Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay, Ontario

Halfway!

Well, maybe more than halfway – we actually passed that marker back in Manitoba, but there was just a sign on the road and some canola plants.  However, Thunder Bay is the closest city to halfway…   

So, here we are.  

At first my impression of Thunder Bay is “where is everyone?”   We are staying at the Prince Albert waterfront Hotel in beautiful downtown Thunder Bay.   However there is almost no one on the street and the majority of stores are boarded up with extraordinary cobwebs and copious amounts of dust.  We asked at the restaurant where the major shopping area was and she said, “right here”.  We found a Laundromat down the street and the walk there was as if someone had set off a neutron bomb.  We saw very few people and they all seemed to be furtive shadows.  It is like one of those horror movies where you walk out of a creepy store and when you turn around to go back in it isn’t there and never was.

It turned out that there was a “summer in the park” event happening down at the waterfront and everyone was there.   So we went to hear the free music and get away from the macabre downtown area.   Bad went to worse.  There were lots of people there with their folding lawn chairs and picnics lunches.  It was like a very scaled back version of Symphony Splash but instead of the Victoria Symphony we were groovin’ to Captain John and the Polka Pirates.

  

We preferred the spooky silence of downtown.

We did find the life centre of Thunder Bay, however.   Today we went to Fort William Historical Park.   On the way we came to the part of town where it started looking a lot like Richmond.  Big box stores, shopping centres, people – all the things you expect to see in the city of 100,000.   What a relief.  I thought I had inadvertently wandered into the Twilight Zone.  

Fort William was great.   It is a restoration of a Fort that was part of the North West Company’s chain of forts involved in the fur trade.   Everyone who worked there was in costume and in character.  I learned a lot about the early life in Canada.  We were witness to the arrival of voyageurs arriving from the west with a canoe loaded with furs and the arrest and imprisonment of a drunk.   The former is not something you can see in Victoria.  Both of us really enjoyed our day there.

Lake Superior is huge.  The largest lake in the world and I am looking at it out of my window.   It is hard not to confuse it with the ocean. Truly, it is amazing that all that water out there is fresh water.  The Rockies were incredible, the prairies were unbelievable and now Lake Superior is amazing.   All these incredibly large landscape features in Canada.

What is it we are trying to compensate for?

Nestor Falls, Ontario

Nestor Falls on Caliper Lake

It is strange where one finds oneself sometimes.   We are at a place called Larsson’s Camp in the heart of fishing and hunting territory in western Ontario.  The cabin we are in is about 10 meters from a shallow lake called Caliper Lake in the Canadian Shield.   It has all the comforts of home provided those comforts don’t include cell-phone reception, Internet or television.  The camp, apparently, was built seventy years ago but it reminds me more of my childhood in the 50’s.   It really is not such a bad place – it is tranquil, quiet and the scenery is beautiful.  After so long on the prairies it is nice to see trees, hills and water.

Yesterday we ended up in Kenora, Ontario.   Ontario!   I can’t believe it.   Almost halfway across the county!

I thought that perhaps I should slow down a little on my ride when I pulled into a snow-plow turnaround for a little break and thought I had done a “Back to the Future” thingy.   There was an orange Volkswagen Micro-Bus parked there with two guys in tie-died T-shirts, shoulder-length hair and headbands trying to get it started.  I quickly checked my cell-phone for the date but, strangely, there was no signal…  One guy asked how far I was riding and I told him to St. John’s NFLD and he just said “Oh Wow”.    They had poured gasoline into the tank of the Volkswagen but it was pouring out onto the road underneath so I thought it best that I ride away quickly before they tried to start the engine. 

 The ride into Kenora was hot.  Very hot!   Normally heat does not bother me when I am riding, but I felt it yesterday!   I thought at one point that I would spontaneously combust.   I am not sure what the temperature was but it felt like the hottest day yet. At one point I had stopped for a break just inside the city limits and looked over to see a deer sitting in the shade of one of the nearby buildings.   He didn’t even look over at me.  He was too hot to move.

 As soon as I got to Kenora Telen took me to the nearest Dairy Queen.   There was a long line-up, as you can imagine, but it disappeared quickly when I arrived.  There is something to say for being hot, smelly and dripping wet.   

