Kenora

We're leaving Ontario today, finally. Our home province is huge, and though this is obvious when glancing at a map, it doesn't resonate quite the same until you've travelled it on bike.

We left Dryden yesterday morning and the weather channel warned of thunderstorms and heavy rain. Our host Mr. Collins, however, guessed that the storm coming through Kenora would bypass us to the north.

The clouds were quite ominous on the highway at the start of our day, and light drizzle progressed into a heavy downpour right as I took my first half hour shift at the front of the line. However, with the humidity the temperature was resting up around 23 degrees at that point, and was only going up, so the rain didn't pose much of a problem. After 45 minutes of precipitation, it ceased for the rest of the day. Strangely enough, by the mid afternoon it had all cleared up and we were riding in the sun.

We were told coming into Kenora that it was beautiful, a cottage country comparable to Collingwood or Muskoka for this part of Ontario. The area for some time has been attracting people from Manitoba, the West, Minnesota, and Southern Ontario. Biking along highway 17, it was easy to see why. Around every single bend there were lakes on each side, clear and sparkling with little crap built up around them. The winding road lay flat for most of our day, with the hills being low in grade and rolling gently up and down. We stopped in Vermillion Bay for lunch next to the water, and though the mosquitoes were happy to greet us, it was a great stop nevertheless. Later on, at the peak of the sun's heat, we pulled off the highway at Dogtooth Lake and went for a swim. It was secluded enough with nobody else in or around the water, and a great spot to rest up and get recharged for the last leg. Rainer also popped another tube, putting him quite far ahead in that department, though with 7 or so popped by yours truly, I still remain in second place in terms of tire problems.

At the day's end we hit 160kms, one of our longer days though it didn't seem that way to me. We bought dinner and ate outside the grocery store, then hit up the residential area to find a backyard to camp. Somehow we managed to find probably the kindest family on the block, the Sweeney's. Mike, the father, kindly drove us back to the grocery store to buy our breakfast for the morning, and their son John told us all about his school in Lethbridge and his aspirations of piloting commercial planes. Very genuine and down to earth people. Mike had finished golfing with John that day and told us about their round, told us about their beautiful camp on Lake of the Woods (it's only a "cottage" in southern Ontario), as well as giving us a lesson in bush planes and railroads, the latter of which was Mike's line of work for many years.

After hearing the thunder and seeing flashes of lightning after heading to our tents for the night, we quickly changed our minds and took Mike up on his offer for us to sleep in his basement. I had a couch and probably my soundest sleep of the trip. This morning we cooked up our eggs and toast and are now packing for the day.

The Weather Channel is promising us (but what is their word worth?) a wind coming from the southeast, which should make our relatively short day past the Manitoba border an easy one. Tomorrow night we'll arrive in Winnipeg and then take a rest day to explore and visit a bike shop. We are very excited for that, as well as Canada Day in Regina!

Cheers, will update again soon.