Our Bikeabout

Ok!! Now we are in Quebec city, and I will update you with what we have been up to. I have been speaking french and thinking french and thinking in English with a french accent even, so if a few sentences sound strange, you will know why!!

From Ottawa we headed towards the little town of Alfred, where we stayed in one of the biggest, loudest, RV campsites we had ever seen. People everywhere. And the tent site they gave us was atrocious, but she only charged us 10:50 so we were happy. We ran into - yet another - a thunderstorm and waited it out under the awning of a gas station (again). Now I will take a little tangent to illustrate...

THE EPILOGUE TO THE BLUE WATER BOTTLE STORY (story continued from last week).
As I was yanking on the bit of water bottle top to open it to take a drink, I saw a big truck approaching from behind and, thinking I would rather have both my hands for steering, balanced the water bottle between my teeth as the truck went by. Unfortunately my hold wasn`t as strong as it should have been and as the truck passed, the bottle slipped onto the road. I cursed and Mary Anne yelled, ``what?`` just as I spotted my poor, sad, blue water bottle being whipped violently into the air about 30 m ahead of us. When I found it on the road it was not only permanently dented but actually ripped in half at the thread. Never even found the top. Maybe that was just its way of saying enough`s enough.

hehehe.

The next day we cycled OUT OF ONTARIO (we were in that province for over a month!!!) and on a little secondary road through Hudson on the south side of the Ottawa river and checked out the most beautiful big houses with gorgeous sprawling gardens. We crossed the river on a little ferry with loads of other cyclists and entered into Park DÒka, where ``la Route Verte``, a bike path or route that goes all the way through Quebec, took us through some amazing scenery. Trees overhanging the path, dark black clouds (yes - another rainstorm) in the distance with the sun spotlighting the path and a bog to the left. Pale greens of leafy underbellies and pale reds of bog maples. Little white tiny flowers in the water. The rainstorm caught up with us midway through the park, and just as it really started to pound on us, we saw a little shelter where other bikers were huddling. Mary Anne said, `Should we stop?`` I said, ``Nah... no point``. Then Mary Anne paused, and said, ``Yeah, we`re hardcore.``

That night we actually ended up getting to visit my good friend Guillaume from Acadia, who is working at a field station about an hour north of Montreal. He picked us up and took us past the little town of St. Hippolyte, where we got to meet all the other students at the field station who even cooked us dinner!! It was great fun practising our french and trying to convince some of the other students from France to practice their English with us (``REAL english Canadians``, as Guillaume said.). We biked from St, Jerome, still north of Montreal, to St. Barthelemey, and had a ridiculous tailwind which made the first 95 km easy but the last 20 km we were pooped. No rain at all and wind at our backs - we were quite happy - until it started to rain again. When will it stop!!?? Really. Come ON!

From St. Barthelemy to St. Anne de la Parade, we cloud-dodged the entire day. When we exited the campground we were under a huge, grey, scary sky but we could see blue sky to the right, a downpour happening ahead of us, and puffy yellow and black clouds to the left. Very strange. We played tag with those big rainclouds all day and only got caught in it twice, but it was fun! We`d get into a town and see that it had JUST rained because there were still puddles everywhere. Or the time we found THE SPOT where it had started raining - and I mean, dry, then wet - like a line where the rain started, as defined as you can get basically. I`ve NEVER seen that before. We stopped on the road and waited for another rain cloud to pass to the right so it would miss us, and charted its trip across the St. Lawrence river where we could see it pouring on a little town on the other side - just one raincloud in the midst of other, more innocent ones. About 15 minutes later we spotted the biggest rainbow I`ve ever seen, soaring in a great full semicircle over the river and shimmering to an end right on the tip of a sunny little peninsula. The sun was out on our side and was it ever. Beautiful. We stayed in a ``Gite`` that night (an Inn) because we couldn`t find camping when we were planning the day before, and when we did find one in St. Anne de la Parade, we were so discusted we decided to stay in the Inn anyways. It was great - got to watch a movie and relax in style. Poor Mary Anne needed the comfort of a bed that night - she had lost her odometer slash bike computer over a bridge!!!

