Bike Trip 2011 Day 6-7, May 29-30, Thunder Bay, 745 km

Day 6 May 29 745km

Last night was not a good one.  Susie has had pain in both achilles tendons over the last couple of days and woke up in the middle of the night with some swelling.  Our motel room had no refrigerator or ice.  We spent a lot of time trying to figure out our options which ranged from terminating the ride and returning to Winnipeg to pick up the car, to resting for a bit and carrying on.  We found out that the buses will not stop to pick us up in Shabaqua, so we have to go to Thunder Bay.

Susie has reverted to her old pedalling style, which means the pedal is further back on the sole of her foot with less stress on the achilles tendon.  With a bit of judicious walking up the first long steep hill, her tendons felt better.  Our ride into thunder Bay on Hwy 11/17 was great; it had many fast downhill runs and no headwinds.  We stopped at Kakabeka Falls to take pictures.

On our arrival in Thunder Bay, Susie went to Emergency at the Thunder Bay hospital and had the diagnosis confirmed.  The treatment recommended was rest and ice.  Since the hospital is close to Lakehead University, we dropped in to see if there were any residence rooms available.  There were, so we booked in for two nights.  By then we hoped to know if we can proceed or not.  Proceeding would mean shorter days and walking up the steeper hills.  The residences are perfect for us; the room is nice and clean, and there is a locked building for our bikes adjacent.  Close by is a new Subway restaurant, which made getting ice and food convenient.  They also have laundry facilities.  On Krista's recommendation, we looked for physiotherapy clinics and found one right on campus.  The Lakehead University Sports Medicine Clinic was a five minute walk from our room.

Day 7 May 30 745km

This is our rest day.  We got up late- after 7 am and made our way over to the cafeteria for breakfast.  Then we strolled over to the Lakehead University Sports Medicine Clinic and registered for Susie’s treatment later this morning.

Bike Trip 2011 Day 5, May 28, Shabaqua, 675 km

Day 5 May 28 675km

We got up at about 6 am EDT and changed our watches to Eastern time.  By the time we got organized, the continental breakfast ready; it was very nice with waffles, bagels, cereal, orange juice and coffee.  After filling ourselves we headed east on Hwy 17 shortly after 8 am.  Today the weather changed; it was slightly warmer but raining. It rained gently except for about the last 2 hours of cycling.  The good thing about it was that the wind died making it much easier to cycle.  We arrived in Upsala a little after 11am and stopped at the “family restaurant” for a bowl of soup to warm us up; we tried the Italian Wedding.  It was really good with small round pasta and little meatballs, plus vegetables- a little thicker and it would be called a stew.

The road was generally flattish as far as the time zone change, then it got a bit hillier as we approached the continental divide.  On the east side of the divide, I thought that we would get a lot of downhill runs, but I was wrong again.  It was down hill overall but there still were lots of hills to climb.  None of them were too long or steep.  We plugged along until about 4:30 pm when we checked into the Timberland Motel at Shabaqua Corner where Hwys 11 & 17 meet; the timing was perfect as it turned out because about an hour later, there was pretty violent cloudburst that went through.  The Timberland is okay but nothing like last night’s place.  There is no breakfast, microwave or refrigerator, and it is not as squeaky clean.  Its main attraction is location.  Tomorrow we will go only as far as Thunder Bay, and make it a rest day.

Bike Trip 2011 Days 2-4, May 25-27, Kenora-Wabigoon, English River

Day 2, May 25, 239 km

We left the motel around 7:30 am in cool but clear weather without a headwind to start.  We stopped at Falcon Lake to look around and picked up a coffee and cinnamon rolls at the bakery.  The beach was really nice; probably the fact that we had it all to ourselves helped somewhat.  Took a picture of the lake, and then again at the Manitoba-Ontario border.  By the time we reached Falcon Lake, my hip was hurting enough for me to some ASA.  As we cycled toward Kenora my hip got worse, essentially reducing me to a one legged rider.  Although it slowed us down, we still go into Kenora quite early- before 2.  We had lunch on the waterfront then checked into the Kenora Inn Motel ($75 + hst for a really nice clean room) at the east end of town.  Then we walked to the grocery stores to pickup fruit, a Caesar salad, milk and a rotisseried whole chicken.  We enjoyed our supper.  We had a second soaking in the tub. I took a 400 mg dose of ibuprofen around 5 pm and again at around 10 pm.

