Day 31. Ignace to Upsala. May 28. 108 km.

Today was almost a rest day because we could bike only to the motel just east of Upsala, a distance of 108 km. The ride was quite easy when we started but became more challenging as the day went on with the wind picking up and blowing into our faces. The first half had excellent shoulders and then we encountered road construction where they were starting to pave the shoulders. A lot of the construction section worked to our advantage because we were able to ride in the lane that was closed to vehicles. Essentially we had a private lane.

We met a walker today who made us look like whimps. He started in St.Johns, NL in January and was headed for Victoria, BC. Not only did he walk during the winter months but he was camping along the way. His backpack was quite small so he must have used a bivvy bag or something very compact.

All along the highway, we have seen communications towers at regular intervals but I never seem to have a cellphone signal. I am starting to feel that the cellular towers should be a public utility so that we can have some service regardless of your contractor's carrier.

If anyone has checked my distance reports, you will see that my numbers are consistently a bit higher than the published distance between any two points. I checked my odometer against a measured distance and confirmed that I am consistently a bit high. If you have looked at bicycle tracks anywhere, you will know that they never follow a straight line but oscillate back and forth. I know that I go back and forth across the shoulder of the road regularly. Thus, my odometer reads the distance that my bike travels but it will consistently err on the high side compared with map or published distances.

Today we crossed into the unofficial eastern time zone but I don't have a picture of the sign to indicate that because we didn't find it. I hope to find the Arctic-Atlantic watershed sign tomorrow.