasses. For lunch, we, not surprisingly, went for the table d’hote and for our midday snack indulged in fresh crepes from “Casse-Crepe Bretton.”

Exhausted after our day of intense touring,(Brandon showing that Katie's not the only one who can produce unique poses)

we headed back to Roger and Christiane’s to meet them for our 7:00pm dinner engagement, theoretically a simple task. Until, in an attempt to make it back on time Brandon rushed out of Katie's sight and right by the correct turn-off to the house. About 1/2 and hour later Brandon finally relocated Katie reading a map while waiting for him to return to the right turn off. Roger and Christiane patiently and courteously waited for our arrival before commencing dinner and the onslaught of wisecracks about the superiority of Katie's sense of direction. Great food, wine and conversation prevailed.

B&K

Day 87: 15 km past Trois Riviere - Quebec City

2007-09-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

*The reason why we haven't posted for ages is that we thought blogger was down as it wouldn't upload any photos. We now know that the actual reason is that it has just decided to stop uploading our rotated photos. So you will all just have to put some effort into rotating your heads or your computers for the rest of the blog.*

km today: 125.5
total km: 5922

Grey, but peaceful.

Like we said, 3 months ago this would not be the sight of rejoicing over the prospect of a shower.

Not since our day going from Moosomin, Saskatchewan to Brandon, Manitoba have we had a day of solid rain. Unfortunately our record was broken today. Luckily for us though, the rain started only after we had finished packing. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop until we arrived in Quebec City.

Today was one of our most rigorous. The headwind combined with the rain and the chillier temperatures made for a labourious and draining day. It didn’t help that 10km of our trek was spent retracing our steps retrieving the, again, forgotten cell phone from our campsite.

We stopped for lunch at “Bistro H2O,” a cute little bistro with an open air patio (though rain proof siding was up today) and not an Enlish speaking person in sight to provide insight. “Le Table d’Hote” du jour (the lunch special of the day) featured the exotic “Hamburger Americane” (if you say it with a French accent it sounds all the more exotic). With soup, burger, frites, dessert and coffee for $7.24, we are now on the lookout for lunch table d’hotes.

Our second lunch required a trip to the grocery store. The only problem was, that when we asked a cute local old woman where the super marche was she directed a ways off the highway. Seeing as how all we needed was bananas, Katie thought that she’d get to the point. “Je suis chercher pour les banane.” Or, in English, “I am looking for the banana.” A little rough around the edges, but it got us to the depanneur (convenience store).

Entertaining oneself on a labourious day.

Lucky for us, a last minute request to take up residence with a warm showers host (www.warmshowers.com) was answered by Roger and Christine who, coincidentally, happen to be the managers of the international organization. Needless to say they’re good hosts. After coaching us through the darkening outskirts of Quebec City they provided us with, big surprise, a warm shower, some refreshing melon, good company and a warm and, most importantly, dry bed.

B&K

Day 86: Saint Sulpice - 15km Past Trois Riviere

2007-09-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

Cold spaghetti makes for a surprisingly satisfying breakfast. Unfortunately, we had minimal leftovers so a second breakfast from Subway followed our departure from the beach. “What is the sub of the day?” “I don’t understand.” “More coffee please.” These are all phrases that made up our lengthiest french conversation to date. We almost managed to order the 12” over the 6” but, as we paused to confer, the employee grew impatient and switched to english. We can definitely see the improvement though.

“La Route Verte” continues to impress us. While the main highways b-line from town to town, the green route winds along the St. Lawrence River, taking welcome detours through the quaint neighbourhoods of these historic towns.

The Saint Lawrence river is so wide at this point that we couldn't even see the other shore.

We were excited to visit Trois Riviere, the second oldest city in North America, until we discovered that it was virtually destroyed by a fire in 1908. The result is that there is a stark contrast between entering Trois Riviere and any of the other river towns. Most of the historic buildings have been replaced by strip malls composed of Walmart, Zellers and Costco. After wolfing down many a sample, hot dogs, burgers and sundaes at this Costco (we didn’t feel like cooking) we were actually led to some pretty cool surviving historical buildings by that trusty zig-zagging, sometimes confusing but very well loved, “Route Verte.”

We headed out of town in the general direction of an established campground that we knew we’d never stay in. Especially when we caught sight of an almost too good to be true, waterfront park complete with bathrooms and a nice cliff to shelter it from the highway (and the eyes of any neighbours). After two days of riding without amenities we figured a sponge bath in the bathroom (of questionable sanitation level) was definitely in order. It’s amazing what standard of living you can come to enjoy after a few months on a bike.

B&K

Day 85: Montreal - Saint Sulpice

2007-09-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

km today: 72.0
total km:

We think that Quebec should outlaw motor vehicles. Quebecers are great at riding bikes, and they are really nice people, but they all just suck at driving. Today alone, we had more close encounters than the entire trip combined, and we weren’t even on the road for most of the day. Lucky for us, “The Route Vert” runs all the way from Montreal to Quebec City. Unluckily for us, we didn’t find it until the outskirts of Montreal, forcing us to dodge cars for about 2 hours.

Getting to ride along “The Route Vert” makes all the trouble worth the effort. We didn’t actually get to the riding part of our day until quite late due to many required pitstops, one of which was at the drugstore that did not have much in the sunscreen aisle. Applying our new sunscreen is literally like painting with acrylic white paint.

One of the more entertaining parts of a day was finding that the further east we ride, the more French the people become. We chose the adjective “entertaining” because we are now forced to butcher the French language or resort to charades.

We were getting used to paying for accommodation again after staying in Montreal and so were planning on staying in a bonified campground for the night. That is, until we found our that they charge $18! We’re sleeping on the beach.

B&K

P.S. Our memory card of only 2.5 years decided to call it quits, hence no photos.

Day 84: Montreal Sightseeing

2007-09-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Montreal is actually known for its graffiti artists.

We started the day off with our continental breakfast which we will be exploiting for our lunch tomorrow, and maybe even dinner as well. Set with a kraft peanut butter breakfast of champions we were off to explore old Montreal. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was so easy to imagine 17th century lords and ladies walking the narrow cobblestone streets.

Katie liked the mise en place so much that she had to recreate it herself.

After all the walking we were quite hungry, and hankering for a truly Montreal style lunch. Not willing to settle for any of the many 2 for 1 Greek places (7.50 per person was tempting, but greek hardly screams Montreal) we hunted for ages until we found the clearly bonified Montreal establishment “Frites Alors.” Ordering the poutine was an obligation we had to fulfill. A jerk bison burger, a hamburger bucannier and two bottles of Montreal beer completed our perfect lunch.

From there we got down to business convincing any blog followers that we are not in Toronto, but have, have in fact been in a different province entirely for days now. You don’t get much wireless internet in the cemeteries.

Hours later we were finally ready to take a break and grab some grub. Our research regarding cheap Montreal eats led us to break our traditional Montreal dine out streak. Boutan was actually Lebanese, but with delicious 2.75 pita sandwhiches it was worth breaking the rules. It will be tough to leave this place tomorrow morning. We are definitely excited to spend our winter here.

B&K

Day 83: Grenville - Montreal

2007-09-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

km today: 104.9
total km: 5601.3

This church is almost exactly replicated in absolutely every town we have passed along the way.

We slept like the dead and got one of our earliest starts, hitting the road by 7:15. The sight of blue sky upon exiting the tent was welcome. With a slight tail wind and more good road conditions, Bravo Quebec.

we thought we’d be in Montreal by about 3:30pm. We were unfortunately mistaken. Navigating our way into the city center took hours. We didn’t get settled into our hotel room until around 6:00pm.

