The Neverending Province

 While I’ve been enjoying my time in northern Ontario, particularly around Lake Superior, and even Ontario as whole has been pretty good, I was more than ready to leave at this point. I entered the province on May 26 and was leaving Thunder Bay on July 8. So I’ve been in Ontario for well over a month now, even if you factor out the week long break in Toronto. I know I’m making progress and racking up a lot of kilometres, but being in one province for so long was almost making me feel like I was hardly making progress anymore. Leaving Thunder Bay, I was viewing this as a push to finally leave the enormous province and get onto something new.

Well when I left Thunder Bay, I didn’t exactly start the most efficiently in accomplishing my new goal, as I started by not taking the shortest route. I had good reason for this though as I wanted to see Kakabeka Falls, which weren’t too far from the city. It didn’t take too long to make it to the falls and I was rewarded for going the scenic route. I had heard that they were called the Niagara of the North and honestly it isn’t a bad nickname for them. While they aren’t nearly as wide and probably a bit shorter than Niagara, Kakabeka was still quite the sight to behold. After Niagara it was easily the biggest and strongest waterfall I had seen and you could get much closer to it as well. While at the falls, I also met another biker. This was Louic who started in Vancouver and was riding back home to Gaspe.

Kakabeka Falls

Kakabeka Falls

The rest of the day featured a couple of other notable milestones. I thought I had been doing quite a bit of climbing during the day and turns out the reason for that was that I had reached the point where there were some major watershed changes. Those being that I had now made it to where the water I would see was no longer flowing to the Atlantic Ocean but now instead, everything I would see was now flowing to the Arctic Ocean. The other milestone was reached at the end of the day. I had gotten far enough west (and north) in the eastern timezone that sunset was after 10pm for me now. This however would change now, as for the first time I had crossed into the central timezone. There was a rest area at the monument marking the time change that I would stay at for the night. While I was making supper there, I met a couple who were travelling in a former military jeep that were from Germany. They had started travelling in Europe, were now crossing Canada and then were going to continue heading south down to Chile in their jeep. They also gave me a fanta that I saved for the next day when I would want a sugary drink on the road.

Central timezone crossing

The next day was mostly boring. Part of the day felt like a preview for what the prairies might be like. The roads were flat and even straight for stretches, which did let me zip along pretty fast as there wasn’t much to interest me. While there were a couple of little spots along the way, there were no proper towns leaving Thunder Bay until Ignace, which was 250km away and where I would stop for the day, finishing another larger stretch of remoteness. I think the only slightly interesting thing I saw the whole day was watching a coyote running around Ignace a little before it got dark for the night.

I awoke in the morning to find my air mattress mostly deflated. Unfortunately it had developed a leak and this would begin my air mattress troubles. I tried fixing it in the morning and it seemed mostly fine, but I’d find out for sure later in the day when I tried inflating it for the night (spoiler, it wasn’t fixed).

I rode to Dryden along the back to normal, hilly highway that was loaded full of lakes. While I was no longer on the Great Lakes, I still was regularly going by lakes as this part of Canada is littered full of them. Along the way to Dryden I also came across what I consider the most accomplished cyclist I’ve ever met. This was Xavier from Germany who was currently attempting to ride across Canada in under a month. While me and most other long distance cyclists are mostly focused on the journey for our trips, Xavier told me that he mostly liked to do them for the sport of it. On his current trip he was averaging around 250km/day, which I think is nuts. He’s done other long distance trips as well, including one around the world before. Even more insane was that his around the world trip was done in 80 some days (which is less time than from when I started until now being in northern Ontario). When I made it to Dryden, I happily went to Wabigoon Lake to cool down with a swim. I also got cleaned up and washed my cycling clothes I’d worn the past few days.

While inflating my air mattress for the night I found that not only did my fix not work, but it also developed a bulge where I had patched it. I spent over an hour trying to work on it and hoped that what I had tried would work for the night. Well I again awoke to the mattress being mostly deflated. I had used up mattress repair kit with my attempts to fix the past couple nights and would have to revisit it later in the day with new supplies.

Luckily I was in an area that had cover near me, as a couple of thunderstorms rolled through in the morning. With me being stuck waiting out the storms until noon and knowing I had work to do on my mattress, I decided to take the day off as a rest day. I explored the town some, worked on my blog a bit and got some stuff to try using on the air mattress. In the evening I ended up spending a couple hours trying to fix the mattress, as I try something, test it and then find it didn’t solve the problem. I eventually gave up with it being in a state where it was just slowly losing air (basically the same as the last couple nights).

During the night, wildfire smoke had started to roll in from the prairies. Whenever I woke up, it smelt like I was lying next to either a campfire or when smoke leaks out of our woodstove back home. When I got up in the morning (to my deflated mattress), I got out of the tent to find that the smoke was incredibly dense. It looked like a thick fog and was making it hard to see any distance. The ride into town to get some groceries felt awful. My breathing wasn’t very good and it truly felt awful trying to breath the air with how dense the smoke was. I had intended to leave Dryden but the smoke was so bad that I had to take another day off. I ended up hiding in the library for most of the day where I could get out of the smoke. I got more work done on my blog and got a post done for the first time since Parry Sound. The smoke didn’t fully go away but it did get better as the day went along. By the evening, while it wasn’t great, it was tolerable enough that I could go back outside like normal. My timing wasn’t great though as I did get caught in a short thunderstorm while I was in a park.

Wildfire smoke in Dryden (photo doesn’t do it justice)

I also got something new to try on the mattress again. I tried fixing the mattress again in the evening. After working on it, I tried inflating it and the mattress ended up blowing up with a couple large gashes in it that would leave it unrepairable. While this seems like a bad thing, I actually felt relieved when the mattress blew up. It had consumed so much of my time and frustrated me so much over the last few days, that now that I knew I wouldn’t have to bother with it anymore, made me quite relieved. I still had my cell foam pad and would just use that instead. After doing some research later on, I think the problem was that I was overinflating the air mattress. That’s too bad as I found the mattress most comfortable the more inflated I had it, as I liked it firmer. Well, using just the pad now, firmness was no longer a problem. I actually slept quite well with just the pad and decided I’d just use that for now on. I think this ended up being a win-win in multiple ways. It saves me weight and space in my bags and it also saves me time at night (when I’m usually quite tired), as I no longer have to spend time inflating the mattress. Also as a note from future me, I still use just the pad and sleep about as well as I did with the mattress anyways.

