Montreal

This is the third large city we have visited in just a few days.  Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal.  Enough already!  I think we are ready to leave “big city Canada” behind and head into more manageable territory.

our reception crossing into Quebec

Ottawa is a fairly nice city.   I am not saying I want to live there, but as far as eastern cities it is not bad.   There is certainly a greater sense of history here than we don't have in Victoria.  The houses are all brick and very picturesque and there are monuments scattered around everywhere.   We did the usual tourist things; explored Sparks street, saw the Houses of Parliament and went for a bike ride along the Rideau Canal. It started to rain when we got to Parliament.  I thought that was fitting.

Riding along the Rideau Canal

The ride along the Rideau Canal was very nice.   It was as if someone had put a bike trail through Beacon Hill Park.  But dead flat!  Take the prairies; add a few trees, some rocks, a lake or two, and a huge dose of humidity and you have Ontario.  Since Calgary we have been riding through a heat wave. When we got to southern Ontario they just added humidity to make sure the perspiration did not evaporate. 

I am kind of missing hills – I have not seen many since the Rockies.   There are rolling hills around Lake Superior, but from Sault Ste. Marie on there is nothing.  I know, I know – be careful what you wish for.

The ride from Ottawa to Montreal was a great ride, albeit wet.   Quebec has developed a series of bike maps that they call the Route Vert.   These are roads chosen for their rideablity and scenery.

waiting on the ferry to cross onto the Loyalist Parkway

(yes, I know it is out of chronological order- but, hey, it was a good photo!)

 And Quebec has paved shoulders!   Yes!  Remember I said it started to rain when we got to Parliament?   Well, it rained all the next day with a strong wind coming from the northeast.  Translation:  rain and wind in my face for the whole ride.  The Semi’s driving by tended to give me a nice cool shower as well. I am not complaining!   The ride was great!  When we got to Montreal I will admit to being wet and kind of cold but also quite loaded with endorphins. 

I had a riding partner for a while.  Her name was Mary and she was riding across Canada unsupported and fully loaded.  Made me feel inadequate!  She is from Portland, Oregon, had started from Glacier National Park and is headed for St. John’s NFLD.  It was nice to ride with someone for a while so that there was some conversation.   As much as I am comfortable with my own company I do find the conversation quite predictable and boring.

One weird thing:  I look for McDonald’s restaurants when I ride.   I don’t normally eat there but when I see one I know that there is a clean rest room, air-conditioning and (currently) free coffee.  Just like in Ireland when I would be looking for pubs even though I don’t drink.  Interesting how your priorities change under different circumstances.

Today we explored Montreal.   Our hotel is right on the edge of “the Village”.   The Village is Montreal’s version of Vancouver’s West End except bigger, more flamboyant and more swish.  We went down to Old Montreal and poked around there for a bit.  It really reminds me of a European city with its narrow, cobbled streets and tall stone buildings.

Telen in Old Montreal

The Canadian souvenir shops with their junk and really tacky t-shirts spoil the ambience somewhat.  Not to mention the glaring signs advertising poutine and Montreal smoked meat sandwiches…

  We then explored Rue St. Catherine and Rue St. Denis.  We saw the St. Denis Theatre where "Just for Laughs" is held.  Rue St. Denis is loaded cheek to jowl with small shops and restaurants for as far as the eye can see.   Most of Rue St. Catherine is closed off to vehicle traffic and is cheek to jowl with people.   Maybe Government Street could learn by example…

So, tonight we are off to find Montreal smoked meat sandwiches and poutine.   I hope we survive.

     

Post Toronto

It is no wonder the wishes of the west are of little importance to the government of Canada.  Most of the people in Canada are in Toronto.  I cannot believe the size of that city!   It seems to go on forever and it is crowded.  While we were white-knuckling our way down the highway into the city trying desperately to keep up with the traffic at the same time dodging the homicidal maniacs driving alongside us we could see the opposing lanes not moving at all due to the volume of traffic.  There will be no one in Toronto this weekend we figured.  Ha!

Donna, a remarkable young lady that we met on our China trip, hosted us.  http://www.donnasironmanjourney.ca She put us up for the entire time we were in Toronto and did not even blink when we showed up at her door white-faced, shaking and crying from Toronto city driving.  Driving in Toronto is similar to Running the bulls at Pamplona except, unlike the bulls; the drivers here are paranoid schizophrenic, homicidal maniac, suicidal, borderline personalities. 

