Gavin Grandish grandish@interchange.ubc.ca
Friday, July 24, 4:45 PM, Vancouver BC: I went back to the office of the bike courier company that had been my employer for the last three months. I turned in my uniform and the day's waybills and rode home shirtless.
Saturday, July 25 (Day 1): Good morning! Time for my last home-cooked breakfast, and then it's time to pack. I pull out my itemized packing list and start carrying stuff out of the house and piling it up in the backyard. A tent, some garbage bags, therm-a-rest, maps, electrical tape; you know, the stuff that dreams are made of. And I bring out my touring bike that's been sitting idle for the last few months. Ahhhh, look at the shiny green paint, the brand new Conti Top Touring tires, the gleaming new chain and cogs, and its crown jewel: the Brooks B17 saddle. I remove the batteries from my cyclometer to reset the odometer, put the batteries back, and clip the thing onto the bracket. Ahhh, ODO 0.00. The sun's shining. The birds are singing. It's very warm already. 45 days ahead of pure bliss. After a few hours of packing, I'm ready to roll out. I give my roommate a goodbye hug, clip into my pedals, and roll out into the alley. The odometer says 0.01, 0.02, 0.03. Ohhh, it feels GOOD! After riding a lightweight bike for work all summer long, the 74 lb combined weight of my bike and gear feels so rock solid! I ride out onto the street. I take a final look at my neighbourhood as I ride out to the east. Hang a right on Broadway, towards the suburbs. Tonight's destination: My good friend Mark's place in Coquitlam. It's his birthday today. He's having a party with lots of his (and my) good friends. It's hot now. 34C. 40 blocks later, Boundary Road. The City Limits. Goodbye, beloved Vancouver! I'll see you in 45 days! Now I ride past suburban homes, an industrial area, a few shopping malls, car dealerships. North Road. Coquitlam. Almost there. It's really hot now. I ride past the neighourhood where I grew up. My how it's changed. I empty one water bottle. I ride past my old elementary school, which somehow looks much smaller now. I hang a left, and a right, and go screaming down the hill and there I am. Mark's house. My friend since we were both nine years old. Odometer says 26.29 km. Short ride to start off this tour. I walk up the stairs, through the open door, and everybody's already there to greet me. We eat, we drink, we play trivial pursuit without the board. And we eat and drink some more. I love all you guys. I'm going to miss you all over the next month and a half.
Day 2 (B.C.) I bid farewell to my friends in Coquitlam and start heading out towards the Fraser Valley. The sprawling suburbs start to give way to farmlands. The air quality paradoxically gets worse the farther I go into the farmlands: the funnel shape of the valley catches all the pollution from the city. It's pretty flat, with the exception of the big hill with the water fountain at the top! The heat was almost unbearable today. 92km total for the day.
Day 3 (B.C.) Good morining! Time for my first restaurant breakfast. Pancakes and sausages; the first meat I've eaten since last summer's tour. My log book is full of mathematical equations! The highway between Agassiz and Hope has distance markers painted on the shoulder. I spent a while calibrating my computer. After two or three tries I had it bang on. Today's climb was gruelling. It was very hot, and the steady 8% uphill grade up Allison Pass kept me riding in 1st gear most of the day. The sweat was pouring into my eyes and stinging. Today's average speed was only 11.0 km/h, the lowest of the trip. It was great to finally be out of the sprawl of Greater Vancouver and into the wilderness of Manning Park.
(ed.'s note: Arrrrgh! It's too tough to write in the present tense. Past tense reporting from now on.) :-)
Day 4 (B.C.) Hurrah! I crested Allison Pass early in the morning. The second highest elevation of my whole tour, and I just barely left sea level two days before. Now it's time for downhill, and Doh! Sunday Summit is just coming up! Another steep climb. The scenery here is magnificent. Everything is just... so... BIG! After the summit it was downhill for the next 30km. At the end of the day, the swim in the Similkameen River was very refreshing.
Day 5,6 (B.C.) This was one of the most enjoyable rides of the whole tour. With the Coast mountains behind me, it was all downhill. The thick dense forest started to thin out, and the dry parched land of the Interior appeared. Then it was uphill some more, over Richter Pass, and down into the beautiful desert land of the Okanagan Valley, with orchards and vineyards all around. And RV's! Thousands of them! The next day it was up,up,up! Switchbacks as soon as I left Osoyoos. Nearly 1 km of elevation gain today. The vineyards disappeared and ranchlands started to take over. My goodness, it seems like last time I came through here by car I missed all this beautiful scenery.
