Cross Canada Tour
Day 24 - July 1st - Nestor Falls to Fort Frances
104 Kms
Low miles eh? But there's not much else down the road until I hit Atikokan, which will be tomorrow's ride, so Fort  Frances will have to suffice. Besides I had strong headwinds - again! Even when I turned full east onto Highway 11, I had that south-easterly in my face. Those easterlies usually mean a storm's coming, and today was true to form. I got caught in a thunderstorm about 15 Kms out of Fort Frances - big hailstones too - another good reason to wear a bike helmet! Some places a bit further south had baseball size hailstones to contend with and funnel clouds touching down. The weather still hasn't cleared though; it's hot and humid as hell, so I think that we'll get dumped on later tonight too. Other than the headwind, the ride was reasonable with some really good scenery. I saw a fox today; he ran across the road right in front of me, scared the hell out of Basil!
Just before my second breakfast stop at Emo, I met a fellow cycling heading west. Stan is riding to raise awareness of the D.A.R.E. program, visiting police stations etc. along the way. You can check out the program's website at: http://www.dare-canada.com. He hails from Brantford. ON, and started his ride in St. Johns, Newfoundland. He's hoping to be in Victoria on July 31st, so keep your ears to the ground for a sign of him. Stan's travelling light. When I asked where his bags were - this was after I questioned whether he was just out for a day ride! - I found out that he has a motor home for a support vehicle, must be nice eh?
I wouldn't mind a motor home tonight, the mozzies are really bad at this campground. I don't know how much more blood I can donate to those suckers, they never seem satiated! I'm camped in a private RV park just east of town, the local town park would have been nicer, but it's packed with people there for the Canada Day festivities and fireworks etc. are planned for later in the evening. They probably wouldn't want me flying my dirty laundry at the park's picnic site anyway!
Fort Frances is quite a big town - paper and pulp mill town. Smells just like Powell River, BC! Fort Frances is also a border town; the Rainy River is the border between the USA and Canada. A bridge takes one over to International Falls, USA. I passed some huge log dumps with acres of cut wood waiting for transport to the mill.
I'll probably get a motel the next two nights as I've got two days of heavy riding, especially if the wind doesn't cooperate. Besides, it'll be nice to let some of my mozzie bites and lumps settle down! I need something like a sheep dip - filled with Deet - so that I can dip myself before I get out of my screened tent! And those big flies constantly draughting me as I ride, they bombard and bounce of me, but when I stop for a rest, they stop too! They sit on my bags and bike waiting until I take off again; I leave, and so do they! I'm sure that its the same gang of flies that's been trailing me from Manitoba - getting a free ride to the east coast I'll bet!
OK, big wishes for tailwinds for the next two days - at least!
Day 25 - July 2nd - Fort Frances to Atikokan
148 Kms
Prayers were answered - I got my tail winds today, and just as well too, as the road was a roller coaster. Lots of short climbs and not much of any downhills for the effort! Virtually no shoulder either, with a myriad of logging trucks to contend with, on top of regular traffic - but still not super busy, I guess that will happen when 11 joins onto 17. The nicest part of the ride was early this morning as I left Fort Frances on the Noden Causeway that crosses Rainy Lake - very picturesque! There were quite a few washouts on the road today, from recent flooding. The most serious was a missing bridge that had been washed away by the Seine River. A single lane Bailey bridge has been installed as a temporary fix. Apart from that, loose gravel on the roadway was the only other hazard. I had been concerned about this route being open at all, as it was closed for a short while recently. A detour would have constituted returning a long distance all the way to back to almost Kenora. The motorcycle lady (and sidecar with dog) that I met in Kenora, had just travelled this route successfully on her westward journey, hence my decision to venture this way rather than the more northerly route through Dryden etc.
I scored a motel for tonight, as I need a break from the bugs. I'll swear those mozzies had a breeding frenzy last night, because there was an extra thousand or two to contend with this morning! I had to wear my head-net, plus a ton of repellent on any exposed parts, just to get my bike packed up! Not very pleasant camping in these bug infested conditions! I've not seen too many people tent camping around here, and even the ones with RV's usually have screened gazebos for "enjoying" the outdoors. Last night there were rolling thunderstorms with heavy rain, so most of my stuff was pretty damp this morning anyway and I also discovered a leak in my tent fly. So the motel room is a good place to dry the gear out and apply some seam sealer to the troublesome area.
One of my STI shifters went on the fritz a couple of days ago, I tried repairing it, but there's nothing to be done. The component has about 30,000 Kms on it, so I guess that it had to give up the ghost sometime - but why now? Murphy's Law eh? Fortunately, I had the foresight to bring along a down-tube shifter that I had adapted for just such an occurrence - it's working fine, but not as convenient as the STI shifting at the brake lever. I'm going to check out the bike shops in Thunder Bay, when I get there, and see if I can come up with a replacement. Might be difficult though, as most of the stuff now is 9 speed and I'm still running 8 speed. Keep your fingers crossed!
Atikokan's reason for being on the map is iron ore mining. I didn't have a lot of time to explore around, but it is a community of 3,500, so it's not quite the hole in the ground that I thought it was!
By the way, I passed the 3,000 Km mark early this morning.
Day 26 - July 3rd - Atikokan to Thunder Bay
203 Kms
Yep, when the going's good, hit them pedals and keep going, and I did! Must have been that free breakfast at the motel this morning; the tailwind didn't do any harm either!