The day riding to Quebec City was just great. We had a side-tailwind, our favourite kind because it pushes you AND cools you off, whereas a straight tailwind makes you really hot because you can`t actually feel the wind, you`re going with it too much. I just can`t get over how nice the people in Quebec are - I`ve never had so many people (bikers and pedestrians) wave or smile, or wave or smile back. There are bikers everywhere all over the road. I had several very pleasant chatty encounters with people - many ask, ``Where did you learn your french, you speak so well!`` So here`s a big thank you to my three french immersion teachers in junior high, Mme. Rossignol, M. Herman and M. Aucoin. I can actually understand most of what people say to me and usually can get across what I need to.

This day was also the day that the Route Verte took us to the biggest steepest hill (we`ve done longer hills but none this steep) we`ve ever biked on. Oh. My. God. I didn`t know if it was possible. We were in our easiest gear, standing up (you couldn`t sit because it just would have been impossible) and working as HARD as we could to get up, and I was worried the whole time I would just tip over backwords. Whew!! We got lost a few times on our way to Laval University, where we were staying for the night, but kind bikers and pedestrians helped us find our way (just take out a map and someone will come tell you where you are and where to go - no need to ask for help). You`ll notice this is our one biking day without rain since.... I don`t know, four days before Ottawa???? GAHH

My feelings after arriving to Laval:

Hungry! Crotch sore. Back Sore. Bottoms of Feet, Sore. Legs, ok. Heart, Sore. Hungry. Arms ok. Eyes ok. Tounge - sore (probably too much chewing. I ate dinner the night before and reached a new low - hungry again 15 minutes after finishing my supper). Hungry, hungry, HUNGRY!!!!!!

And now, I am in the beautiful little apartment of Benoit, Mary Anne`s friend Guillaume`s friend, who is amazing - he picked us up by bike from Laval and guided us to his apartment, and then took us on a walking tour (after it stopped raining - SIGH...) of old Quebec city. Both Mary Anne and I were surprised to feel our legs shaking after our 3 hour stroll - evidently the walking muscles aren`t getting enough exercise this summer. Orrr maybe it could be because we`ve biked 5 days in a row and ... over 300 in the last 3 days. ...? hahaha... not sure. We ate delicious pastry and gelato, went to a little market, and saw the sights of Quebec city. And now, Benoit is in the kitchen making us a delicious chicken pesto pasta dinner, complete with chocolate angel food cake and fruit and whipped cream, and then we are going to go out and see this fantastic light and music show that is shown every night for the 400th anniversary of Quebec city! We love being spoiled.

We are both pretty exhausted. Can`t BELIEVE we are two weeks from being on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Halifax!!!

From Sault Ste. Marie to Ottawa I felt like I was finally back in the land of semi civilization. (I keep having to erase "we" or "Mary Anne and I" - I don't think of myself in the singular way any more, I have become a unit!!)

We visited some pretty small communities leaving Sault Ste Marie, including Bruce Mines (which had a very nice white gazebo and one picnic table that we claimed for our lunch break) and Thessalon, which was right up against the shores of Lake Huron - a "one of everything you need and that's it" kind of town (my favourite kind). The first community we went through was actually an Ojibway community, and on the railway bridge there was an announcement painted in large white print: "THIS IS INDIAN TERRITORY". We had a tailwind all day and we must have felt rested because we were laughing at everything again.

For example: Mary Anne and I decide that we need to pee. Scanning... scanning... oop, there's a nice deep ditch with lots of tall grasses. Perfect. Mary Anne heads in and when she's ready to come out, she listens for traffic. Traffic from the highway on the left? Nope - check. On the right? Nope, check. Standing annnnd pulling up pants. OHHHH MYYY there is a POSTAL VAN RIGHT THERE from the OTHER road we didn't see in FRONT of her. Woops!!! Oh well, can't win'em all.

The best was trying to get the food into the tree. Always entertaining for Mary Anne (because lately I've been the one throwing the ropes up into the tree), and moreso for the other campers I discovered. I was trying to get the ropes into the tree and it got all tangled up in the branches - almost hopelessly tangled. As I was working it out (involving a lot of re-throwing my water bottle attached to the rope end and vigorously swinging and swatting the other rope end to encourage things to loosen up) an older man asked me, "WHAT are you doing?"

