Flat Lands

Based on what I’ve heard about the prairies, whether that’s from cyclists I’ve met on the trip, research I did before the trip or just heard elsewhere, the prairies seem to be a place that is either enjoyed or hated. For those that like them, they enjoy flat roads, get to ride fast and usually have some nice tailwinds that push them along. Plus they enjoyed their time getting to be around the farmers, which I’ve heard are incredibly friendly out there. For those that didn’t like the prairies, the landscape was boring seeing the same thing everyday, the flatness was stale and didn’t provide the entertainment that hills can and another common thing I’ve heard was that they found the prairies very hard on them mentally. I was looking forward to the prairies and hoping to mimic the positive experiences minus the wind (the good tailwind was because everyone rides west to east unlike me and the prairies are notorious for their winds, so I was expecting to get blasted regularly). Plus with the prairies being brand new to me, the landscape hopefully shouldn’t be boring, at least to start I hoped. Making it to Richer had brought me to the edge of the prairies and now I was ready to fully experience them.

Before I left Richer, while at the gas station  there, a man gave me $20. I was quite surprised as we hardly had a conversation and I can’t even remember what I told him.  I think the extent of the conversation may have been him asking where I was riding to and that was basically it, with him pulling out a $20 bill right after I answered.

Well with the day of to a good start, I was now looking forward to reaching proper prairie land. Richer is still forest but with some fields mixed in. There was a strong wind which was mostly at my side but partially against me. It really wasn’t enough to slow me down at all as I’d grown used to riding in wind that had much bigger effect than that, at least that was the case until I left the forest. It didn’t take me long until after starting to clear the last forest I’d see for quite a while. When I did make it past the forest and into prairie land, the math on the wind entirely changed. It was still just as strong and in the same direction, but I no longer had any protection from the trees and was out in the wide open. While the wind was only partly against me, with me no longer having any protection from the trees, it just started blasting me and slowed me down to a crawl. My excitement for the prairies was starting to quickly die down with the thought of having to fight headwinds like this for weeks. 

A river/canal cutting through fields

While the wind was putting a damper on my mood, I was still happy and excited to see the prairies for the first time. I was here the right time of year to see the fields looking there best. In every direction I looked, was green fields as far as the eye could see with the only exception being the yellow fields of canola. I think what amazed me most was just how far you could see in any direction because of how flat the land was. Looking out over the ocean, you can only see part of a ship once it’s sailed out far enough due to the curvature of the Earth. Well I could see far enough out over the flat fields that the same phenomenon was happening with distant objects like radio towers or the odd tree.

After staring out over the fields all day at my slowed down pace due to the wind, I did make it to Winnipeg which felt like the true start to the prairies in my mind. Riding through Winnipeg for the first time was interesting to say the least. I didn’t really know much about the city, so it was a surprise to me when I first arrived and I found myself riding through streets lined with trees, that had me thinking this might be the nicest city I’ve come across before. I only had to do a little more riding to downtown for me to quickly change my mind. The streets of downtown were lined full of homeless people to the point that no other pedestrians could even be found on these streets, as they were surely avoiding them. The businesses through the area seemed to be either dead or dying due to this problem too. I even saw someone on the ground snorting a line of something while riding through the downtown streets.

Winnipeg was the last place I’d come across in Canada where I had a friend I knew I was going to stop and see. This would be Jedri but I made it to Winnipeg while Jedri was still working. Since Jedri was still working, I kept riding to the part of the city that he lives in and found a library to wait at until he was done. Within about 5 minutes of me sitting down in the library, I heard the librarians on a microphone asking for the owner of the bike in the parking lot to come to the front of the library. I had no idea what this was going to be about but I went up and asked about why they were calling me up. Well to my surprise, the librarian informed me that someone had just tried to steal my bike. Luckily someone in the parking lot scared them away while they were doing it and then told the librarian. When I went out to check the bike, I found that my lock was about 80% of the way cut through. Luckily nothing was stolen though. The librarian let me keep it in the library after the incident. Maybe I had gotten too comfortable trusting people on the trip, that I had gotten that I don’t always watch over my bike, as I regularly don’t need to. This unfortunately made me lose some of that trust now and I keep a much stricter watch over the bike now, particularly in cities. The other thing I would soon learn is that Winnipeg in general has a very large stolen bike problem with signs in certain areas even saying that those areas are high bike theft areas. Well it’s safe to say now, other than my very brief liking of Winnipeg when I first entered, it was off to a very bad start for me.

What’s left of my lock

My time in Winnipeg would start to turn around however, starting with getting to see Jedri. I rode to his place after he finished work and then he took me to a nicer spot in the city where the rivers meet. After grabbing some food, we went back to his place and I got to bake both peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

I got to see probably the nicest part of Winnipeg the next day, that being Assiniboine Park. It was just a nice big park that was full of different stuff, which was just nice to go around and explore and see. After spending a bunch of the day there, me and Jedri went back to his place later on. Also when I was at Jedri’s, I got to try some phillipino food, all of which was really good (especially the morning sausages).

