Hotdogs and Watermelon Break

Just a quick line here while we enjoy hotdogs and watermelon by the St. Lawrence. The view from this sunroom encompasses flowers, lush trees, and ferns that divide the freshly mown lawn from the rocky beach shore. The St. Lawrence River laps at the shore with salt, wait for it, water. Oh yeah! An hour before we arrived here Neal and I let out simultaneous yells of at first puzzlement and then excitement as our noses first breathed in that long lost salty smell. We are hanging out with Stuart and Amanda and some of her family here in Notre Dame Du Portage at Chulec cottage. Last week they saw some whales out in the river! But hold on a minute...why didn't Patrick let out a yell? Had he fallen asleep? Was he too interested in a passing GBH or something? Sadly, Patrick is no longer with us. He started to feel ill while in Montreal. His skin began turning red and pussing. Saying goodbye to our dear departed friend was a something we did not want to do. Let's not focus on the negative though. He had a good last few days. Let's think about those days.

Oh holy crap we saw the Fleet Foxes! It was absolutely amazing. The place was buzzing with electricity when we arrived. Immediately we make incredi-key purchases and get killer T-shirts. Man, we look so good. Early 20s boy squad! Mario, Tall guy, the Blondstashio'd one. Dungen, from Sweedan, played a wicked opening set. I highly recommend them. They had wicked long jams that included lots of distortion, groves, quite acoustics and flute. I ended up picking up their latest album. I can't wait to listen to it when I get home. Then Fleet Foxes came on. The crowd went crazy, obviously. They opened with a vocal song with their beautiful harmonies. The set was wicked. They played so many awesome songs. All their new songs were incredible as well. Robin Pecknold, the lead singer, had a giant smile on his face the whole night. He told us repeatedly that he was having the best time, that he did not want to be anywhere else but there playing for us, that Dungen are his favourite band, that we were a wicked crowd. The show was so awesome and we were so lucky and happy to see them, obviously. Neal is sure that it was actually a religious experience rather than just a show.

Our stay at Scott and Sam's ended Tuesday morning. I should probably slip another Thank you in there, as we definitely stayed well past when we had intended too. We had a fairly nice riding day to Trois Riviere. I don't think too much out of the ordinary happened. As we were about to bike out of Trois Riviere to find a spot to camp for the night the sky opens. Pouring from the crack in the sky(e) was a tidal wave of water complete with many a flashes, bolts, and thunders. We hid under a gas station shelter and asked for camp sites in town. Of course...none. Right beside us was a little park area so we found the gate, looked around, the coast was clear, and then set up camp. Terrible nights sleep. The next morning we wake up and Patrick is feeling worse and decided to just go home from Trois Riviere rather than push to Quebec City and make his condition worse. It was a scramble during breakfast (except not our eggs, they were over easy) to find Pat a way home. Train did not stop in Trois Riviere and was booked solid anyway. No flights from there either. But we found a bus station and everything was OK. Neal and I gave Patrick a bunch of our gear to take home with him. Neal got rid of two bags and I sent the BOB home. Dear sweet BOB. I will miss your best features: conversation piece, parking skills, lots of room.

Well, we thought we were light weight before. Turns out....we can bike easily with a lot less gear. We now have just two back paniers and a few things strapped on to the back of our bikes each. It is pretty sweet.

Quebec City was wicked. I can't believe how key the location of the condo was. We were on Rue Garneau, which, and I checked, is exactly a stones toss from the Chateau Frontenac. We spent our day off there exploring old Quebec. There were so many people walking about. There was a lot to see. We saw the Chateau, the citadel, the plains of Abraham and a lot of really cool streets. We had some delicious baking and poutine. Alison, who I need to thank a lot for letting us use the wicked condo, recommended a bring your own wine Moroccan restaurant. We went. The food was great. But. It was during that meal that I mentioned how nice our lovely date was going. It was far too romantic for our liking. Three people is far less date like than just the two of us. Oh Patrick, where art thou? After lamb couscous we watched some buskers. The buskers were bilingual and spent all their time in French ripping on the anglophones. We slept yesterday and then packed and left. We stopped at MEC on the way out because my first day with paniers one of them decided to fly off and get injured. The clips broke so I biked to QC with an elaborate mess of bungees. I got a replacement set for under $10 and screwed them on. We took the ferry to Levee. Around 4:00 we leave Levee to begin our "day" of biking. We made it to Montmagne and camped. Now that Pat is gone we are just hopeless party animals. I don't think we went into the tent to sleep until 9:00 pm! We got up early today and had an incredible biking day to here. We had a tail wind and it was flat and it was sunny. Now we must use the wind and bust on. Riviere du Loup is just around the corner and then I know some of you now what lays just around the bend from there.

See you all soon. Love Willem, Neal and Patrick, where-ever he may be.

PS. Patrick will be ok. He just got a really bad case of poison ivy. And he was planning on leaving early, from QC, to go sailing with his parents before he has to go back to school. Ha, school. This biking business is far too cool for school.