"I'm doing what you do when you don't have a trunk" I replied.
"Do you want help?" he asked.
"No," I said, "I do this almost every night!"
"Oh! Then you must entertain multiple campgrounds, not just this one!" he chuckled.

Even better was when Mary Anne got back and decided to take matters into her own hands and attach the stew and food bags up into the tree herself. She had pulled the bags about halfway up the tree when I cracked a joke and poor Mary Anne dissolved into giggles, and the food started slowly slipping back down the rope towards the ground. It eventually got up the tree, safe from bears and chipmunks and dogs.

Later on that evening we took the time to wander around the shore of Lake Huron - taking pictures, reflecting, watching the Canada geese, and enjoying our rare moments of free time on a biking day!!

The next day riding from Thessalon to Spragge was our 2-month on the road together anniversary. Mary Anne spied a small restaurant on our way out of Thessalon, and since we thought we were going to have a short biking day, she suggested coffee and a hot chocolate, which actually turned into bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and toast... woops, hellooo second breakfast. Oh well, happy anniversary! Later on that day we actually smelled a field of strawberries and couldn't resist cycling in to check it out. A u-pick - perfect! When the woman selling the strawberries found out what we were up to, and that Mary Anne was from Peterborough (her hometown too) she insisted that we take the berries for free. Yes, please! We ate them later on in Blind River with ice cream. Oh, bike touring.

We found out that there was no campsite in Blind River (oops!) and our short day turned into a medium-sized one - but we weren't too upset because our day had felt so relaxed, it was worth it.

It was actually funny because at the strawberry field a man warned us about two guys hitchiking who had been "attacked by bears and then saved by a man in a transport truck". When we were biking towards the KOA campground in Spragge, I stopped to pee on the side of the road and a man drove up in his truck - great timing Erica - to tell us that there were two bears right on our side of the road at the end of this guardrail!! I got out the bearspray just in case and we did what we usually do - talk loud and bike on the other side of the highway. Another car had stopped in front of the bears to make sure that we made it ok. Strangers are so nice!

The next day was from Spragge to Chutes Provincial Park, another short day. We had decided to do the trip from Sault Ste Marie (an awkward distance of 310 km) in four days instead of three to give ourselves a little break, so we had a bit of extra time. We went through a bunch of construction and as we passed the guy smoothing the pavement, I yelled out, "HEY! ADD A SHOULDER WHILE YOU'RE AT IT!" He gave a great guffaw of laughter and it made me smile too. The roads are VERY narrow, and the shoulders - when present - are rough.

We went swimming when we got to Chutes Park - now this is a place I can highly recommend. Big thick white waterfall, GORGEOUS, with a great big shallow pool at the bottom where everyone swims - sandy bottom, a little bit of gentle rapids, big sandbar with a few trees for shade - it was like stumbling upon paradise and it's only about 1 km from the highway. Amazing! In Chutes we met two older couples also biking across Canada - one couple on a tandem bike!! The two guys came to our campsite and we chatted with them for a bit while making dinner - were they ever nice. We ended up running into them again and again until North Bay, which was really awesome. They shared strawberries and stories with us. It is such a special feeling to be in a city where you know you know NO ONE, and then all of the sudden a bike rolls up and a familiar smiling face appears. We even saw them in their day off clothes - hard to recognize them at first - and had to laugh at our newfound appreciation of each other!

The next morning it started raining again right after breakfast - happened in Thessalon and would happen again in Mattawa - very frustrating. It seems like it rains every other day or more, and everyone we meet says, "Oh we've never had such a wet cold summer". Sigh.

We met a girl that afternoon biking for the children's wish foundation - she was a machine! Although she was riding unloaded on a road bike, she actually covered 260 km in ONE DAY in Lake Superior - and that's hilly. Verrrry hilly. I was pretty impressed.

