Sept 20-21 Manitoulin Island

Manitoulin Island is a gem of which we only caught a quick two-day glimpse. In Little Current, (town on north east tip of Island) we met the Turner family who has been settled there for almost 5 generations. We ended up camping in their front yard one night.

Next morning, as we were chilling out by the marina, four ladies came walking along the board walk and ended up chatting with us. One of them said that if we needed a place to camp that night we could come stay at her ranch near the ferry terminal. Perfect, that was exactly where we were headed that day!

We just followed highway 6 towards South Baymouth. This is the view from Ten Mile Point

We easily found Kicking Mule Ranch and had a delightful evening with Willie (the owner), her cousin Annie, and their friends Gabe and Pam. Rottweiler Diesel was also present and always eager for a little attention.

 Kicking Mule Ranch offers overnight accommodation and trail rides. These are two of the horses in the middle of their dinner meal.  

Annie cooked a wonderful Indonesian style dinner for us all followed by tea and muffins by the fire!!!!

We got to stay in the tipi that night. How cool!!!! We hoped all along that we could stay in a tipi some day!

THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT TIME AND HOSPITALITY! YOU LADIES WERE GREAT FUN!

Next morning's ride to the ferry terminal offered some great autumn photo opportunities!

Since the ferry charges $7 per bicycle, James asked a pick up truck driver if we could just put our bikes on the back of the truck to avoid having to pay for the bikes. Gino was more than happy to help and even offered to drive us all the way down to Wiarton at the end of the ferry ride. It was a tempting offer but we had to decline. This is a cycling trip after all!

Here comes the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry

Enjoying the view of Lake Huron "in style"!

Sept 15-19 Sault St. Marie and Thessalon

The day before we reached ``the Soo`` (local term for Sault St. Marie), we had just started taking down our tent in the morning when it started to drizzle. We quickly packed the tent away so it would not get all wet but within about 2 minutes we found ourselves in an almost torrential downpour. Darn it! We should have left the tent up and slept another two hours. There was no way we could set it up fast enough now without getting the entire inner tent soaked. Luckily there was an outhouse not too far away so we grabbed our bikes and ran over to it. Another outhouse to the rescue! It only had two tight stalls, a mens and womens, and it smelled NASTY! But the smell was still more appealing than getting soaked in the rain. I was already a bit damp and my feet were wet so I had trouble staying warm. A boxing match and some restricted dance moves kept us from getting too cold though. After I think about 2 hours the weather finally eased up a little so we could continue on. Later that day, the sun even came out so we could dry our wet clothes!!!!

When we got to the Soo the next day, we stopped by a bike shop called Velorution. Josh from Winnipeg had recommended it to us because the shop offers free camping and bathroom facilities to touring cyclists. Great!!!
So James and I just sat there on the bench, staring into space, glad that we made it to the Soo, FINALLY!!!  when an older gentleman walked up to us and started questioning us about our trip. He even seemed to poke some fun at our, what he thought, overloaded bikes. We were too tired to give more than the basic answers to his questions. He then asked us where we were staying that night. We said we planned on camping behind the bike shop. He then asked if we wanted to stay at a nice place where we could relax and chill out. Well, sure. He started digging in his wallet and eventually dislodged a stuck business card, handed it to us and invited us to come stay at his hotel. Huh? It turns out that he was the owner of the nice Water Tower Inn across the street. It's in the house he said and left. WHAT!
We were a bit dumbfounded by this incident but then took our bikes and headed over to the Hotel. It turned out that the owner, JJ was his name, is an avid cyclist himself and he regularly invites exhausted cyclists to stay at his hotel. Just a bit over 24 hrs ago we were stuck in a smelly outhouse, and before we knew it we were soaking in the Water Tower Inn's hot tub, swam in the pool and made good use of the sauna. We were even allowed to take the bikes in the room with us and were later notified that we also get free breakfast the next morning. AMAZING!!! THANK YOU JJ!!!!!

The following afternoon we set up our cards by the waterfront. We were told that Sunday's are very dead in the Soo but we had a successful afternoon with the small trickle of pedestrians that stopped by. One lady even came back with a bottle of wine, three beers and three Smirnoff ice. Another lady had left over snacks from a party so she gave them all to us plus we got an invitation to stay in Ajax and Ottawa from a kind couple.  Before we had set up our booth, we started chatting with four ladies who were out for a Sunday stroll. One of them, Karen, (see below) invited us to stay at her house that night. We gladly accepted. 