On Saturday morning we enjoyed breakfast with Telen’s old friends Lee and Mike.  Breakfast was at nine AM and we did not leave the restaurant until noon.  The waitress was asking us if we wanted the lunch menu.   We weren’t eating the whole time, but I did drink a lot of coffee.  By the time we left I could barely walk from all the shaking.

Saturday was the hottest day of the year in Toronto with Humidex warnings and the weather office suggesting that you stay inside with air conditioning and lots of fluids.   So, we went for a bike ride tour of the city.  We saw all the tourist sites of Toronto – Queen’s Quay, the CN tower, Cherry beach etc etc. We also saw the Caribana – a Mardi gras type of parade put on by the Caribbean community here.  There were some costumes that were remarkable for being so elaborate that they needed wheels and some costumes that were remarkable for their brevity.  Because of the heat and humidity there was a steady stream of people being carted away with heat exhaustion.  The other probable cause may have been extreme hunger – the air was filled with an odor that reminded me of my college days. 

The CN tower seems to be a little like driving a hummer or wearing lots of leather and driving a Harley.  Trying really hard to prove to everyone how cool or tough you are.  If you really are cool or tough you don’t need to write it out for everyone else to read.  The world’s largest lake, the world’s largest fresh-water island, the world’s longest fresh-water beach, the second largest country in the world, the world’s tallest useless free-standing phallic symbol.

Are we going for the world’s most insecure country?

On Monday of the long weekend went to the touristiest place in the world:  Niagara Falls.  This makes no sense.   Go riding on the hottest day of the year and going sightseeing on the busiest weekend of the summer.  I think the heat and crowds have turned my brain to Jell-o. 

Niagara Falls is truly remarkable!  It is hard to comprehend just how powerful it is.  The amount of water, the sound and the sheer size is over-whelming.  So are the crowds.  The journey there was well worth it.

Telen and some guy at Niagara Falls

Today I had one of the best rides of the trip.  I rode the Loyalist Parkway to Kingston.  The day was a little cooler, the winds were light and the road had really wide shoulders.  There was very little traffic and even a little seven-minute ferry ride!  The Loyalist Parkway runs along the Lake Ontario waterfront so the breeze coming off the water was cooling.  At the end of the ride, as I was coming into Kingston, I still had some kick left and managed to crank it up and look good for Telen who was waiting in a parking lot for my arrival.  She was so impressed that she could not help rolling her eyes and shaking her head in approval.

Ruby on the Loyalist Parkway

Telen writes:

I was really stressed driving in the 12 lane Hwy 401 in Toronto.  I had a death grip on the steering wheel the whole time.  Rand tried to help by keeping his “back seat driver’s comments” to a minimum! 

It was a pleasure to visit friends who offered us such wonderful hospitality.  Niagara Falls never ceases to amaze though.

This is the bicentennial year celebrating the 1812 war between Canada and the States.  Apparently Canada and the US both declare they won the war so I am rather confused.  Today as we travelled east from Toronto towards Kingston, we witnessed numerous historical sites dating back to late 1700’s.  Every street seems to have the Canadian flag flying in front of the houses.  A sense of patriotism fills my heart.

Wasaga Beach

Since we have been going through Northern Ontario it seems that we are seeing a lot of signs of economic slow-down.   As we roll into a small community the first thing to greet us are dusty motels with overgrown parking lots, boarded up windows and faded for-sale signs twisting in the wind.  The streets of these towns seem deserted and depressed with empty shops and few people.   What is happening here?   There is a feeling of the dirty thirties – all we need is a dust storm or two.  Where is everyone?

We found them!

 When we crossed from Manitoulin Island to Tobermory on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula it felt like a surprise party.   It was like everyone jumped out at once and yelled, “Here we are!”  What a contrast!   Tobermory is very much a boater’s haven.   There are hundreds of very expensive boats, very well heeled people and gallons of booze.  The shops in Tobermory were hopping.   Going from extreme under-stimulation to extreme over-stimulation overwhelmed Telen and me.   Is there not a happy medium? 

We stayed overnight in Tobermory at a very nice B&B and then headed into town to do the much overdo laundry.   We felt a little out of place showing up at a posh B&B covered with smudges and smelling strongly of suntan lotion, mosquito repellant, perspiration, and a number of days of sketchy showers.  Although the owner of the B&B was very nice she kept her distance and covered her nose and mouth with a cloth that she kept spraying with Febreze.