Day 7 (B.C., Washington) Hmmm, let's see. I'm at a fork in the road. Both roads go to Grand Forks. Both are about the same length. One of them goes through Washington State, and follows the Kettle River downstream the whole way. The other one stays in Canada and says "Phoenix Mountain Summit Pass". I think I'll take the southern way! And what a beautiful road. I got a dry place to sleep! It started to rain, and some nice people saw me setting my tent up in the bush and let me sleep in their guest house in the backyard.
Day 8,9,10 (B.C.) More steep climbing. Bonanza Pass, at 1535m, was the highest elevation of the whole tour. At the other side of it, though, was the beautiful West Kootenay valley. The forest was thick again, the air fresh and clean, the towns beautifully nestled among towering mountains. 96km from Grand Forks to Castlegar, and then only 29 the next day from Castlegar to Trail. Trail was such a nice place, I decided to spend the entire tenth day there. I stayed the whole day in beautiful Gyro Park on the Columbia River, went swimming, read my book (Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and excellent book to read on tour), and just took it easy. Ahhhhhhhhh. This is the life.
Day 11 (B.C.) After my day of relaxation in Trail, it was time to hit the road again. My AAA map of BC showed a gravel road down south; one that follows a river parallel to the US border. Some people told me that this was an absolutely beautiful road, but that it was not maintained and might even have been closed. Oh, well, I decided to ride it anyway. It was beautiful, but quite rough! The road was washed away in a few places, and I had to walk through these sections. This was not a lot of fun in my road shoes with Look cleats, but it was still worth the beautiful scenery. I even had to walk around a few sets of barricades that were designed to keep vehicles out. After I got to the end, It was good to be on pavement again! After arriving in Salmo I treated myself to dinner at Subway.
Day 12 (B.C.) From Salmo it was a fairly easy ride to Nelson, which is one of the nicest towns in the whole BC interior. It's kind of a hippie town; there are lots of health food stores, people walking around wearing "urban grunge" clothing, etc. Most of the hitchhikers I saw in the interior were holding signs that said "Nelson." Trying to find free camping was tough, so I headed across the river to Kokanee Creek provincial park, which was full. I ended up camping out in the bush away from the tent sites, which I'm sure was against some rule of some kind. Oh well, I avoided the $12 fee!
Day 13 (B.C.) From the park, it was a very scenic ride along the shore of Kootenay Lake. Tons of people have cottages here, many of them are occupied year round. The 40-minute ferry ride across the lake was a nice break from the morning's ride. That ferry is apparently the world's longest free ferry ride. From there it was an uppy-downy windy road along the wast shore of the lake, and down into the rich Creston valley. Once again fruit stands were everywhere, I even saw my first (but certainly not last) wheat field of the tour. Subway again for dinner. I paid for a campsite for only the second time so far. Ahhh, hot shower!
Day 14, 15 (B.C.) The landscape started to change again coming out of Creston. The mountains had less trees on them, but instead of being replaced by sagebrush as in the Okanagan valley, the trees gave way to craggy rock. I was approaching the Rocky Mountains, and the continental divide. There were virtually no services between towns, and the last remaining towns were each a whole day's ride apart. I had to stock up with plenty of food and water in the morning before rolling out. The only campground in Cranbrook wanted $15 for me to camp on an unserviced site, and I refused to part with that much money for a piece of ground to sleep on. A friendly cop directed me to a forest in behind the local college where I could camp for free! The next day was a shorter ride to Fernie where I camped out in a rifle range on the edge of town. This was my last night in BC. I'd be in Alberta the next day, to complete the coast-to-divide portion of the trip.
Day 16: (B.C., Alberta) Breakfast in Fernie was great. There was a great coffee and bagel shop, just like the kind I was used to in the big city. Bagels with cream cheese...yum! After riding for a bit I was in Sparwood; the last junction before the Alberta border. I got prepared for some serious climbing; the border (and the continental divide) was in just a few short km. Curiously, there was no snow to be seen anywhere in the mountains. the climb was...easy! It hardly seemed to rise at all, and then... Poof! Alberta! Later I learned that the Crowsnest Pass is the lowest elevation pass through the Rockies between Alaska and New Mexico. Whew. 15 days to get there from the coast. It felt great.
