So I woke t in my wild camp at around 7:30 in the morning and begin to pack up all the while being assaulted by mosquitoes. I was just south of Nestor Falls and about 70 km away from Fort Frances. I ate a quick breakfast and packed up my gear and then headed out onto the open road. I made it to Fort Frances where I had a big lunch and then continued on towards Atikokan which was another 170 km away from my destination in total.
One of my most memorable recollections on this trip was riding through the causeway on Rainy Lake. It was a path through the dotted islands surrounded by water and trees-- beautiful. Some of the most beautiful countryside in the area if you ask me. The further east I went, the marshier the land became and the more moose signs I saw on the side of the road. Sunset was beautiful, but with sunset came a big group of mosquitoes and there were just clouds of them which whipped me in the face as I rode up and down the undulating hills. Eventually at around 10 p.m. it became dusk and I turned on my lights. The advantage of cycling through the night for me is the sparse traffic and opportunity to focus solely on the road rather than on the scenery.
I rode through the night without too many problems, except for the bugs and the occasional truck getting too close for comfort, and there were also a lot of animals on the side of the road. I saw a lot of wildlife including somethinmore..at looked like a wolf or a coyote. Truly, I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. It was overcast but not raining, instead of stars there were glowing bugs all around me and I felt like they were making their own constellations. Sometimes it was magical, other times I felt really invaded by the mosquitoes and other bugs. The moment I slow down on an uphill there they were, but as soon as I started peddling fast enough again I didn't have to worry about them anymore they would fall behind. I felt like I was on a long-distance March through the woods at night it was really quite peaceful. Eventually I made it to atikokan at around 2 a.m. I set up my tarp wrapping it around me and leaned my bike against a picnic bench but just as with the night before there were hundreds of mosquitoes and I didn't know how to keep them out of my face even with a mosquito net on. Dealing with the bugs was one of the most challenging aspect of this leg of the journey, so at 4 a.m. I gave up trying to sleep and woke up to go have breakfast in downtown Atikokan, canoe capital of Canada. From my wild Camp to atikokan I cycled a good 240 km and although I was tired I was about to cycle more.
No comments:
Post a Comment