It was still smoky in the morning, but not enough to stop me from being able to ride. I was getting closer to the end of Ontario too. Kenora is the last town in Ontario before you get to the border with Manitoba and if I could have a good day of riding, I could potentially make it to Kenora today. Well I’m not sure if Ontario didn’t want me to leave or not but it almost seemed like it with the weather it’s been giving me the last few days. It wasn’t delaying with me thunderstorms or smoke today, but it wasn’t blasting me with one of the worst headwinds I’d faced up to this point. Riding felt like a struggle but with the end of Ontario in sight, I wanted to push to do what I could so I could hopefully leave tomorrow.

While the wind sucked, the scenery was quite nice with all the lakes I was passing by during the day. As was normal at this point, I met some cyclists during the day. Today was Bruno who’s doing all of Canada and then later it was Rich(?) and Carole who are doing Canada in parts by doing a section each year.

In the afternoon (probably around 3) I came across a rest area on a lake that would’ve been for camping. With how the wind was at me today and how much further I had to Kenora, I almost surely wouldn’t be making it Kenora today. But with there still being day left to bike and wanting to cross into Manitoba tomorrow, I regrettably decided to leave the perfect lake rest area so I could make more progress. My map looked like it showed me that there were a couple other potential areas ahead that hopefully would be similar to this one. I came up to the first of these a couple hours later with the intention to stop for the day. Well the lake was nice, but there was nowhere for me to be able to setup my tent. I had to continue on but I was quite tired at this point from fighting the wind all day. I wasn’t finding anywhere good and by after 7, I had reached a lake not far outside Kenora I thought would be good for camping. Well unfortunately this was like the last lake, where there was nowhere (at least that I could find) that was suitable for camping. With me not being too far from Kenora at this point, I said screw it and decided on heading to Kenora. I know from experience at this point, that I can find a spot in pretty much any town to setup my tent for a night, so I know Kenora would provide with somewhere to camp for the night.

It wasn’t until 8:47 that I reached Kenora, not long before sunset and I had yet to eat or find a camp spot. I had also gotten so hot and sweaty from the day that I had to jump in the lake there which delayed eating and camping even later. I usually stop 2-3 (more ideally 3) hours before sunset, which is basically the perfect amount of time to make and eat supper, do the dishes and any other chores before bed, while also unwinding for the day. I also have a strict no riding after dark policy but that would have to be broken tonight. I gave in to going to McDonald’s with it being so late (holy is McDonald’s expensive, it’s basically the same as a real restaurant!). By the time I left McDonald’s it was dark, but with Kenora being a bigger town, it was pretty well lit so I was still able to see where I was going. I did quickly find a camping spot but was not overly happy with how the day played out. I had a perfect camping spot earlier in the day but let my desire to try to finish up Ontario drive me from away from having a more enjoyable day. This would be a day I hope to learn from in the future of the trip.

Well the one bright spot from pushing as hard as I did the day before, was the fact that I was now only 50km away from what had been driving me so hard since I left Thunder Bay: Manitoba. For as late as everything was last night and going to bed a good amount later than usual, I was up earlier than usual and on the road by 8. I passed by some more lakes (although they were starting to become less abundant) and made my way across the final stretch of Ontario. I did meet a few more cyclists before leaving Ontario though. There was Nick who was the first person I met travelling by e-bike and then later Oliver and Jason(?) who were going across Canada starting from Vancouver. Right where I met Oliver and Jason, the highway divided and I would no longer be able to pull over to the other side of the road to stop and talk with cyclists I saw anymore, which was a little disappointing although surely would be safer for me being on a divided highway.

Before noon time I was able to have a little celebration, as I finally had finished Ontario and crossed into Manitoba (although I’m not sure where exactly that happened as Manitoba has no signs, flags or anything saying your in Manitoba and the border with Saskatchewan was the same. Manitoba is apparently the only province who doesn’t care to celebrate itself for whatever reason). All the provinces before this I had been to (at least parts of them) before, but Manitoba was the first entirely new province to me. Not only that but I was about to start the prairies, which I was looking forward to.

I liked doing the hills of northern Ontario but I was getting tired of hills every day and looking forward to the flatness of the prairies. Others had told me that as soon as you cross into Manitoba the land becomes flat. So you may understand when I was disappointed to see that it wasn’t flat but actually still hills. After only a few kilometres of complaining to myself though, every was right and the hills entirely disappeared. It wasn’t truly flat as there was a very slight incline or decline, but man it was close, especially considering what I’d been riding for the last few weeks. Whenever I take a break and go on a road or path that takes me off the road I’m travelling on, I always have to do some uphill as they always go up or down from the main road. I also kind of dread it a little bit as I’m tired when I wanna take a break and don’t want to go uphill. Well you could say I was happily surprised when I stopped for my first break in Manitoba at Falcon Lake and I had no uphill to do going in or out of the village, as it was completely flat.

With the highway becoming flat and the wind slightly in my direction helping me, I flew at a consistently fast pace unlike any other point on the journey so far. As I zipped along, the landscape around me was starting to drastically change. I had been riding in boreal forest loaded full of lakes since I crossed into riding in Arctic Ocean watersheds. Well the lakes had been becoming not quite as densely populated over the last day, but now Falcon Lake was the last lake almost entirely. Entering Manitoba was still boreal forest, but that was starting to change now. It was going back to looking more like the normal type of forests I was used to. No longer was I staring at only trees with needles on them but there were leaves again. The roads weren’t just becoming flat, but also were becoming much straighter too. I hadn’t reached prairie land yet, but later in the day there were some breaks in the forest where I started to see some fields again for the first time since before I had made it to Lake Huron.

The day got to feel even better, as mid afternoon it started to rain. It would keep lightly raining until the night. The rain felt fantastic to ride in. It helped keep me from not being so hot and overall just felt refreshing. The only problem about the rain was when I stopped. I would make it to Richer for the day and when I stopped there, I also stopped generating heat that made the rain feel nice in the first place. I froze almost instantly and it took me an hour or two to finally warm up in my winter coat.

While I may have found myself trying to rush my way out of Ontario in the end, Ontario was definitely a place where I made a lot of memories on the trip. I got to see and spend time with so many friends again. I got travel with a couple of different people at points in Amour and Abraham. I had a blast riding through the large hills, remoteness and beautiful nature around Lake Superior. I also got to meet tons of cyclists and people in general too. And I also think I grew comfortable and happy just being on my own overall during my time in northern Ontario.