Day 17, 18 (Alberta, Montana) I left Coleman knowing that I would be seeing the rolling plains very soon. After some nice descents, the forest thinned out and the ranches and grasslands took over for as far as I could see. I turned south towards Pincher Creek, and camped out in Twin Butte that night. The next morning there were no restaurants open so I headed into Waterton Lakes National Park for breakfast in the village. Waterton is really an interesting park. The prairie grasslands creep up from the east, and abruptly meet the towering Rocky Mountains. Beautiful alpine meadows and lakes lined the road into the village. After my pancakes, I headed out and turned south towards the Chief Mountain border crossing. After some serious climbing and descending (and I mean serious; my maximum speed was 75.3 km/h) I arrived at Glacier National Park, Montana. I continued through the park, which has a beautiful view of the towering Chief Mountain. I turned north on US Hwy. 89 to take me back to Alberta where my Canadian dollars were actually worth something. :-) I arrived in Cardston where I set up camp for the night.
Day 19, 20 (Alberta) After leaving Cardston I rode east into the seemingly endless prairie. I could see the mountains disappearing behind me when I looked over my shoulder. This was my first day of truly being in the prairies. All the sights, smells and sounds were breathtaking. This area is mostly ranching land. The prairies have a bum rap in Canada for being really flat, but not this part! The rolling hills and coulees made for some of the steepest climbing so far. A portion of Alberta highway 501 is actually on an Adventure Cycling cross-USA route. A woman in a general store surprised me when she said there were usually touring cyclists coming through every other day. I arrived in Milk River and stayed in the backyard of a friend of mine's relatives. The next day I visited Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, which is fascinating. The Milk River has cut rugged hoodoos and badlands into the prairie, making it look similar to the Grand Canyon. The area had been a sacred place for centuries for Blood, Blackfoot and Piegen Indians. I took the free guided tour into the archaeological preserve, where there are carvings in the sandstone that are hundreds of years old. There was also a lot of graffiti, much of it dating between 1900 and 1960. The area has been off-limits to unguided tours since the early '70s, to ensure that the fragile petroglyphs are not further vandalized. It was fascinating. I recomend it to anyone who is passing through tthe area. Afterwards I headed north to Foremost, passing through a wetland bird preserve and fighting headwinds. I camped out in Foremost for the night. Good Lord, I had only been three full days in Alberta and I was already halfway across the province. Was I feeling ready to come yet? No way!
Day 21 (Alberta) I left Foremost late in the morning. I just didn't want to get up from the breakfast table. When I finally left, I was riding into some pretty strong headwinds. I saw the sign at the edge of town: Red Coat Trail. After a short while, I encountered two bike tourists coming from the opposite direction. We stopped and chatted for a few seconds. Both of them were buddies from France. They were in a big hurry to get someplace so they left quickly. On I went and sssssssss! Flat tire. While I was fixing it another bike tourist came along. He was from Toronto, and was the only Canadian cycletourist out of the ten total that I met along the whole trip. He stayed and chatted until my tire was patched, and we went along. I arrived in Etzikom after fighting some furious winds. Etzikom has a fabulous museum. It took me an hour and a half to see the whole thing. There are re-creations of street scenes, houses, and shops. After seeing the museum I stuck around for an ice cream, and the FOURTH cycletourist came by. This time a Bostonian. He was a real character. The two of us spent the next two hours chatting with the ladies behind the ice cream counter. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip: these two hours chatting with the locals and the funny guy from Boston We talked about Canadian politics, farming, cycling adventures, local culture. I would have spent another two hours there if he hadn't left to go on to Foremost. After leaving there, I went on to Manyberries, the last town in Alberta.
Day 22 (Alberta, Saskatchewan) I checked my food and water supply before leaving Manyberries. The next town was a whole day's ride away, 110 km. Thankfully, the tailwinds were working in my favour. About 4 km out of town, the pavement turned to gravel. I let some air out of my tires for better traction. The cultivated land started to disappear, and rangelands took over. The next 80 km was the most barren, desolate, lonely wasteland I had ever seen. The heat was searing, sagebrush covered the coulees, and there wasn't a house or even a fence to be seen anywhere. I had to keep my eyes glued to the road in front of me, to keep my tires in the worn tracks of the road. The only entertainment were the five cattleguards I had to ride over. "No wonder there are no towns for 110 km. There's nothing out here that can sustain life," I remember thinking. Except for those darn mosquitoes! Once, while climbing up a steep coulee at 9 km/h, the tailwinds were blowing just about as fast. The mosquitoes didn't even have to TRY to keep up with me. I was so busy swatting them off my legs, my eyes wandered from the road in front of me. My front wheel wandered into a ridge of loose pebbles, and splat! Down I went. Arrrrrrgh! I got back up, dusted myself off, and pressed onwards. Eventually, I could see the backs of signs off in the distance. Could it be... yes! Saskatchewan! I pedalled faster. The barbed wire fence came closer and closer. I got up off the saddle, bumped over cattleguard no. 5, and I was in Saskatchewan. Yeeeee-hoo! I got off my bike and pumped my tires back up; for now the road was paved. I changed my map, and pressed onwards. I felt like I was riding on a mirror after all that gravel. I still had a long way to go before my stop for the night. Eventually, some cultivated land started to reappear. I passed another Red Coat Trail sign and smiled. I finally arrived in Consul at 6:45 PM. It was late. I was exhausted. My neck was sore. My legs were sore. My back was sore. I was covered with mozzie bites all over. But despite all of this, I felt great: I had ridden all the way to Saskatchewan.