The Soo bridge which leads over to the USA.

Karen, James and I. THANK YOU FOR THE EXCEPTIONAL HOSPITALITY AND THE GREAT STORIES, KAREN! IT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE STAYING WITH YOU!

Oops, maybe I should stop reading Gulliver's Travels. 

As we were riding towards Thessalon, a man pulled over and invited us to come stay in his old church. He had bought it a few years ago and turned it into a music studio/ concert venue. Cool, thanks!

Tom then invited us for dinner at his house. He told us about the various artists and travelers that have performed and stayed at "the Auld Kirk". 

Next morning he came over to the church quite early, made us coffee and played us some amazing cello music by Zoe Keating. Awesome!!!

THANKS TOM FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY. BEST OF LUCK WITH YOUR MUSICAL ENDEAVOURS!!!!!

Sept 8-14 Thunder Bay and Lake Superior North Shore

-685 Km of Roller Coaster Road-

On Sept 8 we got up early to catch the farmers market in Thunder Bay. The ride there was gorgeous. There was a fairly heavy frost that morning so mist was rising from the river and strips of fog were hanging in the tree tops. Unfortunately it is not visible in this wide angle image but there is a Bald Eagle sitting in the tall tree right in the middle of the picture. 

One of my highlights on this trip was when we came over the hill in Thunder Bay and I caught a glimpse of a thin strip of water on the horizon. LAKE SUPERIOR!!! I had to memorize the great lakes on school and have heard about them many times but actually seeing one of them for the first time was incredible!

We had another successful card selling day at the farmers market! THANKS EVERYBODY! 

For several days, both of us have had a higher than normal calorie craving so we solved that problem with a most delicious stick of soft butter and salted trail mix!!!!! 

High Calorie Recipe:

Take a raisin or almond, scoop a nice chunk of butter on it, dip it back in the trail mix bag so smarties, more raisins and nuts stick to it.

Enjoy!!!

Sounds gross, well I might have thought so a few months ago but at this moment I could have sworn it was one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten. Mmmmm butter!!!

At the farmers market we made friends with Donna who is a local artist. Her son Jeff plays in a Toronto based band called the Trews. Donna not only encouraged other vendors to purchase our cards but she ended up inviting us over to her house for dinner. She spent all afternoon making perogies for us....perogies from scratch made by the master herself!!!!!

We had a wonderful evening hanging out in Donna`s kitchen, eating perogies until we thought we would burst and still successfully devouring fabulous home made coffee-chocolate cheesecake!!! 

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THE GREAT TIME DONNA! WE LOVE YOU!!!! GOOD LUCK WITH THE MUSICAL!

East of Thunder Bay, we came across this deserted gas station that was stunningly painted all around. 

I know that feeding wildlife is illegal but I just could not help myself.

Lake Superior with the Sleeping Giant Peninsula. 

The days between Thunder Bay and Sault St. Marie turned out to be the toughest riding days so far.

Occasionally one could catch a glimpse of blue water from the crest of a hill but other than that  the road was flanked by a green wall of forest on each side, day after day. Yes, forest is nice but it does get boring after a while.

In addition to that, the road was a real roller coaster, steep up and down and up and down etc etc. aaaall daaaay loooooooong!

To top it all off, the paved shoulder was rarely more than about 8 inches wide so getting passed by a semi truck was always a bit of an adrenaline rush experience. I must say though that the great majority of truck drivers has been exceptionally polite and they tried to give us as much room as possible. Still scary though!

Below is an elevation chart for this stretch of our trip. (x-kilometers, y-meters). According to the Bike Route Toaster website, the total ascent along this route is 4321 m! No wonder we were so beat!

I am so glad we chose to take the north shore route because it was such a challenge and I have a real sense of accomplishment now. But I am sooooo glaaad it is over! 

A glimpse of the elusive Lake Superior before a nice down hill ride.

Lake S. up close!!!

In White River, (home of Winnie the Pooh) we cooked up a very simple mixture of various food items (jalapeno pepper, garlic, BUTTER!) from our paniers along with a nice package of ground beef and a tin of red beans and angel hair pasta. So simple but so delicious! The lady in the visitor center kindly made us some hot water in her kettle so we could soak the pasta.  