I called my uncle David to confirm our meeting in Sturgeon Falls - he and my aunt Hazel were coming up to treat us to dinner and a HOTEL(!) the next day. They were originally going to motorcycle up but David said that they had changed their minds - "It's alternately going to be sweltering hot and thundershowering" he said. I laughed and said, "sounds like our entire trip!" The campground we stayed at just outside of Sudbury was... weird. That's the only way you can describe a collection of RVs that big. Sitting right beside the busy highway, dirty, crowded. Why would you stay in a place like that if you have a PORTABLE CAMPING SYSTEM???? I'll never understand RVs.

We woke up that night to the sound of thunder BOOOOOMING around us and flashes of white hot lightning illuminating the tent, and then "PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" of rain streaming down the sides of the tent. Thank god our little tent is waterproof, waterproof, waterproof. I looked at my watch, terrified it was almost morning and breathed a silent thanks when I realized it was only 2 AM. It was still raining in the morning and continued until the early afternoon, but not pouring.

We were SOOO happy to have a night in a hotel thanks to David and Hazel. They brought us delicious fruit and took us out, and we shared breakfast too the next morning.

The next day we visited a beautiful little lakeside park in downtown North Bay for lunch and continued on to Mattawa, where Josh Mohan (a mutual friend from our bike tour last year) was coming up to meet us for our rest day. We had a gorgeous tailwind and the road was fun - gentle hills and beautiful scenery.

This was the day I realized my blue water bottle was feeling a little down. I'll tell you about it.

THE SAD TALES OF THE BLUE WATER BOTTLE.

Every night I use my blue water bottle as a weight to throw the food-hanging rope into the tree, and it is often left hanging there, for hours, until we hang the food. Choked and miserable, coated in sap and dirt (the mementos of several inevitable failed throws), it stares at me moodily, begging to be put back on my bike. However, it being the harder bottle to drink from, it always takes second place on my bike because I use the white one first. The final straw, I'm sure, for poor ol' blue water bottle was when I was taking a drink at the top of the hill on the ride towards Mattawa. Now, usually I take a drink on the way UP the hill because I'm more in control of my bike. But it was REALLY hot so I took a drink at the top. Bad idea. Top of hill turning into downhill at disturbing rate. Water bottle in right hand. Grade increasing. Speed: also increasing. Checking rearview mirror. OH! Observe two large transports heading my way. Checking pavement. Shoulder! Rapidly deteriorating! Shoulder now forming distinct v-shaped rut with large crack in center! Speed, still rapidly increasing! Left hand reaching for brakes! Brain interupting! Front brakes alone = bad idea when cruising downhill. Shite. Eyes: moving to right hand still holding blue water bottle! Ah! Ahhh! AHHHHH!!! THROWING ILL FATED BLUE WATER BOTTLE MADLY INTO DITCH!! BRAKING WITH BOTH HANDS! Speed decreasing... decreasing... stopping.

Looking back at Mary Anne holding my water bottle, I saw one very confused expression.

Anyways.

We met Josh in Mattawa and thus passed a very pleasant day off - swimming, reading, cooking, and WATCHING A MOVIE (a big deal for us - go see WALL-E if you can, a great movie!) It was really nice to be with another mutual friend from Otesha and Josh was excited to get out of the city and do a little camping. Other than the gang of rowdy, loud, cussing teenagers that kept us up late late and woke up at 5:30 to giggle and talk, we had a good time.

The bike from Mattawa to Mackey was... interesting. We had been told by one woman that there was "one big hill" out of Mattawa and then "fairly flat until Ottawa", and that it was "hilly until Deep River" by a biker in North Bay. On about the 5th big, steady, steep climb, I turned to Mary Anne and said, "you know, if this is that woman's idea of flat, I'd looOOOVe to see her idea of hilly". Mind you, she did say it was "all downhill to Mattawa" which is a red light as far as I'm concerned. Bikers. Again. Never trust ANYONE who says, "It's all downhill to _____ (insert any place name here longer than 5 km away from present location). Mary Anne was quiet for a bit and then suddenly remarked, "You know, I've come to a realization. When people say something is going to be scenic, what they really mean is, this part is going to be hard biking.". yeah. agreed.

