Another stint done!
I think it is fairly safe to assume that I’ve reached the half-way point of my trip. I never bothered to measure the actual distance of the trip, since I never had a route really planned. Even so, I don’t care to measure the exact distance but a rough estimate now would be 7500KM.
My stay in Winnipeg was good and much needed. Brought my bike to a local shop to have the bottom bracket looked at (it was making a noise). They charged me $15 and then I purchased new tires, which came to a little over $100. Leaving Winnipeg, I crossed the geographical center of Canada. There’s nothing there, just a metal sign.
Road conditions on Highway 1 leaving Winnipeg just got progressively worse and worse. Eventually the last 80KM or so was absolutely no shoulder, lots of traffic and a really bumpy road surface that I thought for sure was going to shake the bicycle apart. The first day I camped in a woman’s yard in Richer. She was the only person I saw outside and when I asked if I could put up a tent in her yard, she just said “yep” and kept watering the plants. She didn’t even look at me! Eventually after I set up my tent, she came over and talked for a few minutes and went in the house to get me paper so I could start a fire in the fire pit.
I gotta say, all these town people have amazing back yards that stretch out at least 100 meters back, with fire pits, tons of trees, etc. You can’t find camp grounds as nice as this! They even had cold, filtered and hot water taps on the outside of their house! In the morning, her husband woke me up and asked me to come in for breakfast. They were a french/polish family and he worked at a company making train wheels. They fed me eggs and toast and I was on my way!
That day, I finally decided to pull over and completely fix the shifting of the front derailleur on my bike. I guess the shop in Winnipeg took it upon themselves to try to adjust the front derailleur when I took my bike in. The problem was, they completely fucked it up… it wouldn’t shift into the smallest ring, and they had it going into the biggest ring when the shifter was in the position for the middle ring. I almost felt like calling them up and telling them what they did, but of course there was no phone around. So I fixed it and a few minutes later I was on my way.
I was hoping to stay at the Manitoba Tourist Info booth since the one I stayed at coming into the province was so nice (free filtered water, internet access, 24h bathrooms, lots of space, etc.). However this one didn’t have much space and was actually located within a provincal park, so the lady advised that “someone may come and kick you out”. So I pushed on a few more KM’s into Ontario to see what their tourist info area was like. This one was worse, with lots of big “No overnight camping” signs everywhere. So, I setup the tent in this little area that was well surrounded by tall grass and huge rocks (yes, I’m into the Canadian Sheild now and there’s lots and lots of huge rocks).
Had a good night sleep and only an easy ride into Kenora. Things started to get hilly, but Kenora was pretty close. Quite a nice town, although fairly touristy. I called Lori (who I met through couchsurfing.com) about crashing at her place, she said she would be home at 5PM so I killed an hour and a half at the public library in town. They were nice and let me bring my bicycle and all my stuff right in while I used the computer.
Lori had her parents over and they were ordering chinese food, so they ordered me some Curry Chicken! The same thing I had in Winnipeg! That was really good and then we all took a walk by the lake, which was really nice. Great town and Lori and her boyfriend Isaac have a great little place and are super nice people. In the morning I went to the college with Isaac and filled up my water bottles with filtered water and checked some weather reports, etc. I also checked a lot of websites to get advice on what route to take to Thunder Bay. Highway 17 (faster) or 71 to 11, which is suppsedly nicer and safer. Of course I took 71 to 11, especially after reading some good things about the roads on kenkifer.com and other’s sites.
That day I dedicated to Ken Kifer since I was on a road he had travelled before and what a beautiful road it was. Highway 71 south to Nestor Falls was just great. Twisty, rolling hills.. not a car in sight for the most part. It was also interesting to see parts of older highway nearby as well. That night, I setup tent behind a church in Nestor Falls that was right on a lake. The whole area is just a fishing place for americans sadly. Lots of H2 hummers towing huge fishing boats going out to the cabin and crap like that. But regardless, it was a beautiful area. The sleep behind the church was great… I think I will camp on church lots more often.. they have so much property and I think the buildings are just used one day a week for an hour or so. It’s only fair that I make use of the land in my own way. Oh yeah, I also saw my first bear that day! It was a little bear going through the garbage at a rest stop. I didn’t notice it until a trucker said “look at the bear!”. He was standing a few feet from it and then said “it’s a little one, must be a big one around somewhere”. So I went to the washroom, snapped a picture and then got out of there. Personally, I’m happiest when I don’t see a lot of wildlife. I’m not here to see wildlife.. I don’t want to disturb it.. I want it to go about doing it’s thing, and I’ll do mine.
The next day, I rode into Fort Frances. Exactly where I wanted to be and everything was on schedule as I had loosely planned it in Kenora. Right before getting to the “city center” of fort frances, I saw a person outside his house and it looked like he had a nice yard. I asked to put up the tent, and he said he had to clear it with his wife. He said yes and I got to pick my spot in a huge amazing back yard. While setting up, his wife rode over on an ATV with the dog and gave me $20 and said they were going into town if I wanted to go! I hitched a ride and got a nice tour of the town along the way.. it’s great to have a local guide through these towns and it helps me see a lot more. It’s also awesome meeting the locals, especially when they are this nice. After eating we started talking about “The war on terror” and Iraq and all that fun stuff. For an older couple they seemed very well educated and agreed that new security measures just keep taking away people’s freedoms. They seemed especially disturbed at how many people have died in Iraq and how useless the war is. This is such a welcome change from the majority of people I talked to in Alberta who really seemed pro-bush and who really support the war, thinking it still has something to do with 9/11 or WMD’s or something. I also got to take a warm shower, which was really nice!