Kenora is a very nice little community on the Lake of the Woods.   Very picturesque and a little touristy.   This is the last weekend of the year when fishing is free so there were lots of boats out on the lake.  One of the most popular fish to catch here is called a Crappy.   I think they have to stop pumping raw sewage into the lake.

On our way here we just about nailed a bear.  He ran across the road right in front of us.   That is the second time that has happened on this trip.   The first time was in BC.  So far we have spotted three bears.   Luckily I was in the car on all three occasions.  I had to slam on the brakes this last time, which caused all our stuff to slide forward in the car.   It was amazing how much more room we had in the back when everything was piled up against the back of the front seats…  I thought this was a young grizzly bear because of her blonde colouring, but they don’t have griz in this area.   The blonde colour explains why she ran out in front of a moving car.

Winnipeg

Winnipeg, Manitoba

We are sitting in the Place Louis Riel Hotel in Winnipeg.  The weather has been so hot and muggy that we decided to spoil ourselves a bit.   This is quite a fancy hotel, but, for some reason we got it very cheap.  Maybe because no one comes to Winnipeg voluntarily.  We walked around downtown Winnipeg for a while.  The city seems to lack energy somehow.   The office buildings downtown do not have shops on the ground floor like we see in Victoria or Vancouver.   Telen thinks that is because it gets so cold in the winter that people won’t go outside to shop – they would only got to enclosed spaces.   There is an area near here called “The Forks” which is kind of like a version of Granville Island in an old train station.  There weren’t too many people there either.  

Winnipeg: it sounds like a cheap contest for pirates.

The weather has been very hot.   I am not used to these kind of temperatures and I find them quite debilitating. 

At this point I can also say that I am tired of the prairies.   Granted the riding has not been difficult because there are few up-hills.  The flip side of that is that there are no down-hills.   You cannot coast.  The wind makes sure that you are pedaling constantly – it is a bit like being on a trainer.  With the scenery changing as rapidly as it does it is a like being on a trainer in the basement without a video to watch or music to listen to.   I am getting to be quite the expert on that canola plant…

Two nights ago we stayed in Moosomin, Saskatchewan.   Such an interesting name.  That made me think of some of towns that we visited and their mottos.   The one that really sticks in my mind was Medicine Hat: “the gas capital of the prairies”.  I think they are putting their medicine in the wrong place.  Such interesting names, though:  Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, Moosomin.  Not conventional names like we have in BC: Spuzzum, Salmon Arm, Surrey…

Interestingly when we passed through a small bend in the road called Qu’Appelle (NOT Ft. Qu’appelle) we found that it had quite a number of garages and car repair places and only one restaurant.  One of the garages was called Ass-Hole’s garage.   I am not kidding!  The restaurant was called Grouch’s café.   I think I don’t want to live there.

Telen writes:

On our way to Winnipeg today, we paid homage to Portage La Prairie.  I have heard of this place from a number of friends who used to live there, e.g. Dr. Ford and his wife Eileen, and Cathy Dexter.  Now I understand why they would want to leave Portage La Prairie!  Before we arrived, I googled Wikipedia about this town.  It apparently has a population of 15,000 and has the World’s Largest Coca Cola can.  This monument is made from a very large wooden barrel.  We found this attraction and I have the photo to prove it.  This is a bit tacky I know.

As I am writing this, a wonderful fireworks display happened a few blocks away from our 15^th floor hotel window.  I am not sure what the occasion is but, hey, the display was spectacular nevertheless.

I have decided that I will not attempt to ride on the highways.  The speed limit is 110 km/hr and the air draught is great.  I feel very nervous hearing these cars and trucks zooming by.  I have persuaded Rand to join a supported cycling tour in PEI later where traffic would be more manageable.

Fort Qu'Appelle

Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan

We spent yesterday in Regina visiting the city.  I have not been to Regina in forty years.   Some things have changed, some have stayed the same.   When you approach a city on a bicycle you get some warning that you are arriving when you seen a road that parallels the highway with tire shops, fast food joints, gas stations and so on.   When you get to Regina you arrive in the city abruptly.   You can see the city from a long way away and all of a sudden you are in the middle of it.  