Our next stop was a place called Sauble Beach.  When we rolled into town we both looked at each other and thought that we had travelled way too far south.   What was 11 km of sandy beach and warm water doing in Ontario?  The main street was filled with shops selling beach paraphernalia (all selling the same beach paraphernalia…), ice cream, snacks and food.  The sidewalks were crowded with people walking about dressed in shorts and bathing suits.  Culture shock!

I did not know such a place existed in the middle of the continent.  Lake Huron was frozen as far as the eye could see a few months ago and will be again in a few months.  Why is the water warm?  I am so confused!  However, judging from the huge crowds here the secret has only been kept from us.  11 km of beach that is packed from one end to the other!  

So, we stayed an extra day.

We rented a funny little cabin just up from the beach.   It had all the comforts of home squeezed into the size of a Volkswagen set up on blocks.  The shower and the sink drained out just under the cabin.   If you looked directly down into the shower drain you could see the weeds under the floor.   I did not want to ask about the toilet.

Today we travelled to Wasaga beach, which is on the Georgian Bay side of the Bruce Peninsula.  Apparently it is the longest fresh-water beach in the world.   Another one of these superlatives that we seem so fond of.  Before we went to our accommodation we decided to go into the tourist area on the main beach.  It was like Puerto Vallarta without the charm and restraint.   Loud music, frantic activity, hundred of little shops selling complete junk and incredible crowds.  The atmosphere was different from Sauble beach in that the crowds were mostly young women in Victoria Secret bikinis giggling and shrieking at each other in order to attract the attention of the young boys strutting around trying to show off their muscles and lack of cognitive function.  The overheard conversations were so vacuous that they were sucking up all the sand off the beach.  We decided that we would only spend the night and head off again in the morning.   This was not our scene.   When we got to our rented cabin we changed our mind.   It is a nice little place with a picnic table and barbecue out front, separate bedroom and about 5 minutes walk from a different part of the beach. 

So, we are staying an extra day.  Imagine, two beach days in Ontario.  Call Ripley’s Believe it or Not!

Sauble Beach, Ontario

Tobermory, Ontario

Manitoulin Island was a mixed blessing.  The good part about it was the cycling.  We had decided to stay there for 2 days to do some R&R and do some cycling together.  The main roads had great shoulders and no trucks whereas the secondary roads were paved and almost no traffic.   We had great weather, albeit fairly warm.  So, for the first time in this entire journey we actually cycled together and really enjoyed it.  In spite of not cycling since we left Victoria Telen was still kickin’ butt on the hills.

The other side of the coin was where we elected to stay.   Overpriced for what you got and what you got was not much.   The “cabin” was really a wood frame shed with some bunk beds built in.  They did not supply linen so we used our sleeping bags and set up our own kitchen outside the front door.  We probably would have been better off in our tent.  The toilets were privies (for those of you unfamiliar with a privy – it is a euphemism for “outhouse”) and the showers were large plastic bags that you hoisted up on a pulley system and gradually released the water onto yourself out of a nozzle the size of a quarter.  They had a pool, but it was tiny and they charged extra to use it.  A big sign on the door of the office said “ No refund for early departure”.  Perhaps an ominous portent.

One thing I did learn, however, was a clue about Telen’s possible ancestry.  The place where we stayed had a wolf-howl nature walk (cost extra…) that we partook of to try to enhance our stay there.   Their naturalist (whose qualifications were that he was willing to howl on command) took us out on a nature walk to tell us about wolves and to try to get us all to howl like wolves to elicit a response from the wolves in the area.  There were about 15 people on this walk and I am sure, from the noise we made, that any wolf in the area left hurriedly to avoid the clamor.  We stopped a few times along the way and did some group howls with various types of harmony and listened intently for the wolves to howl back.   Our accent was probably too thick or too offensive to the wolves because they did not answer.  Not really a surprise.  Once we got back to the camp we had a wolf-howling contest.  When it came to Telen’s turn she let out this blood-curdling, neck-hair raising, goose-bump raising howl that silenced everyone in the circle.  I was sitting beside her and in the stunned silence I said, “Wow!”  Telen looked at me, bared her fangs and snarled.  Good thing the next day was laundry day.  It certainly explains her fear of silver bullets.  Thank goodness it was only a half-moon.

I received the dubious award of “Elder Wolf”. Not Alpha, not Rogue – Elder.  And here I am travelling with someone who may have unleashed her inner werewolf.