But it was all worth it. Montreal, in our eyes, has lived up to every bit of the hype. The architecture is old but the energy of the city is young. Every inch of the city seems to be alive. Even the bums are bilingual, efficiently translating their harassment into english, just when we thought we were safe. On our evening walk, not a block passed by that was not buzzing with unique establishments. We hear that there are more than 5000 restaurants in the city and in our 2 hour stroll we probably came across about 1000 of them.

Which of them to choose for our dinner? Well, when in Montreal do as Montrealers do and line up for the best smoked meat in the city (so we’ve been told). Schwartz’s has been operating since 1930 and they’re doing something right.

They even sell beer and wine in the convenience stores.

We think that we’re going to enjoy our winter here.

B&K

Day 82: Ottawa - Grenville

2007-09-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

We are squatting in a cemetery. Creepy? We probably would have agreed 2 1/2 months ago, but squatting has become part of the routine, and cemeteries are actually pretty ideal. This is actually our 20th sequential night of free accommodation (free including friends houses, and B&B birthday presents). We think that this might be a record.

Today’s ride involved a game of hide and seek. We hid, and the rain sought. Only once did it actually catch us, the other times we prevailed, thanks to our opportunely timed pit stops. We felt pretty lucky, because the rain we are getting is apparently the same rain that has already devastated half of the U.S. and Canada. The weather reminds us of that in the prairies in that it comes in heavy spurts from menacing clouds that, when they pass overhead, reduce the light to dusk like quality. It was crazy, it was 2:45pm and it felt like 8:00pm.

Despite the rain, today’s ride was absolutely fantastic. Quebec lives up to it’s reputation for bike routes. La Route Verte was composed of clean, smooth jet black asphalt bike paths and wide, equally clean shoulders. This was cycling at its finest. We could have rode for hours and, in fact, we did, only taking two very short breaks which, upon commencement, conveniently saved us from the two most torrential downpours of the day.

Actually we just remembered, we took three breaks. We visited the Fairmont “Chateux de Montebello” where, just 3 days ago, Bush, Harper and Calderon were busy with discussions. Too bad we weren’t cycling through a few days ago.

B&K

Day 81: Katie's BIrthday!

2007-09-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today, Katherine Anne Field turned 23 years old. Thanks to thoughtful parents, this day was a break from the ordinary. We moved out of Matt’s place near the airport and into the “Downtown B&B” which, as it happens, actually is located downtown. We were immediately ushered into the spa room, where we both enjoyed deep tissue sports massages as well as complimentary facials, which included the plucking and waxing of eyebrows. Siri, our host, masseuse and esthetician was especially excited to tackle Brandon’s “virgin” eyebrows (as she called them).

We were planning on visiting some more museums, but the spa treatment took longer than expected. Instead we went straight to dinner. We found a lively, local pub where we enjoyed great British pub fare along with our celebratory pitcher of beer. We were pretty happy, even before finishing the pitcher of beer and the free chocolate eruption cheese-birthdaycake. Thank you parents!

Birthday cake and dinner was followed by the discovery of quality live music in the middle of the street. We pulled ourselves away to finish off the evening’s festivities with the viewing of the “Sound and Light Show” on Parliament Hill, which is being put on in celebration of Ottawa’s 150th anniversary as capital of Canada. Even though I was away from home, it was a wonderful birthday.Katie Field and Lester B. Pearson, Canadian heroes.

B&K

P.S. We had no idea how much we sucked at taking photos today. Sorry parents, we must have been enjoying ourselves too much.

Day 80: Ottawa Sightseeing

2007-09-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

On our way downtown we ran into this important intersection.

We had planned on hitting up a few of the museums and cruising around the downtown core. Unbeknownst to us though was the fact that the National Art Gallery (our first stop) is colossal. After spending 3 hours viewing the Renoir exhibit (which was phenomenal by the way) we thought that we were almost finished with the building. A viewing of the map though showed us that we had only seen one tiny section of the first of two floors. The canadian, contemporary, inuit and modern photography exhibits were, let’s just say, a bit rushed. Though we did enjoy the 100 plus year old paintings depicting areas we’ve already visited. Such as the then unspoiled Niagara Falls and the relatively small and pristine Hamilton.

By the time we actually left, it was already time for dinner. Seeing as how we hadn’t planned on taking so long, we’d missed lunch and were starving. We knew that only a buffet would do. Randomly, we found a pretty decent one with 15 islands of food that didn’t leave you reaching for the Peptol Bismol.

B&K

Day 79: Fieldville

2007-08-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read the title right. The Field family does have a claim to fame. Katie’s family came over from Ireland in the 1850s during the potato famine and landed in Quebec, north of Ottwa. There were a number of brothers each or whom started a farm and a family in a clustered area that became known as Fieldville, and it is still there today. Katie’s second cousins Lorraine and Ruth picked us up early to take us to this historic place. To us this is one of the highlights we were most looking forward to on this trip, and it turned out to be everything we hoped for.

Lorraine and Ruth are fantastic tour guides, going above and beyond our expectations. They started off with a scenic and informative drive out of Ottawa, and continued detouring by experimental farms, natural springs, old high schools, hydrodams, quaint towns and, most importantly, second breakfast spots.This is a moving vehicle shot of the experimental farm, a practically downtown farm that grows, as one might expect, experimental produce. Ottawanians are particularly proud of the fact that this land has not been sold to development companies.
Second breakfast. Ruth is in the middle. Lorraine on the right. Katie's hiding behind Brandon's arm.

This was all just preamble for the main event, a visit to the Field farm and the Fieldville cemetery. We were treated to an interesting greeting at the Field farm Under close inspection, you'll see that this ordinary looking photo actually captures a fierce gaurd dog sounding our arrival from the confines of fortress, aka the crawl space under the porch to which it ran to the instant it spotted our approach.

The Field farm is where Katie’s Grandpa Hank was raised, and is still owned by Hank’s brother’s widow, Eileen. At the graveyard we saw the graves of members of the Field family dating back to Katie’s great grandpa Patrick Field.

Across from the graveyard is the Fieldville church to which generations of Fields have visited.

Katie taking a picture of a wall plaque commemorating her great grandparents donation to the church.

Lorraine and Ruth aren’t actually Fields, but McCarthys. Their mother, Kay, was Hanks sister, but she married a man by the name of McCarthy. They are still pretty cool though, and they still sound blooming Irish, especially Eileen, which was really exciting to us. Our next stop was the McCarthy farm where we met Doug, our tour guides’ brother. Doug is the proud owner of a small black bear:She’s pretty friendly though, albeit thick.

The bear has a vicious tactic where it captures its victims by flopping its entire weight onto its victims feet and demanding endless belly rubs.

Doug's cat/dog duplex creation. He's quite handy, in typical Field fashion.

The penthouse resident.

We made a quick stop at the McCarthy cottageson McCarthy road (they are very proud of this claim to fame) before returning to the McCarthy farm for a sugar shack tour and dinner. We now not only know how to make maple syrup, but we can eat it too. Aunt Jemima, you’re history. Thanks Doug.Doug uses these corks to plug the sugar maples after tapping them to extract the sap.....

.....as seen here.

Steak and potatoes, wine and beer and tons of funny stories about Field ancestors capped off this already perfect day.Sorry for the bad aim Ruth.

Capturing this pillar was mandatory before heading back to Matt's.

B&K

Day 78: Cardianl - Ottawa

2007-08-28T07:06:00.001-07:00

km today: 111.22
total km: 5351.1

Seeing as how we were camping along a major walking path, we had to wake up especially early this morning, at 5:30 to be exact. Although it was freezing outside, the sight of a gorgeous misty sunrise over the state of New York kept us packing. We hurredly packed everything up and then rode the 500m to the park entrance where we shivered through breakfast sitting at a picnic table. This was definitely one of our favourite camp sites, and definitely the best squatting site yet. Sunrise over our campsite. Try not to focus on the mill on the horizon.

