Bill and I headed out on our second day with the sun in our faces. The plan today was to make it to Dryden and the word on the street is that this was a tough section of road because of the short steep climbs. It was tough to leave the cabin and I really wanted to just hang out for a week. But after two days rest in Winnipeg I am a bit behind my goal and really need to get some km under my belt. The next sections of road are tough because there are few places in between towns and we have to make sure that we have enough water and food to make it through the day. Our ride worked out well though and we were able to grab some lunch at a random motel about half way to Dryden. 
You see some crazy things made by random people in this area. Art it seems is very subjective here. We rolled into Dryden with no issues and set up at a hotel on the edge of town before a huge thunder storm rolled through the area.Yesterday I learned:
- I have to spend more time at the cabin (anyone want to come?)
- Seeing a moose is more difficult than you think it would be (they are huge).
- Dryden smells funny.
- All you can eat Indian buffet seems like a good idea after a long ride....it is not.
Dryden to Ignace - 107 kms
We had to do a shorter day because we want to end this portion of the trip in Thunder Bay and the kms distance is a bit awkward for the time we have. Bill doesn't have camping gear so we are needing to end the day in places that have hotels. Today the wind was odd and constantly changing. One second it was in your face and the next we were humming along at 35 km/h. That with the number of hills made for a challenging ride even with the shorter distance. There is basically nothing between Dryden and Ignace so right at the end we ran out of water and were very hungry because of skipping lunch to make it here early. 
The traffic here is mostly trucks and RVs. The trucks should be more scary but most of the trucks are awesome and pull over as much as they can while the RVs buzz you. There is not much shoulder here and Bill and I had to ride single file making for a boring day. The terrain has change a lot as well and there is less lakes and you mostly ride through a column of trees all day. There are occasionally fields of flowers. The only really exciting thing that happened is the first flat of the trip and it was Bill...quickly fixed and we were on our way.By the last twenty km we just wanted to be done. We had ridden 350 kms in the two day leading up to today so getting off our bikes early was welcome. We even made it in time to check out the overtime and penalty kicks for the England, Italy game today.
Today I learned:
- The last 20 km of any ride is the longest part of the day.
- There is no place to get water between Dryden and Ignace. Must pack more water!
- THERE ARE SMORE POP TARTS!!!!!! They make me happy.
Still have not ran into any other cyclists. We have been told over and over that there are a lot of other riders out there and many of them are doing cross Canada tours but we have seen none. I have not passed or have been passed by anyone. Maybe tomorrow?
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Might have to put one of those "teeth" grill decals on my minivan.
ReplyDeleteNice work, Jordan!