Now that Ontario was finished though, I was absolutely looking forward to the next part of the trip: experiencing the prairies and their flatness.

Distance Biked: 690.4km

Total Distance Biked: 5187.4km

The Superior Way

To this point in the trip, I haven’t had any long stretches of remoteness. Sure I’ve had 50km or maybe a bit more of stretches where there’s nothing between places, but these have never taken me more than part of a day to bike through. That was about to change now that I’ve reached Lake Superior. Towns/villages are regularly around 100km apart, which is about equivalent to a whole days worth of cycling. To go with that, there is generally nothing in between towns, maybe a nature park but that’s about it. To start my journey around Lake Superior, it was presenting me with an even bigger stretch of remoteness, as I had over 200km to go to get to the next town/village.

Closer spots leaving Sault Ste. Marie

Before leaving Sault Ste. Marie, I swapped my chain again and stocked up on groceries, making sure I was prepared for the next few days. Overall it was a slow start to the morning and I didn’t get out of the city until after 2 in the afternoon. I’m not sure if it was because of the headwind, or my body was generally tired, but I felt sluggish when I did get going and like I couldn’t make much progress. Along the way, I crossed Chippewa Falls which is the halfway point of the Trans-Canada highway. This meant I was probably about halfway or maybe a bit more than halfway done crossing Canada. I made it as far as Batchawana Bay before I decided to stop for the day. I found a nice spot along the beach to setup my tent, well nice at least once I got out of the mosquitoes that were swarming me.

Chippewa Falls

Batchawana Bay

 I enjoyed the morning on the beach before taking off. I heard there was a chance of thunderstorms so I picked up the pace, trying to cover some ground before anything may potentially roll in. The riding was very nice as I was surrounded by mostly undisturbed nature all day (other than the road of course). I had been told by other cyclists and people in general, that as I got further into northern Ontario, I would start encountering more and bigger hills. The hill going up from Montreal River especially was quite the climb. The really nice thing about climbing these big hills is the descent on the other side. For the first time I think ever in my life, I reached 60km/hr on the bike. Hike it was nice getting to zip down at the speed, I learned that’s about the maximum I’m comfortable handling, as I was starting to feel uneasy and like 60 may be too fast for me.

At the end of the day, I reached Sand River where I found one of, if not potentially the best, camping spot I’m going to find on the trip. Where the river meets Lake Superior, I had a whole big beach entirely to myself. When I got there, I hopped in the very cold water and got cleaned up. As I’ve gone along, the water’s actually been getting colder. Lake Muskoka was nice, Lake Huron was cold but fine and Lake Superior was so cold, I hardly wanted to be in it. I got my tent setup early for once and got to making supper. From here, it was something like a scene you’d see in a movie. I used a log as back support to sit on the beach, while I slowly and calmly ate supper and sipped my tea, all while taking in the surroundings. The Sun was getting lower over the horizon on my right while I also looked out at the islands and shoreline within my view. I mostly just heard the waves of the lake and the rougher part of the river, with some background noise in birds chirping and the occasional vehicle passing over the nearby bridge over the river. It was easily one of the most relaxing states I’ve ever been in that evening. I even made a campfire for the first time too, although it didn’t do much as I was hoping it might help calm the mosquitoes near my tent (it didn’t.

Camp spot at Sand River

Sand River beach

As great as the evening would be, the night wasn’t so great. First I woke up from a dream absolutely confused and had no idea where I was. Soon after that a very loud thunderstorm passed through and was constantly lighting up my tent. After the storm passed, I think because I had gotten somewhat worried from it, I proceeded to have a couple of dreams where I died. Then after all that, a heavy downpour came and kept me awake as well.

As rough as the night was, I was still able to have the beach to myself to relax and stayed there for most of the morning. During the day, I stopped to take a break at a campground. While there, a guy came over and talked with me about what I was doing, which is quite a normal thing that usually happens a few times day, and he ended up giving me a cold ginger ale. Normally I don’t really drink soda, however, on the trip so far (and others have told me it’s the same with them), cold fizzy drinks are insanely refreshing during the day, so it was much appreciated that he did that. For the last 30km of the day, it cooled down a lot as a dense fog cloud rolled in off of Lake Superior. It cooled down enough that I even got cold while riding. I ended up making it to Wawa and layered up when I got there. Now that I had made it to Wawa, I had completed the longest stretch of remoteness that I had done yet, being over 200km from Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa. While in Wawa, I ended up staying near the tourist center and met a couple there (Gilbert and Caroline). I got talking with them for a while and they were quite nice, so nice in fact they ended up giving me $20 before I left the next morning.

Wawa goose statue

I said goodbye to Gilbert and Caroline before taking off in the morning. The highway started going a little more inland now, which I was disappointed by as I had really been enjoying overlooking Lake Superior the last few days. While there wasn’t much to see on the highway other than trees and cars, I did meet a couple of bikers during the day. First was Morgan who I got to chat with for longer than most other bikers when we stop on the side of the road. He was quite nice to talk with and was also going across Canada, starting from Vancouver like most others. Than shortly after meeting Morgan, I met Leo. Leo was a shorter conversation, which is more typical when stopping on the side of the road, but I did find out that this trip was his second time crossing Canada. I would make it to the small village of White River, which is where the bear that inspired Winnie the Pooh came from (the bear didn’t gain its fame from here however). While in White River, I met some guys who were going across Canada by train hopping but they had stopped in White River for the day to celebrate Canada Day.

Morgan

Winnie the Pooh in White River

The highway would again keep me away from Lake Superior when I left White River. This would prove to be a very difficult day mentally. While I’m going against the wind the majority of the time, sometimes it can really get me and today was one of those days. I had expected to be going downhill for a lot of the day and therefore getting to have a bit of an easier day, but instead it felt like I was going uphill the entire time and that felt incredibly defeating today. Nothing of note happened during the ride otherwise other than meeting another biker. This was Trevor who was going across Canada as well. I would make it to Marathon, which did get me back to Lake Superior which was nice. I decided to treat myself after having a difficult day by eating out once I got there. After eating I met another cyclist in town (Rudy) who was also going across Canada and he told me that he averaged 150km per day.