Packing up in the golden light at dawn.

Getting on the road was a chore because the last thing our already frozen bodies needed was a frigid breeze. We tried to stop for coffee along the way to warm us up, but the coffee shops were either still closed or the towns we passed through were too small to support a coffee shop. We finally found one in “Ottawa,” at Kay’s Landing 54km into our ride.

After our coffee turned lunch stop we followed the owners advice and jumped onto the most gorgeous bike path we’ve seen to date. It meandered along the Rideau River for about 12km and delivered us right downtown at about 2pm. Pretty good time considering we’d already done almost 100km.

The bike path along the Rideau River:

We were early for meeting up with Matt (our host for our stay in Ottawa) and so decided to start our sightseeing starting with the Govenor General’s place of residence, Rideau Hall (it was under intense renovations and was covered entirely). We did get to meet these guys though: Brandon tried his best to imitate, but his bike threw off his posture.

From there we went to Steve’s place:The iron bars and plethora of RCMP security guards interfered with our artistic vision.

Then cruised up to parliament hill (as seen in the opening photo). En route to Parliament Hill we ran across these beauties:The majestic Notre Dame.

The majestic Notre Dame and a 30 foot iron spider (he lives in front of the National Art Gallery).

The Locks on the Rideau Canal.

From there we had a quick and delicious bite to eat at Ahora’s mexican restaurant, and headed back to Matt’s place, this time biking along the even more beautiful Rideau Canal.The sun setting along the Rideau Canal.

Matt is actually Katie’s cousin Sarah’s boyfriend whom was given the task of putting up with us when it was discovered that Sarah wouldn’t actually be in Ottawa when we were. Matt was very nice and hospitable. Welcoming us into his “dirty” house as he referred to it, that by our standards looked like something in a Martha Stewart magazine. We unfortunately didn’t get to spend much time with him due to our opposing schedules. You know, we do lead a very busy life.

B&K

Day 77: Museum - Cardinal

2007-08-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

km today: 103.59
km total: 5239.6

It was a slow and labourious rising this morning. 6:30 turned into 7:00 before either of us decided to stir. It was almost 9:00 before we finally found ourselves packed, fed, and ready to move out - perhaps a new pace record.

Our first stop was only 15 km down the road at “All About Books” where the very hospitable Deb treated us to free coffee, good company, and a new book for only $2. And we didn’t even give her our blog address so these were not embellished for her own personal flattery.

From Deb’s place in Gananoque (gan-an-ah-kway) we were treated to a 38 km ride along the waterfront highway which, for this segment of its length, has its own separate paved and most importantly, vehicle free path. It felt like our own personal highway. As icing on the cake the “waterfront” of the “waterfront highway” was the infamous St. Lawrence River, and its opposite shore belongs to the State of New-York. Very exciting times.Personal bike highway aka "The 1000 Islands Parkway."

Some other tourists we met along the way. We were impressed with the recumbent bike.

Unfortunately, we had to jump back onto the #2 in Brockville and ride along its narrow shoulders for the final 50 km of our day. We still caught some pretty nice sights along the #2 though.
The real subject is the international bridge in the background linking us to the state of New York.

After turning 180 degrees we found this.

Corn crop at dusk.

We are now in Cardinal squatting on a beautiful peninsula in the St. Lawrence midway between Canada and the US. After a quick tally we’ve realized that this is now our 14th straight night of free accommodation and thanks to Sarah (Katie’s cousin) we shall have a couple more waiting for us in Ottawa tomorrow. We can hardly wait.
Sunset over our campground on the St. Lawrence river.

B&K.

Day 76: Bloomfield - MacLachlan Woodworking Museum

2007-08-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

km today: 84.0
total km: 5130.5

Our home for the night.

We awoke to waffles. Not those stinking belgians either, but ones that actually fill you up. These were certified organic corn, and other tasty stuff ones. Katie apologized for having run our of organic maple syrup, and sheepishly explained that all she had was organic yogurt, freshly made hot fruit compote and pear butter (that’s so good she keeps buying it even though it’s not organic). We were full after only two, mind you, they were plate sized. Now it may just be because we had had a whole week off but, in any case, they were hearty.

After a final few touch ups (that actually took a really time) we were ready to hit the road at 1:00 pm. We were off to a very early start. All things done, we were finally ready to pay. For the few things that they did charge us for, they still gave us 30% off, assuring us that we weren’t special, it’s just the rule applied to touring cyclists. Even after the bill was settled, Katie couldn’t stop giving, throwing at us a bag of organic cliff blok shots (energy packed gummy bears for adults) and organic dried bananas. Five minutes later, when they noticed that Brandon wasn’t carrying a camelback and that our water bottle cages were devoid of water bottles (we just hadn’t put them in yet), Rick and Katie both freaked out at the thought that we weren’t drinking enough water. Rick went to the back to fill up one of their extra ones as Katie ran to grab extra water bottles, returning with three full ones. They were not to see us ride off carrying an inadequate amount of water. We rode away on what felt like brand new bikes, laden with presents.Katie and Rick are so busy that this is the best shot we could get of them (helping out a customer).

The little free ferry from Picton across the bay (in the background you can see the other ferry going from the bay to Picton).

We rode the entire way into Kingston along the waterfront trail, enjoying an ample, paved shoulder, and minimal traffic along Lake Ontario’s shore. This is how waterfront the waterfront trail is. It was a really good day of riding. The temperature was even agreeable, verging on cool. Not so agreeable was the lack of campgrounds in Kingston. Our solution was to continue riding and look for a place to pitch a tent at the first sign of squatter friendly territory. Luckily for us, 10km of riding brought us to the MacLachlan woodworking museum. If you’re ever in the area, it’s backyard is ideal for squatting and they don’t open until 10:00 am, leaving ample time to pack up and eat without being caught.

B&K

Day 75: Brighton - Bloomfield

2007-08-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

km today: 59.03
total km: 5046.5

Morning glory after a night of rain.

Our original plan for the day was to head straight into Kingston in our drive toward Ottawa. However, after a random phone call to Gaspar from the Tim Horton’s in Trenton, our route was changed. Gaspar convinced us to detour down to Prince Edward county with the news of a jazz festival, a garlic festival and scenic, less busy roads.Waterfront park just outside of Bloomfield on lake Ontario.

En route to Picton (the sight of both of the festivals), however, we randomly stopped at a bikeshop in Bloomfield. We were stopping only to see if they had “Take a Look” review mirrors (we had both lost ours) and 16” tires for the trailer (they were displaying our trailer in the yard). This was a pit-stop that was meant to be brief.

We never left. We ended up having major bike make-overs! Both of us now fit our bikes waaaaaaaaay better. Our seats are the right height, position and angle. Our handle bars are the right heights. Even our cleats were adjusted by a couple of millimeters to better the positioning of our knees over the pedals. Most exciting for Katie was the aquisition of a brand new girls seat! Combined with a proper fitting bike means no more soreness. Apparently the bikes that we thought were working just fine were in desperate need of some help.

When we say we never left, we literally mean that we never left the premises. We ended up staying the night for free because Katie and Rick (the owners of Bloomfield Bicycle Co.) officially open their house to travelers from around the world, whether they be cyclists, backpackers, or just passersby who need a place to stay. One struggling soul ran out of gas (and money) in front of their bike shop and ended up staying on their couch for an entire 7 months! Needless to say, they are very selfless people.Our only obligation as guests was to create these three tiers of clean dishes. Well worth it.

We ended up staying in “The Mother in Law Suite” in the barn, but had our choice of room from between the mother in law suite, the attic, the back of the chevy (which was actually converted into a suite), camping outside or “Peter’s” bedroom (we never actually met Peter). Our stay included an amazingly good dinner. Katie fed us a hearty and healthy vegetable quiche, followed by organic apple pie, both of which she made on the fly.