Day 23, 24, 25, 26 (Saskatchewan) This was a nice, shorter ride to Eastend. I jumped off the Red Coat for a bit to ride the Ravenscrag Road, which follows the Frenchman River into Eastend. It is a beautiful, windy, uppy-downy gravel road with spectacular views. I got my first glimpse of the area in which I had cycled the previous summer. Eastend has a paleantological museum with artifacts from a local dinosaur dig. There was also another historical museum with a recreated blacksmith shop and a very amusing 53 year old slab of smoked bacon. The restaurant in Eastend was excellent, supposedly one of the best eateries in Canada. Excellent pizza. The next day was a much shorter ride to Shaunavon. It was nice to have tailwinds again. After leaving Shaunavon, the ranches gave way to wheat fields again. The ride from Shaunavon to Lafleche was the longest single day trip of the tour, at 153 km. Just when I was riding past Ponteix, my odometer clicked to 2,145 km, marking the one millionth revolution of my wheels. The next day was long as well, 130km from there to Ogema. I was so gracious that the tailwinds were helping me out, that I just felt like doing long rides! At the approach to the town limits, the sign said "Ogema 1km" and showed the services: campground, restaurant, groceries, etc. Good place to stop, I thought. Then, when I turned into town, it said "Campground 40km ahead." Doh! That's too far! I wound up camping out in the baseball field, much to the amusement of several local 7 year olds.
Day 27, 28, 29 (Saskatchewan) After leaving Ogema, the land started to get very, very flat. There were hardly any more coulees or even river valleys to ride through. Oh, well, the tailwinds were still blowing, so I couldn't complain. I pulled into Weyburn and saw the first traffic lights since Cranbrook BC 13 days before. The very generous campground attendant let me pitch my tent and have a hot shower for only $5. This was a beautiful campground, with a screened common area, and FREE coffee and cookies! The next morning I bid farewell to the Red Coat Trail and headed southeast towards Estevan. The tailwinds that had been my friend for the last several days suddenly turned against me, and they blew furiously. At certain times I even had to use 3rd, 2nd, and even 1st gear on the flats! I never made it to Estevan, I had to stop halfway at the appropriately named Midale, where I camped out in behind a school. I awoke at 5:30 AM to a low rumbling sound, and then the rumbling got louder. There was also a flash of light. "Maybe if I stay in bed it'll go away," I thought. But it didn't. By 8:00 it was stormy! Crackling thunder was only about half a second behind the bright forky flashes. Then the rain came. Just one or two big fat drops to start, and then torrential rain. I started carrying all my stuff outside to the covered school entranceway in cast my tent were to get flooded. The muddy ground got very spongy. Thank goodness for Gore-Tex socks! I decided to head back out to the highway for breakfast. I thumbed a ride so I wouldn't have to walk through the storm. I hung out in the restaurant until noon when the storm ended. Whew! Then I loaded everything up and rode the rest of the sunny, warm, fresh-smelling way to Estevan.
Day 29 (cont'd), 30 (Saskatchewan, Manitoba) After the rain let up in Midale, I continued on to Estevan. The clouds cleared away and the sun started beating down its heat. Estevan is an oil and gas based town, with lots of refineries and machinery shops. Moderate headwinds in the early afternoon turned around and provided me with nice tailwinds to continue on through Estevan, and finish up in Alameda. Alameda was one of the nicest towns of the whole trip. Kids were playing everywhere, the campground was very clean, the showers were hot, and the next morning's breakfast buffet at the hotel was outstanding. After breakfast I continued on towards the Manitoba border. I passed a very interesting historic Jewish cemetery, which was now a preserved historic site. There was a plaque detailing the history of a local town that was home to Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Europe early in the century. The landscape started to get different. Trees were visible all around. There weren't many of them, but enough so that some could be seen at every point out to the horizon. This was a nice change to the treeless landscape that characterizes western Saskatchewan. It was, however, much flatter. Late in the afternoon I crossed the border into Manitoba, and set up camp in Pierson, the first town.
