Today was a good cycle back into civilization. I rode the remainder wilderness. tance from lske superior national park to Sault Ste. Marie.
I woke up in the morning feelwas a little tired from the previous day's cycling. It was good but the hills were relentless. Just when I was going up the hill, I heard the dreaded *ping* of my spoke breaking, making this my 6th spoke on the trip.
The rest of my morning was a little like riding an exercise bike as I worked my wobbly tire into the closest roadside stop in pancake bay.
Finally there, I was able to fix my tire and have the regular roadside food that they offer. No veggies really, mostly just the regular roadside fare of me for advice about their own future endeavors. For example one guy came up to me and said, "for someone like me who is thinking about doing long distance cycling trip someday, how do you think I should go about doing it?" It was nice and I was able to get my bike fixed so that was the most important part.
After some time cycling down the road again I crawled my way back into civilization after a few weeks of being on the road between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie.
I almost forgot to mention that while I was on my way through towards Sault Ste Marie, I stopped at Batchawana Bay for the first time. I had a real swim not just because I felt I had to do it for the experience, but because the weather was so nice and I felt like it was really a swimming day. While I was there playing the ukulele and going for a swim (not at the same time), I met a nice group of retired ladies who invited me in for lunch. Less than an hour before I had eaten the junk in the shop, but how could I refuse? on a positive note though, being on the side of the road, while I was at the shop fixing my bike, I tracked it a lot of interest from locals and cyclist. After roughing the wilds of Northern Ontario, I suppose I must have had an aire of rug goodness on me because some people were asking about my trip and things like that and even asking me for advice about their own future endeavors. For example one guy came up to me and said, for someone like me who is thinking about doing long distan
New line I almost forgot to mention that while I was on my way through towards salsa Marie, I stopped at batch you wanna pay for the first time I had a real swim not just because I had to do it for the experience, but because the weather was so nice and I felt like it was really a swimming day. While I was there playing the ukulele and going for a swim, I met a nice group of retired ladies who invited me in for lunch. Less than an hour before I had eaten the junk that I had be before in the shop, but how could I refuse?
I rolled into salsa Marie a few hours before dusk and went to the first Tim Hortons I'd seen in a few days. After eating my food I looked up where the local campsite was and to my surprise it was only 5 minutes away biking.
Sault Ste Marie has a very nice bike shop next to the Walmart on its own property. They let the cyclists use the back area as a free campground, and it also doubles as a kind of community center. Really, it's good business if you think of it-- people get in to Sault Ste. Marie after a week of hard riding from Thunder Bay and no bike shop in between, so it's only natural that many of the bicycles will be needing work. As Kevin Costner says in field of dreams, 'build it and they will come." When I arrived that night, there were already four other people, and two or three more came during the course of the time while I was there. We all became friends and had a good time.
I enjoyed my couple of days in Sault Ste. Marie. I was planning on only spending one night but they convinced me to stay another day, since I needed to get work done on my bicycle. Even if I decided to go, the work on my bike meant I would have had to leave late anyway, so I accepted the offer and got a couple of beer to enjoy beside the campfire.
The weather wasn't the best, and after my second night I was given the wonderful surprise of thunderstorms harsh rainy weather. It looks like my friend rain caught up to me again....
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