Unlike Calgary, which is bicycle-hostile, Regina is bicycle-indifferent or more like bicycle-bewildered.  With so much flat land around you would think there would be a million cyclists out there.   We hardly saw any.  People would look at you on the bicycle with an expression of confusion and a little bit of fear.   Children, seeing me in my cycling outfit, would scream and grab onto their mother’s legs.   Mind you, that often happens to me regardless of whether I am in Regina or not – so, nothing new there.  In fact we found out that Regina does not expect people to be out of their cars.  We noticed a dearth of sidewalks but a plethora of roads. 

We had a visit with an old high school friend of mine who still lives here in Regina.  It was great to see him again after so many years.  We got into so much trouble together in our miss-spent youth and we recounted them to each other in exquisite detail.   We added all kinds of new stories.

Some of which may even have been true.

Today I rode from Regina to Ft. Qu’Appelle which is not a long ride.  However, the shoulder of the road, for quite a bit of the way, was ragged.   It had been paved in 1954 and patched in 1956.  Subsequently it had been subjected to prairies seasons and looked considerably worse for having done so.   I spent quite a bit of the time watching the road in front of me and it struck me that I was missing all the scenery.  So I looked up and, nope, hadn’t missed a thing.  Same darn canola plant.

I did beat Telen to Ft.Qu’Appelle by almost an hour.  And she was driving!   Mind you, after I departed she went grocery shopping and stopped at a Starbucks for a coffee. 

That still counts though, doesn’t it?

Ft. Qu’Appelle is a really nice little town right on Echo Lake in the Qu’Appelle Valley.   It has a really nice feel to it.  Kind of a warm, friendly feel.   Mind you it was 31 degrees out today, so that might account for the warm thingy.  We spent the afternoon wandering around the town and down on the beach.   Very nice and relaxing!

Pierre the Dream Walker

Regina, Saskatchewan

The prairies are deep.  The winters are like a deep freeze and the summers like a deep fryer.  But, having said that, they do have a beauty of their own.   Today I rode past immense canola fields that stretched as far as the eye could see.  Perfect oil for deep-frying.

Perhaps I am not getting enough carbs…

As I rode today I kept thinking over and over again just how large Canada is.   That was probably a function of being able to see to the horizon in all four directions.  It truly was awe-inspiring.

And fatiguing.

You ride and ride and you could swear that that stalk of wheat is the same one you have been seeing all day. The horizon is no closer and it appears not to have changed.  On the other hand, I could see Regina on the horizon when I was fifteen kilometers away.

Today I saw a cyclist ahead of me who appeared to be heavily loaded.  As I caught up to him I realized that he was walking and pushing a baby stroller.    His name was Pierre from Quebec and he was walking across the county starting from Tofino. In the baby stroller were his possessions. He had already walked from Vancouver to Acapulco, Mexico and from there to Quito, Ecuador.  This was his fourth time across Canada.   We chatted for quite a while and I asked him if he was doing it for charity but he said no, that he had gotten his pension and this is what he liked to do.   He did not want to go into Regina because there were too many people.  That got me to thinking that he would have to be very comfortable with his own company to walk those distances alone.  He seemed eager to chat and he told me he was writing book called “The Dream Walker” and he wanted to know my name.  As I left, I told him I hoped to see him in St.John’s. He smiled and agreed.   I kind of think of him as mobile hermit with a hint of Forrest Gump.

After all the cyclists I had seen riding across the country and Pierre the walker it made me wonder what it was about Canada that made so many people want to do this pilgrimage.

Once we got to Regina I took Telen on a little tour of my old stomping grounds.   We went by the house I lived in back in the 60’s and my old high school.  The house had changed considerably but the school almost not at all.   Weird.  Mind you, that was the 60’s, so according to the old saw that “if you remember the 60’s, you weren’t there…” perhaps my memory may be faulty.

Telen spent part of day checking out Moose Jaw and decided that she could have enjoyed herself more watching the Canola grow.  She passed me on the road and pulled over to give me an ice-cold Coca Cola.  Sinful, but soooooo wonderful!  That woman is a mistress of temptation...  

Let Pierre walk by himself, I’ll take the sins and temptations!