Montreal et la Route Verte

The long awaited post from Montreal is now upon thee. I can only hope that it is as welcomed as is an extravagant breakfast is to us. We love breakfast; there is no avoiding that. Today we went to a nice spot on St. Denis and enjoyed a large plate of potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs, baguette, baked beans and fresh fruit. The crepes from yesterday were also just excellent. A lot of our energy comes from breakfast...maybe all the coffee helps out.
Alas, I am sure you did not log on to read this because you were interested in breakfast, although if you have sadly I will not be continuing breakfast discussion passed this sentence.
It seems a long time ago that we left Espanola. We have journeyed about 750 kms since then. It is crazier to think that we have come nearly 5000 kilometers since beginning two months ago. Living two months on a bike, in a tent...wow. It has been both an eternity and a blink of the eye. We have seen so much of our beautiful country by now. The ride home is but an afternoon stroll compared to what we have done. To me, biking into Ottawa signaled the end being near. Biking into Ottawa was just awesome. I said to myself "Wow, I have actually been here before".
Before we made it to Ottawa however we saw the last bit of northern Ontario. Day 1 out of Espanola was a short day to Sudbury. Yes, we saw the nickel. And yes, it was indeed quite giant. To our dismay, there is no campground actually in Sudbury. We asked a few people and they all said that we were out of luck. We decided to just get something to eat and then figure out camping after. While at the grocery store a man struck up a conversation with me (as many people do). After a while, and after learning of our bike trip and that we were looking for camping, this man offered us his front lawn to camp on. Graciously we accepted. He was also kind enough to let us shower. Neal and I biked to the movies and saw Harry Potter. It was enjoyable to watch wizards buzz around and battle for a few hours. We enjoyed it.
We were quite late the next day leaving Sudbury, since we had to venture to a bike shop. Our perpetual problem with tires and tubes was not remedied while in Sudbury. We did manage to get in contact with a bike shop in North Bay where a bike tire would await our arrival. So, off to North Bay we went. We camped in a campground outside of Sturgeon Falls. The weather had been crappy and we were tired when we arrived. My bike tube and tire had been failing all day. Alas, the campground owner let us free camp! "Free camping to all cyclists!" he decreed. He then let us camp under a large outdoor tent, so as to keep our tent dry. Double bonus. The one thing about that campground was that there were just way too many mosquitoes.
Making it to the bike shop in North Bay was so sweet. I was so glad to be rid of my crappy blown tires and patched tubes. Hit up a used CD store in North Bay and we got some pizza. North Bay was a nice little town. We made it to Mattawa that day. It was during Voyageur days, so there were tons of extra people in town, thus there was nowhere for us to camp. We tried a couple places. After being rejected we went across the street from the campground we just tried and set up camp in a vacant lot behind some shrubs and trees. Free camp win. Drunks during the night fail.
Leaving Mattawa we encountered some of our last big hills of the trip. We heard they were big. We powered through an uphill right out of town and turn around to read the sign that said 8% grade. Boom. We wrecked that hill. The land flattened out over the course of that day. The road crumbled beneath us sadly. It was one of the worst highway stretches we came across. It is hard to believe sometimes. Our biggest highway. The highway that connects the Atlantic to the Pacific. The highway that should be a symbol of our unity. The highway that allows us to travel across a continent in a beautiful country. Well, that highway is garbage. Canada should be ashamed of its highways. Canada needs to get a lot of highways fixed and twinned. Canada also needs a bike path that connects the oceans. OK, so I am dreaming now. La Route Verte is very real though. We shall journey there in a moment.
Mattawa to Pembroke...boom. Yeah we did that. Pembrooke to Ottawa...boom. Yeah we did that too. No big deal. We stayed in a hotel in Pembroke because the weather had been terrible. We also found our first Irving Big Stop there and gorged ourselves. The trucker breakfast that allowed us to bike into Ottawa was a good call too. Aw dang, I guess I lied when I said I wouldn't talk about breakfast again. All you breakfast enthusiasts will be excited though.
Ottawa! We did 310 km in two days from Mattawa to Ottawa. Worth it. Dodging thunderstorms along rivers is a beautiful and exciting way to travel. We pulled in to my relative's place in Nepean rather late. Odilia had a lasagna ready for us. We got to chat with the whole family as we ate. Erwin drove us downtown after eating and showering. No Borders, an annual ultimate tournament in Ottawa, had just happened that weekend. Funny...we pull into Ottawa the one weekend friends from Halifax are there. Funny...I stayed at my relative's house on the same weekend as I have during past summers. Anyway, some Halifax ultimate types were still there Sunday night. So we got to go drinking with Hogel and Thorney and Julia and Jazz and Nat. It was a fun night of drinks and later shawarma. It was really nice to see some friends after so long without friends (besides our power trio). The next day was so relaxing. My cousin Todd took the day off work to hang out with us. We went out to breakfast (ah..there is that breakfast thing again) and then just lounged all day. I bought a couple CDs to update my iPod with, which I ended up doing here in Montreal. We played game cube, sat on the computer and watched a movie that day in Ottawa. We often spend days off doing stuff and partying. This was a legitimate day off. A real rest day. It was great to see the family. Jason worked a lot so I didn't get to see him much. It was a good visit though.
The next day we biked along the canal towards downtown Ottawa. All of a sudden we saw lots of red shirts and heard lots of cheering. Sounds fun eh? It was a little Liberal rally. Some guy kayaked from Kingston to Ottawa in support of Michael Ignatieff. Well, guess who was there...Mr. Ignatieff himself, in fact. There was lots of media surrounding him but after a while there came a time when we could approach and chat briefly. We got our picture with him. We told him about our summer adventure and he got the surrounding crowd to cheer and applaud us. That was awesome.