Another randomly delightful day.

B&K

Day 74: Toronto - Brighton

2007-08-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

km today: 38.89
total km: 4987.7

En route to Brighton. The perks to the scenery after the rains stop.

Once again, due to the time zone change, we woke up in the early afternoon. Our last few hours with Kate were spent watching classic cinema (old school Katie and Kate home videos - Hahle, you make a wicked judge). We said our final goodbyes and drove to the outskirts of Toronto, which happened to be into a little town called Cobourg. It was here that we dropped off our car, thankfully, free of charge for the crank set grease marks that we accidentally stenciled across the back seat, or the chicken scratch lines that our handle bars etched into its side door. Hey, we asked for a truck.

After an entire week off, we were rusty. In fact, pedaling felt strange. Luckily our road of choice coincided with “The Waterfront Trail” for some sections and we were provided with an ample, well maintained shoulder. It also coincided with other tourists in need of directions. For some reason lost drivers keep thinking that loaded bikers look like they might know their way around local areas. After only 34km the sun was already nearing the horizon and we found ourselves in Brighton, far from any campground. The obvious solution was to set up our tent behind the grocery store in an area that provided excess privacy and comfort, until the rain found us half way through cooking dinner.
The clouds seemed to part, and the day got brighter just as we were entering Brighton, oddly enough.

B&K

Day 73: Toronto Sightseeing Round Three

2007-08-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Due to the time zone change that occurred upon crossing the threshold of Kate’s apartment (she and all of her roomates work very late) we did not rise until early afternoon. Revisiting Kensington market was first on the agenda, this time with tour guide Kate.
Katie and Kate picking out their wedding dresses. Option a) hideous blue.

Option b) puke green.
Katie ordering a chunk of halva (that was exceptionally good)from the fromagerie.Avocado and mango milkshakes.........
.......accompanied by vietnamese coffee and medium (not large) bowls of Pho.

Duties called for Kate and she left us for work as we left her for more free beer. Hey, how can you pass it up?! It’s free. This time we even hopped on the tour, which was also free (at least for us) and surprisingly really informative. Did you know that the term “Blind Drunk” came from the fact that non sanitary Medieval brews used to actually render its patrons blind?

We followed our drinks withAlong with the usual ketchup, mustard and relish, we also had sweet corn relish, banana peppers, green olives, sweet pickles, bacon bits (Brandon only), sweet onions and a mountain of sourkraut.
and followed our hot dogs with
Taking ourselves out to the ballgame.Not bad seats for 41 bucks.The view through the roof.

The Bluejays almost made a comeback, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning, and finally getting knocked out with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 1st. Great times none the less.

B&K

Day 72: Hamilton - Toronto

2007-08-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a very uneventful day. We attempted to fully update the blog but, as you can see, it clearly failed. Uploading photos can take ages. When we finally left, we once again joined the traffic parade en route to Kate’s apartment. Soon exasperated we detoured down to Oakville where we checked out “The Fabulous Life Styles of the Rich and Famous” (they may or may not have been famous). The vente sized houses (a couple of the estates took up most of the city block) not only kept us entertained for a while, but enabled us to bypass the jam.

We arrived in Toronto and stopped off for a quick and satisfying bite at Veda’s surprisingly healthy, fast food Indian joint. We were excited to see and stay with Kate (Katie and Kate had not crossed paths for 3 years) even though the reunion was preceded by an hour long nap in our rental car, which itself was preceded by an hour long search for a parking spot, after which we decided that we didn’t want to leave our car at all because to our islander eyes every passerby bore an odd resemblance to cracked out car jackers.

We soon found out that Kate’s building had it’s own visitor parking lot that we were sure was appropriately guarded by armed forces [we are so green to the ways of the city]. Celebratory wine with Kate after she got off work.

B&K

Day 71: Wine Tour

2007-08-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

This was a nice little reminder of home. We didn't know they make syrup on Quadra.

Hamilton is just a mess to navigate if you’re unfamiliar with the city. The streets twist and turn and change names rapidly. The map provided only lists about 1/3 of the street names. Needless to say it’s the perfect recipe for getting lost. Which we did, a number of times in our attempts to get to the Niagara peninsula.

We did eventually make it, and started the tour off with a bang. We visited “The Thirty Bench Winery" first where we soon befriended Jan, our host for the tastings. Being the el cheapos that we are, we opted to forgo the $10 tasting flight and instead chose the free flight. After ensuing conversation however, Jan offered us the $10 flight for free. We’d like to think that it was our supreme knowledge of wine that moved her. But really, it was just our stories of 5000km of saddle sores and tents. Either way, we were highly appreciative.

Sommelier Jan, providing us with our courtesy tasting.

Our good luck didn’t end there. After a few forgettable wineries we realized that it was already 3:00pm and we still were still nowhere near the infamous Niagara on the Lake so we decided to b-line it to the posh estates of the area. For some reason we stopped at the unknown (to us anyway) Konzelmann Estate Winery where we figured we’d have a lightening quick visit. Fortunately, the small talk could not be avoided and after hearing of our trip and our interest in the reisling the supportive salesman gave us a bottle for free. Entering Konzelmann winery.
One bottle of Konzelmann reisling, priceless.

We breezed by the big name estates and headed back to Hamilton where we once again enjoyed a fabulous bbq dinner at Sara’s (sorry for putting an “h” in you name in yesterday’s blog entry Sara).Massey, after she had gotten to know Brandon a little bit. Unfortunately neither of them were ready for the photo.

B&K

Day 70: Toronto - Hamilton

2007-08-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

We were warned of Toronto traffic jams during rush hours. Thus, we strategically slept in and left at an hour (11:00 am) that we felt would avoid this conflict. We were duped. Some teenager decided to rear end someone and add an hour onto our 150km-ish journey. Grid lock

Brandon chilling during the jam.

When we finally reached the falls, we were blown away. And we hadn’t even seen the falls yet. Niagara Falls is like a little Las Vegas, with lights, and, and casinos, and amusement parks everywhere. It does a fine job of removing most of the natural majesty that the falls themselves impart.

Instead of heading back to Toronto, our destination was Hamilton, specifically to 197 George Street. Home to Sarah Cotton, a friend of the Pirie boys whom they met while traveling through Vietnam. We were en route to meet Sarah at her house, when the 403 duped us. We pulled onto the exit ramp and into a gridlocked highway just as we received a call from Sarah telling us that she would be late due to traffic. After a few words of exchange, we realized that Sarah was four cars in front of us and cursing at the same traffic jam. Our timing was pretty good, considering that Hamilton has a population of over 500,000 and Sarah was coming the opposite direction from Mississauga.Sarah, leading us into "the Hammer"

Chef Sarah (she’s really in marketing) treated us to a fine bbq dinner and fine entertainment, provided by her, her crazy dogs and, eventually, by her equally crazy husband Craig (crazy in the best way). It was a fine night.
porch-side bbq with Sarah

Super chill Murphy in black, and the neurotic beauty, Massey, in white

Craig

B&K

Day 69: Toronto day II

2007-08-24T20:03:00.001-07:00

Another day of wandering. We went to Kensington Market, saw some live music, cruised china town, walked through the downtown and found some free beer. The first stop of the day was Kensington Market:

From there we discovered that the China Town Festival carried through to Sunday. There were a few food stalls and a lot of cheap handicraft and clothing stalls. The main draw for us was the live music. We chanced upon a really good rock duo who, despite the constant rain, drew a large crowd. Katie drying herself under the hand dryer in McDonalds.