Canola fields as far as you can see

Re-evaluation

Swift Current, Saskatchewan

We are currently sitting in a B&B in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.   I have had to re-evaluate my whole idea of this ride across Canada.   I am going to have to ride parts of Canada.  It has taken me a while to get here.   I rationalized having to drive through BC to Calgary by saying that I had already ridden that bit.  From Calgary on, though, I would have to ride EFC.   For those of you who are not familiar with the term EFC is mean Every F Centimeter.  You can supply your own word for the F part. 

My ride down the Crowchild trail at 80 kph being chased by rabid Albertans did give me pause at riding in cities that are not bicycle-friendly.   Calgary is more bicycle-hostile.  So I will probably not ride through any cities of any size.  I did ride to Drumheller and I also rode to Brooks Alberta.   Both of which were very pleasant rides in spite of the winds but I found that my sojourn from riding did a number on my fitness.   I could do the distance but it cost.

Change of plan!   Time to think with my head not my pride.   My pride is currently huddling broken and weeping under a stone somewhere.  My disappointment is sitting in my heart and systematically leaching poison into my system.  My brain is going to have to take up the slack.   That is a lot to expect for an under-performing lump of fat.

Time to enjoy myself with my lovely and patient wife seeing the sights that Canada has to offer.   Ride when I can for a distance that I can manage without bonking (for those of you who do not know bicycle jargon- bonking does not mean trying to have sex while riding the bicycle).  Enjoy seeing the country from a bicycle and a car.  Share my joys at seeing the country with Telen and not be so selfish and miserable because I could not ride.  

I think I am there.   Seeing other cyclists on the road still stirs a little evil feeling of jealousy and inadequacy but I am getting over it.  Tomorrow we drive to Moose Jaw and I will ride to Regina.  

I can handle that. 

  lunch break on the prairies!

Drumheller

Drumheller, Alberta

After spending a week enjoying the most gracious hospitality at my sister Holly and her husband Jim’s place in Calgary I felt I had recovered enough to get back on the bike and head off into uncharted territory.   Up to now all the area was known to us and it was really a matter of remembering rather than discovering.  Now I was going to ride in an area of Canada I did not know.   To discover strange new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!  

How geeky is that!

I started off in mild drizzle and cool temperatures dressed in all my winter riding gear.   I thought this was July!  However, since this was the prairies I could see clear skies coming.  That is the nice thing about prairies – you don’t need weather forecasts- you can see the whole next week’s worth of weather as it approaches.  

After about 50k or so I started riding eastward and the sky cleared and the wind turned up and started blowing from the southeast.   This is the prairies and you can expect wind.  Not like this you can’t!  It kept increasing exponentially until I was down to 18 kph and struggling to keep it there.  Being as the wind was coming from the southeast it also wanted me to turn into the traffic.  Wobble, wobble, curse, curse.  Then to make matters worse as I was coming down the long winding road into Drumheller the wind got funneled by the hills into a furious crosswind that nearly dumped me.   So I got off the bike and walked until I was out of the wind tunnel.  Now that was embarrassing!   Now, I apologized to Mother Nature many times for my earlier slights and, if necessary, I will apologize further.   But really, enough is enough! 

Up until now the worst pests have been a few mosquitoes, a bear or two and possibly some Albertans with their hats on backwards.  In Drumheller they have dinosaurs.   And they don’t look well fed, either.  I expect to leave here tomorrow with an Albertasaurus or some other large carnivore doing the Jurassic Park thingy behind me.   I keep a glass of water on the table at all times and watch it regularly for unexplained ripples.

Telen has been trying to fill me up with all kinds of great meals.   I am hoping that I will not gain weight rather than losing it on this trip.   Nothing like finishing a grueling day of riding to a wonderfully prepared meal.   I feel like a professional cyclist!   Except for the 18 kph ride, of course.

Telen writes:

The prairies certainly have a beauty of its own.  The mornings tend to be calm, the wind then picks up by noon.  We had a 1 hour tour on the Seven Wonders of the Badlands today at the Royal Tyrell Museum.  The wind was really gusty.  Sand kept being blown into my eyes.  I then appreciated the struggle that Rand had with the wind yesterday riding the last 40 km into Drumheller.  The sunny weather now means pleasant camping and lots of great outdoors cooking.  Rand is still not 100% and I have been putting on the team doctor’s hat to ensure that he does not over doing things.  The Royal Tyrell museum certainly is worth the trip though.  Highly recommended!