An hour after our parliamentarian celebrity chance meeting we had eaten lunch, seen parliament and were in a new province. La belle province du Quebec. Finally, the endlessness of Ontario had been conquered. Immediately we were on la Route Verte; 4000+ kms of bike paths throughout Quebec. Some of the time it follows highways and is basically just a wide shoulder, but even that was way better than anything we had seen in weeks. So, la Route Verte...it is a winning idea. It took us two days to bike to Montreal. The ride was mostly pretty nicely flat and mostly pretty nicely sunny. Redundantly redundant adjectives? ...Maybe. Well, we got spritzed a few times with rain and thunder clouds constantly threatened us. The ride was fairly relaxed and easy. Our big dilemma came when we found out the bridge into Laval that we wanted to take was closed. So we followed the detour and ended up biking where we should not have biked. Alas, it is in the past. Hakuna Matata. Though, it was kinda scary there for a bit. Next time we shall do a "Are we all comfortable biking here?" type discussion before trying a ride such as that one was, if that sort of situation arises again. Well, we calmed down in Tim's and then found la Route Verte again. It took us into Montreal, pretty well right to Scott's.
Scott and Sam. We owe them much gratitude for letting us stay here for as long as we have. We arrived Wednesday evening and are leaving tomorrow morning. It is our longest stay and we owe them both. So thanks.
Of course, there is reason for this being our longest stay. It has been great to see and hang with Scott. Plus the first thing we hear about upon arrival is Osheaga. Heck yeah! Of course we want to do this festival.
Scott lives on the corner of St. Denis and Sherbrooke. Basically...a killer location. We are walking distance from everything and anything. We have countless restaurants in countless food genres. There are endless bars and shopping opportunities to us here. Living here just involves lots to do always, if one is so inclined. We have spent our time in Montreal biking around and exploring the city. We all feel like we have seen a lot of the city, but really we only tipped the top of Montreal's ice burg. We got bagels from St. Viature one morning. We wandered through parks and along streets. We hit up record shops and some clothing stores. All in all it has been really sweet.
Osheaga! We got to see so many awesome bands. Enough said.
Ok, so more is needed to be said. We saw NLF3 first and they kicked ass. We saw La Rioux and Eagles of Death Metal, both who were fun times. The amount of moustache involved in E of DM's set was huge btw. The day was perfect. The sun was shining. We were hot. There were thousands of people there. It was great. We had a lot of fun. Sadly it took forever to get something to eat. That was really aggravating. But then after a while, any ill thoughts I harboured towards the festival organizers was melting away as I was making my way deep into the beating heart of the Coldplay crowd. We all split up for the headliner. Patrick went to see Girl Talk and dance partied his face off. I wish I could have seen both Girl Talk and Coldplay, but to me, it was an easy and obvious decision. Neal chose to hang back a bit for Coldplay and I chose to try and get as close to the front as I could. The show was amazing. Coldplay were larger than life. They had all the lights and lasers. Chris Martin threw himself around on the stage and generally proved his front man worth 10 times over. They played so many sweet songs. During yellow the lights shone yellow and giant yellow balloons bombarded the audience. Confetti butterflies flew at us in the thousands throughout some songs. Giant orbs changed colours and moved around. Unrelated fireworks perpetuated the concert. Coldplay changed up their style a few times going for future dance versions of some songs and then stripped down acoustic versions of others. They moved around and played on raised platforms in a few places throughout the crowd. They even did a Michael Jackson song for us. Generally it was a wicked experience.
It took a couple lifetimes to get through the crowds and along the subway back to Scott's place.
The next day was just as exciting. Vampire Weekend were super fun. The pouring rain that said hello during breakfast (!!!!!) relented and the sun came out. Vampire Weekend are definitely best enjoyed in the sun, so it all worked out. I thought Rufus Wainwright solo was pretty boring. Sorry Rufus fans, but it was a bust.
Mark Demmons and his friend were there for the festival and we saw them. I ended up watching the Decemberists perform their new album in entirety from really close up. It was pretty sweet. I liked that it is a story (though I couldn't follow it from this first listen) and I liked the costumes they had. It absolutely poured rain on us during their set though. Ah well, it was pretty warm out and I just dried over the rest of the day. If the Decemberists were the thinker's band then the Arctic Monkeys were just a freakin sweet party. They rocked so hard and had the crowd in complete excitement. I quite enjoyed their set.
We ventured to one of the smaller venues, that had previously employed grass as a surface to enjoy, but then had transformed for completely and utterly unknown reasons into one of the largest mud bowls I've ever been in. Mud aside, we were there to party, because we were there for Crystal Castles! The wait for them was exciting. The wait for them was long. The wait for them turned just plain annoying. Where are these damn crystal folks? I checked my phone after a while to see what time it was, only to discover that it was 10:30, the time that Crystal Castles were supposed to finish. I was missing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, for this? We decided to say screw it to CCs and went to the main event to see the YYYs. They were awesome. We caught a few tracks and then the encore. They had a giant eyeball above them and huge lights lit the night up. They rocked hard and blasted us with sonic noise. I really dug it. Karen O was a wicked woman. She had a giant smile on her face the whole time and was really loving performing for us. After the YYYs we ran back to mudland and were welcomed with incredi-beats. Crystal Castles, you unreliable insane crew, you showed up. Their music was wicked on concert sized speakers with concert sized erratic lights. Alice can simply be called insane. She screamed and thrashed and generally looked to have no control over what she was doing. But we and the crowed loved it. It was a wicked dance party.
Alas, our time here is almost over. I have to end this post now as we are going to get some groceries and go to Shwartz's for some food. I think we will cap off our stay here in Montreal with a little show. Oh you know, just the Fleet Foxes. No big deal...
So excited!
So excited to be home too! It will be Quebec City in a couple days. Then we'll be in the Maritimes! Then we will be home before you know it. What then? I am not sure. I suppose we'll figure it out when we arrive home.
Sadly, these are our last few days with Patrick as he will train home from QC to go sailing with his parents before heading back to school. Patrick, you will be missed. How can we be a trio when we are a duo?
We all miss everyone and hope all is well. Party on and enjoy life!
Love Willem, Patrick and Neal!