In the morning, I had my first run into trouble. I had camped behind a school that was quiet with no one around. Considering it was July now, I figured no one would be around a school anymore, but turns out there were janitors that still came to the school in the morning. They saw me and my tent and decided to call the cops (I don’t know why they didn’t just come out and ask me to move on themselves but whatever). So when a police car showed up I was surprised. The officer was nice and told me just to pack up the tent which I did right away. He even told me how he saw me going on the highway the day before and got asking about my trip. After I got the tent put away he even let me stay back there to finish up my morning stuff as he took off. Plus I could tell from how he told me how the janitors called for them, that he considered having to go here and make me put my tent away a waste of time (and quite frankly, I think it was too).

With the police call behind me, it was time to take off and start travelling along Lake Superior again. Others had warned me that it would get very hilly with some very big climbs as I got further along Lake Superior and now I had reached that point. Even though I now had some very big climbs, I was enjoying doing them. Most of the time I liked putting in the effort to climb up them and then the reward of getting to fly down the other side made it even better. Not to mention, I way rather climb a hill than fight headwind (I still had a headwind against me of course, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as the day before). Towards the end of the day, I made it to Terrace Bay but decided to keep going to Schreiber. Right after Terrace Bay though, I saw a sign for a waterfall and decided to go check it out. It was a bit of a climb to get to it but it was worth it. Aguasabon Falls were spectacular as it was a rather tall waterfall with quite a bit of power that funnelled into a pretty narrow gorge. Overlooking the whole thing was Lake Superior in the background and you could see the gorge heading to the lake.

Aguasabon Falls

After checking out Aguasabon Falls, I made it to Schreiber where I stopped for the night. Right as I got to Schreiber however, I felt an unfortunately familiar feeling. My back rack was on my rear tire again. The attachment that was used to hold my back rack near the axle had snapped. I still remembered that originally, the mechanics had told me to try using my cable ties before they came up with the attachment as a solution. I repositioned the rack and strapped it with a couple cable ties and it held firm when I tested it. In testing and playing with it a bit, I actually believe it’s probably a better solution than the attachment was in the first place anyways. 

Snapped attachment and cable ties

The following day started off nicely and for once, I had a tailwind which felt like such a nice break. The highway also continued to have some very large and steep climbs that I still was happy to do. Around noon though, when I was stopped in a reserve, the locals warned me that there were thunderstorms in Thunder Bay and that they may be headed in our direction. I didn’t see the sense in waiting around though and wanted to make it to the next town along the route within the day. Not long after I left the reserve, it did start to rain. I decided not to put my tent up to shelter from the potential of a storm and instead hid in the edge of the woods for some cover. After about an hour, it never did more than rain and I got tired of waiting so decided to go. Right as I was packing up to go though, another biker came along who had been riding in the rain. This was Camille who was going from Edmonton to Montreal and she was very wet and cold from riding in the rain. After talking with her the rain would entirely stop and I made it to the next town of Nipigon nice and dry.

When I made it into Nipigon, I found the library and checked the weather to find out that there were severe thunderstorms alerts, that had the potential to start at almost any moment. I’ve gotten that I don’t like messing around with thunderstorms much (I wasn’t really expecting much from the rain earlier in the day), so I asked where I could find shelter for my tent. The librarian told me there was a gazebo down by the marina, so I headed down there for shelter. The immediate thunderstorms didn’t come but it rain on and off. During this, a local man (Jim) who loved to tell stories showed up and talked the whole time he was there. A thunderstorm did finally show up though and sent Jim away back to his truck so he could go home. Outside of one more storm that came in the middle of the night, that’s all there was, leaving me a bit disappointed, as I wouldn’t have minded seeing some storms since I had a roof over my head.

When I tried to leave Nipigon in the morning, I had quite the hard time doing so. Somehow I had become Mr. Popular as 5 different people all had conversations with me before I could go. This included about an hour long one with the librarian when I went to fill up my water there and also a nice couple from Quebec (Luce and unfortunately I can’t remember the husband’s name). I didn’t end up getting on the road until noon time but that was fine. As this was the day of people being nice and chatting with me, it would continue even after Nipigon. I stopped for a break in Dorion next to a little general store and the owner (at least I’m guessing he was the owner) came out and gave me a Powerade. Considering I just about only drink water, any sort of drink that helps give me energy is a much appreciated treat.

Heading to Thunder Bay (courtesy of Luce)

I would make it to Thunder Bay, which meant that I had now completed cycling the length of Lake Superior and with that, had now completed the Great Lakes portion of Canada. With it being later due to the late start, I decided to find the nearest park after entering the city to try figure out what I was doing for the night. Well this also worked quite well as the kindness of people continued to shine for the day. There was a rink at the park and I went there to see if I could fill my water. The man in charge of the arena for the night (Brad), not only let me fill my water, but when he asked and found out about what I was doing, even let me shower in the arena. As if that wasn’t enough, while I was showering, Brad gathered some odds and ends that he could find and put together a little supper for me that had a sandwich or two and some other snacks. I ended up talking with Brad for an hour or two, in between him making sure everything was good at the rink (it wasn’t very busy that night). I was really happy to have met Brad and hear his perspective on things as his life has had some turbulence and how it had all lead him to this point.

I had a great introduction to Thunder Bay, but the next couple days that I stayed there for a rest, showed me there wasn’t much to the city. Really about the only nice things there that I saw were the Terry Fox monument, as this was around where his journey ended, and then there was also a pretty nice and big sports park in the city but that was about it. Downtown was pretty ugly and the city was also full of homeless people, where it was quite easy to see there was a large drug problem. The only other real thing of note from Thunder Bay was that I finally gave in and hand washed my clothes for the first time (this was how I imagined I’d mostly be taking care of my laundry on the trip). I filled my 2 back panniers, one with soapy water and the other clean and cleaned all my clothes.

Terry Fox monument

With the Great Lakes completed, maybe, just maybe I might soon be able to finish the seemingly never ending province of Ontario.

Distance Biked: 803.2km

Total Distance: 4497km

Into the Unknown

Now that I had made it past Waterloo everything I would see would be entirely new to me. The first of all the new would be northern Ontario. I didn’t know much about northern Ontario other than it was a rather large area and a spot I’ve hardly ever heard anyone ever talk about. Well large was an understatement as I’d come to find out. The reason I’d never heard much about it I’d also find out (it’s just because it’s pretty empty and there aren’t many people there).