Moving on, we wandered through the streets of downtown, heading in the general direction of the CN tower which, upon reaching, we discovered is a ripoff. Just to get up to the lower viewing area, requires shilling out $21.00 per person. Just for an elevator ride! To get the whole package “deal” you need to pay $32.00 a head! Some of you may be thinking that we’re cheap right now. That’s because we are.

Accross the street at Steam Whistle Brewery, we drowned our sorrows with free beer. Seriously. They just give you as many samples as you want. It’s completely odd, and fantastic.

Happy with our liquid appetizer, we satisfied the rest of our hunger with a couple of cheap, but tasty, Indian inspired “burritos” made by a Chinese woman from a place called New York Subway.

On our stroll back to Gaspar’s, we randomly decided to walk along an alley that allows, and even promotes graffiti.
Brandon's direction on this one was to yell "supermodel."
CN sunset.

B&K

Day 68: Toronto Sightseeing

2007-08-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

Food, food and more food. That was what was on the agenda for the first day. We happened to arrive on the right Saturday. Not only was there the usual Saturday farmer's market, but also a Chinatown food festival, the "Hot and Spicy food festival" and "Taste of the Danforth," the biggest food festival of the year drawing about 1 million people each day. For us, it was heaven.

We started off with a small tour of Gaspar's neighbourhood

and took the subway

down to the farmer's market, where we had to exhibit a lot of restraint in not going broke buying the freshest fruits, vegetables, baking, cheese, honey and meat. It was pretty tough work for two hungry cyclists, but was made a little bit easier by the plethora of samples.

We fooled the woman into thinking that we were taking a picture to see how it looked on.

Purple peppers don't taste very good.

From there it was onto the "Hot and Spicy food festival," which also gave us an opportunity to tour the vibrant Harbourfront.

By then we were itching to head to Danforth Street to take part in the festivities. It was crazy, fun mayhem. And there was just so much food. Most of it was Greek food, as Danforth Street falls in "Little Greece," but there was also cuisine from India, China, Japan and Thailand to tempt the taste buds.

This last one is lamb liver, heart, and sweet breads, wrapped in intestines. Some of you may be surprised to hear that its stall had one of the longest lines at the festival.

Walking from one end of the festival took Brandon and I 2 1/2 hours. Thankfully the Subway was there to meet us and wisk us back to Gaspar's to recuperate for the next day's sight seeing.

B&K

Day 67: Eigensinn Farm - Toronto

2007-08-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

km today: 60.3
total km: 4947.9

We left Eigensinn Farm happy and in awe. It was the weirdest and most surreal place either of us have ever been to, and we don't expect to find something like it anywhere else. If any of you ever get a chance to go there, you definitely should. It is an experience that you won't soon forget.

Our original destination for the day was Hamilton, but there is no direct route to the city from Eigensinn. We forged our own route, more or less weaving our way in a somewhat South Easterly direction using random side roads as much as possible. Random side roads are usually complete with random and cool sights and we were not to be disappointed.
Homemade bmx park.

We have been riding through beautiful farm land these last couple of days.

A vibrant pastel clothesline.

Our random route to Hamilton involved a proposed stopover in Orangeville, requiring a stint on highway 10. It was way busier than we thought it would be though and, thus, way scarier. Too many semis came too close on our way to Orangeville and we were ready to rent a car. When we discovered (surprisingly) that we were only 80 km from Toronto (we thought that we were way further, as we hadn't really checked our map)and on a highway leading directly there, the amount of traffic made more sense.

We took up camp in Second Cup and started finding a car. Enterprise, luckily, had a car available for us right then. The only problem was that we were earlier than any of our friends expected, and thus had not made any sleeping arrangements for the night. A search for Sarah Cotten's phone number (our contact in Hamilton) proved futile so we re-focused our attention on Toronto. Oddly enough, Gaspar Csete (one of our Toronto friends) had sent us a message that very day with his phone number. A phone call later and Gaspar became our new hero. We were headed to Toronto!

We have been told time and time again that the 401 would be the scariest road to bike on. In fact, you aren't allowed to. But when we pulled onto it and saw the best biking road we seen for weeks on end, we were baffled. That shoulder is not only about 6 feet wide, but it's protected by a rumble strip. All of our "bike friendly" roads either have no shoulder or a shoulder spanning about 1 foot in width (and that's the biggest we've seen). After seeing this, we decided, definitely, that road planners have never biked a day in their lives.

We picked Gaspar up from work, watched him pull some human contortion as he crammed himself into the back seat (did we mention that we had to rent a car? Because we're under 25 we can't rent a truck. We were assured by the slimy salesman that "it's a full sized car, so there is lots of room." But it's a car nonetheless), and headed to his apartment. After some dinner, wine and dessert (made by Gaspar) we were content and happy with our change of plans.

Gaspar's elegant table setting and Katie, wearing an apron (she didn't cook) and scoffing at Brandon for taking pictures of her unannounced.

That shadowy figure behind the wine glasses is Gaspar - unfortunately, the only picture we took of him.

Brandon's random search for the best restaurants in Toronto. He was pretty excited.

B&K

Day 66: Eigensinn Farm

2007-08-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

Much to our surprise, our farmer's breakfast was accompanied by a couple mugs of french pressed coffee from Aroma Cafe on Quadra.

Although we dawned our bike gear this morning with plans of carrying on, the surreal atmosphere on the farm and a few welcoming words from Katie (the apprentice) convinced us that one more day off couldn't hurt. We happily spent the day exploring the quirks of the property.

Gateway to the farm.

The bike rack was in use.

A dining room we found nestled in the woods.

Chimes made of flattened silverware hung in a pine forest.

Benches fashioned from old pallets.

Known as "The Nest," this tree-fort holds up to 40 diners at a time.

The sounding of the lunch/dinner gong cued the arrival of the chef and his crew (Nobuyo was in Toronto for the day) to a beautiful picnic lunch

The relationship between Michael and his apprentices is anything but formal. He reviewed Jay-choke's preparation of the Georgian Bay lake trout with the phrase "ees-a nice." There's something unusual about a German-Canadian impersonation of Borat, and English comic's interpretation of a Kazikstani reporter. A few moments later the whole table was echoing the phrase.

The eccentricities aren't reserved to the outside, but are found within the house as well. How do a chef and his wife who have reservations booked solid no less than two months in advance, who are planning/designing a new restaurant and who are active environmentalists keep their lives organized? Why, they use their kitchen cupboards and walls as an address book of course. They konw it well too. They will call up when away from home sometimes and ask one of the apprentices to "open up the 4th cupboard and look halfway down for a phone number written with pink ink."

One of the world's highest rated restaurants, and probably one of the only ones that allow dogs to lounge in the kitchen during dinner service.Dinner preparations.

We had a very enjoyable day of exploring, and ended up hanging out with the apprentices late ijnto the night before retiring to our cozy, candlelit playhouse.

B&K

Day 65: Owen Sound - Eigensinn Farm

2007-08-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

km today: 90.6
total km: we forget!

We took the scenic route:Downtown Owen Sound.
We think that these are wild red and orange currants, but we're not quite sure.

Theoretically, the trip could have been done in about 60km, but we found a traffic free bike route worthy of a detour along Georgian Bay and, also, had business to attend to in Collingwood. We are now with cell phone. The postal worker from Sault Ste Marie came through in successfully forwarding the parcel to one "Bran + Dan Pire." Despite the relay of two e-mails, three phone messages and two phone conversations all of which, we thought, clearly communicated a name and address, things got lost in translation.

The short trip from Collingwood to Eigensinn Farm was capped off with
a scenic rolling ascent. For those of you who don't know, Eigensinn Farm
is a concept dreamed up by the eccentric, but brilliant mind of Michael Stadtlander, the acclaimed chef and owner of the property. Other acclaimed chef's and restauranteurs have proclaimed Stadtlander as Canada's most skilled chef - clearly a controversial and easily
disputed title, but the point is that he's good.

