Day 37-White Lake Provincial Park
Terrace Bay to White Lake Provincial Park
Distance: 153km
Temp: 33 degrees

Half way!
Today Megan met us at the half way point on our ride, to celebrate the half way mark of our tour- 3 759km, and 3 759 km to go!
We had a nice lunch while overlooking Lake Superior; we thought it such a civilized way to do the ride and suggested that she meet us every day at the half way point (no such luck.)
There is a group called Bikes For Bibles who are traversing the country at the same time as us; we’ve crossed paths a couple of times (either they clean out all the ice cream and pie at the stops, or we do-whoever gets there first.)
But they have volunteers who cook for them the whole way, and supply lunch along the way as well.
A few of us have considered converting just for the food-I’d say it’d be worth it.
We notice that some strangers are especially nice to us-like overly nice, and we finally figured out that we were being mistaken for the Bible Bikers-but we didn’t have the heart to tell them otherwise, and basked in their pious glow.

Today’s ride was probably one of the toughest rides of the tour so far, as those northern Ontario hills that we have been threatened with showed up with a vengeance; as we climbed over 1, 400 meters today.
The worst (or best depending on how you feel about hills) came early in the ride-it was so steep I thought my bike might topple over backwards-every fiber of my body was screeching for oxygen, and I had no more to give.
For the first 80km it was just hill after endless hill, and each one seemed steeper and longer than the next.
By the time we got to the lunch stop at the half way point in Marathon (town motto: “Superior in the Long Run”, get it?) we were all so pooched and wanted to camp right there for the night.
It was all I could muster to get back on the bike and continue on.

Shortly after leaving from the lunch stop we saw a black bear and her cub.
Lewis got to see my theory proven, that bears are like spiders and are more afraid of us than we are of them, as it started to turn to leave.
We got to spend a couple of minutes staring at them before they thought better of it and made their way into the bush.

Tonight the Aussies and their crew prepared another great meal for dinner-they are definitely winning in the meals department.