Day 29 White River to Wawa

"Tonight I heard the wild goose cry, hanging north in the lonely sky" (Frankie Laine)

Today we are starting our second month of our bicycling holiday; it's June 1.

Today we are being lazy because we can go only as far as Wawa due to the town spacing. So our distance for day was 100 km without any major hills. But we did put some effort into preparing for tomorrow's run to Batchwana Bay. To that end we booked into the Best Northern Motel at eastern most point of Wawa. As their restaurant doesn't open until 7:30 tomorrow morning we bought food the town of Wawa that can be heated in a microwave for an early breakfast. 

The road today was quite rough until around 45 km then it really improved. There were more beautiful lakes along the way and then we encountered the Wawa goose at the town entrance. We also saw the marker saying that we were 1000 km from the Manitoba border; yet we were still on Lake Superior over 200 km west of the Sault . Here is a task for Finley- pull up the elevation profile for today and tomorrow's rides on Google maps. So start from White River and enter Wawa as the destination. Then hit directions and make sure that you are on bicycling. Then when you hit details it should show you a profile of the road. If it's flat or hilly it will be smooth or bumpy. Tomorrow promises to be much more challenging than today. 

Tonight's dinner at the motel's restaurant was the best yet. Their Polish special started with an excellent borscht then there was a plate with pyrogies, cabbage roll, mashed potatoes and pork skewer. Then we shared blue berry pie and ice cream. Absolutely delicious. 

Day 28 Jackfish Lake to White River

"I want to live, I want to give,  I've been a miner for a heart of gold" (Neil Young) 

We had to put in a long day today because of the location of the towns; Marathon would have been too little and White River was feasible. Last night I called the Continental Motel and they started by saying that there was just a single room available and we should try the White River Motel. I called them and they said no vacancy. So I called the Continental again and booked whatever they had. When we arrived just before 4 pm there was a vacancy sign on we were assigned to a nice large room with a Jacuzzi. Go figure. 

Our ride to Marathon was the challenging part today because it started with the steepest and longest hill. After Marathon it was flatter and straighter. We had some nice views of Lake Superior and lots of small lakes. We also saw gold mines; the one that had a recognizable name was Barrick. Distance today 148 km.

Grandchildren’s ice cream question. What character made famous by AA Milne originated in White River? 

Day 27 Nipigon to Jackfish Lake

"Superior they said never gives up her dead" (Gordon Lightfoot )

Cool and sunny with no wind. It was a great day for bicycling along the north shore of Lake Superior. The road was good and the hills were as advertised. We had two challenging climbs on which we had to gear down and bear down. We set our sights on Jackfish Lake to get the most out of the day without overtaxing our bodies. Our Nipigon motel was next to a 24 h Tim Hortons so we were able to have an early breakfast and make it to Jackfish Lake comfortably. Since there is no food at Jackfish Cottages but it has cooking facilities,  we bought omelet needs in Terrace Bay. We are having a good dinner and breakfast of my own making. This evening's accommodation is excellent. 

Distance today was 125 km.

Day 26 Thunder Bay to Nipigon

"The legend lives on from the Chipawa on down of the big lake they call Gitchee Gumie" (Gordon Lightfoot)

Today started out with a cloudless sky and cool air; there was no wind to start with. The roads were generally very good with only a few narrow and rough spots. As we approached Nipigon we had a few stretches of headwind. We left at 8:30 and arrived before 4 pm so we made decent time. It was a really pleasant ride.

A highlight of the day was our first good view of Lake Superior at the Terry Fox memorial.

Day 25 Shabaqua to Thunder Bay

"There was thunder, thunder over Thunder......" (Don Raye/Robert Mitchum

When we awoke this morning, we were surprised to see heavy frost on the grass.  It was -1C but sunny. We ate the cold food that we had bought last night in the all-purpose store-office and then were on our way. Most notably there was no headwind so we really enjoyed the ride into Thunder Bay. Moreover the road shoulder was generally very good making it even more pleasant. 