His success is made all the more possible by his energizer bunny-like wife, Nobuyo. Coming in at what must be under 5 feet tall, she is a force that matches all of Stadtlander's 6'6 stature. This German/Japanese duo, we've decided, are the John and Yoko of the food world.

Eigensinn, taken from a Herman Hesse novel, means "land of one's own." How to describe Eigensinn Farm? Let's put it this way. If they were to capture Lewis Carroll's vision for Alice and Wonderland on film, this would be the location to do so. The road network alone is such a maze that it inspired an indepth debate among two of Stadtlander's apprentices as to the route to "The Playhouse," our place of residence for the duration of our stay. "Beyond the teepee, after mother of all mothers, past bacchus and the tetanus farmer, before the tree house and on the road just before the fork in the road. Those were the instructions. You may think that "The Playhouse" seems like an odd place to sleep, but the apprentices are staying in
the barn, the stone castle, the attic and the bus. These titles may lead you to be confused and bewildered, so we've tried to capture as many images of the fantastical property as we can.The bus that he and Nobuyo used to tour Canada during their cooking show that aired on the food network, and also used it to drive to Quadra last year. A collection of William VanOrdens pieces hanging over the breakfast talbe (a Quadra artist). Can you find Quadra?The oyster man. Katie and Tommy chilling in "The Playhouse."Mother of all mother's toes. The rest of mother of all mother is not quite PG so we've censored a bit.
Instead of taking his bottles to a bottle depot, Stadtlander uses them to line his paths. There must be thousands of bottles lying there, and the pile is constantly growing.Brandon discovered 1989 Port in our room nestled among the bone candle holders, coffee beans and grinder and bottled water. We were pretty much set up. The oyster shack.
Stadtlander's own swimming pond. We're pretty sure he probably excavated this himself.
The fridge is under the island in the middle of the kitchen which, you'll notice, is complete with a solid slab of marble, next to which is an entire standing varnished tree that acts as the utensil holder. The shape of a man constructed of oyster shells.
Pig/barbeque in the middle of the forest.
We stumbled upon this guy lurking behind an apple tree.
Finding "The Playhouse."
The Tetanus Farmer, so called because he's so rusty. Bacchus, the wine god.The chickens and the dogs take turns pecking/gnawing at this giant, bloody bone -one of two that greet you at the door.

The inspiration for all of the statues was "The Heaven on Earth Project." The project was inspired by a budhist monk philosophy where they meditate through physical labour to transform their land into a more beautiful area than it began as. One of Stadtlander's mottos is "don't cut down the tree you sit on." He's an environmental activist and, though financially established, is not in the least bit frivolous
with his money. Everything in his home is natural, from the farming and growing of his own food, to the construction of buildings and structures with his own hands, using materials from his own farm to do it all.The duck palace built entirely from recycled wood taken either from his own farm or his friends. We were told that the only thing they bought during its construction was a bag of nails. Some of Stadtlander's artistic flare. His creativity is not limited to the plating of his food. This is part of the wall divider/counter between the kitchen and the breakfast room. Stadtlander's homemade outdoor oven that produces the best bread; chewy and smoky.
To go along with the wood fired oven, this homemade grill churned out an exquisite lunch and two equally fantastic dinners.

Don't get the idea that he's a superhero, doing all of this by himself. His apprentices act as an army of minions, obeying any order Stadtlander gives, whether it's to butcher a duck, shephard the sheep or construct a 20 foot statue made of wine bottles. Stadtlander would never be able to do what he does without the help of his apprentices. He's has about 8 roaming around at any one time and has had about 200 come through in the past. He's developed a one of a kind opportunity. They all live, quite literally, as a family, playfully referring to Nobuyo and Michael as mom and dad, and eating breakfast, lunch and dinner together. In turn, Michael and Nobuyo refer to "the kids" by their ever changing nicknames, never by their real names. One apprentice told us, "we don't have real names anymore, and Chef wouldn't know us by them anyway." These people are completely volunteer. There is absoltely no monetary compensation for the apprentices, who usually come out for 6 months at a time. They simply want to come and learn from the best.Two of the apprentices, and two of the three forming "team Japan" chatting with Brandy over breakfast.

Unfortunately, Stadtlander and Nobuyo had a previous engagement to attend to the night we arrived. After shoving beers into our hands, they left, leaving us in the care of the apprentices, who had been instructed numerous times to make sure that we were eating constantly. We were happy to oblige. Especially when we discovered that everything was fresh from the garden.Katie putting her finishing touches on her garden fresh "grazing" meal. Katie and Katie heading into the garden.

B&K

Day 63 & 64: Southampton - Owen Sound & Owen Sound Rest Day

2007-08-12T18:14:00.000-07:00

km today: 42.8
total km: 4781.0

“In it’s early days as a shipping center, Owen Sound rocked with brothers, bars and merchant seamen” (Lonely Planet, 2004). Though not as raucous as it’s younger self, its appeal is still strong enough to warrant a mere 40km day and a day off following. The city is a red brick stunner, and not just the downtown area. The suburbs and industrial waterfront were given the same brick treatment, which has all been preserved and adapted seamlessly to modern life.

Our place of residence during our stay was Harrison Campground, south of the city center lying along the Syndenham River. This is one of the most picturesque and well equipped campgrounds we’ve been to yet. Along the winding river we could find basketball courts, a playground, picnic area, a restaurant with affordable icecream, a good sized swimming pool, hot tub and various well maintained hiking trails leading out and around the campground.

So far we have painted for you a very serene scene, but disturbing the peace were hundreds of dogs and their frightful owners. Apparently, we chanced on arriving the night before the start of the annual dog show that occurs right in the park/campground. It was interesting, and so beyond us. These people buzz around with importance and purpose, as though the bewildering competition means the world to other people as well. They arrive in Greyhound Bus sized RVs that are towing smaller RVs. The dogs sleep in the collosal ones while the owners reside in the smaller ones. For those who don’t tow their dog castles behind them, they still provide their dogs with full sized circus tents complete with four-post beds while the owners sleep on thermarests in regular sized tents.

Thoughts of removing the tables went through Brandon’s mind as he passed this grooming station.

We nicknamed the close one Brando (after Marlon, not Brandon) because his bark was reminiscent of the Godfather with a mouth full of helium.

We’d take a swarm of black flies over this clan any day whose chorus of high pitched yelps sounds much like dying seagulls (we actually did think seagulls were dying one morning - no joke).

On our rest day we decided to improve Katie’s aerodynamics.

Before.
After.
In our russian roulette strategy in choosing a salon we lucked out. Tara was as talented as she (and her co-worker) were entertaining. Upon informing them of our journey the co-worker asked “Can I touch you? I’ve never touched any one so god damn healthy!” The two other retired women in the chairs laughed along at their many politically borderline outburts. At $29 after a generous tip we thought it was steal.

Katie posing for the after picture while Tara and coworker steal the show.

Katie looking enlightened (and chic)

Even Shoppers looks historic here

We took this picture of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery on our way by, assuming we'd be back to check out the rest of it later. Unfortunately, we missed it.

...but we got some blogging done in the library next door.

Twilight flyfishing.

B&K

Day 62: Tobermory - Southampton

2007-08-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

km today: 115.3
total km: 4738.1

Continuing on with our new plan to maximize our sighseeing we detoured down to Southampton beach town. Of course we had to stop for rejuvinating baking along the way. Today it was well the worth the stop. At Harvest Moon Bakery, the products are organic and delicious. Paired with the zany atmosphere and bottomless free trade coffee, our lunch stop was made pretty ideal.Devouring vegan chocolate brownies, fresh peach strudel and free trade coffee.

