8 Days, Continued...

Mike put up some great pictures from our latest 8 day stretch, including a couple landscape shots of Superior and our arrival point at the Terry Fox Memorial.

Here are our last 8 days in Northern Ontario with distances and time travelled:

june 13- espanola to blind river, on - 96km 4:15
june 14- blind river to sault ste marie- 148km 5:53
june 15- sault ste marie - montreal river- 108km 4:33
june 16- montreal river- wawa - 119.8km 5:28
june 17- wawa to white lake prov. park- 138km 5:50
june 18- white lake prov. park- outside terrace bay- 95km 4:55 (windy day!)
june 19- outside terrace bay- outside nipigon, on- 131.4km 6:40 (again with strong headwind)
june 20- outside nipigon- thunder bay on 137km 6:04

Highlights include:
Blind River, our friend Jolinne and her wonderful family had us for the night and great BBQ'd burgers, as well as a quick trip to the beach at the day's end to cool off.

Sault Ste Marie, Adrian's family friend Don Morrison and his wife Ruth had us for a fantastic dinner, then put us up in two separate rooms at the Watertower Inn downtown, what treatment! The hotel had a pool, hot tub, sauna, waterfall, holy....too much.

Wawa, I knocked on the right door and an elderly couple, Italian and Austrian folks, had us camp in their backyard and made us a terrific breakfast. The man learned how to make a violin from scratch and showed us his work, which our resident orchestra man Rainer inspected and gave his seal of approval.

White Lake Provincial Park, where mosquitoes come to feast. The fireflies at our site were amazing nearing midnight.

Terrace Bay, getting almost blown over at our picnic table for lunch. After biking in our normal gear, we had to fleece up and throw on toques once we stopped...Superior winds are something else.

Nowhere in particular, above Superior in the mountains there are times where you're surrounded by walls of jagged rocky faces and sprawling seas of evergreens, complete with spring water rolling down the hills and fresh rivers and lakes in the passes. It's enough to make you completely forget about the commercial-industrial parts of the country all together. There were times where it was reasonable to believe we were already in BC, or even parts of South America, based on the sheer size and scope of the rock and hills towering above us. I recommend everybody get a chance to travel above Lake Superior sometime in the summer months, you will be amazed.

Finally, Thunder Bay. Alexandra, her sister and parents were so nice to us, let us stay in their basement fully equipped with pool table, shuffle board, sauna, bathroom...Went bar hopping our first night to On Deck and then Roxy's, the latter of which got us a shout out from the DJ that sounded all too much like every other DJ at a dance club, "alright party people, who's getting waaaasted tonight?!?!" haha. Last night we went with Alexandra and two of her friends to see Knocked Up, which is incredibly hilarious and highly recommended. A good mixture of jokes ranging from lighthearted to full raunch, we were bursting with laughter. Should provide us with a hearty quotient of quotes to recite as we climb some big hills leaving town today. Finally, this morning we hit up Hoita for breakfast, the Finnish tradition in town where they serve amazing Fin pancakes, super thin with crispy edges...Now it's time to pack up and set off, three days to Dryden, Ontario with not a whole lot in between except nature. Everybody keeps tellings us about the bears, maybe we'll see one soon. Hopefully not as we open the tent zipper.

Cheers, hopefully I'll find time and a computer in Dryden, Kenora, or at the latest, Winnipeg.