Cyclists in Wonderland

Our journey has taken us to Espanola. We arrived here two nights ago after many days of traveling. It was our longest stretch between break days. It was also our wettest and coldest stretch of biking. We were told that the coldest part of our trip would probably be the north shore of Lake Superior, and it did not disapoint. We spent 4 full days under a cloud and spent time wearing every piece of warm clothing we brought. There was rain and cold and fog and wetness. One of our most scenic days on the trip was simply a day of fog. We all figured the great lake was right there, just to our right, but we didn't see much. That day was right before we arrived in Marathon. We decided to take a hotel night that night because our stuff was all quite wet from the day and night before. We managed to dry the tent and do some laundry in the bathtub before heading out the next day into more of that dreary weather. We camped underneath an overhang on a deck outside the info centre in White River. It was great to see Winnie the Pooh pictures and statues everywhere there. Winnie of course being purchased in White River during the first world war. We met another cycle tourist there who kindly gave us a new tube. We had terrible luck with tubes and tires lately. Come to think of it we met a whole bunch of cycle tourists lately. There were a bunch of people circling the lake. We spent a night in Lake Superior Provincial Park at the Rabbit Blanket campground. That was another wet day, although the sun did shine briefly. More importantly we saw a black bear that day! It ran across the road a little ways infront of us. Then we biked up to where it might be, cameras at the ready, and then sure enough it was munching something on the side of the road. Patrick and I snapped a photo each and then it saw us and bounded away into the forest. We stopped in Wawa (wild goose in Algonquin) and looked at the giant geese before having Tim Hortons for dinner #1. We ate dinner #2 in the bathroom at Rabbit Blanket, so to stay dry. Biking lately has involved a lot of ups and downs. We are endlessly climbing huge hills and then bombing and then climbing and then bombing etc etc. I remember the bomb down into Montreal River Harbour was brisk to put it lightly and the coldest bomb we've done to put it another way. I also remember we had a really steep climb up into Heyden. Luckily, we were rewarded with a very long gradual downhill from there into Sault St. Marie. The day before arriving in SSM we went to the Indian Craft Store, which was just outside the Pancake Bay campground. That was a really neat store. Neal got a pair of Mocasains. Anyway, when we arrived in Sault St. Marie we all breathed a sigh of relief. Finally we would be able to get some tubes and see about the brand new tire that blew on me for some unknown reason. We hit up a Wendy's Tim Horton's combo restaurant for lunch and then went to the bike store Velorution. Well, we travel in a world free of dates or days of the week. It is rare we know the exact time of day (where the sun is in the sky is far more important). Even rarer is knowing what day it is. So this turned out not in our favour when we pull up to the bike shop and it is closed because it is Sunday. Go figure. A couple lived on the same property as the bike shop and they came out to chat with us and tried to help us as best as they could. They gave us an old tire incase the one I am riding on failed. They also scrounged up one extra tube. So we left Sault St. Marie slightly better than we arrived, but we still had to bike with our fingers crossed and horse shoes up our you know where so that our patched tubes wouldn't fail us. The ride out of the city was nice since we had a guide. The guy, Ian, who helped us is an avid cyclist and wanted to go for a ride anyway, so he led us along for the next 66km. It was a good ride. Heck, we actually had a bit of a tail wind. He left us in a little town on Lake Huron where we ate dinner. From there it was a short 20 km bike ride to Thessalon where we camped down for the night. Our Espanola connection, Sean, drove to Thessalon on his birthday to hang out with us and party a little. Sean and Patrick went to University together and lived together. The next morning we began the day with two breakfast specials each (save Sean who had a normal one plate of food) and loaded all our gear into Sean's car. We drove it to Espanola for us and we were free to bike without extra weight. What a treat. We were able to fly along. The weather was even nice for us. The 160 or so km we biked was biked with extra vigour and speed, since we could, so we arrived just as tired as a usual day. So finally we have arrived in Espanola. A break day a long time coming and well deserved. Sean's house here is beautiful. It sits on a lake in the wilderness just outside of town. There are flowers and vegetables growing everywhere. We spent the day yesterday hiking and adventuring in the woods. We climbed a little mountain and ate blueberries for hours at the top. All in all it was a hilarious afternoon in sunshine and in the woods. Pole vaulting your way through the brush is a surprisingly amazing form of transportation. We had delicious sandwiches for lunch and then headed out in the motor boat across the lake. Sean took us to some cliffs on an island or something to jump off of. We hiked up to a beautiful view and said, well, here we are, we're going to jump off this cliff. I peered off the edge of this incredibly high cliff. No way am I going to jump off this. Sean said that we should try some warm up cliffs first and hiked back down a ways to the starter cliff. I looked over the edge and thought jeeze, this is still really high too. Neal was the first. He blindly lept (cause he can't see without his glasses and all) off the cliff and splashed down a few seconds later. Sean and then Patrick followed and I was left up there alone and dry. The moment to commiting to jumping off the cliff is such an exilerating and terrifying one. The few seconds of free fall are a rush and then you splash down into the nice lake water. It was awesome. We all climbed back up and then without a moments thought or a second to catch my breath I had thrown myself off the cliff and back into the water. The others all jumped in again. Sean tried the corkscrew spin jump. (Oh as a side note, Sean has the best moustache of us. Neal and Patrick shaved their beards and I trimmed mine. Neal and I also got some new haircuts). Alas after these two jumps we hiked up to the big one again. Well, it looked no easier. We spent many minutes looking out and down and contemplating, trying to build up the courage to jump. Other boats drove by us and looked up and Sean told Neal that it was now or never. Neal mumbled something and lept by us out in a 65 foot free fall into the lake below. After watching him I was almost convinced I wasn't going to do it. But for some reason 10 minutes later my heart was racing and I was pysching myself up and the others were egging me on. Then I was moving. Then I lept and was commited. The few seconds of falling were scary and exciting all at once. My feet hurt a little bit today still (might also be all the bare foot clambering on rocks and in the woods we did too). Well it was awesome to do the jump. Sean and Patrick had more sense and hiked back down and did the other, more reasonable cliff. We boated back home and had another great meal. Now it is now. Sean is getting his wisdom teeth out and the three of us are about to pack up our stuff to bike to Sudbury. I can't wait to see the giant nickel. It is going to be a bit of a short day to ease our way back into biking. It is less than a week to Ottawa, a couple days to Montreal, and then we are basically home free. We all hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer back home. Till next time, Willem, Patrick and Neal.

