Today: 100 km
To date: 3,861 km
To go: 3,939 km
“World-class athletic training” is how Alex described today…..
I have come up with a new strategy for dealing with hills – and that’s just imagine the worst and you will always be pleasantly surprised. Well maybe this is not a new strategy, but I put it into practice again this morning. I had been worry about climbing those incredibly steep 2 km up from the beach all night – I was visualizing falling over again because it was so steep and I was too tired to unclip – or rolling down the hill backward as my legs cramp up – or going so slow some bear lurking in the woods thinks I am an injured animal limping along ……. but in reality – it wasn’t that bad at all!
I learnt something else today: never believe what motorists tell you about the route. “It’s all downhill from there” actually means “There are continuous rolling hills that cars do not notice”. This motorist was referring to the stretch from Schreiber to Terrace Bay – not a bad stretch at all – but I was riding it without breakfast – so of course everything had a dark cloud over it……. no coffee, no food, no smiles…..
The worst hill in Ontario so fat was coming up from Jackfish Lake – I hit my lowest recorded speed of 6.1km/h. I am not sure how much slower I can get before I fall over. Probably not much.
To get into Marathon – our destination for the day – there was a long descent. I immediately started worry about the climb in the morning…… got to follow through with my new strategy :)
I found Alex at the bar and was extremely disappointed to find there was no food offered. I barely hung onto my sanity while he finished his beer and we were chatted to by a local man who was extremely helpful, even if I did want to escape to find food. He told us to camp at Penn Lake in the day use area and we should be fine (so we did). Dinner was excellent Chinese food…… we ordered the dinner for 4!!!
Categories: Across Canada, Biking, Ontario
Ottawa – Masson 
Kaladar – Ottawa 
Peterborough – Kaladar 
Scarborough – Peterborough 
Just Ambling 
Hi Deanna,
I feel your pain! We just drove the Lilloett to Squamish highway, and were amazed to see cyclists on the worst part near Pemberton. I could not believe that they were attempting the 13% grades and non-existant shoulders-yikes!
I am off to Alberta for my brother’s funeral. Alex has no doubt told you some of the “Uncle Gordie” stories. Gord had phoned 3 weeks ago and mentioned that he had the best vacation of his life when he drove up to Whitehorse and Carcross via the highway from Fort Nelson through Liard hotsprings. I had told him about you and your trip and where you were from and we had a whole discussion about the area and how beautiful it was. He will be missed.
Safe travels
Barb