We decided to get off the shoulderless and incredibly busy (even more so due to the long weekend) highway 6 and beeline it to highway 9 where, once again, it felt like stepping into a different world. We were met with quiet scerenity, seeing more cows than cars on a beautiful, sun-soaked gravel road.It was a refreshing change.

Picking all of our favourites off the cyclists menu, we settled into a waterfront dinner of 1 rotisserie chicken, 1L of triple chocolate truffle icecream, a 2lb bag of baby carrots and 3 new pounds of peaches (in that order). Katie does not recommend triple chocolate truffle ice cream and rotisserie chicken in the same mouthfull.Southampton upon arrival.
Southampton during our icecream-chicken sunset.
We randomly stumbled across a lantern festival complete with live music on our way back from dinner.

B&K

Day 61: Tobermory

2007-08-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

km today: 0
total km: 4611.8

We had a leisurely start to our day involving books and coffee. From there we wandered into town with the goal of experiencing “Canada’s diving capitol.” Brandon had wanted to explore the depths of Lake Huron properly by scuba diving, but complications with ”expired” certification papers got in the way. We happily settled for a day of snorkeling.

Now equipped with our snorkel gear we picked up two bags of day-old baked goods (that were not that good), 3lbs of fresh Ontario peaches, 2 suped up hogie sandwhiches and headed off to the beach. The remainder of our day was spent exploring ship wrecks, swimming alongside large unidentified (and tasty looking) fish, reading books and newspapers, chilling in the sun and eating our picnic lunch.Looking dapper........and dashing.You may not be surprised to be seeing these guys around the great lakes, but we've actually been spotting them all the way across the prairies too (apparently they've become quite proficient at living off human refuse). El Chi-Cheemaun.

Back to the campground, we devoured our usual supermarket dinner of 1 rotisserie chicken, a couple of heads of broccoli, and a full box of Raisin Bran. On a side note, we decided that karaoke + campground = future bankruptcy.

B&K

Day 60: Gore Bay - Tobermory

2007-08-07T11:41:00.001-07:00

km today: 83.9
total km: 4611.8

Sunrise from our beautiful campsite (no one found us).

We enjoyed a brilliant breakfast at the marina before heading to the very impressive farmers market that took up the entire arena, where we indulged in homebaked goodness. From there it was a rush to the ferry when we learned that we only had 4 and a half hours to cover the 75km to the terminal located in South Baymouth. We did it in record time, covering 70 of the km in only 3 hours. Of course, this required what is now becoming a typical celebration of eating 1L of ice cream. We had time to savour it as well. When we arrived at 2pm to catch the 3 we were informed that they had moved to the summer schedule so that we had just missed the 1:30 and were in for an almost 4 hour wait for the ferry at 5:50pm.

The ferry, the Chi-Cheemaun, was a step up from the B.C. ferries as it was complete with a on board bar and wine glasses actually made of glass. We definitely paid for the upgrade though, paying almost double the inflated Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay price that everyone likes to complain about these days.

After a relaxing 1 3/4 hours cruise we arrived in bustling, touristy Tobermory, just what we were hoping for. The atmosphere was really fun and reminded us of the streets of Kuta Beach on Bali. We indulged in a super healthy, best dinner for bikers, all you can eat fish and chips extravaganza from a dock side place where the servers wore pirate outfits.We felt great.

B&K

Day 59: Thessalon - Gore Bay

2007-08-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

km today: 135.9
total km: 4527.7
Today's scenic route mapped out in detail for you guys (you better appreciate this because this may be the only time we're going to do this - it takes way too long).

When we were in Velorution, John (the 76-year old, not the 66-year old) told us the tip that we could shave off a day of riding on the trans canada by hitching a ride with a fishing boat from the Blind River marina, straight south to Meldrum Bay on Manitoulin Island. We took his advice.

En route, we saw a number of interesting things:Local skate park on the outskirts of Iron Bridge.
Modern real estate.

Blind river was not nearly as pretty as Thessalon, making us appreciate our decision to stop early in Thessalon, as our previous night’s sandy beach stay was much more picturesque. We headed to the marina eager to find a willing water taxi. Unluckily for us, the weather was not favourable for boating and few boats were heading out. Luckily for us, an American couple (Deb and Sandy) were not only heading out to one of the nearby islands but overheard our plight and took pity on us. They went out of their way to take us to our destination at Meldrum Bay, 17miles south of Blind River. The directional change in their plans meant that heading to their destination from Meldrum Bay put them in a head to head fight with the wind and waves. Despite this fact, they were more than generous with their hospitality, even providing us with our choice of refreshments for the relaxing cruise
The break from our ordinary routine was a very welcome change Upon arrival in the quiet Melrum Bay, we tried in vain to pay them at least for the gas, but they would not accept, insisting that we needed it more. Thanks a lot guys, and good luck on the rest of your tour.

When we stepped onto the shores of Manitoulin, it felt like stepping onto the shores of a new country. We had left behind the busy hustle of trans canada traffic, and were greeted with the welcome sight of a completely deserted road. There may not have been any shoulders, but when you see only one vehicle every ten minutes, shoulders are not necessary. It was 3:45pm when we got dropped off, and we still had 67km of backroads ahead of us. We got down to business and covered the distance in about 3 and a half hours (with stops) thanks very much in part to a magic tail wind that seemed to follow us no matter which direction we were heading.Riding on a narrow spit of land, dividing the water into lake Huron behind Katie, and Lake......George? behind Brandon.
Birds chilling on Lake Huron.

After a late dinner we found out that a campsite did not exist in Gore Bay, leaving us with no choice but to make old John proud and squat for the night. Gore Bay proved to be the ideal location for stealth camping with heavily tree lined waterfront along the entirety of the empty road heading to the lighthouse away from town. Perfect.

B&K

Day 58: Sault Ste Marie - Thessalon

2007-08-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

km today: 83.6
total km: 4389.2

We started our day off right with face sized apple fritters dripping with grease and chock full of apple slices from Superior Bakery, one of the best bakeries we’ve ever been to. We actually stealth ate them in Tim Hortons with John and Joan (we like the coffee, but don’t like the doughnuts).

We said our goodbyes to Velorution and to John and Joan thinking that we weren’t going to see either again on this trip. A short while later we ran into and We also ran into these guys
who were able to blow by us thanks to their 100lb lighter loads.We had been hearing that the “Tour du Canada” cyclists were on our tails for days, but these were their first appearances. We’ve decided that our trip (the one that doesn’t require a $4000 overhead) is of better value. Everything is catered to them, they are given maps for the day, told exactly where to go and have everything carried for them, save for their food and water for the day. This sounds great, but when we asked 6 of them about their route through the treacherous Manitoba, not one of them could definitely tell us where they went or what road they took. It seems that the lack of self-planning required by them has made it so that they are not absorbing the sights, people and places of Canada.

Our original intention for the day was to make it to Blind River, approximately 140km. We are awaiting the arrival of Brandon’s cell phone though, which we decided to leave behind in Nestor Falls at our campground. It's now being to Collingwood, after it failed to make it to Sault Ste Marie in time. Collingwood could be a 4 day rush from Sault Ste Marie. The phone won’t arrive for close to 7 days though, so we decided to slow our pace down, which actually works in our favour seeing as how the waters of this area have been compared to the Mediterranean.

Instead of Blind River, we chose Thessalon, an easy 83.6km jaunt from the Soo. Along the way we had a quick lunch stop in Bruce Mines The waterfront of Bruce Mines, the site of the oldest copper mines in Canada.

This choice also worked in our favour. When we pulled into our campground we saw that it was right across the street from the clear, clean waters of Lake Huron. Seeing as how the day’s temperature had reached 31.5 degrees celsius by 10:30am, the water looked mighty inviting after a sweltering day of riding. Setting up was a rushed event as we had to go swimming fast.