Majestic Lake Superior near Pancake Bay. One more day to go!

Sept 2-7 Winnipeg to Thunder Bay

Within a days ride east from Winnipeg, the landscape changed dramatically. It became more hilly, the large grain fields made way for endless forest, marshes, countless lakes and rocky outcroppings. 

At the end of our first day riding, we were invited to camp in Brenda and Darrell`s back yard. They also loaded us up with tons of fresh veggies from their garden. Wowowow, what a treat! THANKS YOU TWO! CONGRATS AGAIN ON YOUR WEDDING!!! 

Hahahaha

Shortly before the Ontario border we met a couple who was also traveling and they introduced us to their mascot, Quigs. We had the honour of getting our photo take with this most adventurous teddy bear. So cute! The couple told us they have great fun taking pics of the bear in the most unusual places, doing all kinds of mischievous things. The woman told me that she lost a friend over this new hobby because her friend thought she had gone insane. hahaha! Well, we liked little Quigs and look forward to hearing about his next adventures.

I just could not help snapping a shot of this. As I previously mentioned, the roads in Manitoba SUCKED!!! (excuse the harsh language but there is not better way of making my point) and the COSTRUCTION ENDS sign right at the border into Ontario is just too funny. (Unfortunately, most of Ontario`s roads are terrible too, but I did not know that when taking this pic)

View of Lake of the Woods in Kenora

Typical Ontario scenery, woods and marshland

Miss Haybale is not yet willing do admit that summer is over :-)

Sheltering from the rain in a rotten barn that is about to cave in over our heads.

One evening we kept getting sprinkled on by rain off and on so we decided to just pull off the highway a bit earlier that planned and set up our tent somewhere along one of the forestry roads that lead into the woods along the highway. A few hundred meters into the forest, we noticed some buildings through the trees. They were vacation cabins. Great!!! We went and knocked on the biggest one in the hope that the owners would let us shelter from the rain on their porch but nobody was home. We tried all the other buildings but same deal. As another bunch of dark clouds approached we just said the heck with it an invited ourselves to camp on the porch of one of the cabins. We were so grateful because it just dumped buckets that night while we and the bikes were nice and dry!

Next morning we made use of the coolest outhouse we have ever seen. It was decorated on the outside and inside with quirky stickers, pictures and words. The inside had several funny looking fish stuck all over the walls along with toilet related words :-) 

THANKS TO THE OWNER OF THIS CABIN FOR UNKNOWINGLY LETTING US USE YOUR PORCH AND OUTHOUSE!

Aug 30-Sept 1 Winnipeg

Welcome back to life blog! 

You know, just like weary cyclists, even a blog sometimes needs a break! (yeah right, excuses)

Anyways, here we go....

When James cycled in China last year, he met a cyclist from Winnipeg and they agreed that James would swing by if he was ever in the area. Well, Winnipeg was right on the way so we stopped in to visit Josh (third from right in bottom pic) and his fiance Caroline. 

Shortly after we arrived, Caroline took us to a local bakery for a delicious treat of bannok (Bread made in the North American Aboriginal style). Mmmmmm! (see pic below)

That same evening, there was a very small farmers market just a few blocks away from Josh and Caroline`s house. We got permission to sell our cards there and were placed next to an apple farmer named Kalvin. He  just oozed with pride and love for his organically grown, local apples. Mind you, I cannot blame him because they were just delicious. In the pic below is an entire basket of a very delicious crab apple variety which he had up for sampling. 

Next day Josh took us out for a little sight seeing ride around Winnipeg. The Barge Festival was in full swing with a live orchestra playing on the harbour dock.

The Provencher Bridge crossing the Red River.

As we were cycling along the river, we came upon two large canoes filled with members from a men`s choir who paddled up the river to the harbour singing songs about the local history. Very cool!

On our last night in Winnipeg, Josh and Caroline (far back) invited us to join them for a drink at a local bar with some friends of theirs. We had a great time and the veggie burgers left my mouth watering for days!

THANK YOU JOSH AND CAROLINE FOR THE WARM WELCOME AND HOSPITALITY! ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR WEDDING PLANNING AND HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN!