Day 45 Owen Sound
Tobermory to Owen Sound
Distance 131 km

Day 46 Toronto (rest day)
Owen Sound to Alliston
Distance 160km

Since we’ve had seven days of riding, people are tired and have been anxiously awaiting the rest day in Alliston, ourselves included.
My folks are picking us up and will transport us back to civilization-we are really looking forward to seeing our family, and our cat, who probably doesn’t care whatsoever that we have been away, and will be visiting her (making a special trip as she is staying at Lewis’ cousin’s place.)

Someone got to lookin’ at a map of our destinations and figured out a way to shave about 40km off the ride yesterday; the new proposed route kept people on the highway and prevented them from seeing the gorgeous scenery leaving Tobermory.
I was tempted to take the short cut, but since we are bureaucratic masochists who must follow the rules in the pursuit of pain, we decided to take the regular route, and pulled into camp hours after everyone else, who were all sitting back, showered, relaxed with beer in hand.
It’s hard to argue how beautiful the scenery was to people who have kicked back and are half buzzed by the beer and sun.

The following day-the ride into Alliston was a long one at 166 km.
Again, everyone except for 5 people decided to take the regular route; since I knew my folks were picking us up, I couldn’t wait to get back to camp, so again was very tempted to take the short cut.
Again, my masochistic tendencies persuaded me to ride 166km instead of approximately 115km-I dragged myself away from the ‘fun people’ as I have come to call them, to go on my journey.
We were warned by the organizer on the map that the course was hilly; I was not prepared for the frequency and pitch of the hills (Beaver Valley which is part of the Niagara Escarpment.) I felt like we were reliving the Rockies and Northern Ontario all over again, my poor legs were crying out for mercy.
For the first 100 km or so it was nonstop hills, and I felt as if I did not have one more ounce of physical, emotional, or mental strength to get me through this ride; I think because I was so looking forward to the rest day, I just wanted to get the ride over with.
I had a little breakdown on the bike, moaning and groaning as I pedaled; hoping that doing so would somehow give me strength (it never seems to.)
Poor Lewis was also feeling beaten and had to listen to me whinge as well.

This aside, the scenery was pretty spectacular as we climbed to the top of the escarpment and were treated with terrific views of southern Ontario.
It’s too bad that people missed the beautiful country side, as it is very pretty up there, with charming little farm houses and old barns that dot the landscape.
Both Lewis and I hit our all time record for downhill speed on County Road 12 outside Honeytown; I hit 77km/hour and Lewis 79 km-what a rush!
We both had big grins on our faces after that descent, which temporarily wiped away any complaints I had about the ride.
We ended up shaving 10km off the ride by taking another road that had us descend for about 2-3 km on a spectacular road that let us down off the escarpment and onto flatter terrain-that too was thrilling.

Eventually we pulled into camp after what seemed like an eternity, and pulled in to find our group gathered around the organizer, who had dropped in to drop a bombshell-our beloved driver, our supplier of sustenance, support, maps, water, cake, ice cream, and most importantly-alcohol, had been removed from us, for reasons unknown to us.
We are left to speculate and have suspicions as to the reasons, but have not been told.
We are all very upset and angry about the trade, and when we left the group for Toronto everyone was still locked in a serious debate as to how we would remedy the situation.
We want our driver back!

Day 44-Tobermory, Ontario
Manitoulin Island to Tobermory (ferry crossing day)
Distance: 44 km
Temp: hot

Since we caught the ferry to Tobermory, our riding day was much shorter than usual.
We had to have all of our stuff on the truck by 7:00am, and be at the ferry dock by 8:40am, 35 km away, which wasn’t a problem (for some getting up early and having the stuff loaded was the problem, me included.)

Turns out that last night after the horse-shoers packed in their rowdy game, a bunch of teens decided to take up what sounded to be a very violent and loud game of tag.
We were all glad when one of them was wounded and started to cry, thus ending the game past 11pm.
Since Hedwig has declared war on us of late (over more than a week of his unwelcome and unwanted company) we struggled and battled our way over the relatively short distance to the ferry.
I am even more convinced of my earlier stated theory that Environment Canada runs a racket; they report that there are prevailing winds from the west to east, but for the past week, as mentioned we haven’t had any tailwinds.
I think that they figured that they don’t know what they’re doing, so rely on past years’ predictions, trying to establish a trend of something; I mean, I don’t know-how are these people employed with such a bad track record, surely there should be some accountability here?

Lewis and I spent the 1 hour and 50 minute ferry ride hand feeding Cheetos and french fries to sea gulls that were drafting in the wake of the ferry, it was lots of fun watching their aerial acrobatics as they twisted, turned and dove for those morsels of cheesy goodness.

The campsite we’re staying is no longer open to the public, so we’re pretty much alone here, except for a few people who have been coming here for years, our tour included.
The owner obviously doesn’t have the heart to tell everyone to bugger off.
It’s a great campsite however, even if it has that abandoned feel to it, as it’s amongst a forest, so we can hear the comforting sound of rustling leaves in the background.


For pics of the past 9 albums (if you are really interested and have time) see the following link, to see the other albums scroll down to 'browse all albums (9)' and hopefully it should work:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=w1ru7rm.7a4o9hku&Uy=4s3j7t&Ux=0

Day 43-Manitowaning, Ontario
Massey to Manitowaning, Manitoulin Island
Distance: 111 km
Temp: 26 degrees

Thankfully our galley crew breakfast was successful, both in reviews and in our compatibility-we were all pleasantly surprised and happy to begin the day without drama.
BP and I seemed to have moved on from our last spat and have managed to find a common ground-I am very impressed with our grown-up behaviour and ability to get along.

We started the ride on a country road, which although gravelly, was relatively traffic-free.
After stopping at Tim’s for a tea we set out onto a much hillier and busier route; the first half of the ride again being terrifying due to the complete lack of shoulder, and aggressive holiday traffic.
A couple of people pulled into camp in near tears due to the traffic, as one rider was very nearly hit in a similar situation that we faced yesterday with an overtaking car coming from the other direction.
At dinner we have all been sitting around and plotting ploys for revenge on malicious drivers.

As we were riding to Manitoulin Island, the terrain very quickly changed-we could see one of our favorite haunts, Killarney in the background.

The campground we’re staying in is another great one; as we’re on an island, we’re staying beside the water in a very pretty setting.
I was chatting with the owners and we were exchanging frightening animal stories (always a favorite campsite pastime)-they won as they showed me some pictures of a guy who had been mauled by a polar bear (he survived, bear lost, but not before performing what looked like crude surgery on the guy as he was missing parts and things just did not look at all right in the pictures.)
I felt quite queasy after seeing them (e-mail me if you wan to see them!) and wandered away from them, back to my tent where I made sure I checked for polar bears before going to bed. (I didn’t see any.)

Unfortunately we have a very rowdy group of people having a ‘horse-shoe throwing’ competition right beside our campsite.
It looks like a really boring game, but they seem to be having a blast tossing these things to and fro, as they cheer whenever one lands it seems.
Since we’re catching the ferry very early tomorrow morning for Tobermory, we all need to get to bed early.
I hope they pack it in early as I think the horses need their shoes back.