B&K

Day 57: Sault St Marie Day Off

2007-08-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

km today: 0
total km: same as before

Strangely more attractive in film than in real life. By the way, this is a water tower (not the world's largest button mushroom as Brandon humorously suggested).

We are both feeling very uncreative at the moment. Nothing funny or witty is coming to our minds.... We just stared for about 2 min at those two sentances. We had a fun day, we can tell you that. Brandon thinks that there are too many "we's" in those last few sentances.

Here we go....brace yourselves...

We intended to get going on our errands right away in the morning, but caught up in the bike community. We ended up talking, laughing and just milling about in Velorution for hours. Picture this: an espresso machine pumping out free shots and a group of random and unique characters mingling like old friends. Characters ranging from highschool bike mechanics/bmx maniacs to french imports to a 76-year-old die-hard cyclist. John, the 76-year-old, took first trip across Canada in the 50's on his homemade bike. He was also a bit of an encyclopedia on the subject of touring. His best advise was that the first tent is red, the second yellow and the third green. "Why," he asked? (we were of course stumped). "Because an experienced cyclist knows to buy a green tent which is easily camoflauged, allowing for stealth camping." His other great tip was that cemetaries are always well manacured, have a sources of water and are virtually empty making them ideal locations for stealth camping (especially if you have a green tent).

After a hot day of errands we sat for couple beers with Andy (an english bloke complete with the dry english wit, who started his trip across Canada four days after its conception) and John (Joan graciously declined). It was the perfect way to finish off the day and our stay in "the Soo."

B&K

Day 56: Best campsite ever - Sault Ste Marie

2007-07-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-31T14:50:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Day 54: White River - Rabbit Blanket Lake

2007-07-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

*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

2007-07-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

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

Day 45: Nestor Falls - Fort Frances

2007-07-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

km today: 108.1
total km: 3157.5

Today was a bit of a long day: The first 3/4 of the ride was really fun. We had a pretty good tail wind that enabled us to keep along at an impressive pace while still feeling like lazy sightseers. Many more beaver lodges to check out. Still no beavers. Our goal is to see a beaver sometime on this trip. What good is a Canadian road trip if you don’t see a beaver.
Definitely no longer in the prairies.

Our lunch stop in Emo turned out to be awesome. We found ice cream novelties that we assumed were extinct. Not in Emo, population 1,000. We found Snack and a halfs and choclalate popsicles and were more than happy to add them to our lunch.
Fort Frances is another border town where you look across said body of water (this time the Rainy River) and see the U.S. (this time Minnesota). Sorry, no picture though. After doing a bit of laundry in the lake (one girl thought we were burying our clothes - we thought she was going nowhere fast) and enjoying the amenities of our free campsite we chowed down on Safeway subs and called it a day.

B&K

Day 44: Kenora - Nestor Falls

2007-07-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

km today: 116.6
total km: 3049.3

This route through northern Ontario was rumoured to be full of wildlife, and it did not dissappoint. Today alone, we saw two black bears. One was a cub on the side of the road who saw us first and ran into the woods leaving us only with the sight of a bear behind.The other bear was the largest that either of us have ever seen.

We also saw our first live turtles. Note the emphasis on the word live as we already saw a dead turtle on our way to Fernie, killed by a passing car. In fact, it seems like most of the wildlife we are seeing for the first time (for example porcupines) are in the form of road kill. It is highly unfortunate. So the sight of three live lake turtles sitting on a floating log was a welcome sight. We don’t have pictures of all three though because they wouldn’t let us get very close before diving into the water.

Note the clarity of the photo even with the use of the digital zoom.

We were treated to a very warm welcome upon our arrival in Nestor Falls. The locals were quick to strike up conversations, offer advice and invite us for a slushie rendevous at one of the town’s two stores. Brenda was the first woman we met in town. She was very excited for us, and seemed genuinely interested in our trip. She was apparently so impressed with our trip that she felt obliged to instruct the grocers to put our bill on her visa. We were speechless, and then felt like asses because we had decided to splurge and treat ourselves to coolers. We didn’t think to offer to pay for those ourselves until after we exited the store.

After setting up camp just off the shores of Lake of the Woods we downed some dinner accompanied by our refreshing splurge: Fresh homemade mexican salad and lime coolers. A perfect way to end a long hot day.

We decided to head down and check out the sunset from the docks. We were greeted with a beautiful scene. The only person in sight was an old man sitting on the dock with his guitar singing along to old country classics with his Hank Williams-esque voice. He seemed to favour Johnny Cash, playing his favourite tunes without pause.

B&K

Day 43: Prawda - Kenora

2007-07-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

km today: 105.6
total km: 2932.7

When we woke up and looked through the skylight, all we could see was an army of mosquitos on the underside of the fly waiting for us to exit. They were even just chilling on the screen of the door waiting for us. Packing up required our bug hoods for the first time. Luckily we found refuge in the laundry room where we ate breakfast and picked up our well overdue laundry.

Our random lunchstop in Falcon Bay turned out to be, not only mosquito free, but absolutely beautiful. We stopped at the “Falcon’s Nest” (that was the name of the old restaurant at the Quadra gas station about 20 years ago wasn’t it?) for frozen yoghurt and iced cappuccinos to accompany our classic (but delicious) PB^2 (refer to a blog a few days ago if you don’t remember what that means).

We finally reached the border at the halfway mark of our day and were kind of disappointed with the border sign.
Until we rode another 200m and discovered the real sign.

Our arrival into Ontario was the most dramatic proof that highways are under provincial control. Exhibit A: Road conditions on the TransCanada 50km west of the Manitoba/Ontario border, and typical of most of the province of Manitoba. Exhibit B: Road conditions on the TransCanada 5km east of the Manitoba/Ontario border and, hopefully, typical of the entire province.

Kenora, muskie fishing capital of the world, is situated on Lake of the Woods and is pretty neat.
Real Estate agents offer waterfront property, lots and private islands. Not a great picture but it shows off the private islands.There are actually many 400m track sized islands, most of which are developed.

The local Safeway is probably one of the only grocery stores that offers moorage.

B&K

Day 42: Winnipeg - Prawda

2007-07-17T20:47:00.001-07:00

km today: 113.2
total km:

We finally gathered up the courage to leave Winnipeg. It was a sad departure. The ride to Prawda was pretty basic, save for a few interesting highlights. The grandest of which was our lunch stop. We managed to find a shady oasis underneath a highway overpass that also got us away the whirl of traffic. Evidently it was a popular pit stop as we read the stories of many hitchhikers and cyclists written in chalk on the back side of a concrete support. Making it the grandest highlight was the fact that we ran into the Kiwi, Reuban, whom we had not seen since Castelgar in B.C., before which we had run into each other quite regularly. This was a pleasant surprise indeed. We made plans to meet up at the campground in Prawda, Reuban took off to find lunch, and we finished ours.

Our second highlight was:

Our third highlight was watching the rapid change in vegetation. We were clearly out of the prairies by the end of the day. We were no longer able to see the curvature of the earth on the horizon, but were instead viewing stunted pine forests amidst a mosaic of swampy marshes.

The lowlight of the day, however, was that it became ever apparent that we were nearing northern Ontario and its legendary reputation for its mosquito population. Our campsite must have been home to about half of B.C.’s mosquito population. They literally swarmed us. In the time it took to unzip the tent door, dive in and zip it back up mosquitos numbering in the double digits had bombarded our tent. Somehow they even found time to bite us before we hunted them down because every one we got left bloody smears in our palms. We hope that the temporary banning of DEET wasn’t for any legitimate reason as we will be swimming in it all the way to Quebec.

B&K