Endless Trees and Sleeping Giants

We have busted our way from Winnipeg all the way to Thunder Bay. It has been a good few days since leaving the Peg. Our last night in Manitoba was spent at a highway rest station. It was a pretty good spot: flush bathrooms and free. It was not that great a spot: non-stop trucks going by in the night and enough mosquitoes to last me until next summer. We went swimming in Falcon Lake on our last day in Manitoba. It was a wicked dip in the water and a nice little time at the beach. We got some lunch at the resort there, but the service was terribly slow. Then we entered Ontario! Our biggest province and challenge lay ahead of us. The road dissolved in front of our eyes into a cracked and shoulderless problem. Construction lasted about 25 km, but it wasn't as bad as we expected. Some dude gave us free gatorade at the Ontario tourist centre. We have heard that there are only two seasons, here in northern Ontario: winter and construction. In places the shoulder was excellent and in others it was pretty small. However, it is all together better than the roads in Manitoba. We do spend many hours a day though with trucks passing us, often with a wide birth, but sometimes we could easily reach our arms out and pat them as they crash on by. Really, I think the thing that has affected us the most is the return of trees and lakes! It is awesome. All of us feel a lot more at home now. The prairies were like a foreign country to us. Seas of grass are nice. The sky was awesome. But really, I like this Ontario scenery a lot more. We roll up and down hills and get to gaze at beautiful lakes with loons. There was one lake we passed where a family of loons, two adults, and two babies, were about 2 meters from the shore, where we stood. It was awesome. We have seen some other wild life. The deer remain a constant presence. Quite excitingly we have seen some bigger animals. On our second day into Ontario we saw a moose! It was huge! It also stunk worse than most things I've smelled. The clouds of flies covering it were pretty crazy too. Even the 4 or 5 vultures that were eating it's decaying body were awesome. Ok, so the first moose we saw was a big pile of dead. We have seen 4 more moose since. Two the evening before camping beside a side of the highway sand mountain and two the next morning. Each time it was a mother and a calf. Very awesome! I am not sure what else has happened. We bike a lot, I know that. Oh, while in Kenora we all got some sweet new T-shirts. We're going to look pretty good now. We made it to Thunder Bay on Saturday and took yesterday off. We did not do much. It was good though. We have been able to gaze out at Lake Superior. We have seen the Sleeping Giant. For breakfast yesterday we went to a place called the Hoito. Previously we met some girls from T Bay and they said the only thing we should do is to get breakfast there. It was a Finnish restaurant and the breakfast was awesome. The pancakes rocked. Well, I guess we should get going. I think our next rest day is going to be in Espanola, which is a little bit west of Sudbury. Patrick has a friend there, so it seems like a good spot to rest. Hopefully everyone is happy and well back home. Until next time...Willem, Neal and Patrick.