Day 3, May 26, 399 km

On getting up, I took another dose of ibuprofen, and repeated it a lunch time. The day started out sunny and cool, about 2C.  We left the motel at 8:40 am.  At the beginning my hip felt good, and only started to hurt a somewhat about an hour later.  Eventually it settled down and barely bothered me, although I tried to behave myself and not push it too hard.  The ride was beautiful, with lots of scenic lakes and waterfowl.  The temperature rose to become comfortable but not hot.  When we were riding it was warm; when we stopped we would cool off if we stood in the shade.  Today we saw more deer, plus lots of ducks and geese; most lakes seemed to have a pair of loons.  Some the geese had goslings.  We arrive in Dryden shortly after 4 pm, and found the local IGA where we bought fruit, salad, potato salad, bread, torillas, milk and kolbasa.  Then we thought that we would bike to the last motel at the east end of Dryden.  On getting out of Dryden, we decided to push on to the next motel which was 13 km to the east.  Unfortunately there was no vacancy there or at the motel next door; apparently, the mining crews have them all taken.  We pushed on a few more km and investigated the Polar Star Lodge.  We lucked out getting a huge unit with a kitchen for $57.  We had a range, fridge, microwave, toaster and a table for 4.  We used the bedroom with a double bed; the other two had twin beds.  We think they need to advertise on the internet, as well as change their sign at the road.   After a nice soak in the tub we enjoyed a leisurely supper.  I’ll take more ibuprofen just before bedtime.  There is not internet access here and just one channel on TV.

Day 4, May 27, 548 km

We left Polar Star Lodge around 7:20 am and started peddling eastward and into the wind; it never let up all day.  Susie’s Achilles tendons bothered her yesterday so today she is pushing the pedal with a more central part of her food to reduce the tension on the Achilles.  It took us until after noon to get to Ignace, where we planned to call ahead to the English River Inn to ensure that we would have a place to stay tonight.  After asking for help with the phone number at the grocery store, we came up empty.  Even telephone information didn’t work.  So we pushed, and arrived at around 5:30.  This place is a gem.  For $70, including tax, we got a large, clean room, with wireless internet, satellite TV and a continental breakfast as well as access to the breakfast room to fix our dinner tonight.  The closest store or restaurant would be in Ignace or Uppsala.  I should write this up for Trip Advisor.  Tomorrow our target is Shabaqua Corners.

Today we saw other fellow self propelled travellers.  On group of four were westbound, and raising money for MS.  Another guys was making the trip from Ottawa to Vancouver for the second time in two years; last year he did it on a BMX bike in 5 months.  The most interest guy was from Holland; he is walking from Halifax to Vancouver in 4 summers.

Bike Trip 2011 Day 1, May 24, Hadashville, 123 km

This is the third leg of our cross-Canada bicycle trip.  In 2009, we cycled from Kingston to Halifax, and in 2010 we cycled from Nanaimo to Winnipeg.  So this year we left from Winnipeg and are on our way home to Kingston; that leaves the Halifax to St. John's leg for 2012.

We left Winnipeg bright and early this morning (around 6:30 to evade some of the traffic); the sky was overcast and the temperature was 4C.  Curtis gave us a route that avoided most of the traffic and put us onto Dugald Road, which we followed  to Hwy 11 where we turned south to join the Trans-Canada Highway at Hadashville.  Someone forgot to tell the weather gods that the prevailing winds are supposed to be from the west, so we had a headwind from Winnipeg to Hwy 11.  By the time we stopped for the day after 123 km, the temperature had risen into a comfortable range and the wind had died down.  I wanted to stop at around 100 km for the first day of riding so that we could let our bodies become accustomed to the steady pedalling.  This resulted in us staying at the Riverside Motel, which was adequate but turned out to be the least desirable of all the places we have stayed in.