Day 31 (Manitoba, North Dakota) After leaving Pierson I decided to turn south. The flatness of the last few days started to ripple a bit as I rode through a couple of river valleys. After I while I arrived at the border crossing in North Dakota. My previous three crossings into the US had been simple, but this guy was suspicious of me. He walked out of his office slowly, with his long brown hair, wide moustache, goatee, and pipe. He asked me where I lived, he wanted to see my airline ticket, he checked my name in the computer, and made me wait for nearly a half hour. I think he was just lonely, because I didn't see anyone else come along the entire time I was there. After he was done he let me go, and I was in North Dakota! I drove through a forested area (The first since Alberta,) along some steep hills, and back up to Manitoba again through the International Peace Garden border crossing. By this point I was really tired, but since there was no place to eat I had to continue to the next town. Eventually I made it to Boissevain, which prides itself as the "prettiest town in Manitoba." It was very nice.
Day 32 (Manitoba) After having some eggs and toast at the local Chinese restaurant, I wheeled out of Boissevain. The sky was all blue and the sun was beating down its nice warm heat waves. It was getting late in the season. Most of the nearby fields had been harvested of the wheat and canola. There were still lots of patches of sunflowers, mut most of the rest was dark brown soil with stubble poking out. After a while, the terrain started to get hilly. There were larger patches of trees and thickets. Wetlands and marshes with ducks and herons started to become common along the roadsides. This was new; Alberta and Saskatchewan didn't have scenery like this. Less pleasant were the dozens of flattened skunks on the shoulders. After a while I entered Killarney, a resort-like lakeside town with cottages and bungalows. I looked on my map and started to turn north out of Killarney, when I saw an unmapped gravel road go off to the east. "Let's go for it!" I thought to myself. I let some air out of my tires and continued on. After a while I found myself going down a huge river valley with ranches on the bottom. There was even some forest in the bottom! The gravel road wound up and down coulees and hills when it finally came out to the highway on the other side. Then I rode on pavement again through more valleys and lakes until finally arriving in Pilot Mound, where I camped out in the local campground.
Day 33 (Manitoba) While eating my breakfast in the local restaurant, a group of older farmers noticed my lycra cycling outfit with the "British Columbia" on the shirt. To them I was such a curiosity! They couldn't believe I had ridden all the way from Vancouver. One of them even invited me to his house after breakfast to show me his collection of antique cars. Afterwards I headed back out on the road and rode on towards Winkler. Winkler was the largest town I had been to since Estevan, Sk. Dark clouds started to roll in. I cautiously decided to ride north to Roland. Two minutes after leaving Winkler, I felt a HUGE drop of water on my right arm. I looked up at the sky, and FURIOUSLY turned back and pedalled hard back towards town. Another drop landed on my knee. And another. I pulled into an undercover area in a shopping mall. It started to POUR. It was raining so hard it looked like fog. It rained for 45 minutes. Later I learned that six inches of rain fell in that short time. After it stopped, the clouds disappeared as quickly as they had come, and I jumped back on my bike and rode to Roland.
Day 34 (Manitoba) I studied my map over breakfast. Someone had given me the name and address of a person I could stay with in Steinbach. That was only a day's ride away. But after that, it would be difficult to continue east to Ontario without riding on the Trans-Canada Highway. So, I decided to turn north and head into Winnipeg. It was also only about a day's ride away. The road east out of Roland had just been paved and it was mirror smoorh. Then I turned north on a secondary gravelled highway. This was the *worst* road I had ever ridden on! The storm from the previous day had left the road very soggy. It wasn't really gravel, it was WET SAND! I had to let more than half the air out of my tires for traction. More than once my wheels mushed into the road almost causing me to fall down. Thick cakes of mud collected inside the fenders. After an hour of averaging 12 km/h I was back on pavement. The terrain had flattened right out again, and there was a noticeable lack of trees. After a while I could see the Winnipeg skyline in the distance. Seeing landmarks like that is always exciting. Pretty soon I was upon the Perimeter Highway, and then the sign welcoming me to the city limits. Strangely, wheat fields were still the primary scenery despite being inside one of Canada's largest cities. It looked just like the previous 100 km, but there was this skyline of skyscrapers looming ever closer. Then, as if by magic, a subdivision of 6 month old homes appeared on the right. The road I was on had suddenly become McGillivray Avenue. Then there was a gas station, a car dealership, and a 7-11. I stopped at the 7-11 to buy a map. I planned my route to take me downtown. I rode past historic old neighbourhoods with names like Earl Grey. I took a leisurely ride along Wellington Crescent and into Wolseley. This was the kind of riding I was used to... downtown with lots of traffic! Only this time instead of a messenger bag and a 2-way radio I had a fully loaded touring bike. My ride eventually took me to the corner of Portage and Main, the main downtown intersection. I sat down for a bit to survey my map for good camping spots. I asked a few passers-by and they said that there were no places to camp in town. So, I jumped back on my bike and headed east. I rode through the historic French neighbourhood of St. Boniface, and then through grey smoke-belching industrial areas. Pretty soon the yucko-stucco subdivisions started to reappear and I knew I was getting near to the city limits. After a stop for a sandwich I crossed the Perimeter Highway and was back in the wheat fields. Another half hour's ride brought me into Oakbank, an old town which was now a Winnipeg bedroom community. I set up camp behind the local hockey rink. That was a long, long day's ride, with a lot of contrast of scenery and riding conditions. (!)
