Once again my cage is rattled that my watch is deleted files. I am currently updating these blogs from Thunder Bay and I thought all the files were good to go...guess not..ohwell
We were up early, had a perfect breakfast prepared by the family, then we were on our way to West Hawk Lake. The wind started off in my face, but it switched to my tail as a storm moved in, so I picked up speed as the rain towered over. Fortunately, I was able to cycle ahead of the storm and it didn’t downpour until we were already checked into The Keystone Resort. Big thanks to the owners for donating a room to us! Check out them out if you are ever going through as it was a great place. http://www.keystoneresort.mb.ca/About_Us.html
West hawk lake to Souix Narrows :
I pressed the wrong
buttons on my gps watch a few times while biking and had to restart the gps
tracker but here are the stats for the day:
The first three quarters of today were zero fun…I
experienced a difficult head wind, weather that was very difficult to dress
for, and a stop in Kenora to buy a new rain jacket….apparently my Columbia
rain jacket decided to die out on me during one of the rainiest days I have ever
had to cycle in. One positive note was that at least the cars were giving me
ample space, and I was close to a city where I could purchase a replacement rain
jacket.
It is incredible biking through areas that are so desolate. The roads
I am travelling are absolutely beautiful, but I couldn’t image the mayhem that
would occur if something should go wrong. I remember wanting to cycle across
Canada by myself, but I couldn’t imagine how miserable that would be….possible,
yes….miserable, most likely….thankfully that is not the case and I know I am
relatively safe.
Anyways, we arrived in Souix Narrows around five in the afternoon,
and I called the provincial park to verify that is where we were staying the
night. The lady said she would meet us at the front gate in 10-15 minutes, but
we decided to leave after waiting for almost an hour.
I tried calling the lady
to see what was going on, but I was unable to get in touch with her, so Elyse
and I drove around Souix Narrows looking for a place to camp….HUNGRY, TIRED, & OUT OF LUCK we decided to settle for sleeping amongst our smelly clothes in the van.
I felt the two safest spots were either the cop station or the church
parking lot. I chose the church parking lot, because I assumed the cops wouldn’t
allow us to sleep there haha. We didn’t set up our tent on the church parking
lot, because I figured a midnight wakeup call from an officer telling us to
move on may happen. Elyse is flexible
and was able to find herself a comfy hole, but I had a terrible time finding a
spot to please me. It seemed I would either wake up to an incredible pain, due
to the lack of circulation in some part of my body or the buzz of a bloodthirsty
mosquito using the blinding darkness to its advantage. Elyse did a lot of
complaining that we had to sleep in the van, but I told her to suck it up and
it would be fine….the truth is, I wasn’t pumped but I knew it was our best
option…one I hope we don’t resort to often.
Souix Narrows to Emo:
Cycling to Emo today was awesome...I had sunshine
to warm me and a breeze to keep me cool. A tail wind kept me moving at a good
pace and I ended up cycling 40km or so beyond Emo. I could have cycled for many
more hours, and I could have covered counteless km's; however, we had been
invited to stay in Emo by the Leek family, so I wanted to be able to drive back
to their house just in time for supper!!!
Elyse and I sat down with the Leek family and swapped
stories, but I was super interested in learning more about the center of
attention in Emo: The Emo Speedway is basically in the Leek’s backyard and the
family is very involved the racing. Elyse and I were given a tour of the town
and the inside scoop about the racetrack…I wish we were able to catch the race
the next day, but I knew we needed to be 180km’s east in Quetico Provincial
Park if I had any hopes of Salmon fishing with my buddy Derek Jennings.
Check out the website for the Emo Speedway as there
is quite a history of dirt track racing there and the collection of videos is
incredible: http://www.borderlandracing.com/
Emo to Quetico Provincial Park:
It is getting late and I need to be up in several hours to begin a new week of biking, so I am just going to give you the trip stats for today: The wind was in my favour and the ride was awesome...there were quite a few rolling hills, but I was able to build speed coming down that helped me climb the uphills.
We stayed in the park and it was awesome! I need to revisit Quetico with a canoe and fishing rod in hand. Probably my favorite park of the stay was hearing the loons as the sunset!
Quetico to Thunder Bay was about 165km's again but the
wind had my back even more today and I was very motivated to get to Thunder Bay
ahead of schedule, so I could catch up on laundry, clean the van, and most
importantly GO FISHIN'!!!! I wasn't able to charge the GPS so I don't have the
trip stays for today; however, the day was basically identical to the previous
day, other than there were a few more climbs mixed in.
For those of you who are interested in how the
fishing went, we caught 5 salmon and we had an awesome fresh fish
lunch prepared by my buddy Derek today. After lunch we visited the kakabeka falls
and most importantly the biggest inspiration of all...Terry Fox.
It is currently 10:30pm and I am going to call it a
night so I can wake up and get ready to battle the ride along "the north
shore" apparently beautiful but deadly steep climbs!!! I have enjoyed the recovery time we have spent in Tbay, but I think Elyse and I better let Allyson and Derek have their home back! Thanks for letting us crash at your pad for the last 3 nights guys!!!
Check these photos out!!!!
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