The picture attached to today's posting is of the bypass that carries excess Red River water around the city of Winnipeg during spring runoff.

Days 14 and 15

Just had to try that hamburger

Day 14.  Day in Cusco.

    Tonight I had a large bottle of Cusquena Negri with dinner.  It is excellent beer that even Susie kept sipping.  Its weight is a bit heavier than Guiness, and it is a bit less bitter and has a definite sweet finish.

Day 15.  Leaving Cusco.

    We had breakfast with the group with people coming and going while we chatted and drank coffee.  They had an 8:30 departure while ours was in the afternoon.  It was really sad to see the group leave because they had become such good friends on this tour.  They are off to see the Amazon jungle while we head home.  I’m ready for home as is Susie.  We spent the morning doing more exploration of Cusco, and picked up a green version of my coca cola t-shirt.  It has a coca left followed by the word Cola- very clever and a conversation starter.  For lunch we went to the first night restaurant Los Passos ?  I just had to have the large hamburger and another Cusqueno Negri, as did Susie.  The rest is less interesting- caught a cab from the hotel to the airport and flew to Cusco for our flight to Toronto.

Day 13 Winaywayna to Machu Picchu.

Roof from the underside

Talk about a straight wall?

Perfect convex wall.

Upper middle aged Canadians near the Sun Gate

    This was not a particularly good night; the tent started making noises a few after we climbed into our sleeping bags.  Rain would not be good for viewing the ruins in the morning.  When we were roused by Jaco this morning at 4 it was still raining lightly.  Everyone hustled to pack up and had a small breakfast around 4:30.  After getting all our clean up done, we went down to the building with bar to marshal up for our walk to the control gate.  It opens at 5:30 so there was some waiting on our part.  This is the day that the porters have to get all the equipment down to Aguas Caliente for shipment back to the trek’s origin- they probably store the gear at Ollantaytambo.  Also they dropped our duffle bags at a restaurant in Aguas Caliente for us to pick up before boarding the train out later.  When we arrived at the Sun Gate, the rain had stopped and the mist opened up enough for us to have decent views of Macchu Pichu.  Nevertheless the views aren’t the same as you see on the post cards or Peruvian government advertisements.  After stopping to take pictures we walked through Machu Picchu City, with excellent information from Marcelino.  We then made our way down to the control gate so that our entrance tickets could be handed in, and that’s when the skies opened up.  It rained hard for at least an hour before we could head out on our tour of this magnificent archeological site.  It was an excellent tour.  I never cease to be amazed by the quality and quantity of work that the Incas accomplished in only three centuries.  The stone work is simply outstanding.  After the formal tour, we had planned to hike up Machu Picchu Mountain but the cloud cover scuppered that idea because it blocked the views.  So we and Cecilia walked up to Inca Bridge.  This is a site at which they built most of the trail across the face of sheer rock bluff and had to span a gap of about m with logs.  It’s scary to think that people walked across this at one time.  It’s even scarier to contemplate how many lives must have been lost in building the trails and cities.

     We met Paula at the control gate at about 1pm and took the bus to Aguas Caliente.  Since we had just eaten the snack provided to us, we didn’t stay for lunch at the pizza restaurant and decided to do a some window shopping, actually it was souvenir shopping for the grandchildren.  Aguas Caliente comprises about two streets with hotels, restaurants and tourist shops.  Later we gathered our duffle bags and caught the Peru Rail train to Ollantaytambo.  It’s about 45 km and one and a half hours.  Fortunately, the passenger cars have windows overhead because the valley wall are very steep and high.  It’s a narrow gauge railroad which is bit uneven; this made the ride one that rocked back and forth all the way.  At Ollantaytambo, we changed to a bus that took us all the way to Cusco.  We got back to our hotel, Cusco Plaza II around 7 and guess what?  Everyone headed for the showers before dinner.  We went to a restaurant where they serve Cuy, aka Guinea Pig.  There were only four available, so the eight adventurous souls among us split them.  Susie and I each had a small bite.  It tasted okay but was a bit chewy, probably because it was cooked until it had nice glazed finish.  There was a vegetable in the mouth of each Cuy, a la a Hawaiian pig.  Paulo showed us how to find a lucky charm in side the mastoid (?) bone; if you find it (it’s less than 2 mm), you are supposed to drop it in your drink and down it.  We had never heard of this custom before.