The next day I left slowly since I had to stop for groceries and a good breakfast in the morning. While eating a bag-of-salad outside of Safeway in Fort Frances, a stranger I talked to about my trip gave me $10 which was really nice. About 30KM out of Fort Frances, which was a really nice ride over lots of bridges, I ran into a girl who was cycling from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg! Her name is Caroline and she is hoping to be in The Peg any day now. While driving to thunder bay, she said she passed me and waved at me and was hoping we’d meet up on the road. I’m glad we did, as it is great to stop and talk to anybody during this trip, especially cute girls with bicycles! This part of the country is so desolate at times and the great thing about being on a bicycle is that you can stop and have a great conversation with a complete stranger. You never see two cars travelling on the same road pulling over to talk, simply because they’re on the same road.
I had hoped to go farther, but just ended up in a town called Mine Centre. I was going to put up the tent in the school field but noticed a camp ground across the street. I went there and couldn’t find anybody, the place was completely empty. So I was going to setup.. then I noticed some log cabins on the campground. I went in the biggest one and made some pasta on the stove and slept in one of the 7 beds. I set my alarm for 7AM to wake up early incase anyone shows up in the morning. At around 8:30 I get woken up by the beeping of a truck backing up into the lot infront of my cabin! A family from Iowa with a big fishing boat gets out and tries to open the door which I locked. I jump out of bed, get clothes on and open the door and say “sorry about that, I thought check out wasnt until 10AM”. The guy said he was going to go to the store to check-in to the cabin. So I grabbed my bike and left…
I knew this was going to happen and 5 minutes later a big truck pulled up beside me and the person asked if I was going to pay for the cabin I slept in. I said “not unless I have to” and then he grabbed his cell phone and started threatening to call the cops. He was flipping out about how I stole from him, etc. I tried to explain my side of the story, which is that the cabin was sitting there empty and open anyways. So he says the cabin is $120.. I look into my bag and I only have $85, $20 of which is the $20 US that the couple on Vancouver Island gave me months ago. So I hand it to him, he yells some more and then drives off.
Thankfully once I got to Atikoken, they had an ATM machine and I was able to take out some cash. The ride to Atiokoken was good, hills started to get bigger and bigger. I even saw a fox for the first time, which I thought was just a crazy malnurished dog running around. In Atikoken I was going to setup tent on the Library’s lawn but decided to try to find a nice backyard to stay in. The only person I found infront of his house to ask was a crazy looking older guy and when I asked to put up a tent he replied “you aint’ one of them faggots is ya?”.
So I setup the tent and then left to get some shopping and phone-calling done. When I came back, him and his wife were getting pretty drunk while trying to renovate the house. From my tent I could hear all sorts of funny stuff, including the neighbor talking to his dog. In the morning I just got up and left.. I was planning on going to Thunder Bay in 3 days, but decided to try to push to make it 2.
I did about 121 KM even though I started late and had to stop because the sun was going down. I quickly found a place to put up the tent by following a trail that lead off the highway. I think it was a snowmobile trail and I took it about 150KM into the bush… found a nice clear spot, set everything up, cooked some pasta and then hung the food bag in a far away tree and went to sleep. Great night, everything was so dark.. so many noises and I still have no clue what 90% of them are.
The next day I only had about 80KM to get into Thunder Bay and it was downhill for the last 20KM, which made me realize how big the hills actually are around here! I called up the girl I was supposed to be staying with, but she wasn’t home. So I phoned up my cousin and she said I could stay there! Nice house right on the way out of town.. perfect!
Today was my rest day and I went to a local bike shop to get a new chain. The stock chain on the bike is pretty cheap and I usually replace my chains ocne a year, which means replacing it midway on the trip would be smart. Not a necessity or anything, but still. Got a really nice chain for $50 or so and then asked the shop if I could use a few of their tools. An hour and a half later, I left completely greasy but with both of the hubs rebuilt and regreased, whole drivetrain completely cleaned, derailleur pulleys rebuilt and the new chain on! Now that is a cool shop… The one in Winnipeg, I had asked them if I could use the tools to do it myself, but they said no. This shop was really cool and the guys working there were really nice to let me back there using all their stuff. Made me realize how much fun I have getting completely greasy and fixing bikes.
If I get to Halifax, I will go to a few of the bike shops and ask if they are hiring for a bike mechanic just for fun.
This stint was the first stint using the new digital still camera that I got! So far I’m happy with the Canon A510. The fuji was good for a cheap camera, but this one is only $100 more expensive and the build quality is really noticeable. The user interface and firmware are also miles ahead of Fuji’s as well. This has full manual controls which I’ve been using a lot, but I’m still getting used to the camera.
Anyways, it is past 11PM here. I’m back into the “regular” time zone. I crossed into it before getting into Thunder Bay, which means all the watches and internal clocks in my electronics are all now showing the right time again. So I’m going to try to get to sleep and try to rest up…
winnipeg to thunder bay pictures