Winnipeg

I don't remember the last time this thing was updated. I feel that it was a couple provinces ago. Our time through Saskatchewan pretty good. Our first two days in we blew through 170 km a day. We went to Swift Current on the first day and then Moose Jaw on the second and spent the night with Alex Mitchell. From there we were hoping for an easy ride to Regina only to be faced with a terrible head wind. It was a battle all day that day to make it to Regina. We also got our glimpse at some of the flattest land around. It hailed on us briefly on the way there. We spent a couple days in a trailer in the backyard of friend's of Neal's family. Andrew and Nicole were excellent hosts who provided us with BBQ and beers. Colin was an interesting guy to hang out with too. Their dog Romeo was super cute and friendly. All he wanted to do was play with us. We hit up Regina Jazz fest for an afternoon but mostly lounged. From Regina we busted up on a northern road for a while. We had been on the #1 Trans Canada until Regina, but we wanted a break from the endless trucks and cars. In Killaly we slept on a baseball field and the town was out partying so we socialized with them. We have gone through countless small towns and endless expanses of fields. I also would like to mention how amazing the sky is. When Saskatchewan said that it was the province with the living sky they were right. It is huge and awesome. The clouds take on such pleasant puffy shapes. Sunsets have also been incredibly rewarding to gaze at. Oh, I also would like to say that for all the hype on how flat the prairies are, we didn't encounter too much straight up flat lands. We've gone on small rolling hills and such mostly. A few days ago we reached a sign that without celebration told us we were in Manitoba. We looked around...trees! We looked to our feet...grass hoppers! We looked to the sky...clouds! The mystery of Manitoba was beginning to become unraveled for us. That day we got to bike down and up a river valley. It had been a while since we had done a climb of that length. Since then it has been fairly flat though. We ended up spending our first night in Manitoba in the village of Foxwarren. We slept in the "campground"...a field with a couple trees by an abandoned school with a dilapidated play ground, but it was nice. We got some beers and watched the sunset. We stayed up a little bit later than usual that night and got to watch lightning bugs playing around! It was around this time on our trip when we began to develop a hate on for the roads in Manitoba. We wanted to use the #16, the Yellowhead. However, quickly to our dismay we discovered that the shoulder is composed of a few inches of unbikeable gravel. This two way traffic major highway was a terrible, terrible place to bike. As soon as we could we took a road south again to try and find the #1. We spent Canada day biking and then stayed at a provincial park in Rivers. It was a really nice day. Sadly there was no Joel Plaskett to play us a concert and rock out...but we got a couple small fire works set off across a lake from where we stayed. In Brandon we hooked up with the #1 again only to find that it too often does not have a bikeable shoulder. Manitoba has been failing us and upping the danger level. We made it to Winnipeg on Friday and met up with Louie and Andrea who have kindly let us stay with them. Then to our delight...an ultimate tournament, here in Winnipeg. We figure, hey, we're in good shape...let's do this. Flatlands 2009 turned out to be a very fun and party filled, but painful weekend. The impact from running hurt. Sprinting was also a whole new concept, and hurt. We played with a rec team and were the ringers from Halifax. The team was fun and we played some decent ultimate. Mostly, we had fun and partied. Another really random thing happened while in Winnipeg. Roger Fage showed up at the tournament after 2 months of tree planting in Ontario. He just happened to be passing through the city on his way out west and ended up playing in the tournament with us. It felt like old times. By the time we had partied our way through the tournament party, gone downtown, got pizza, saw a car accident, had certain folks show us their dinner from earlier, and finally were lying down on an air mattress on the floor next to Roger...well it felt like a DKUT tournament. Good times. Winnipeg has had a lot of rain and such recently so the river is really high and there has been lots of flooding. I thought you would like to know that. Another key tid bit relates to Iggy. Iggy is an adorable little fluff ball that keeps pouncing on me and waking me up in the mornings. Yesterday we relaxed (finally) and puppy sat all day. It was great. He likes to chew on everything and be super cute always. I wouldn't expect anything less from an 8 week old Wheaton. I got to watch my first Blue Ray (BRD) while here. Kung Fu Panda. It looked, well, strange. The high def makes things really sharp though, which is awesome. I suppose the last thing I should mention is that our next chapter of the adventure is going to be a big one. Ontario. Neverendsio. Onlytreesio. Peoplehavetoldushowcrappythislegisgoingtobeio. So we figure in a week we'll have made it through some of the wilderness to be in Thunderbay. Then we want to an island route south a bit and then cut east again. It will probably take us 3 weeks or so to get to Ottawa, sadly, probably too late to be able to play in No Borders. Oh also, I finally got a new air mattress at MEC. Now my mattress won't deflate on me 10 minutes after blowing it up.
So we all wish people at home well. Hopefully the sun comes out in Halifax soon. Fear not if it doesn't for we will bring the sunshine back to you...can you wait till August though? We miss everyone at home lots. Take care. Party on. Willem, Neal and Pat.