While it was nice getting to spend some time with Jedri, I didn’t really want to stay in Winnipeg for long. So after a good day off, I was back on the road. I had been unsure on the route I was planning to take after I left Winnipeg. I had been considering just staying on the Trans Canada highway. I’d been riding the highway for quite a while now, it was divided making it a bit safer, the shoulders were better and most of tue long distance cyclists I’d met had taken the highway and told me it wasn’t bad. However, while I was in Winnipeg, I asked around to others cyclists and the bike shop I went to, what they would suggest for a route and all of them gave the same response. That being a less busy route going south. After thinking it over, I decided to take the more southern route that would hopefully have less traffic. I’d spent enough time on the highway, that I had forgotten how much I prefer quieter roads with less traffic but I’d some remember after I got south Winnipeg.

Leaving Winnipeg, I was now entering prairie lands permanently for the next few weeks. I got to see them a little before Winnipeg but now I was fully experiencing them. Roads were straight for long stretches with me not needing to change my direction for long periods. The wind would be pretty consistent in a single direction for much of the day. The roads were flat and surrounded by fields in every direction with the only buildings and trees being found were those on farmyards. I was no longer even needing to change my gears and instead would ride in the same pattern undisturbed. Villages were regular, on average maybe being 15-20kms apart. When you left one village, you would very soon see the next one out in the distance and stare at it for sometimes close to an hour before you would reach it.

As much as everything was changing, I was quite enjoying it. There were still cars, but much less, making the riding more enjoyable. I liked stopping in the small villages. They were often quite quiet and provided me a relaxing spot to stop for a bit. Staring out into the abyss of fields made it feel like I had entered into a whole new country instead of this still being Canada. My day of being enamoured by everything changing would end in Carman.

Flat road and land that just keeps going

Camping in villages was my only option now as all other land were fields. Luckily I would be mostly coming across these small villages which had a few advantages. The people were always friendly and never had a problem camping. You could almost always find some sort of open space that was either unused or near a quiet building. I also never felt a worry that someone would bother me, I was taking a risk camping somewhere or that I may get in trouble for doing something. This would start with Carman where I camped at the empty exhibition grounds.

The route that I had been recommended was highway 3, but I’d be leaving it today and instead taking the 23 and for good reason. Along the 23 is Baldur, which was my destination for the day. We have mammoth donkeys at home and one of them had come from a mammoth donkey ranch in Baldur. While none of my family had ever met the ranch owners (Ron and Suzanne), my parents had always kept in touch with them since we got the donkey. When they had heard that I was potentially passing by, they offered me to come by along the way and I had decided to take them up on the offer.

My decision to veer off to Baldur was absolutely the right one. While the 3 was quieter than the main highway, the 23 had very little traffic. There would be periods over the next few days on the route where I would go up to 10 minutes without encountering a single car from either direction. It truly felt like the road was mine at times. The wind was also slightly in my favour heading to Baldur too, letting me consistently ride at a faster pace all day. I even took a couple of longer breaks and really just moved at the rhythm that I felt like for the whole day.

A look out over the fields from a slight hill

Once I reached Baldur, I found my way to Ron and Suzanne’s. Their place is hidden over a hill, making their place even nicer once you were there. There were over 20 huge donkeys out in their pastures which I started to see right away after getting up the hill. When I got there, they invited to me to take part in a parade that would be happening the next day. They also told me that they had setup an interview for the local newspaper about me for that evening. I gave it a little thought, but considering I want to learn to say yes to new experiences, I accepted the invite to be a part of the parade.

Big Ears Donkey Ranch

I got my tent setup for the next couple nights and then was invited in. I got to shower and do proper laundry for the first time since Waterloo. While I did that stuff, Suzanne made me supper (she kept me very well fed while I was there). After talking and eating for a while, Gayle came over to do the interview for the newspaper. Turns out doing an interview isn’t hard when the questions are the same things you get asked most days by all the different people I meet. Around dusk I got to help round up all the donkeys back to their pens. I even got to meet Elmer, a 2 week old donkey who was much smaller than the rest of them.

Some of the donkeys

For the parade, I’d be joining Ron on a cart that would be getting pulled around by a pair of donkeys (Rusty and Adeline). We got the donkeys and cart loaded up in the morning and headed to Cypress River where the parade and local exhibition was going to be held. I also got to help saddle the donkeys so that they could pull the cart. The pair of donkeys were both in their later years now that they were in their 20’s. Ron had been taking Rusty and Adeline around for about 20 years to different events, so they were very well trained and familiar with what they’d be doing today. Unfortunately for them, this would be there last time getting to pull the cart, even though it seemed like something they liked to do. We were the last spot in the parade and the donkeys were no longer able to keep up with the rest of the floats as their age was catching up to them. They got most of the way around the little village before Ron decided to let them end early as they were getting tired on the hot day and Adeline’s one hoof seemed to be bothering her some towards the end. It was definitely a unique experience that I wasn’t expecting to happen on the trip but something I’m happy I got to do.