The first part of my trek through northern Ontario started in Sudbury as I would need to ride the length of Lake Huron. After my rest day in Sudbury, avoiding thunderstorms and resting from my large ride to the city, I was off again. I did find out right as I was about to leave that Abraham had made it to the city the night before. He went downtown (more northern) while I had stayed in the southern part of the city. He made it to the city absolutely drenched from the downpours and then apparently was welcomed to the city by crackheads he wouldn’t leave him alone for most of the night. With Sudbury being such a widespread city, he was quite a ways from me so we didn’t end up seeing each other before I left.

I started on the highway but quickly found smaller roads which admittedly weren’t that much quieter and in far worse condition. I would get back on the highway where I would see a bear for the first time, just unfortunately not how I wanted to. It was a dead cub lying on the side of the road that looked like it wasn’t hit too long ago. This was a sign though that I was now in bear country and would have to be careful of them. The highway here was awful for biking. A lot of the long distance bikers I would meet all asked about the Ontario highways as they had heard many bad things about them. Well if I had to guess, this stretch was probably the main cause of the warnings. The shoulder was about 2 inches wide (no exaggeration), the road was head on single lane on each side traffic and loaded full of speeding cars. This was easily the most nerve racking part of my trip so far. The odd chance I could get off the highway, I would, but they came few and far between. Not only that but more often than not the off roads sucked too as they would regularly be gravel roads that had turned to washboard and I might’ve hated that even more than the busy highway. When I reached a stretch that had a wider shoulder later in the day, I emphatically cheered just to find a few kilometers later that it would disappear. After a stressful day I made it to Espanola where I found a beach. I got cleaned up here and was able to enjoy a little part of the day, that was until I got swarmed by black flies that drove me crazy. Back in town I was able to find a lot for sale that had some bushes in that I was able to hide in for the night. Northern Ontario was off to a poor start and I hoped that things would get better as I went on.

Well the weather wasn’t getting better as a heat wave with high humidity was rolling in. If that wasn’t already enough, I had strong headwinds fighting against me as well. I felt incredibly sluggish the whole day, whether I was riding or not. At least the scenery was nice to begin the day as I was able to start on a road that reminded me a lot of the back road I live on at home.  To make it even better, when I stopped and sat on the side of the road to take a break, the woman who lived in the house across from where I stopped came out and offered me ice water for my bottles and even to jump in her pool if I wanted. I took her up on the water but passed on the pool as I would just get as hot again and with Lake Huron and rivers flowing into it being along my route, I planned to just hop in the water after I got done riding. The nice road soon ended, putting me back on the dreaded highway for the rest of the day. The rest of the day wasn’t super long however, as I stopped early due to the heat, as it wore me out. I reached Spanish and immediately hopped into the river there and felt much relieved in the moment, but would get hot and sluggish again after coming out. The insect swarms continued, as they would for all of northern Ontario. I would get swarmed by either mosquitoes or black flies every night. Tonight’s variety was mosquitoes.

Hundreds of mosquitoes between tent layers (zoom in)

The heat and headwind were slightly better the next day but hardly. Feeling so hot, I decided to ride without a shirt on and received a very nice sunburn in return that didn’t feel so great when I tried sleeping at night. With me not feeling nearly as sluggish today, combined with being stuck on the highway and wanting to get past this awful portion of it, I cycled all day and made good distance. It was almost like I was being rewarded for pushing through the mostly unjoyous day at the end however. I made it to Thessalon where there was a nice beach on Lake Huron that I camped on for the night. I set my alarm for early enough that I was able to get up and watch the sun rise up over the beach in the morning, feeling like I had the town to myself as the day had yet to start for the majority of the town.

My view from the tent on Thessalon Beach

Sunrise over Thessalon Beach

With such an early start to the day, I was hoping to finish the final stretch I had to make it to Sault St Marie by the afternoon. Being stuck on the highway, as the side roads mostly continued to suck as they were primarily gravel washboard, I was able to push along making good progress like I hoped. The highway was even getting slightly better in a way as the traffic was getting to be a little less busy as I got further away from Sudbury and the majority of the population of Ontario.

One thing that I had never considered about meeting other cyclists, was the route I took. Before Parry Sound, I had mostly stayed on the roads that weren’t the most busy. Now that I was on the Trans-Canada and it was the only route to take through northern Ontario, all the cyclists were being funnelled onto the same route. Turns out in general, most of the cyclists crossing Canada (at least that I met), stayed on the Trans-Canada for the whole crossing. I would start to find this out now as I would begin meeting a cyclist going the other way most days in northern Ontario.

In Echo Bay when I was stopped for a break, I met the first of the many cyclists I would see in northern Ontario. This was Lucille, an older woman on her own who had started from BC. While we were talking, another cyclist pulled up. This was Lucas who had also started from BC. Turns out they had previously met earlier in their trips and were now crossing paths again. In all this, I found out that I am in the vast minority of cyclists travelling west, as they each told me of how they’ve met more cyclists going in the same direction as them rather than opposite (think of this like if you had more cars go by you/you pass then cars you meet going the other way). I knew I was in the minority as more people would want to go in the direction of the wind, but I didn’t know it was this inproportionate.

Giant loonie in Echo Bay

I continued on after meeting the others and very soon finished crossing Lake Huron, as I made it to Sault Ste. Marie. When I made it to the city, I felt like eating out and managed to find a wing place that had an all you can eat wings special on that night for $21 (I think that’s a good price considering what everything else costs now). I spent the next couple of rainy days in the city as well. My body got some rest, I checked out the city and I did some reflective work. In doing the reflective work, I figured out that I was making a lot of progress mentally, like how I was hoping to when I started the trip.

The USA side of Sault Ste. Marie, across the river

With my body rested, I felt good and prepared for the next stage of northern Ontario: crossing the remoteness of Lake Superior.

Distance Travelled: 408.6km

Total Distance Travelled: 3693.8km

Sharing the Experience

Before starting the trip, one thing I was hoping to get the chance to do, was being able to ride along with someone else for at least a little while. While I left with the intention to ride alone and spend time with myself, that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be able to have the chance to try riding with someone else and be able to share some experiences with instead of it all just being myself. As I rode through Quebec, my desire to want to find someone to ride with for at least a little while grew to where I was really hoping to be able to find someone going the same way as me. Even though I hadn’t been able to find anyone yet, I have known that for at least a couple days, I’d be able to experience that. This is because Amour decided he would join along for a bit when I offered him before I started the trip. We figured out that he would join me from Toronto where he lived to Waterloo where we both went to university. The plan was to make it to Waterloo in 2 days, that way Amour would get the whole experience of camping as well and we wouldn’t cover too much distance in a day that it should be too hard on him.

