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.