Days 35-40: Kenora to Shuniah

Ok. So it's been a few days since I've blogged. Lots has happened, but we've not had internet. We started out of Kenora on Monday after happily getting Warren's bike fixed in Kenora on Sunday afternoon. The week started out like this...

I saw a bear.

The bear saw me.

The bear was in a tree, which made me somewhat happy.

Shortly thereafter a CN Rail person in a truck set off some sort of, quite large, explosive device less than 100 m or so from us as we were riding by. Warren thinks he was blowing up a stump. Regardless, it scared the bejeepers outta me. Sprayed me with swamp-water too. I was less than impressed, lemme tell ya. We also saw a moose. Well, a moose bum since he hid in the forest too quickly to really see him. The rest of the 125 km ride to Kenora was pretty good though.

The next day we rode almost to Dryden, a 135 km day. We had a pretty good tailwind. It must have been a pretty decent day, but I honestly can't remember anything else to say about it.

Wednesday after doing a quick RV drive back up the road a bit to a sheepfarm/clothing place where I bought the cutest (and warmest, and softest) hat, we slogged 86 km into a headwind and decided to call it as we just weren't having the best of days. Energy was low and the headwind made it harder. We were hoping to make it to Ignace, but it just wasn't worth it to us. SO, we stopped at a little campground/fishing lodge place called Cobblestone. In the RV area (which would max out at 12 units), there was us and 3 other people.

Apparently the others are all seasonal people that have been coming up there for years, so it was quite something to have newcomers amongst them. One of the fishermen/RV people gave us some fresh filleted lake trout from the lake that we were located at. Warren cooked it up that night, and I admit that although I'm not much of a fish person that it was darned tasty. Really sweet of the fella too.

Thursday was another headwind slog and we ended up finishing at about 84km or so in a "town" named English River, again, much shorter than where we'd planned to end. We hopped in the RV and drove to Upsala to the campground there. Turns out our decision to end early was a good one as we had just finished parking and hooking up when a wicked storm appeared over the lake. You could see it coming across the water -- so
awesome. Take a look at the pictures to get an idea of the storm. Anyhoo, it didn't last long, but it did take the town's power out. Fortunately, with the luxury of an RV we just turned on the generator for any necessary power needs and carried on as usual. :)

After getting a ride back to English River the next morning, we headed off once again with a sweet tailwind. 166 km later, we were in Kakabeka Falls Provincial park. They call the falls the "Niagara of the North". They are indeed pretty impressive, but definitely not comparable to Niagara in my opinion. I also believe it was this day that Warren and I saw 3 more moose. Man, they are big creatures, yet graceful and beautiful.

Saturday we decided to just do a short day of riding and be touristy the rest of it, so we rode about 45km from Kakabeka Falls, through Thunder Bay and stopped at a KOA campground in Shuniah, ON, which is JUST east of Thunder Bay. The ride was great and it started off quite warm. As we approached Superior again though, the temperature dropped dramatically, it was crazy. We went from quite comfortable in shorts and short-sleeved jerseys to being cold with arm warmers on too. Regardless, we made it.

The rest of the day, we drove around the Thunder Bay area to see the sites. We saw the Terry Fox memorial which is just beautiful. The monument is gorgeous, the setting is wonderful....I can't say enough about it and highly recommend anyone passing through to stop at it. We also drove up to Canada's largest amethyst mine where we "dug" for our own gems. It was quite fun, though apparently they salt the designated digging area to assure that people find them...that was rather disappointing. Nonetheless, we carted our about 3 lbs of loot. On the drive back out, we saw a bear and then a cub a bit later...it was pretty cool. From there we went to Ouimet Canyon. On the road in to the park there were suddenly signs saying to park trailers and RVs as the road ahead was steep and windy. So, better safe than sorry, we parked and walked the remaining 3km to the Canyon (mostly uphill). Although the weather was beautiful and sunny, the blackflies were beyond annoying. We walked up, took a quick look, a few pictures and walked back. We were all swatting and picking the blackflies out of our hair, it was nasty. Later that night, my ear actually swelled up to about twice its size from all the bites. Joanne tells me it will likely take 36 to 48 hours for the swelling to go back down. Sadness.

We are currently still at the KOA campground. We decided last minute this morning to stay put for a real rest day since yesterday wasn't so restful. A day without transports is really nice. They have been really scary for several days now. They are big and fast, and the highway is narrow and busy with few places where the shoulder is a decent size for us to be comfortably off the road. I'm looking forward to hitting Nipigon tomorrow where, supposedly, many of the transports take a northerly route and we'll be heading around Lake Superior.

Ok, that's it. I'm done. :)

Until next time...