With Amour’s bike in riding shape now thanks to Harlan, we were off pretty early in the morning. We weren’t alone though as Yoni met us at Amour’s to join in as well, the only thing though was Yoni didn’t have a bike. Instead Yoni would run with us to start the day before turning back. We rode at Yoni’s pace along the lake front, talking all the way for about an hour before saying goodbye to Yoni as he turned back. We picked up the pace a bit after but not too much as my stomach wasn’t feeling the best. As I usually ride all day, I’m constantly burning calories which leads to me being able to eat a lot of food in a day. However I hadn’t ridden in about a week now with me stopping to see friends in Toronto and I was still eating quite a bit most days. Well the time off had finally caught up with me as now I had managed to eat too much and my stomach wasn’t happy about it. It didn’t cause me any real problems, but I didn’t feel great until later in the day.

Me and Amour slowly continued along a path along Lake Ontario that was quite nice. Along the way I hit a big pothole and something felt off. A few days before we left, I noticed that the bottom legs of my back rack were starting to bend but I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Well now from the weight of everything on the rack thudding down onto it from the impact of the pothole, it got bent even worse to the point that whenever I passed over any sort of bump, the weight would cause the rack to hit my back tire. Obviously this was no good, so we stopped and tried to come up with a solution to fix it. I tried straightening the legs a little and then taped a wrench to each leg in hopes that maybe they would help support the leg so not to bend anymore. During all this it had started to rain. I think because of wanting to avoid the rain, Amour feeling bad about my rack and maybe also because he knew I hadn’t eaten much as I wasn’t trying to upset stomach more, Amour suggested we go to a restaurant nearby and he offered to pay as well. The meal was good and my stomach wasn’t causing a fuss about it either, which was nice. Also the rain stopped too during this and I was able to refocus and not worry about the rack.

Bent back rack

Wrench fix to back rack

Well, after a little while when we were soon about to cut north and leave the GTA, my wrench job proved not to be the solution as the rack was even worse. With the rack loaded, the rack sat purely on the tire now, but with no weight on it, it sat above the tire. I had to get a new rack now. Luckily we were still in the GTA, so there were plenty of bike shops around. I unloaded the bike and Amour stayed behind and watched my stuff as I went to a nearby bike shop. I got a new rack, however when the mechanics there were trying to install it, they found that the spot where you would screw it to the frame was completely stripped (this was another problem I’ve been aware of for quite a while but I had been able to get around it anyways. One mechanic didn’t come up with an idea though to be able to get the rack screwed on though as he added attachments along the axles with eyeholes to screw the rack to. This worked for now and I would try to continue on without getting the old eyehole rethreaded.

I met back up with Amour and we headed off again with no problems. Due to all the time I wasted in the day with the slower pace and my back rack, I picked up the pace to try to make the 2 days roughly equal distances. In doing this I think I really tired Amour out though as he gave his best to keep pace with me the whole time. We would make it Milton and found a park with a little wooded area that we would camp in for the night. As parks seem to be my main go to at this point, he was really getting the average experience that I would have in a day. For my first day getting to travel with someone, it really was enjoyable. It was nice being able to chat with someone all day but also having someone else being able to experience both what it’s like and share with some of the eventfulness of the day. I did find though at the end of the day that my Achilles was creeping again and still a little swole but it was no longer hurting. Having a full week off was just what it needed as it was purely just an overuse problem.

In the morning we readjusted my back rack a little bit as it causing my rear brake issues with how it was aligned from the mechanic. The morning was mostly uphill and we took a couple breaks along the way. Amour told me he understood now why I liked to take breaks semi frequently. Along the way we saw a turkey vulture which was a first for me. I wasn’t even aware that vultures existed in Canada until then. We made it to Cambridge early in the afternoon, marking the end stretch of the ride for Amour. We found King street and rode it through all of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo until we made it to my friend Basel’s place. This was the end of our ride together, but I enjoyed the time I got to spend with a friend and having been able to have someone travel with me. For Amour too, he enjoyed getting the experience of travelling by bike and who knows, may someday join again if I end up doing the whole world.

Me and Amour in Waterloo

Basel was a roommate of mine for a couple years before I went back home to start saving money for the trip, so I was quite happy to see him when he came to let us in his apartment. Both me and Amour got to shower when we got there and I also got to catch up with Basel too. In the evening my other friends who were still in Waterloo came over to Basel’s as well as Basel planned a get together for when I made it to Waterloo. Evergreen, Simran, Shaiir and later Callum all showed up. Basel’s mom had just been in Waterloo with Basel right before I showed up and left him with a bunch of Arabic food that we all got to eat at the gathering. Later in the evening Amour left and grabbed a train back to Toronto, putting an end to his mini trip. The rest of us spent the night chatting and even planned a baking night before I took off again. It was a nice surprise getting to see a bunch of friends again when I hadn’t known that Basel had planned that.

I spent the next few days with Basel. I did quite a bit of resting and just chilling with Basel but did some other stuff too. We walked thru campus and uptown Waterloo, places I’ve seen many times before but they felt quite underwhelming and are places I think I can say I’d be happy not to see again. I also did some responsible stuff like laundry, swapping my chain for a new one, cleaning my bags and sending some stuff back home to lighten the load on my bike a little bit. A couple nights after I got there, Evergreen came back over and we had a baking night. We made a couple of my favourites in banana cream pie and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. That is one thing I miss getting to do while on the road, that being baking. Also during the extra time off, my Achilles went back to normal and fully recovered.

After a few days at Basel’s and getting to eat a bunch of Arabic food, it was time to head off again, but this time, I was quite looking forward to heading off alone. After getting to spend so much time with people I knew lately and regularly thinking about how I had a goal of reaching places to be able to see friends, I now found myself looking forward to being on my own again and having no goal to reach. When I left Basel’s, I knew I was going to head north and Sudbury would kind’ve be the next check point, but had no plan on the route I’d take to get there and instead was going to decide as I went along. I said goodbye to Basel in the morning who I was very thankful to for letting me stay at his place and getting to see him again, and then took off. I didn’t get very far right away though. I had swapped my chain but hadn’t tested the bike at all afterwards. Well turns out my cassette was worn out and now my chain was constantly skipping. I found a bike shop in the city and luckily they were able to replace the cassette right away.