Day 35 (Manitoba) After packing up my stuff in Oakbank, I treated myself to a huge breakfast with pancakes, sausages, eggs, hash browns, the whole bit. I studied my map. I had actually ridden PAST Winnipeg. There wasn't a lot of prairie left in the province, just one more day and a half's ride and I'd be into the rocky Canadian Shield. I left Oakbank and turned north. The terrain reminded me of the countryside I travelled through as a boy; driving with my family from Edmonton to Lac La Biche, towards the weekend getaway. After a while I entered the Agassiz Provincial Forest, and when I came out I was looking at the last bit of prairie in Canada. I camped out by the Whitemouth River. It was a very clean river, and the swim I had after dinner felt invigorating. I saw a baby bear in the campsite at dusk, and promptly tied up all my food in a tree. Sheesh. Sixteen days I spend in the mountains and dense forests of BC and Alberta, and I had to come to Manitoba, of all places, to see my first bear.
Day 36 (Manitoba) Fifteen minutes after leaving Whitemouth, I entered Whiteshell Provincial Forest. The Great Plains, the seemingly endless ocean of wheat fields, grasslands, and ranches, that took me 20 days to cross by bike, was finally behind me. An hour later, I entered the Whiteshell Provincial Park. The four billion year old rock of the Canadian Shield was poking up from between the spindly little trees. The road started to go up and down and wind side to side. I camped out in a provincial campground at Caddy Lake, and met an interesting couple of guys the next campsite over. One was from BC, the other from Germany. We chatted the whole evening away over potato chips and beers by the campfire. I studied my map before going to bed. I was only 10km away from the Ontario border. Ontario. And I came by bicycle. Nine more days to go before my tour would be finished. Ontario, here I come!
Day 37 (Manitoba, Ontario) I got up early in the morning and packed up my stuff. There was no restaurant at the campground so I rode the 7km into West Hawk on an empty stomach. Then I indulged in some pancakes and sausages. This part of Manitoba is very resort-like, with cottages and campgrounds everywhere. Afterwards I turned down to the Trans-Canada Highway to take me into Ontario. The Trans-Canada is the ONLY highway between Ontario and Manitoba, and it's only one lane in each direction, so it was very busy. The shoulders, however, were nice and wide. After a half an hour, the towering Ontario welcome sign welcomed me to the fifth province of my tour. I stopped at the tourist info centre and picked up a free Ontario map. The road started to get very windy and uppy-downy. There were thousands of lakes everywhere. This is where all the Winnipeggers go for long weekends and spring breaks. Lots of roadside shops provided fishing gear, and cheap Ontario cigarettes. The price of gasoline was so high that I was glad I was on a bike. :-) The mosquitoes were not as bad as I had thought they would be. After a while I got my first glimpse of Lake Of The Woods, which is an enormous lake. Apparently this lake has more islands in it than any other lake in the world. There were thousands of islands, lots of them privately owned with huge cottages and boat ramps. I was still seeing more Manitoba license plates than Ontario. After another 30km or so I arrived in Kenora, pop. about 10,000. There was only one campground, and they wanted $12. The campground operator just looked at me blankly when I asked about a cyclist's discount. Not wanting to shell out the $$ for a place to sleep, I headed north 3 km out of town towards Jaffray Melick. I found a nice place to camp beside Rabbit Lake.
