Ontario, Yours to Explore

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“Ontario, yours to explore.” This is Ontario’s slogan. We have decided that this slogan was written by Toronto-ians who did not want to leave the city. They know there is not a whole lot to see up in the north, so they want us to explore it, not them. They know its vast, and a long distance between “cities.”

Our time in Ontario started in Ottawa. We got in early, stayed in a hostel, and had most of the day to explore. It is set up great for tourists, but there was way too much to see in the time we were there. What we did see was great, and gave us pride in our country. The Rideau Canal and its incredible history was so interesting to me.

It was a couple days out of Ottawa that we started heading north. We rode on the 11, to avoid the super steep hills of Lake Superior. It was also slightly shorter, and we had about 3000km, and 28 days until Kenora, and our Canada Day plans on Lake of the Woods. We were averaging over 100km per day now, even through wind, and hills.
Although there were very few towns, there were a lot of wonderful rest stops to camp in. They were spaced very nicely for us, and the no camping signs were only a minor deterrent. We were given plenty of warnings about the bears, from locals, but never had any problems. The rest stops were generally on lakes, so we had a place to swim, and “shower” almost every day. On one day, with a nice wind pushing us along Treena and I rode 162 km, at 25 km/hr. It was our fastest, and longest day of the trip.

On the day we were to arrive in Thunder Bay, we woke up to thunder, funnily enough. We bravely ventured onto the road only to be confronted with lightening, rain, and the lowest growl of thunder we had ever heard. When the thunder rolled we could feel it in our chests! The rain was so bad the roads were full of water within minutes and I was splashing around having a blast. It was wild. Treena was behind me cursing the storm, and was not understanding why I was loving it. I reminded her that no matter how wet we got, we had a warm place to stay in Thunder Bay, and it wasn't long before she was coaxing me to sing "Riders on the Storm" with her.

Our Thunder Bay day was also a milstone because we passed a guy our age who started biking in Victoria and was going all the way to St. Johns. I asked how many kms he had clocked and his odometer read 3560km. We checked ours and it read 3580km, so the three of us had met in the middle! After we realized this, there was only one thing left to do...say goodbye and good luck and keep on riding!

In Thunder Bay we camped at a quirky, family run hostel. The hostel kitchen, doubled as the homeowners kitchen, and there was a pricelist on the fridge outlining how much the food costed in the fridge. We were asked to keep a mental tally, and pay for what we used when we left. It was 50 cents for a scoop of ice cream, and we got our moneys worth. There were 4 of us at the hostel the night we stayed there, and the other 2 guys were also on bike trips. The older couple that ran the hostel made us feel very at home, and we felt revived heading out the next day. We had a quick stop at the Terry Fox Memorial, and continued on our way. We had 5 days, and 500 km to Kenora.

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Comments

[Johanne]

look for rainbows
Hi guys, Nice to see an update. Looks like you guys are having a blast. Remember the prairies are known for incredible rainbows. Double ones as you might remember Treena on our trip to P.A. with grandma Jean. Take the time to check them out. Treena make a wish. It's the same as 111 333 or 777 Love mom