With my new cassette and bike back to functioning properly again, I made it to St. Jacobs where I stopped to soak in the moment. St. Jacobs is the furthest I’ve ever been before. While I haven’t seen everything I’ve gone by so far in the trip, I’ve technically been through or somewhat near those areas before in some capacity. Now everything I was about to see and encounter would be entirely new and unfamiliar to me. After taking in the moment, I continued north and also went somewhat eastern for the rest of the day going back and forth between the road and trails I’d see and want to take. A little before I made it to Elora I got a flat tire. I stopped to fix it off the side of the road on someone’s front lawn. The owner of the place I stopped at (Chester) came over and offered to help but it as an easy fix just being a punctured tube. So Chester instead offered to refill my water bottles with cold water and he also brought me out a couple of cookies with my cold refilled bottles too which was very kind of him. I thanked Chester and continued to Lake Belwood where I stopped for the night. I wanted to camp along the lake but it was full of cottages along the whole thing so I settled for a spot a little ways off the lake.

I started the next morning on a very nice trail with trees overhanging the path. I rode along the road the rest of the day passing through Orangeville, Alliston and a military base in Borden. I made it to Angus to end the day where I briefly checked out a nature reserve before finding a place to setup for the night. I tried sleeping without the outer layer of my tent for the first time and while it was nice seeing out, everything in the tent got soaked from the dew that came overnight. I learned my lesson from that just to keep putting on the outer layer unless I’m fairly certain everything will stay dry.

Very nice trail

The next day continued on the same as the past couple. Deciding where I wanted to go as I went, feeling free and enjoying the ride as I went. I passed through Barrie early in the day where I had a couple of longer conversations, one with a guy named Jason in a library and another with Dennis outside the library (Dennis was quite the character as he travelled around quite a bit in the past as gold mining and related stuff was something he chased after in the past). From there I rode a rail trail up Lake Simcoe where I had a very interesting encounter. 

Nature reserve in Angus

When I stopped to look at a sign on the trail, a baby chickadee hope onto the trail from the side bush. To my surprise, it wasn’t the least bit scared of me and continued to hop towards me. It ended up hopping onto my chain. While I thought this was cute, it couldn’t stay there as if the chain started to move it would’ve got crushed in my gears. I had to get it off while holding my bike up to make sure the chain didn’t start moving. The problem with this was that the chickadee didn’t want to get off with me trying to brush it off. I ended up having to pull it off and it tried its hardest to stay on my chain, not letting go easily. I put it back on the side of the trail thinking its nest must be close as it seemed very young and maybe had just left the nest for the first time.

My chickadee friend

Later on I passed through Rama where I saw Casino Rama. I never actually realized that Casino Rama was a singular place. I thought instead it was either a chain or even just a phrase. I kept going north to Washago with the goal to make it to Gravenhurst. The few days of going about where I felt like were nice but unfortunately they now met there end in this moment. I would have a little leeway in my path a little bit from here but now I had made it far enough north in Ontario where I would mostly have to take highways. The first of which (and the first time on this trip I’ve had to ride a proper highway) was going from Washago to Gravenhurst. While I found myself being able to fly at pretty fast speeds on the highway, it wasn’t an overly fun experience. The shoulder went back and forth between being wide enough for me to feel mostly safe and forcing me to essentially be on the edge of the outer lane. Meanwhile everyone speeds by about as fast as they can, some making enough room to let me feel comfortable while others can’t be bothered to move at all.

As I neared Gravenhurst, I saw cyclist ahead of me, but I couldn’t figure out what to make of them. I saw them pulling a trailer behind them and looked like they had a fishing rod or something attached. My thought was either that this person was a terribly reckless parent with a child in the trailer, putting their child in danger on the highway or that it was someone who went fishing somewhere today and was returning home. I knew there was chance that they may be travelling like me, but I just didn’t get that feeling from what I could see. As we were getting close to the exit for Gravenhurst, I decided to speed up as I wanted to know what the situation was with this mysterious biker. When I caught up, I saw that luckily there wasn’t a child in the trailer. I tried yelling with the other biker to figure out what he was doing (it’s very loud on a highway and quite difficult to here what someone else is saying in case you’ve never tried talking with another biker on the highway). While it was hard to hear much, I was able to establish that he was indeed travelling by bike, was going to stop in Gravenhurst for the night and his name was Abraham. We agreed we’d try to find somewhere together in Gravenhurst and ride into town together.

Me and Abraham (like my tan line?)

Now actually able to hear each other we exchanged stories at the dollar store in town. It really is funny how things work out. I had just rid with Amour and was open to going on my own again and now for the first time, I found someone travelling the same way as me. Our end goals are different as Abraham is heading to Whitehorse but we’re both going west and going to be taking the same route. We decided we’d try travelling together and see how that goes but first had to find somewhere to camp. I found an area on the map that looked promising on Lake Muskoka that we headed to. Not only did it turn out to be promising, it was amazing. It was a drop off of the road to a rocky area above the lake and also continued to a little beach. I immediately hopped in the water for the first time this year and Abraham went to check out some cliffs nearby. There were plenty of people when we got there, so Abraham was able to find out that people used the cliffs there for cliff jumping. Turns out this is one of the things that Abraham loves. I really don’t like heights much but after heading to the cliffs with him and a little convincing on his part, I decided I’d join him. I’m trying to get better at saying yes to things and also trying new things on the trip and I think cliff jumping counts for that. He went before me but I jumped in after he swam out of the way. It felt terrifying and I really had to psych myself up to do it but I managed to do it and was happy I did it after I was in the water. There were 3 levels of cliffs we could jump from and for whatever reason we started with the highest. I jumped a couple more times but from the other levels instead. Later Abraham wanted to go to the pub but I was quite content on the lake so he went on without me and that was the last I’d see of him until the morning. Meanwhile I setup my tent above the lake with a truly amazing view and later talked with a local man named Ken before going to sleep.

My tent over Lake Muskoka

Sunset over Lake Muskoka

Abraham was back in the morning as he was up before me. We agreed on making it to Parry Sound and took off after I got some groceries. This would be the last stretch for both of us where we wouldn’t be primarily travelling along the highway as you can get from Gravenhurst to Parry Sound on quieter roads. The road was good but hilly. Me and Abraham travelled at roughly the same pace on the flats and downs, but uphills I was clearly the faster. This lead to me getting quite a bit ahead of him at times, which I took advantage of and would stop and take a mini break to let him catch up. When we were together and I wasn’t ahead though, it was nice having someone to chat with during the day again. Plus I don’t listen to music as I ride as I don’t have any music to listen to offline (I’m too cheap but also don’t wanna be too distracted so I can just spend time with myself), but Abraham had a speaker so I was able to listen to the mostly French music he played (he’s from Quebec).