On the cart with Rusty and Adeline

We got Rusty and Adeline back to the ranch by the early afternoon and they were able to rest after that. We also rested after that too as it was the sort of hot, muggy day that just sapped you of your energy. I helped herd the donkeys again in the evening and got a couple more large meals from Suzanne before leaving the next day. Before leaving, Ron even gave me $20 as he told me how him and Suzanne had been very happy to meet me.

Leaving Baldur, the weather was pretty good for me. It had rained over night and still was when I left in the morning but that helped keep it cooler for me to ride. Not only that, but I even had a tailwind behind me. The wind was so good with the flat road that had very little traffic, that I had what was probably my highest average pace for a day on the trip in going 24.5km/hr. It let me go along so well that I nearly finished crossing Manitoba, which I wasn’t expecting to do in the day.

Canola fields

I knew there was a chance of encountering rain in the evening and was hoping to stop before anything happened. With how well I was moving along though I decided to ride into the evening. I was only expecting that it might come light rain if anything happened, but I was starting to notice some pretty dark looking clouds to the south. A little after that, there started to get to be some pretty dark clouds ahead of me too. I made it to Pipestone and found a picnic shelter to stop at. About 5 minutes after getting there, the clouds made it overhead and a big thunderstorm started up. I got pretty lucky finding the shelter when I did as the wind picked way up, it downpoured and there was thunder and lightning for about an hour before the storm passed. With the land being so open and flat, I was able to watch the storm as it kept going east beyond me, which was quite the thing to watch.

Double rainbow behind the thunderstorm in Pipestone

It rained overnight and the wind shifted back against me by the morning. My body felt a bit tired from the day before and with fighting the wind too, I didn’t go overly far in the day and took plenty of breaks. Before I made it to Saskatchewan, I started seeing oil derricks for the first time and I would keep seeing them for a little while in Saskatchewan too. Partway through the day I did end up crossing into Saskatchewan and in doing so, was now in my 4th timezone (Saskatchewan is central but doesn’t daylight savings so is actually the same as mountain in the summer). Crossing Ontario had taken over a month but Manitoba took just a week, to help give perspective on just how long Ontario is. While my route in Manitoba had been good because the roads were quiet, the roads didn’t have a shoulder for me to ride on. This changed as soon as I crossed into  Saskatchewan, as the roads then immediately started to have shoulders. Soon after celebrating the start of a new province, I decided to stop for the day in Redvers. As I arrived in Redvers, I met a cyclist for the first time since I had left Ontario. This time it was Dominick from Austria who was doing the cross Canada trip from Vancouver to Halifax.

Saskatchewan border

Oil field

When I left Redvers, I got more into the oil fields and learned that they stunk. I don’t know how anyone could live near them. The wind couldn’t make up its mind which way it wanted to blow, so I had to adjust to it throughout the day. Not much happened of interest until I neared Stoughton where I’d stop for the day. As I got nearer to Stoughton, I saw a weird shape in the clouds, but hadn’t seen anything in the weather about storms so just assumed the pattern of the clouds just made it look funny. When I made it to Stoughton however, the funny shape that I thought I saw turned out to be what I originally thought when I saw it from a distance: a funnel. There was a funnel cloud that must have been directly outside the town. I’d never seen one before so it was super cool. I didn’t expect anything of it where I hadn’t seen anything in the weather, so I wasn’t overly worried, but I did still ask a local about it just in case. He told me it was no big deal and it would probably go back up. Pretty much right after he told me that, it did start to shrink and eventually went away. The other thing that happened in Stoughton, was that I found these raisin cinnamon buns that looked too good for me to say no to and oh my god were they good.

The funnel cloud

I left Stoughton early and reached Weyburn, where I would stop for the day before noontime. I tried something new in that I intentionally didn’t try riding at my max pace for the day and I quite enjoyed doing that. Before making it to Weyburn, I ran into another cyclist. This one was Jill going from Vancouver to Ontario and she told me how so far in the prairies, she had regularly been trying to outrun thunderstorms and tornadoes. I didn’t intend to stop in Weyburn for the day, but once I got stopped at the library and working on my blog for a while (I started drawing my route and if you haven’t seen the My Route page on the blog, it is far more up to date on where I am), I didn’t feel like going further and decided to stop for the day. 

When I left the library, a biker (Sharon) stopped and asked me if I was travelling, as she saw my loaded bike. She asked where I was staying for the night and when I said I didn’t know yet, she ended up inviting me to stay in her backyard. I happily accepted her offer and followed her to her house. After getting my tent setup for the night, Sharon invited me in and offered me supper too which I also happily accepted. Later on Sharon’s husband Rod came back home as well and he was just as friendly as Sharon was. We ended up talking into the night until we decided to head to bed.

At this point I was about halfway through the prairies and fully enjoying them and the incredible generosity of the people living there.

Distance Biked: 705.3km

Total Distance Biked: 5892.7