End of Chapter 1

Our trip from the last update to here has been a great one. We left Cranbrook a few days ago now and headed towards Fernie. Along the way we met a tame crow and tried to wait out a thunderstorm only to get drenched and cold later. We went through a short tunnel in the mountainside as we biked from Elko to Fernie. (Elko being where we stopped for lunch and where the crow, Squakie, was). The other side of the tunnel is notorious for the bad weather, and it did not disappoint us. When we were roughly 5 minutes from Fernie my front tire, which I had noticed was splitting apart (the new tires I got to start the trip in Halifax did not last long...) blew. So we had to do a highway side, in the pouring rain, with all the traffic zooming by, cold as ever, tire and tube change. We decided Tim's would be a great place to warm up and that is where we met our host for the night, Steve. Steve mistook Neal for a biking friend of his. When he heard our story he asked us if we had a place to stay in Fernie and then offered for us to stay with him. So we did. He was a really cool guy. We had a BBQ and he got us some beer. The next day we busted "over" crows nest pass and into Alberta. It felt like quite an accomplishment to finish a province. The changes in landscape were surprisingly quick to happen too. Suddenly there was grass everywhere. The foot hills rolled and waved at us rather than strike intense awe like the mountains had. We of course could see the mountains for a while. The foothills really are awesome though. We saw Frank Slide (in the early 1900s part of Turtle Mountain broke off and destroyed a whole town). We saw a family of Great Horned Owls at our campsite the other night. From that campsite we went for a big day (120k+) into Lethbridge. The terrain flattened out more and more as we were pushed and helped along by a massive West to East tail wind. Our hosts Greg and Leah have been very nice to us. We took the day off yesterday. We went to a bike shop and a used book store, where we stocked up on some reading material. We went to a record store and then saw the movie Up. Up was amazing. We all highly recommend it. 3D movies are just way cool. Well, e are getting off to a nice and slow start here today. We had a bit of a patio/kitchen party last night, which was great. In two days we'll be past Medicine Hat. Then we'll do the Cypress Hills. Basically, we are going to be in Saskatchewan in no time. All of us would like to wish our fathers a Happy Fathers Day. Take care everyone. Willem, Patrick, and Neal.

Cranbrook

Well, we are in Cranbrook. Our campsite is not glamorous. And we certainly aren't either. The ride today was fairly easy. We had a relaxed start to the day and then seemed to spend most of the day going down hill. We biked the length of the Moyie Lake. Last night we spent the night in Yahk, at the provincial park there. Yahk is a pretty small place. We've also been to Wynndel where we were able to meet up with Pat's relative Jill and her family. They frequently get deer, coyotes, black bears, grizzlies, and herds of elk on their expansive valley farm property. They were very nice and feed us moose meat burgers. Brgrs? k? Moose brgrs? k. The days are still beautiful. We are fortunate to spend almost the entire day out doors, everyday. Naturally we get to see many awesome things daily such as the mountains, storms, wild life and we do lots of cloud gazing in the late afternoon and evening at the campsite. Neal and I saw a deer couple. Prom king and prom queen at the deer prom. They were separated by the road with us in between. The male, with his antlers just beginning to show, bounded across the street and they had a romantic reunion. Patrick made some delicious eggs for breakfast today with the new frying pan that we purchased. Check for excellent purchase. Yesterday we decided it was incredibly majestic listening to Sigur Ros in the mountains. We all love when birds fly with us. Every now and then a bald eagle or some great blue herons will fly just above us and follow our journey. These things often lead to conversations about Legend of Zelda. We're aiming to get to Lethbridge Alberta in four days. We also happen to have a random connection there for a place to crash. We all hope things are well back home. Willem, Neal and Patrick.