In spite of (because of?) the rain that morning, it was a stunning ride. Here's my attempt at an artistic description: The clouds were low - resting with their vague tiptoes on far sides of wetlands, creeping over a dip in the road, hovering flat and long over the opposite shore of the Ottawa river. The white water littles were ALL in bloom, and they coat the surface of many bogs. We saw one bog blanketed with white water lilies, with a midnight blue path around several large dead trees and leading to a massive beaver house; in the background a lazy white fog cloud rested on dark evergreens. I breathed a sigh - OaaahHHHHHHH - half awe, half a moan of regret that it was raining and I couldn't risk a picture.

The next day - the day of the nice and AGGRESSIVELY NICE people:

- Alex, from Quebec who is cycling around his province with so much gear! Really nice guy, and we had a good chat with him on the road.
- Guy in bistro in Deep River giving us advice on routes whether we wanted it or not.
- Guy asking Mary Anne in campsite whether we were lost - "I'm a local! I can help!"
- Woman in bathroom who offered us chili and wanted to take our picture and add us to facebook?
- Newfoundlander. The worst of the aggressively nice people, a dirty old man with a little black dog who came over to our picnic table on the pretense of introducing his dog to us. Upon finding out I was from Nova Scotia, he announced that he HAD to give me a hug - and when I refused, ("No thank you, I'm eating" - code for, "You're nasty and I don't feel AT ALL comfortable touching you") he actually came up and hugged me from behind. Then he had the audacity to warn us about creepy people in campgrounds in Quebec. I wanted to scream, "YOU'RE THE CREEPIEST PERSON WE'VE MET so GO AWAY!!!"

Anywhoo. We did have a good day, we stopped in the very nice town of Deep River to make Carnivorous Chili (the first time we've cooked with meat) and swam in the Ottawa River in our campsite in Pembroke, the warmest water we've experienced so far. We did some mutant synchronized swimming and generally had a pretty fun time.

We discovered some lovely secondary roads on the way to Fitzroy Provincial Park the next day. It was the day of colour and texture - sagey green soft fields with little yellow sprigs throughout, soft tufts of rich burnt yellow fronds of grain with braided core, curly deep fresh green herbs, muted grey barns with creeping ivy, and all the while the Ottawa River on our left. Mmmmmm! I loved Beachburg, another "one of everything and that's it" kind of town. We passed through some very obviously Scottish-founded communities "McNab and Braeside" and had a fun time listing every Scottish last name that we could think of and sounding them all out with a Scottish burr. Our favourite was the next town's name, Arnprior. Arrrrrnprior. Arrrrrrrnprrrrrrior. Arrrrrrrrprrrrrriorrrrrrrrrrrrr. At one point I stopped being able to breathe I was laughing so hard, realized with some part of my rational brain I couldn't possibly bike any more without oxygen, started laughing harder, and had to throw myself off of my bike so I could breathe again and take some giant gasps of air to feed the laughter that was pouring out of me in screams and tears!

The next day although we woke up to rain, we were sheltered by a large tree. Unfortunately it didn't stop raining and just got worse... and worse... and worse... until it was a giant thunderstorm and we were biking in a warm, pounding waterfall that was the heaviest rain I think I've ever biked in so far (having escaped under a canopy in Penticton in similar - colder - circumstances). "You know what!" Mary Anne shot at me over the dull roar of the water. "What!" I yelled back. "WE'RE HARDCORE!!!!!!" She volleyed back. Ohhhhh, yeahhhhh. It was dripping off of my eyelashes, sluicing into my contacts and rendering it near impossible to see - I was wiping my eyes so often and only really seeing through a crack in my right eye which was somehow missing most of the drops. Water screaming down my back and arms, little streams from all points of my body onto the wet road. Oop, and now that's water raging down my back down into my bum. Shiver. We found a gas station and huddled under the awning for about half an hour until I realized my tire was flat (thanks, life) and got rid of another tire which had worn out, changed the tube, started biking in more rain (the lightning having stopped by now), tire flat again, sighiiiiing.

When we finally did get to Ottawa, I was so impressed by the bike paths! Mary Anne's brother picked us up on his bike and I biked to Emily and Julien's, good friends from Acadia. I'm here now, using Em's computer, and basking in how good it feels to be with people I really love in a real home under a real roof, with a real towel and a fridge and comforter and different PJs (thank you Emily) and different food and good conversation. AHhhhhhhh.

