Toronto - Sault Ste. Marie

Jon:
From pigs to the Bruce to black fly to the Big Canoe to rainy days on the porch to the Soo...








A long stretch of riding all day every day covering good distances come rain or shine. From NogAlmo we set off through farmland; long straight straight roads that we followed for days on end. Got pulled over by the local constabulary for cycling straight across a junction with a stop sign despite the fact that I could see 3 miles in every direction and there was no traffic! Well I could see 3 miles in every direction except the police car parked in the ditch presumably for just such an event as an Englishman disrespecting the rule of Canadian law!
Lucky they didn't catch us breaking the 50kph speed limit going down a big hill - who knows what might have happened!
After that we got pulled off the road by a shout from Ken sitting out on his back-porch, "Yous guys need water?" Well... we did need water. But the beer, the friends, the couches and the good times were all an unexpected bonus!

From there we followed the coast of Lake Huron northwards up the Bruce Peninsula all the way to Tobermory. We pulled off the road for a break to rest out of the sun under some trees and were introduced to the locals; black fly! They swarmed us within minutes and bury themselves in your clothes and hair to feast on you at their leisure. It wasn't until we pulled up a the ferry terminal half an hour later that I realised I was bleeding from dozens of places all up my arms and legs where the friendly black fly had bitten me with anti-coagulants.






Ferry crossing number 6 of the trip was the Chi-Cheemaun or 'Big Canoe' from the local Ojibwa language. A fine vessel taking us from sun-soaked shores to dense fog and rain. We first tried to shelter from the rain under trees until we discovered that black fly are as comfortable in heavy rain as they are in the sunshine!
We cycled through heavy rain in the warm damp interior of Manitoulin Island for another few hours until we pulled off to ask for info at a motel. Checking the tv weather forecast - heavy rain solidly for the next 3 days we decided that night might be one to part with a few dollars and stay inside and get dry...




After that we headed off the island and back into mainland Ontario where, after another stop at a public library we stayed with Gus in Webbwood. A night of many bicycle-related stories and tales of which my favourite was a quote from five-time Tour de France winning cyclist Jacques Anquetil,
"To prepare for a race, there is nothing better than a good pheasant, some champagne and a woman."

To which my only response was, it's a bloody good job I'm not racing! All I've got is fig bars and Wei-Ho!



(I told him to look Roman)






After that was a fierce three days solid riding into Sault Ste. Marie where we were taken in by Lynda and her lovely family, fed, warmed, guitarred and sent on our merry way full of smiles from this stage of the ride through the Canadaland!