Day 40, July 29, Sudbury Ont. to North Bay Ont.

You always seem to wake early when you haven’t paid for where you're staying. As were leaving a large crew of grounds people arrived to mow and whip the grass. We were on the road by 9:00am.

We experienced construction early in the ride. I dropped one of my water bottles, which I couldn’t stop and retrieve. When you’re on a bike, you have to move fast through construction sites. Vanessa had an experience with an individual who thought she should go faster. He was much more creative in his language than I give him justice here.

There was a very narrow to non-existent shoulder for most of the ride. We decided to eat 45k into the ride at little restaurant at the side of the road. I had my usual, and we were off by 1:00pm. We didn’t stop again for a rest until we were 25k out of North Bay. We had a mild headwind to contend with for most of the day. However, we still averaged a respectable 26km/h for the 115k ride.

North Bay is a larger city than we expected at 55,000 people. Riding through the city was interesting. We racked the bikes at the Ottawa turn off, which is close to Don Cherry’s restaurant. After we set up our tent, we went to the beach for a fantastic swim in Lake Nippissing. We still haven’t been able to convince Allan to go for a swim.

Day 39, July 28, Spragge Ont. to Sudbury Ont.

We were all woken early to seagulls eating rice left out. I didn’t know seagulls could make so much noise. Almost all the rice in the bag had been eaten. Reminded me of the dog/wolf eating the spaghetti in Upsala.

The roads seem to be getting worse. They remind us of Manitoba. We were concerned about the roads in Northern Ontario, but they seem to be worse east of Sault Ste. Marie. The traffic had been picking up considerably as well. On the bright side, hills are few and far between.

Huge smoke stacks greeted us, as we got closer to Sudbury. We didn’t have to ride through Sudbury, as highway 17 stayed north. The ride today was fairly easy, although a bit long. We rode 150k. Our plan was 130k, but we couldn’t find a campsite, so we just continued riding. We decided to camp at a tourist information center, again. It actually isn’t that bad, except for being a bit exposed. Vanessa and Brett decided to sleep in the van. Vanessa isn’t a big fan of bears. As long as I can out run Allan, I think I’ll be fine.

Day 38, July 27, 50k out Sault Ste. Marie Ont. to Spragge, Ont.

We drove out to where we left off the day before. We were greeted with an excellent tailwind as we began to bike. Our average speed for the first hour was 37km/h. We decided to ride for 70k straight before our first break. It was fairly easy to do.

We arrived at another KOA after 4 hours of riding. A very short ride. We completed 128k in 4 hours, for an average of 32km/h. Everything was pretty much perfect with this ride, except for a minor fall Vanessa had as we turned into the campsite. KOA campsites have been the nicest campsites to stay at throughout the trip.
I was finally able to wash my sleeping bag that had become disgusting. My tent seems to leak, but not as bad as Allan’s. He has had no luck with tents this trip.

Day 37, July 26, Sault Ste. Marie Ont.-Rest Day

We left the amazing KOA and headed for the last remaining Husky Truck Stop Restaurant on the trip for breakfast. I had eggs as usual, which is usually preceded by a drawn out explanation on why I need the grill cleaned before they cook my food. As we were leaving the restaurant, Vanessa received a phone call from the hospital in Marathon. We needed to go to the hospital in Sault so she could get new meds. Somehow Vanessa and Brett both have what they call the “Super Bug.”

We didn’t get out of the city until late, so we decided to take half a day off. We only rode 50k out of Sault Ste. Marie, and racked the bikes to find a campsite. We unpacked, spoke to neighbor that was two bricks short, and went to a movie. The Dark Night was a fantastic movie. As we drove back from the movie, we saw a vehicle that had crashed into a large power line. Our campsite was without power for the night. Not a big deal when you live in a tent.

Day 36, July 25, Montreal River Ont. to Sault Ste Marie

It was raining when we woke up this morning. It’s always fun packing a tent when it’s raining. It had quit by the time we took off.

About 10k into the ride, it began to rain lightly. We put on our rain jackets and continued on. We stopped at another park to hangout about 40k into the ride. It was a nice break. It was hardly raining at this point.

For the next 80k, it rained, rained and rained. Coupled with the most intense hill since BC, made for an interesting ride. I’m currently drenched, sitting in a laundry room washing my clothes.

I was feeling flat most of the day. I’m going to eat more rice tonight and tomorrow morning in hopes the extra carbs will boost my energy levels. It's going to be interesting cooking with it pouring outside. I may pay Allan to do it.

We’re staying at probably the nicest campsite we’ve stayed at during the trip-KOA. It has everything, including a Wii. If we weren’t going to bed ASAP, it would be a great place to hang out at.

Day 35, July 24th, Wawa Ont. to Montreal River Ont.

We took off at around 11am today. We decided to have coffee and Tim’s in Wawa before we left. We also took photos by a giant goose statue. Very exciting.

After an hour of riding, we stopped at a provincial park to hang out on the beach. The scenery was surreal, and the sun was hot. I have nice sunburn on my chest to remind me of it. We stayed there for about an hour before taking off.

The hills were back today with a vengeance. Reminded me of BC. It was perfect biking weather, so it wasn’t bad. We didn’t see any signs for Montreal River during the ride. Made us a bit nervous, but we did eventually come across it on the highway. We found a decent campsite on the road. It had a great view of Lake Superior that we all enjoyed. I wish I could have videotaped the sunset. My camera didn’t do it justice.

Day 34, July 23th, White River Ont. to Wawa Ont.

We had to wake up early this morning considering we were camped at a tourist information building. Aussie Rob had told us of a bear he saw earlier down the road. The next thing we know the bear was in the garbage 50 meters away. Then an OPP officer stopped in front of the garbage, pulled out a rifle and shot the bear. Allen gave me the same look as he did in Christina Lake, the “did that just happen” look. It’s ironic that the bear was shot behind a Winnie the Pooh statue. The same picture from my previous blog post.

We decided to catch up on our blogs at a restaurant with wireless Internet, and didn’t get out of town until noon. Aussie Rob took off around 8:30am. It was a nice warm day today. There were plenty of hills, but we averaged 25km/h for the entire ride. I was definitely keeping an eye out for bears today. I only saw one adolescent bear in the ditch. I went from 30km/h to 40km/h in a matter of seconds. You never know where the mother may be.

We found a nice campsite right before Wawa. We didn’t meet up with Aussie Rob again, who probably spent the night somewhere in town.