Here's to making it out of this giant province in one piece, and to only 3 WEEKS left on the road!!!! WAHOOOOOO!

Just in case anyone would like to see photos, I posted a few on facebook tonight. Not too many as I need to get to bed, hopefully I'll add more in Ottawa!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041651&l=f61e5&id=132701813

Wowwwww. So first I have to apologize for not updating this blog since Fort Frances, but technology is hard to come by in northern Ontario - and our only day near a computer was in Thunder bay, where we had about a zillion things to accomplish before the sun went down!! I have to also apologize for the lack of pictures lately but my camera is having trouble hooking into this computer, so I can't upload anything at the moment.

So, here's a quick summary of where we went:

June 29 - from Fort Frances to the Seine River (96.9 km)
June 30 - to Hillcrest Cabins, about 40 km after Atikokan (98.75)
July 1 - to Shabaqua (107.4)
July 2 - to Thunder Bay (74.1)
July 3 - errands in Thunder Bay (24)
July 4 - to Nipigon (105.6)
July 5 - to Rossport (79.16)
July 6 - to Ney's Provincial Park (90)
July 7 - to White Lake Provinvial Park (87)
July 8 - to just short of Obatanga Provinvial Park (53), where we got picked up to go to crazy boy's fishing camp
July 9 - at crazy boy's fishing camp (details to follow)
July 10 - from Wawa to Rabbit Blanket camp in Lake Superior National park (30.86)
July 11 - to Pancake Bay Provincial Park (124), in insane headwind!
July 12 - to Sault Ste. Marie (80).

There are too many stories to tell from this long period of time, so I'll pick some of the best and leave the rest for later, maybe when I can actually talk to some of you lovely people that read this blog!!

The day's ride to the Seine River was gorgeous - at lunch time we ate next to a big meadow with a stream running through it and saw a mother deer lead her fawn to drink at the stream! The mother would walk a few steps, then the little fawn would BOUND BOUND BOUND right up to meet her - the grass was too tall for him to walk properly. Sooo cute. The day was beautiful but we knew we would have to camp somewhere totally random because there is nothing really right between Fort Frances and our Inn we planned to stay at past Atikokan. So we saw this massive Bridge over the Seine River and thought it would be perfect - no one would see us and we'd be close to water (well, scary fast water but water nonetheless). It was a STEEP climb down to the area underneath the bridge though - so we actually decided to lower all of our gear down on ropes. I know, we are crazy. Sliding our bikes along this very steep embankment and hiding them in the trees at the top, and then going through several attempts to lower our paniers down ("ERICA LOOK OUT!!!! uhmm... guess we'll make the knot stronger next time..."). As we worked to move our stuff we realized this was the buggiest place either of us had ever been. Ever. Instead of cooking dinner, which would have meant certain death by mosquito and black fly, we ended up eating our stolen bagels from the continental breakfast and our emergency canned beans, underneath the tiny tarp, in all of our rain gear, in about 30 degree weather - we pretty much were melting into the ground but it was better than being eaten alive. And I mean eaten. We had blood all over our bodies from the bites and our ears were swollen to about twice their normal size all around the cartilage, and blood caked into our hair. For the next two days our ears burned and were numb at the same time, and we felt like we'd been in a great terrible fight or something. It was so horrible that we couldn't even stand the idea of camping again and ended up spending the next two nights in a cabin, then in a shady little motel. It was worth our sanity. Anyways it makes a good story now, and makes me think twice about wanting a job outside!!

The next day in Atikokan we heard about the two bikers just inside Manitoba who were killed by a car from behind - mom told me on a payphone and after I hung up and told Mary Anne about it I cried to think about those people who were so much like us - full of hope and determination and just biking. What a terrible tragedy. We are always careful but these roads often have very little shoulder and the best you can do is just get off if there are two transports coming in opposite directions, we do have little rearview mirrors which are a great help - and we picked up safety reflective straps in thunder bay to increase our visibility.

On Canada day we biked to the town of Shabaqua, which consists of about 4 houses and a motel, and met 5 other bike tourers biking varying long distances. On our trip that day I saw a moose jogging away into a bog - she was the exact color of the black spruce in the bog - and a bunch of turkey vultures circling around our heads - I said to Mary Anne, "I didn't think we looked THAT bad!!"