Day 38, 39, 40, 41 (Ontario) Since I was now almost completely broke, and it would be another day before my roommate would put some money in my bank account for me, and since there was a very low chance of finding an ATM outside of Kenora, I decided to stay in town for the whole day. This was my first day of rest since in 30 days, when I took a day off in Trail, BC. I spent the whole day reading and lying on the beach in Jaffray Melick, withe occasional dip in the lake and ride into Kenora for a bite to eat. I camped out in the same spot for the second night in a row. In the morning I packed up all my gear and headed into town for breakfast. I called my roommate afterwards because there still wasn't any money in my account. He said that it would take another day! Oh, well, another day of rest would be nice. I hung out in the library for quite a while reading books and newspapers about local life and culture. Since it had been quite a few days since I had a shower I decided to cough up the $12 for a campsite. The hot shower felt so good... The next morning I checked my account balance and took out the $80 that my roommate had left me. After breakfast I headed east out of Kenora and then south on Hwy. 71. This was a beautiful highway. It is very windy, wide-shouldered, and gives spectacular views of dozens of clear lakes. I camped out in a city park in Sioux Narrows. The next morning I had breakfast in a huge dining hall in a resort lodge. I saw a few deer grazing on the front lawn of a cottage and I stopped to watch. The people in the cottage were watching too. I continued down 71, and eventually the windy road straightened out and the craggy Canadian Shield rock went back underground. Farmlands appeared suddenly out of the forest. Soon afterwards I got to the end of highway 71, where it met Hwy. 11 in a T. This was a landmark junction. It marked the end of my travels to the east, and the beginning of my return to Winnipeg. I turned right on 11 and followed the Rainy River valley west. The farms here were very small, not the huge sections I saw on the prairies. I could see Minnesota across the river. Everything was very green. I camped out at a highway rest area in Sleeman. This was my last night in Ontario. Even though I had been feeling anxious to get home and see al my friends again, it started to dawn on me that my tour would be ending very soon. It was day 41 of 46. I started to feel a little sad.
Day 42 (Ontario, Minnesota, Manitoba, all in the same day!) I woke up early in Sleeman, Ontario, and packed up all my stuff. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Come to think of it, it hadn't rained or even been cloudy for at least a week. I rode into Rainy River for breakfast. The three pancakes I ate weren't enough for me, so the cook made me two more at no extra charge! After breakfast I loaded up with groceries and headed across the bridge. Once I got to the other side, I was in Baudette, Minnesota. The customs agent was very friendly and chatty, but he still wanted to search my bags. He was so busy talking and asking me questions about my holiday that he didn't even seem to be looking at all the stuff he was going through in my panniers. After a while he let me go with a tip of his hat, and I ventured out into the northern Minnesota countryside. I hope I don't offend any Minnesotans here, but this day's ride seemed to have the dullest scenery of the entire 46 day trip. It was completely flat, the small farms had all been harvested of whatever had been growing on them, and the skinny little trees looked like they were cringing with fright at the approaching winter. The road to Warroad was closed so I rode on county roads out of the way for a bit. IIRC it was about 65 km from Baudette to the Manitoba Border. Things brightened up a bit when I got to Warroad, where there were some nifty old houses to look at. After Warroad it was 10 km back up to Manitoba. The farmlands started to disappear and were replaced by thin forests and swamps. Canadian customs let me back home easily after the standard questions about alcohol and tobacco. No search, no problem! After being bored by the Minnesota scenery, I was just about bored to DEATH by the SE Manitoba scenery. It was the WORST! I was riding on a paved road with dead forests on both sides of me. It was still completely flat. It was great to finally arrive in Sprague for the night. The local hotel/bar owner let me camp for free behind the hotel!
Day 43, 44 (Manitoba) I left Sprague and made my way westward. The thin forest started to get even thinner after a while and farmlands once more started to dominate. I was back on the Great Plains. It was already the first week of September, and nearly everything that had been growing had already been harvested for the year. The towns here don't have grain elevators, something that I had become very used to seeing everywhere else on the prairies. I turned off the main highway and rode to Vita, where I got to sleep again in the backyard of the local restaurant/hotel. The family who ran the hotel were very, very friendly. I played for hours with Shadow, their Labrador retriever. Shadow tired me out more than the whole day's ride had! After a good sleep, the family opened up the restaurant especially for me, because they normally don't open on Sunday until lunch. After my pancakes I bade them farewell, and decided I wanted to experience more of the local culture. It was Sunday morning, and I decided to take in the service at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It was fascinating. Most of the service was sung by choir members, and about half the service was in English (I can't understand Ukrainian.) After the service, the whole congregation congregated around ME to welcome this strange spandex-clad traveller from the West Coast. They were delighted that I would want to visit. It was one of the most memorable moments of the tour. Afterwards I headed out west again, and stopped at the tall-grass prairie preserve, a bit of land that has never been ploughed. The grasses grew over my head, and I saw an abundance of frogs and insects on the hour-long stroll on the interpretive trail. Then I got back on my bike and rode up to St. Malo, where some kids directed me to a vacant house with a yard I could camp in.
