Pictures Yet another new Itinerary JDRF
Today is the 30th anniversary of our coming to Canada. We have now spent almost half our life here and we could not be happier with our decision to move. But back to the Trip:
We were filled with trepidation about the forecasted thunder storms and 30-50mm of rain as we set off. The plan was to take food and water with us to a very nice campsite “just “west of Mine Center.
As we rode the big bridge over Rainy Lake, cars coming the other way had their wipers going, it was spitting the occasional drop and Thor was banging on his drums. The good news was that we weren’t fast enough to keep up with the rain and the further we went, the drier it got, and it became a perfect day for biking. The weather forecast had frightened off all the fishermen and boaters and after leaving Fort Frances the road was
ours. Highway 11, Mom’s Trail (named after the initials of Minnisota, Ontario and Manitoba) is in good condition and has a 2ft paved space to the right of the white line with a wide, hard packed gravel, or better shoulder if one needs to “dive,” as we did once to ensure enough space between us and a truck coming from behind, and an RV coming towards us. Note this is the first time we have needed to do this on this trip as the truckers particularly have been very good.
We passed “the” great campsite at about 42km without realizing this was our destination, it was too close anyway, and spied two bald eagles sitting in a tree watching us go by. I told Marge to make herself look big in case they thought she looked like a tasty morsel.
At the top of a slight rise we saw a van parked on the opposite shoulder and guys scrambling up the bank. It turned out they were a film crew doing a documentary about Highway 11 and asked us if we wouldn’t mind coming down the hill again so that they could film us. Being shy and retiring, we immediately said okay and did a quick U-turn. They did their filming and arms were raised in the air in triumph for the “perfect take” when we passed by which was good because we weren’t going to climb the hill again. The film will be aired on PBS in January 2012 called, “The Kind Hearted Woman.” So with our 15 seconds of fame assured, we pedalled on until we almost got to Mine Center, where we rode into Bliss Campground. We chatted with Mrs. Bliss, who rented us a cabin after she had told us of an old bear who is showing up at her door. (We were going to camp, but the bear was the clincher, on top of voracious mosquitoes and threatening clouds.)
We had the remains of last night’s pizza for lunch, and then took a nap. There is still no rain, but lots of good noise from the direction of the lake, mostly bird calls and children enjoying themselves in the water.
In view of their very poor record, we will not watch the Weather Channel tonight. Sometimes too much information is a handicap to action.
The other thing of note was that we did not have a puncture today, yet……..but, we did have to amend the Itinerary and add a couple of days which magically went missing through the hole in the bottom of the spreadsheet thus we have about 200km more to do than we thought. Please refer to the Itinerary for details.
Average 20.1kph (it’s still very rolling)
Today’s climb 310m (300m descended)
Today’s distance 67km
Total distance 5261km
All in all this has been a brilliant day which surpassed all our expectations. And there is a wonderful view from our cabin window. Atikokan is tomorrow’s destination.
That’s all the news that fit to blog
Night, night.
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