I just can't get over first what a treat it is to simply talk to other people, and second how great it is to talk to other bike tourers. Comparing gear and cooking styles and routes is so much fun, and hearing horror stories, legends ("this one guy past thunder bay was chased by a pack of wolves for half an hour on his bike and just managed to get away!!") and stories about the kindness of strangers. Two of the people we met were our age and it was just SO GOOD to share stories with them.

The ride into Thunder bay was gorgeously downhill. We've gotten to the point now where we are too lazy to really go off the road too much to find a place to pee, and I remember squatting in the ditch at one point that day and thinking, "yes hello there Mr. Trucker... I'm jus' lookin' at you watchin' me pee... Yep... allllrighty then... seeya." What are they going to do, stop and ask you to please find a toilet?

We were supposed to stay with a friend of mine who is living in Thunder Bay now, but I couldn't get a hold of him and we ended up staying with Brad and Melissa, friends of Mary Anne's boyfriend. They were just so great - made us dinner twice and Brad even drove us to get groceries at the end of our long day biking around to do errands - it was fantastic. I fought all day with the cell phone gods. My cell phone had broken down before Fort Frances and evidently Telus doesn't sell any phones - NOTHING telus compatible - within about 700 km East of Thunder bay so I couldn't get one. Mom had to sell her soul to the devil (ie, darken the doors of Wal-mart in bridgewater) and COURIER a phone to me, which didn't get to any of the places in time that they said it would, and the phone ended up chasing me across (well, chasing is a strong word for what hapenned) northern ontario until I finally got it in Wawa, a loooong way from Thunder Bay. On a Sunday as we were biking I saw a Purolator truck go by and cursed at it for being on the road on sunday and not giving me my phone!!!

After our rest day in Thunder bay, we pushed on to Nipigon. On the trip we met Rameesh, who is HAND biking across Canada and visiting all capital cities on the way - 7300 km - for polio research. He was a friend of a friend of Mary Anne's, and we were both glad to meet another inspiring individual who is really dedicated to making a difference. Rameesh was doing presentations as he went and was accompanied by two vehicles, one behind and one ahead - we felt very safe cycling with him!

The next day's ride to Rossport was killer. Back in mountain country, and a headwind that stayed with us most days until Sault Ste. Marie, with varying strength. We climbed and climbed and CLIMBED. We saw a bear right next to the road - I said, "Mary Anne. I am going to stop biking now because there is a bear in the ditch. Hmm". I got out the bearspray just in case, but we ended out just biking on the other side of the highway and TALKING VERY LOUDLY until it saw us, got up slowly, looked at us a bit, then turned around and trundled back into the woods. WHAT a gorgeous creature - shiny and black and curious, looked like something you'd want to cuddle but... maybe not. In any case, it was less of a threat than the pack of red ants that attacked me later on that day as we tried to find a suitable spot to eat. I felt a tingling on my ankle and didn't think anything of it until it started to HURT and realized... the tingling was actually the feeling of an entire hill of ants swarming around my ankle. I think I'd rather the bear.

That night we stayed with - let me get this straight - the sister in law of Mary Anne's boss 4 years ago - probably our most random connection so far, but she fed us a delicious prime rib dinner and we got to sleep in a bed again. As we were eating I realized that normally when you eat, you eat until you're full. But when you are bike touring, you just eat until you're tired of chewing. Sigh.

On the way to Ney's Provincial Park the next day we went through more huge hills, and I have never been happier about the existence of dynamite, which shaved off the steepest bits of the hills near the top.

The distances we were biking kept getting shorter in this stretch but each day was harder, as our legs got more and more tired from fighting the hills and headwinds. The day to White Lake provincial park was one of the top 4 hardest days so far for me I think - we woke up at 6 to the sound of a headwind just ripping through our camp, and you know it's going to be bad when the wind wakes you up in the morning. That day we pedaled down all but the steepest downhills, thanks to the wind making it impossible to coast.