Day 45 (Manitoba) In the morning, I grabbed some pancakes at the restaurant, and heard French being spoken at nearly every table. Manitoba is strange this way. Towns will be only 15 km apart, but each one will have a distinct culture and language. There are French towns, Ukrainian towns, Mennonite (German-speaking) towns. All clumped together in the southeast corner of the province. I find it remarkable that the second, third, fourth generations of European immigrants still teach their kids the mother tongue and that the language continues to be spoken. Afterwards I continued north fighting brutal headwinds. Today's destination: Winnipeg. My tour was drawing to a close. I had been kind of sad the previous few days, but now I was happy to be going home. I was missing my friends. Besides, I hadn't been in an airplane in about five years and even the idea of flying was exciting. The surrounding farmlands were flat and stubbly. The wind was blowing in my face. It was another beautiful sun-shiny day. The day's ride took me through more towns: The French Saint Pierre-Jolys, and several more Ukrainian and Mennonite towns. Eventually I began to see the Winnipeg skyline, and soon enough I was back across the Perimeter Highway. The traffic was heavy with vacationers coming back from the Labour Day long weekend. I made my way back downtown, and tried to figure out a place to stay. I didn't know anyone in Winnipeg, and I only had $5 left to get breakfast in the morning. I had a snooze for a while behind the provicial legislature building, but with all the security cameras I knew I couldn't camp there. Then I got an idea. I looked up the address of the local denomination of the church I belong to. I gave them a call and they let me camp out in their backyard! It was a beautiful spot. The church is an old converted mansion on Wellington Crescent. The backyard fronted right onto the river and I was the whole yard to myself. This was to be the last night of 45 consecutive nights of sleeping in a sleeping bag.
Day 46 (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C.) Up at 7am. I could have slept later, but I was too anxious to get going. I packed up all my stuff, pulled on my jersey for the last time, and rode back across the Assiniboine to Portage Ave. I looked for a restaurant for breakfast. All I could find was McDonalds (Bleeech!), but nothing else seemed to be open until lunch. I choked down a Sausage McMuffin, did the crossword puzzle, and then rode the rest of the 20 minutes to the airport. Even though I had made a reservation, seating was still first come first served, and I wanted to get there early to make sure I got a window seat. I unclipped all my panniers and lashed them together. I checked all but my front panniers and handlebar bag. I nervously watched them take away my uninsured bike. They gave my my boarding pass. I had three hours before my flight was to leave. This was right in the middle of the Air Canada strike (I was on Canada 3000) and the airport was buzzing with angry people lamenting about their ruined vacations. I felt sorry for them, for I had no problems. I went on a scavenger hunt throughout the airport for discarded newspapers (I couldn't afford to buy my own with my only cash left being three dimes and a nickel.) Afterwards I boarded my plane and hauled out my maps. It was fascinating actually watching the towns, rivers, and lakes pass by below my while I followed them on my map. Saskatchewan was the best for this: I had a grid map and could actually see the individual grid squares below. As soon as we got to BC it clouded over so I went back to my newspapers. After another 30 minutes we started our descent. When we came out from the clouds I could se Harrison Hot Springs. I had my eyes glued to what I was normaly used to seeing on maps. It was right there below me in real life! After landing I picked up my baggage and bike (no damage, not a scratch). I smelled the sea air. It took me 45 days to get to Winnipeg, and only three hours to get back. I rolled out and clicked my cyclecomputer on. The final half hour of my tour began as I started the ride home. The familiar streets unfolded before me. Eventually I was out of Richmond and the Welcome to Vancouver sign welcomed me home. Granville St. 49th Ave. Cambie. 19th. I hung a right and then left into the alley. I was home. I pushed the button on the computer. 4,114.5 km total. I took out my keys and unlocked the door. I slumped into the sofa. Ahhhhhhh. I was home. I put on a pot of water for tea. I started to open my mail. Oh my GOD! I had a choir rehearsal starting in three hours! I quickly ate some of my roommate's food and jumped into the shower. I called my friend for a lift to rehearsal. I had virtually no re-entry from vacation mode back into my regular routine. The first day of school was the very next day. My friend arrived and we whisked out to the rehearsal. I saw all my old choir buddies and friends. It was like heaven when we opened our mouths and sang out first note. It was good to be home again.