On one of the rides we went down to a town called South Baymouth where the ferry to the mainland leaves.  We decided to have lunch and, since everyone seemed to make it, I had fish and chips.  We are very far from the ocean so I asked the waitress what the fish was. 

She said, “Whitefish”

I said, “Perch?”

“No sir,” she said, “It’s a fish – swims.”

“What’s it called?”

“We don’t call it, sir, it won’t come, we have to catch it”

“What type of fish is it?”

“White fish”

“What’s its name”?

“Who?”

“The white fish”

“That’s right”

“What’s right?”

“The white fish”

Etc. etc. etc.

We finally left Manitoulin Island today and took the Che-Chemaun ferry to Tobermory.  Manitoulin Island itself was very nice albeit every business and home seemed to be for sale.  The place we stayed left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths but the strange white fish seemed to help out a little.  It was nice to ride with Telen for a few days, however, with the full moon coming up, I am a little worried about her chasing me on the bike rather than riding on her bike with me. 

Telen Writes

I am so happy to feel clean again after 3 nights in the overpriced cabin.  Tonight we are staying at a B & B called Three Waters overlooking Lake Huron.  Just beautiful!  I was just as shocked as Rand and the other people in the wolf-howling group when this high pitched howl came out of my throat.  Perhaps I have some hidden talent as yet undiscovered, or perhaps this is a cry of shock after the camp charged us $15 per person to participate in this moonlight hike/wolf howling thing. 

 

Manitoulin Island

We have left the rolling hills and rugged coastline of Lake Superior.  We are now rolling along the flatter more open scenery of Lake Huron.  Both lakes are making a good imitation of the ocean and whenever I see them it gives me a little twinge of homesickness. 

As we drove from Sault Ste. Marie to Blind River I thought the roads were looking pretty good.  There was lots of visibility and some shoulders.  The truck drivers have always been very courteous and given me lots of room. The RV drivers have all been really ancient and don’t even see over the steering wheels. They work on the principle that you cannot hit what you cannot see.  I had not seen too many RV’s for the last few days so I was getting confident.  The next leg of the journey was from Blind River to Espanola.  It is about 100 k and the roads were looking good.

Bring it on!

Yesterday the weather was cool with a light breeze – perfect for riding.   Telen said she would drive on ahead and meet me someplace along the way for lunch.  What a perfect ride!  Everyone should have such a great support team.

I got a call after about an hour and a half from Telen saying that she was stopped at a town called Massey that was about halfway and would wait for me there.   She said it was about 15 k from where I was.   Perfect.  I was getting a bit hungry.   I rode for about 20 minutes or so and came to a sign that said, “Massey – 20 k”.  Telen does not have a great sense of distance.   When I arrived in Massey I realized that we were in fact 80% of the way to Espanola.  I had ridden 80 k without a break, so the lunch was wonderful and I realized I only had 20 more kilometers to go. 

The shoulders on the road were not as wide as I had anticipated and in fact in some cases they were only about 10 cm wide.  More like ankles than shoulders.  Remember I said that the truck drivers were courteous?  Well, the logging truck drivers are the exception that proves the rule. 

Just as I was leaving Massey a truck came so close to me that I dodged onto the unpaved shoulder.  I hit the gravel going about 35 kph.  In a car, that is parking speed.  On a bike that is highway speed.  My tires are about 23 cm wide with no tread and the gravel is loose gravel.  Toastmasters would not have been proud of me at that point.  My speech was rather forceful but the vocabulary was limited to one word spoken very loudly and repetitively.  It is not a word that I use a lot, but I think I may have used up my quota for my lifetime.

How I kept my balance I do not know.  Probably fear had something to do with it.  All I could see was sharp-edged gravel and all I could feel was how thin and fragile cycling clothes are.  My heart rate spiked at that point. 

I spent a fair amount of time trying to get my courage back.  Even while I was standing on the shoulder and a truck would go by I would flinch.  For the next 10 k or so every time I heard a truck approaching I would stop and get off the bike. 

After a while, though, I got back in the groove but my shoulders would end up around my ears at the sound of an approaching truck.  What a wuss!  Shortly after that I saw Telen in the distance on the side of the road.   It had started to rain and she thought I probably could use a ride and a drink.  What she did not realize was that the drink I needed was not water…  I don’t know how many times she has saved me on this trip but I think she may have secured her place in heaven.  Even God needs someone to pick up the garbage.