Rock Creak fair trade coffee wi-fi

Well we busted over the Anarchist Pass today. We got up really early this morning because we heard it is just super hot at all other times of the day. Turns out it is pretty hot in the early morning too. But we made it. It was an intense ride up with lots of switchbacks. We rocked an 8 or 9 % grade for 8 km up and then it eased up a bit but we kept goign up. The scenery is beautiful. Huge expansive grass fields with trees and cows and horses dotting them. The mountains are all around us. In the distance are huge mountains with snow. There are hawks and countless other birds flying all around us. Ground hogs are everywhere as well. We saw some stupid deer on our trek down the mountain today. One of them decided to wait until trucks were coming in both directions before making the awkward bound across the highway. He made it ok! The other one waited until we were right by it and then turned and jumped over a fence and hopped and bounced down the mountain side into the woods. We went for a swim last night in Osoyoos lake to try and cool off once we reached our campsite (a small piece of grass beside a waterslide in town). The bike ride from Princeton to Osoyoos was intense. I think it was more grueling than the Allison pass. The first bit to Hedley was easy and nice. We cruised along a back road off the highway. Hedley is, well, small. We could see some old mining cabins up the mountain side though, which were cool. I can't fathom going up there though...60+ switchbacks and an average grade of 12%! We biked on to Keremeos and had lunch. The landscape had changed from huge trees to a very dry deserty feel. When we did the push from Keremeos to Osoyoos we felt the full weight of the desert. It was nothing but heat and hills. Down a little and then up a lot. Or at least it felt that way in the 30+ heat with no real wind. By the end of it we were all a little out of it and just wanted to crash for the night. Today being Neal's birthday and all, we are going to take a relaxing afternoon and set up camp and then just hang out and party. Maybe we can find a birthday cake somewhere for him. The lad you knew as Neal is a man now. 22 has never looked this good. Sitting at lunch he was showcasing the biking spandex, a wife-beater, moustache, helmet sweat hair slicked back into a pseudo mullet. But, we all love it. I hope things are well back in the maritimes or wherever you are reading from. So long, from BC: Willem, Neal and Patrick.

one

Well here it is finally. Blog travel entry number one. It is nice to type on something that is not the Black Berry, although this keyboard on Ian's mini PC is pretty small too. Right now we are in Princeton BC. It has taken us a few days to get here. Back a week ago Neal and I flew into Vancouver and got to see where we'll be biking all in one go. Patrick met us at the airport with bike tools and my BOB trailer he picked up for me. Without too much difficulty we assembled our bikes and then literally rode out of the airport. Pat flew into Vancouver a few days early to see the city and to spend some time with Kate.

Neal and I headed out to Victoria. The ferry ride was great but sadly we did not see any whales. Some seals and eagles made apperances though. The ride was beautiful through all the islands. Karin and Peter, my aunt and uncle, met us on the otherside and took us to their place. They fed us a nice BBQ dinner and then it was early to bed. We spent the next day touring around Victoria and went to Mile 0! we also got to splash around in the Pacific ocean a bit. I got to see my cousins Gavin and Brett over the couple nights we were there. Gavin on male athelete of the year at his high school!

We came back to Vancouver via the ferry and I got my first flat tire on the way so we missed the 9 o'clock ferry and had to take the 11. There were more tire issues once on the other side and Neal had to do some biking and searching to find a replacement tube. We saw lots of great blue herons nesting in trees! We made it to Kate's place and had lamb shanks and stout beer for dinner. Pretty hearty for June. The next day we did some errands and then headed out to Mission. The errands took longer than expected so it was looking like we wouldn't make it all the way. We met a lady who took us to a campsite and then set up for our first night camping. Since then we have traveled through Hope and up and over the Allison Pass (1342m)! Biking up mountains for literally a day is pretty nuts. We camped in EC Manning Park, our first night in Bear country, and survived to tell the tale. It was cold up there at night. Alas, the ride up was well worth it because you can guess what happened next. We got to bike down some mountains. It was awesome and insane. We cruised well over 60 kph down some of the steeper portions. All the days so far have been filled with stunning views and scenery. Every turn on the road brings another photographic moment. If we stopped to take a picture of everything we wanted to photograph we'd never make it home. Gazing out over valleys with mountains everywhere is really awesome. Especially when we considered that we had to bike up the mountains. There haven't been too many problems besides a few flat tubes and one tire blow out issue, that left me stranded on a boring section of road for nearly 3 hours. Tomorrow we are heading out to bike 114 km to Osoyos. It should be another amazing day of adventuring and stuff to look at. To appreciate the climbs and the bombs you really have to get out here and try it out for yourself. We miss everyone at home and hope things are going great! Willem, Neal and Patrick. Dictated but not read. But not really. Jokes. But seriously. Bye!

Plan?

Ok, so by request, here's a more in-depth look at how we're doing this:

We don't really have a clue...

Actually, we've got a skeleton plan. We're primarily camping, there's a cozy tent for the three of us, and we're bringing lightweight cooking things. All told, with clothes, we each tend to fill two and a half panniers. The rest is food. We're planning on buying our food day to day, but there will be some stretches where we'll need to carry our food with us. We have finished a trial run to Grave's Island. It was a blast, and went really well (despite the fact the we forgot the lid to our pot so boiling water was a long-term investment). Pat and I are carrying four panniers a piece, and Willem is pulling a BOB trailer (a little one-wheeled job, great fun). We may be switching the trailer around between us to give Willem a break. I hope that's a good intro.
N

First up

Here's the blog, we'll be hopefully writing nightly and posting when we have access to the net. We'll all be in BC on the 2nd, and the trip will start shortly after that. I'll put up a link to the map of our "route" (it's up for review). Anyone with any suggestions (good parks, good roads, good couches, etc.) please feel free to post them or send any of us a message.
N

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
112070422529393774972.000469b8d5cca1735d88d