| Day |
Date |
Entry |
| 32 |
Tue, Aug 3 |
Richer to Ontario border. The prairies are left behind. Just like the mountains of B.C. and Alberta, I miss the geography of the prairies once I leave them. The prairies are a pleasure to ride in and they are not "boring" at all. The worst stretch of road was encountered from about 20K east of Richer to about 10K west of the Ontario border. It was a tough day with these bad roads and unfavourable winds from the northeast. The good thing is that we free camped on the shoulder of the old abandoned Trans-Canada built in the 1930s. I got a good look at the night sky at about 3 a.m.
|
| 33 |
Wed, Aug 4 |
Ontario border to Kenora. This is a goof around day. We are staying in a hotel right in town. Kenora is a pretty town. It's serious cottage country around here but not quite the zoo that Muskoka is. We will relax and do laundry and other chores. Our third floor room has a sweet view of the lake.
|
| 34 |
Thu, Aug 5 |
Kenora to 25K west of Dryden. This was a good solid ride. This is very nice country with clear lakes. We bush camped and had an animal visit us late at night. We are not sure what it was, but it was large and had this sort of snort. I think it was a bear. No real worries though, because it did not seem interested in peeking into our tent. |
| 35 |
Fri, Aug 6 |
To Ignace. This was a tougher day. We were pretty scruffy, so we moteled it. Ignace is not a pretty town. An unremarkable day. |
| 36 |
Sat, Aug 7 |
We started the day by bumping into a round the world cyclist from the U.K. Justin is on year 2 of an estimated 4 year gig. Starting in the U.K., he cycled through Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos), then Australia and New Zealand. He flew to Vancouver and cycled up the Alaska highway, cutting over northern B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. That's pretty brave. He has a million stories. We chatted outside a bakery in Ignace, then we rode on. An hour later he passed us. At noon we caught up to him at a restaurant. As we pulled into this roadside café, another cyclist pulled in from the east. This fellow was from the Netherlands, and he too was doing the round the world thing. Quite a day.
 Bill, Justin and Martin |
| 37 |
Sun, Aug 8 |
Justin hooked up with us for camping the night before. Today, this meant cycling at his pace (which is considerable). The winds continued to be against us, as they have been since just before Ontario. This has made for hard cycling. Today we kept a tough pace as Justin and I traded jobs of leading into the wind. We free camped in tall grass just short of the highway 17/102 junction. |
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