Last night I booked a hotel room via Hot Wire and got the Airlane, which made Gramie smile because it is the only one that seemed to have a hot tub. We arrived at the hotel about noon and asked for checkin time. They said 3 pm so we went to Mr Sub for lunch. Gramie got a really good Greek salade and I had a smoked meat sub, we'll probably go back to the chain in the future. As it turned out the hot tub wasn't working, which was a big disappointment because it is so soothing to the butt after riding the bike. 

The other thing that I did in town was to visit a bicycle shop to see about my pedals because they haven't been reliable to release my shoes. We went to Petrie's and instead of new pedals I came out with my shoe clips and peddles polished, my derailleurs adjusted and a new crank bearing plus a water drain drilled in crank housing. Everything cost me less than 2/3 of the expected price of new pedals.

Ice cream question for grandchildren. You have seen two pictures of signs about watersheds. What is the term for this geographical feature? 

Distance covered today 72 km

Day 24 English River to Shabaqua

"Headed east on seventeen" (Blue Rodeo)

Our next logical stopping place after English River Inn would be Shabaqua at 125 km; Thunder Bay would be a bit too much. Today we started out with no rain and only a little bit of headwind;, and some sun. The ride to Upsala was a lot of funding with some ups and downs then we ran into some long straight flat stretches, which were not so interesting. We saw a couple of interesting sign posts and are showing them in the pictures. 

Ice cream question for grandchildren. When we rode past the first sign post I seem to have lost an hour because the time on the cell phone went from 2:30 to 3:30 in an instant. Can you help Boppa find the hour he lost?  

A bit further on we saw a sign describing where the water goes. There will be another question tomorrow. The water scene is in front of the English River Inn. 

Generally speaking the big trucks have been good and have given us decent space. This afternoon one guy who was in the opposing lane slowed down and put his right tires on the gravel shoulder so that another semi could pull over as he passed us. We also saw our first westbound bicyclists; two young women who were unfortunately dressed in dark clothing that didn't stand out well at all. 

Day 23 Dryden to English River

"There is a town in north Ontario" (Neil Young )

Because of the distances between towns we had some decisions to make. From Dryden to Thunder Bay, it is 340 km, which should make for a nice three days of cycling. Nevertheless the towns with accommodation are not evenly spaced. So we had to get an early start, which would get us to Ignace at a time that would allow us to continue on to English River if we felt strong enough. We stayed at a Mom and Pop motel  next to the McDonald's and they started breakfast as early as 5 am. The wide paved shoulder lasted for about 50 km before it became quite narrow - as narrow as 30 cm in some sections. Nevertheless the shoulder was generally in great shape and smooth, making for very pleasant peddling. The temperature could have been a bit higher as I could see my breath at 11 am. The sun came out only in the last half hour. Our distance covered today was 163 km.

We arrived in Ignace in the early afternoon and called the English River Inn to make sure that we had a room. We got a recorded message and left our cell phone number. We had planned to pick up large subs at Subway to take to English River because there are no restaurants in English River. Wouldn't you know it, there was a scheduled power outage for Ignace and many establishments were closed until 4 pm. We decided to wait for our callback from the English River Inn by having a snack at the only restaurant in town with a generator. The bacon cheese burger and fries went down well. After we had finished eating, we received the callback we wanted and booked our room for the night. After that it was a nice relaxing 56 km ride to our hotel knowing that we were set for the night . We stayed here during our 2010 ride and is still as good as it was then. We were able to buy TV dinners and heat them in the microwave oven. Not elegant dining but they filled the cavity. 

We didn't see interesting wildlife today but saw plenty of scenic lakes. We also saw many nice people. At a construction stop,  the first vehicle had a guy from Quebec who gave us bottled water and invited Gramie to keep warm in his truck. While eating our snack in Ignace we met again a couple whom we had seen earlier at the hotel in Kenora. They had been watching for us and wished us "safe travels" again.