Day 86

We left Thunder Bay half-way through the day and started to see Lake Superior, and some of the great scenery we were going to start experiencing. We managed to bike 60 km just past the town of Pass Lake, in a picnic area.

We woke up to heavy downpours, some of the worst we had seen on the trip so far. We biked 60 km straight to Nipigon for lunch at "the office". The rain was coming down hard enough that it actually started to sting. We took a 4 hour break in the town, loaded up on groceries and managed to bike another 50 km towards the town of Rossport. We set up our tent on the side of Highway 17, and the rain was starting to die down. The hills were starting to get a lot bigger again though.

not pictured: massive hills all around us

The hills along the North shore were pretty rough, not as bad as BC, but still tough. We also had headwinds ever since we left the prairies. We met a guy who was walking across Canada with a loaded cart of bags and water. He was just doing it for fun and couldn't speak any English. He was Japanese, and luckily Will is fluent in speaking two words of Japanese: konichiwa and arigato, so after repeating those words for several minutes we parted ways with our new best friend and kept riding along. We stopped for lunch in Terrace Bay, where we had a great view of Lake Superior again. We finished the day camping behind a gas station at the turnoff for Marathon.

 

"I swear I can throw this rock to the other side"

The next day we had a very late start because Will lost his phone charger and had to bike the 4 km into the town of Marathon. We still managed to get 130 km done by the end of the day. Had lunch in the middle of nowhere at a truck stop. We also saw a statue dedicated to Winnie the Pooh when we stopped in White River. It was where the black bear who inspired the children's books was originally purchased. We camped on a dirt road, not next to it, on it.

 

near lake Super-Eeyore

By this time we wanted to make it to Sault Ste Marie in two days, and we still had 280 km to go. With the hills we were facing, it was going to be a challenge. We stopped for lunch in Wawa,  a town famous for having two very large statues of geese, one named Wa and the other named Wa as well, probably. The weather was still really favorable, so we managed to bike 142 km by the end of the day. We set up our tent across the street from the campground. Before we finally set up our campsite, Will passed Harry without realizing it. Will kept on biking and biking because he thought Harry was still ahead of him. Finally, he took a break and Harry caught up to him, but it was the main reason we managed 142 km.

Cuisine chez "this is definitely illegal to have a camp fire on the road"

Luckily the conditions were still great to make it to the Soo by the end of the day. Our biker friends that we met in Clarenville, Newfoundland (Kibby and Daman, the people we did the Maclean's interview with) were already in Sault Ste Marie and we had planned on meeting them at a local bike shop. The bike shop Velorution has a spot behind their store where they allow touring bikers to camp for free. When we arrived, we were delighted to find that Kibby and Daman were there, along with about 6 other bike tourers. We had a great time catching up, sharing stories, and just having a great time with people who shared our interests.

dank

We took another half day off in the city. We bought groceries, fixed up our bikes, and watched the new Batman movie, and then we were on our way. We didn't leave until about 7:00 pm so we only managed to get in about 45km, but it was still better than nothing. Again we set up our tent behind a gas station, because we wanted to go to it in the morning.

After we had our breakfast and coffees at the gas station we were off on our home stretch towards Aurora. We stopped in Thessalon for an all-you-can-eat brunch, which was amazing. Another 100 km after that we stopped for the day in a small town called Spanish. We camped behind an abandoned bowling alley. We kept being woken up in the middle on the night by transport trucks, whose driver's apparently never sleep.

We took a short break in the town of Blind River, where we recorded the video which may seem to have nothing to do with biking across Canada, but it actually has everything to do with it, somehow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66vLXqNVQg

The next day was our earliest start, 8:45, because we thought there may be a possibility to catch the 10:00 pm ferry by the end of the day. It was going to take some hard work and luck, because we would have to bike a personal best of 160 km. We took our lunch break in Espanola at the office. After that we turned south of Highway 6 towards Manitoulin Island. The hills got a little bigger right before we hit the island and we also had to deal with some very strong winds. However, we persevered and managed to hit our mark of 160 km by 8:00. We arrived in Tobermory at 11:30 where we camped beside a baseball field.

Office Supplies

Here is a video of what life was like living in a tent for 3 months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvA3NtnsaYg&feature=youtu.be

From Tobermory we just dug deep and cycled, 140 kms each for two days, and ended up in Aurora to finish our trip on the 25th of July, Harry's birthday. In total we biked 8030 kilometers in 86 days. We're really happy to accomplish this, and we're ecstatic about how much money has been raised for the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. Thank you so much for reading the blog. Take care!