I've got a room at the hostel here in Thunder Bay, it's at Confederation College; two nights for C$46.00, tax included. It's a private room, with its own bathroom, fridge and microwave - good deal! You noticed that I wrote "two nights." Yes, it's a day off tomorrow; it'll be a good chance to perhaps resolve my shifter problems, by visiting some of the bike shops here.
I met a young lady triathlete (training) on the bike path system here, she kindly guided me to the College and recommended some bike shops. She was quite impressed with my day's ride and took me right to the door of the accommodations building - you do meet some nice people! Perhaps that was a repayment for my good deed today, About 20 Kms east of Atikokan, I spotted something at the other side of the road as I was riding by - it looked like a wallet. I turned around and went over, and by George, it was a wallet. Cash, credit cards, ID, the whole works. I handed it in at the next OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) station that I came across. That should make the owner happy - when she gets that back.
Road-wise, apart from 30Kms of road works, today was pretty much the same as yesterday - Rock, Bush, Swamp, Hill - Rock, Bush, Swamp, Hill - RBSH - you get the picture! I'd get the odd good view over a lake, then it was back to R(ub)B(i)SH! You can get kind of sick of "rugged scenery!" About 50 Kms east of Thunder Bay, the scenery did improve though; it's almost like I had entered a lush valley - hard to explain? I passed a sign today, about 70 Kms east of Atikokan, that stated that it was the actual point at which all watercourses now flowed in an eastward direction to the Atlantic Ocean. The sign stated an elevation of 1660 feet. When I came to the junction of Highways 17 and 11, just I expected, the truck traffic increased dramatically. I suppose that I'm going to have to contend with that for quite a few days after I leave Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay's a city of 125,000, at the head of Lake Superior, so it's quite a big place, and divided into Thunder Bay north and Thunder Bay south. Tomorrow I'll get to explore around a bit, but for tonight I found a local(ish) Boston Pizza, where I'm stuffing my face with pasta and quaffing a 32oz schooner of you know what! It's a hard life, ain't it?
I lost another hour today; I'm on Eastern Standard Time, so I'm really jet-lagged now, I guess that I'll have to sleep in tomorrow to try and readjust!
Day 27 - July 4th - Rest Day - Thunder Bay
0 Kms
Day 28 - July 5th - Thunder Bay to Nipigon
122 Kms
Light rain and light headwinds dogged me just about the whole way to Nipigon. The light rain was enough to soak everything though. Temperatures were only around 13ºC too. I've motelled again as the forecast predicts more rain and thunderstorms, tonight and possibly tomorrow. With some of the biggest hills to climb tomorrow, it should be a fun ride! Oh yeah, and headwinds are forecast too - beauty! Besides, there's only one campground here and they wanted $18.00 + tax + $1.00 for a shower - all that for a patch of wet grass to pitch my tent - no contest! I do prefer camping though. Motels rooms are ok to catch up with the news on TV, relax on a soft bed, have a private bathroom etc., but there's just the four walls and no company - whoops! Sorry Basil! Whereas in a campground there's usually quite a few people around and it's easy to get into a conversation with other travellers.
Even though the weather was dismal, it was fairly easy ride today, with slightly better scenery, especially some views of Lake Superior and the islands out there. The road was crappy though, with a broken-up, ill-maintained shoulder, that varied from 6 to 18 inches. The truck traffic was really heavy too.
I stopped for a second breakfast at the Pass Lake Junction truck stop and was warned about the upcoming hills by a guy in the restaurant - I asked him if he'd seen the mountains in BC, he said no - 'nuff said! I also bumped into two young guys cycling from Quebec City, heading west, who also said that the hills were pretty bad between here and the Sooo - I told them that they might just find some in BC too! I feel sorry for them, as I have been watching the weather network and it seems that they'll be heading into worse weather than I will be. I'm listening to reports of twisters in Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and some destructive windstorms in New Brunswick. Also, heavy rains in some of the territory that I have already ridden through in the past week or so.
I managed to find a new shifter at one of the five bike shops in Thunder Bay. I got to do some sightseeing while tracking this part down, as it was the last shop that I visited that had the goods - New old stock, lucky for me, but it put a big hole in my contingency fund! I installed the new shifter and all is well. Thunder Bay was OK, but I get the same feeling in a lot of Ontario towns/cities - namely, the majority of motorists are lead-footed and cyclist intolerant. However, there were lots of bike paths in Thunder Bay, in fact, a portion of the Trans Canada Trail is part of their path network; it was hard to find a map of the system though, so for a visitor like myself, the routes were trial and error.
My analysis so far, of cycling in Ontario: 75% of bicycle riders ride (erratically) on the sidewalks, 15% ride on bike paths, and the other 10% play Russian Roulette with the (intolerant) traffic. And too many people smoke - everywhere - even in a McDonalds that I stopped in! Anyway, enough bitching about Ontarians (oops, I know some too!), I figured that from border to border, it's approximately 2,300 Kms, so I've got to grin and bear it - I guess - if I have to!
Sombre moment today - just east of Thunder Bay, on the 11/17 Highway is the Terry Fox monument, in the area where his run to raise funds for cancer research sadly ended. The monument is high on a scenic lookout, overlooking Thunder Bay and the Sleeping Giant Park. Also, 100 Kms of the highway to Nipigon is named "The Terry Fox Courage Highway." Standing there, looking up at the statue, it kind of puts everything in perspective. God bless you Terry!
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