The next day we met Matt, Mary Anne's boyfriend, who picked us up halfway through our biking day to whisk us off into the wilds of Northern Ontario. By lucky chance he happened to be near us, but on the other hand, he also happened to be on an all-boys fishing weekend in the middle of nowhere. So we ended up on this tiny island 2 hours off the highway, with about 11 drunken, coarse, and altogether inappropriate men (boys?) for a day and a half. I can't even repeat to you some of the comments that came out of the most rowdy of the bunch, the tamest being, "Wow Matt, look at those BBQ stripes on that zucchini... that is TIGHT!" -(Pointed look at me)-"TIGHT like your ASS!" yeah. yeah. Most of the time we were quietly reading in our little cabin that we shared with some of the boys who were off fishing or partying or trying to burn down the island, and they sort of moved around the island like a half-crazed tornado of hormones and beer and interesting moose-wolf hybrid sounds emanating from their huddle. They would thunder into the cabin, make some noise, do a few crazy things, and then head out again. What a day.

Matt dropped us off in Wawa where I FINALLY got my cell phone, and we did a short trip to our next campsite where we paid 30 dollars for a patch of gravel and a lukewarm shower - I was not impressed. It had kind of been a stressful, tiring week - I forgot to mention that I found out I had completely worn out a tire. During the process of changing my front tire for my back one (b/c the back one gets more weight) and then getting Matt to pick me up a replacement tire, I got two flats. Ugh.

We had 200 km to go to get to Sault Ste. Marie, but there was absolutely nowhere to stay near the 100-km mark, so we ended up pushing 124 km to get to Pancake Bay; not an easy feat considering the amount of hills and the insane headwind that cropped up about mid-afternoon to blow us around the road. But it was worth it. The first time we rounded a bend in Lake Superior Provincial Park and saw the huge downhill, with the massive lake and blue rolling hills in the distance, my breath just caught in my throat... unbelievable scenery. When we were about 15 km from the Park I saw a car pull over ahead of us with a NOVA SCOTIA plate - only the second one I've seen since the beginning of the trip - I started screaming and then my good friends Scott and Josie stepped out - and I just screamed even more, "NO WAY! NOOOOO WAYYY!!" and then started crying, I was so happy to see their familiar faces. They were driving across Canada to live in Nelson for at least a year and decided to camp that night with us in the Park, and it was just amazing to see friends. It had been since Winnipeg that I'd seen anyone I knew, and before that since... Calgary? dear lord.

Our ride to the Soo was pretty hard for me. I think Mary Anne was doing better than me that day, and I just felt like my legs were lead - understandable, but usually it's my crotch and back that bug me - feels like I've been given a good beating in the groin most nights after the bike ride. Yeah I know it sounds bad but it's true! We met another tourer who was doing the trip from Vancouver to Toronto - alone! Pretty amazing. It was, again, really fantastic scenery but I mostly had my head down against the wind and just concentrating on moving my legs, one after the other, pedal stroke by pedal stroke. When we got to the Soo it was like a dream. We stopped at Velorution, the best bike store in the world. They had free camping for bikers and offered us beer and donuts. They fixed our bikes' minor injuries and then refused to take payment. We were staying that night with my prof from Acadia's parents, Reg and Norma, and they came and picked us up to take us to their home - basically paradise - on Lake Superior. We swam in the lake, showered, and then they took us out for a delicious dinner and gave us a narrated (by Norma) tour of the town.

So today we're resting our bones and looking for jobs next year, reading and calling people we love.

It's amazing to realize we are two thirds done, and by the time we get to Ottawa, we'll be just over two weeks away from the end of our trip. It seems like forever since we started off in Vancouver, and it seems normal to wake up every morning knowing we'll get on our bikes and cart our gear bit by bit across the land (sometimes that's what it seems like, just a trip carting our gear around. I am so jealous of all you people at home with your beautiful unloaded bikes and your permanent beds and your roofs and your drawers to put things in and place to put your toothbrush every night and your fridge and oven and computer and ... oh my, where did THAT come from???).

Anyways, I guess the main thing is, I'm still glad to be out here, doing this crazy thing, with Mary Anne, on our wheely machines.

Hope to update again sooner!

Here's to the trip to North Bay - the non-hilly bit. Waaahoooo!