Day 84 Wawa to Montreal River Harbour

Pictures Itinerary ronandmarge's JDRF donation page

We decided to have a quick breakfast of free coffee and muffins from the motel and cook aproper breakfast al fresco at about 30km. We were on the road by 8am in a cool, cloudy day and generally light traffic.

So we had 8km of mainly downhill before the climbing began. The scenery is typical of the area, namely, trees and rocks, rocks and trees and water. We stopped for breakfast at 29 km, Old Woman Bay picnic area, and met up with the bear hunters from a couple of days ago. They were on their way home, happy as clams that they’d bagged a bear. The bear however, was not asked its opinion.

On our way and running before very black clouds threatening showers we polished off another 40km of head wind and hills before we stopped for lunch. What a difference a rest day makes: the conditions were just as hard today, but they were not as wearing on the soul as a couple of days ago. Ham and tomato sandwiches were demolished, which fortified us till the next stop which was at the Agawa Bay Information Centre. Here we met Bob and Lucie. Lucie is a very talented artist, and Bob is a “builder of mountain bike trails” but, truth to tell, he also revels in snow shoeing. We had a good chat on diverse topics from P&W’s .190 Inco 625 studs, to the amount of play the BOB has in its rear bearings. (Both of us agreed it was too much.) He gave us his telephone number in case we needed help. Another excellent person.

The Mad Moose Lodge was our designated night stop, but apparently it has been demolished, and is no more, so we opted instead for the Twilight Resort, Cabins and Campground, just off the highway, at Montreal Harbour. There is no other accommodation for several miles. Our campsite is pretty and the sun did us a favour and came out for supper, canned chili and fries spiced up with hot sauce. (It was actually a lot better than it sounds.)

To finish the day we took a walk along the beach which gave us the opportunity to see the river enter the lake, a phenomenon which this old aerodynamicist found very interesting, and take a few photos. It will be Sault Ste Marie tomorrow, camping. Velorution Free Camping and a chance to change the Cassette and rear chain, both of which are well past their “best by” date

Average 17.5kph

Height Climbed 970m up, 1070m down

Today’s Distance 107km

Total Distance 6147km

That’s all the news that fit to blog. We feel very pleased with our performance today on this tough leg.

Night, night.