Day 12 Paqaymayo to Winaywayna

    This is the day that we walk the greatest distance, 16 km, and drop the most altitude, from 3600 m to 2650 m.  There are three passes today but the verticals were so gentle that we only noticed two of them- the passes are Runkuraqay 3900 m, Sayacmarca 3600 m and Phuyupatamarca 3700 m.  The outstanding feature of this section of the trail is that it is 95% original Inca and just 5% restored.  It is amazing that the trail has stood up so well over the 500 years since its construction even though this is an earthquake zone.  They managed to build a tunnel that is some 10 m long without the use of explosives or hardened steel tools.  Our first stop was at Runkuraqay ruins, where Marcelino told us about the people and how water was delivered to the site.  It is really impressive how they managed to engineer the aquaducts through this terrain, all without the use of use modern tools paper on which to sketch out plans.  Needless to say they didn’t have computer programs to facilitate calculations and store plans.  Today it was possible for the crew to stop and make lunch for us at around noon, which they did.  That meant no siesta after lunch.  It was really lucky for us that lunch came at the same time as our first rainfall of this trek.  That meant that we sat in a tent eating while the rain went through.  The rest of the walk to our third campsite was where we lost about 1000 m of altitude.  The steps were many but in excellent condition.  We also had the opportunity to have our passports stamped at the third checkpoint on the trail.  At Winaywayna, we are only 6 km and less than 2 hours from the Sun Gate entrance to Machu Picchu.  This is a campsite at which the locals have decided to provide many conveniences, for a price of course.  A hot (more or less) shower can be had for 5 Soles, and beer for 10.  Since we have another day of walking, it didn’t seem right for me to celebrate by getting clean and raising a brew.  Nevertheless some of our group did and enjoyed the experience- I’m either too cheap or too old fashioned or both, probably both.

Day 11 Wayllabamba to Paqaymayo

    Today is supposed to be the most challenging day of hiking.  We start at 3000 m, hike over Warmiwanusca (Dead Woman Pass) 4215 m to Paqaymayo at 3600 m.  We were woken by Jaco at 5:30 a.m. with a cup of sweet coca tea.  After getting dressed, we had breakfast of pancakes with the Gap logo.  Then it was time to brush our teeth and make a last toilet break.  Our toilet was a good 200 m from our tent, which made for a long walk in the middle of the night.  Thankfully the toilets were squat toilets, which are probably the only design that can be reasonably hygienic under these conditions, see squat toilets on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet).  In Peru it is good practise to ensure that you carry toilet paper with you at all times.  Also they ask that it not be flushed but placed in the waste basket provided next to the toilet.  Apparently toilet paper tends to plug the sewage lines.  Then we set off at a steady pace and climbed on well preserved Inca steps for much of the way to the pass.  In this section of the hike, the guides allowed us to hike at our own pace, which is easier because you set your own rhythm with respect to breathing and cadence.   At a rest stop, there was a small herd of llamas that entertained us their rolling in the sand and jumping a small stream.  In general they simply ignored us, and let us take pictures. We all met at the Dead Woman summit for break and pictures.  The pass is named Dead Woman because in profile it looks like a woman lying on her back.  Although we were told that we would be there in 5 to 6 hours, the last of our group gained the summit in about 4.5 hours.  After the summit is was a steady decent to the campground, where we were greeted with a glass of juice.  The tents were all standing and contained the duffle bags with our personal belongings.  Talk about being spoiled.  After lunch most of us napped for a bit before snack time, which followed fairly closely by supper.  The chef surprised us with a fantastic cake for dessert.  It sort of tasted like a rum baba, and was really moist and uniform.  I don’t know how he did it but we all agreed that it would have been rated highly at restaurants that have all the conveniences.  The other nice touch that the porters provided was artful presentations of the cutlery and paper napkins.