Sandi and Lewis' ride across Canada

Day 42-Massey, Ontario Thessalon to Massey Distance: 130 km Temp: 26 degrees So far today’s ride was one of the worst so far; the traffic was horrendous, probably owing to it being a long weekend, but not helping matters was the absence or decayed state of the shoulders (6 inches if we were lucky.) I have never been more terrified on the bike as I was today, pulling into camp a twisted knot of spent adrenaline and nerves. The worst moment was when we had a massive SUV overtaking a truck, coming in the other direction, so at the point they passed us we had a tractor-trailer, an SUV, and ourselves sharing a very small road. This SUV must have been going over 140km/hour trying to pass this truck-so having a heaving mass of metal bulleting towards you at such high speeds gets the heart rate near the red line. At the last minute we decided to ditch the road, and jump onto the gravel shoulder, forcing us off our bikes. We were jumping up and down and giving the one-finger-salute we were so ...

Day 41-Thessalon, Ontario Pancake Bay Provincial Park to Thessalon Distance: 162 km Temp: hot Another hundred-miler today-the hills weren’t as bad as the past few days as we are now out of the Canadian Shield, which is responsible for most of The Big Hills. We had one really steep and long hill heading into Sault St. Marie (The Soo) which had my muscles gasping for air, reminding me of little baby birds, mouths agape, screaming for food. We stopped off in the Soo for a free coffee, offered by ‘JJ’ who had done the ‘Tour D’Afrique’ last year; some riders met him at a coffee shop yesterday and they got to chattin’ about his adventure, and ours. He owns a hotel in town, and obviously felt some camaraderie with us, and offered us the beverage, to which we all gladly agreed. Afterwards we set out through some of the streets of the town; it’s quite a pretty town. The ride today was a mix of undulating hills, treed terrain, and open fields-the area is becoming noticeably more populated, as th...

Day 40-Pancake Bay, Ontario Wawa to Pancake Bay Provincial Park Distance: 163 km Temp: mild and overcast/rainy We set out late this morning as we’d stayed in a motel overnight and had to get back to the campsite to take down our tent since we’d set it up anyhow, in case we decided to go back to camp the night before the ride (we decided against it.) Since we got to camp late, we missed breakfast so ended up eating at a truck-stop with really bad service, putting us even later into the morning. We were on the road shortly after 10am; hours after the rest of the group had set out. As mentioned previously, some kilometers come easily, and tick by relatively quickly, and other times it feels as if you have to fight for every one-today was one of those days. It seemed like the whole ride was uphill (much of it was, at 1220 meters of climbing ) but adding Hedwig to the mix turned the ride into one of the most challenging so far; with all elements conspiring against us, I felt like throwing e...