As a result of all this we decided to change our route.   Instead of following route 17 (in Ontario, they call route 1 seventeen –in keeping with not knowing which way is North) we decided to head south to Manitoulin Island – which is the largest freshwater island in the world.  What a pleasant surprise awaited us. Wide roads, wide shoulders and few, if any, trucks.   The landscape is totally different as well – flatter, softer and mellower.  It has a Salt-Spring Island kind of feel to it.  After we leave here we have a ferry-ride to the Bruce Peninsula. 

I am liking it!

 On the shores of Gichi-Gumi by the shining Big Sea Water

 

Sault Ste. Marie

The roads through the Canadian Shield are scary if you are on a bicycle.  I started out from Thunder Bay on a wide road with wide shoulders on a day that looked perfect for cycling.  The terrain was rolling hills; it was relatively cool with a light wind.  I thought to myself that this was finally the cycling I was looking for.   I was in the groove – feeling mellow, feeling strong, feeling great.  After about 30 k I saw a vehicle that looked suspiciously like ours coming towards me.   It was Telen, telling me that about 1 k up the road the shoulder disappeared.  Loose gravel from there on.  Sigh.  With the Semi’s taking up the road, the RV’s having no idea what they’re doing and no shoulder it was just too dangerous for me and Telen was having little heart-attacks at the thought of me riding there.  So, back in the car again.

We arrived in Nipigon.   It is a very nice little town based on a sawmill that shut down a few years ago.  Most people have moved out but a few die-hards have remained.   Everyone was very friendly and welcoming and we booked a room at the Beaver Hotel.   Seriously.   At the information desk they told us that there was a restaurant in town at the Sunny-side Cabins.   We walked there with a little trepidation but found a wonderful surprise.   It was a small café with an outdoor deck overlooking the Nipigon River, very friendly service and good food.   The waiter was a wealth of information on the area and directed us to a hiking trail where we went for a hike.

The next place we stayed was at Ney’s Provincial Park.   Ney’s used to be a prisoner of war site during the Second World War.  It is right on a beach of Lake Superior.  With the sandy beach, the crashing waves and the cool breeze coming off the water it was like being back in Victoria.   Looking at Lake Superior is like looking at the ocean minus the salt, whales, seals, etc. etc.  It made us a little homesick in spite of the striped uniforms, and the guards making us walk in formation.

After leaving Ney’s Provincial Park we arrived in Wawa.  Wawa is really the name of the town, not their feelings about living so far from anywhere.  I understand it means white goose in Ojibwa and they have a large number of sculptures of geese in the village.   Still, I carefully kept my backpack hanging strategically very low. 

That night we stayed at a very nice cabin that had all the amenities.   We were very glad to be inside that night.   We got hit with a storm like I have never seen.   The lightning flashes coming through the window were like the flickering of a defective florescent tube accompanied by a steady drum-roll.   And rain!  We think we get rain in Victoria – Hah!   Rain in Victoria is like two old ladies having a squabble – gray, dull and goes on forever.  Rain here is like two teenage boys having a fight – lots of energy, pyrotechnics, melodrama and then it is over.  The road in front of our cabin was like a river.  I am glad we were not camping!

On our way through Lake Superior Provincial Park we came across three small lakes called Dad, Mom and Baby lakes.   Very cute.   About ten k down the road we came across Orphan Lake.   We wondered what that little lake had done thousands of years ago that it got tossed out of the family.   It looked perfectly fine – except, perhaps, at little lonely.

Now we are in Sault Ste. Marie.  We booked a motel over the Internet.  Sometimes that has its drawbacks.  Apparently the motel is undergoing major renovations.  To get in we had to go through a tiny little side door that took us into the basement.  We were hard-pressed to find the reception area, which was a temporary desk and a very dusty looking receptionist.  The room was ok but we found wearing the hard-hats and steel toed boots at bit of a nuisance especially in the shower…   No need for a wake-up call, the hammering and drilling did the trick!

We are still in Northern Ontario, which I find strange.  We travelled out of southern Manitoba and into Northern Ontario.   I know that there is a lot of Ontario north of here and a whole lot of Canada north of here but somehow this is still Northern Ontario.  The US is just across the canal from here and you can see it if you want.  Yet we are still in Northern Ontario.  Someone needs to tell these Ontarians that they are not the centre of the Universe.  They call themselves Central Canada even though they are really east and they think that West is north.

No wonder Canada has an identity Crisis!

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?