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.