We stopped in Bala at a nice spot along a lake. I went to find a spot to fill up my water (it’s easier to use taps and less time consuming then my water filter if I have the option) while Abraham stopped at a farm market stand. Once I got my water filled up I went back to find Abraham was still at the farm market stand to my surprise (I wasn’t fast). He was still there because he got talking to the man running the stand (Ray). Ray was an incredibly nice and kind man and he had given Abraham free corn when I got there. Well after meeting me as well and feeling quite touched by meeting us, he gave us even more. He ended up giving us the corn, blueberries, apples and pepperettes, even though we kept telling him he didn’t have to and he was being too generous. After talking for a while, Ray said a prayer for us before we set off again.

We would make it to Parry Sound later in the day and weren’t sure what we were gonna do for camping. Abraham sleeps in a hammock instead of a tent, so what I need out of a camp spot is different than what he needs. I took off ahead of him and found a place that wasn’t bad and would’ve worked, however I was getting swarmed by mosquitoes so badly (it wasn’t even close to being dark yet) I gave up on it. I decided to checkout the beach after considering how well that turned out the night before and was not let done. I went for a swim and started making my supper when Abraham came and went for a swim too. While I found a decent spot to setup, Abraham found an even better spot up on a rocky section between the beach and a trail that you couldn’t see unless you climbed up where we were. What made this even better was this was a spot for us to leave our tent and hammock up, which mattered as we both planned to take a break and stop. We both wanted the next day off and the day after was supposed to rain so we planned on a two day break.

Abraham’s setup

The next couple days we remained undisturbed other than the chipmunk that was there and by some wild cockroaches. I spent parts of both days in the library working on the blog. Abraham mostly stayed around camp and got caught up on sleep. The second day there we had got a bunch of heavy rain overnight and in the morning but it slacked off by noon allowing us to go about. Another one of the things that Abraham really likes doing is fishing (I was right when I first saw him and thought I saw a fishing rod on his bike). On the second day in the evening I joined him in fishing. He ended up catching a pike that we kept. While he was gutting it, I caught one as well, but it wasn’t quite as big, so we put it back. While there are better tasting fish than pike and we didn’t have much for seasoning, still getting to eat fresh fish was very nice.

Abraham and his pike

After a couple of rest days, it was time to head off again, or at least I thought so. When I got up, I went about my morning like I normally would when I’m gonna ride, but partway through the morning Abraham told me he was gonna stay a bit longer. His hammock had a hole in it and mosquitoes had been getting in at night. He had a friend who would be driving through the area later that day (or the next day, I can’t fully remember) and he would be bringing him a new hammock. I was fully committed to going though and ready to leave Parry Sound. I decided I’d keep going without Abraham and that if our paths crossed again we’d try travelling together again. We said our goodbyes in the morning and I took off without him. Part of me felt quite guilty and bad leaving him behind so soon after we met and planned travelling together. Those feelings would linger throughout the day and a little bit in the days after. At the same time though, I’m on my own trip, want to do things at my own pace and my own way for myself, plus had just reached a point where I was looking forward to being on my own right before meeting him. I’m very happy I met and got to travel with Abraham though. It was a blast getting to travel with him. While it was nice getting to go with Amour too, Abraham is living and travelling the same as me and there’s just something different about doing it with someone in the same situation as you. One other thing was that in planning to go around the world, I knew I would meet people going the same way as me and travel together for parts but I would almost surely always leave them at some point, it just so happened that our splitting up was sooner than I expected.

Leaving Abraham behind, I was now on the stretch to Sudbury. With thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon the next day, I wanted to get most of the way to Sudbury so I could get there and setup my tent before the thunderstorms rolled in. With Sudbury being over 160km away though, I wouldn’t be making it today as the furthest I’ve ever done before in a day was a little over 110km. The first 30km was on side roads before I had to get in the highway. A little before I made it to the highway though, a truck was going past me the same as all other vehicles do. Right after passing me, a deer shot out of the woods as fast as it could and got cleaned by the truck, skidding across to the other side where it quickly died. Considering I was about to be almost permanently on highways with speeding vehicles constantly going by me, this really didn’t give me the best feeling about what I was about to start partaking in.

Once I reached the highway, I flew. With the highway being relatively flat and the pavement very fast to ride on, plus the wind didn’t fight me today, it was perfect for me to just glide on. My goal for the day was to do about 110km so I could get the final 50km done the next day t morning before the thunderstorms. I quickly figured out before noontime that not only would I definitely be able to hit my goal, but also likely do more than that and set a new personal best in distance travelled. It also helped that there wasn’t much for me to stop and see along the highway here as it was mostly just trees the whole way. By the time I stopped and wanted to setup camp, I had done around 140km and was only just starting to tire. I was unable to find anywhere to get water though where I stopped when I originally thought I’d be able to, so I continued another 10km to where I found flowing water. Once I reached here though I said screw it and decided with Sudbury being only another 20km, I’d push on and make it to the city all in one go. While the first 140km was good, I really started to tire in the next 10km as my mind had mentally checked out since I had originally planned to stop. Well the final 20km were an absolute slog as my body didn’t have much to give anymore and my body grew exponentially sluggish the closer I got. In the end I did end up making it to Sudbury and ended up riding just over 170km in the day, absolutely obliterating my previous best in a day. My body felt a type of exhaustion I’ve hardly ever felt before, but man was I ever proud of it managing to accomplish what it had today. Plus I’d be giving it a full days break the next day, both to recover and to avoid the thunderstorms. I ended up finding out that Abraham changed his mind later in the day and started heading towards Sudbury himself.

I moved around Sudbury a little in the morning and my body was still thoroughly wiped out from the previous day. The thunderstorms did end up coming though and they came with some absolute downpours that I was able to avoid. Abraham wasn’t so lucky though as he got drenched on his way to Sudbury. I took cover in Laurentien University for quite a bit of the day and just relaxed while preparing for the next stage of the journey: Northern Ontario.

Distance Biked: 712.5km

Total Distance Biked: 3285.2km