I think I've finally lost my baby fat

Holy Toledo, I'm burning some serious calories these days. I'm eating like a pig and I just can't keep up. I'll be curious to weigh myself when I get a chance. I'm guessing I lost 5 to 10 pounds, and for those who don't know me, I didn't have 5 to 10 pounds to lose. I'll probably vanish into thin air pretty soon.

July 14: Terrace Bay to White Lake (139.13km)
I wanted to sleep in as much as possible today, but again I slept poorly. It's as if yesterday I hadn't biked enough and I was restless. Oh well. I got a huge breakfast and was off. I had been forewarned that the stretch to Marathon would be quite hilly and as such I suspected my day would be a relatively short 75km. It didn't disappoint. The roads were constantly up and down, but it made for some of the best scenery since Kenora.

Thankfully, the wind was in my back and I arrived in Marathon at around 1PM. Thinking there wasn't anything for another 100km, I started looking for a place to stay. Again motel owners seem to be suspicious of cyclists, because one of them gave me really good info about a motel about 50km away. She said the roads were flat until then and that it should only take me a couple of hours. Since it was still early in the day, I decided to go for it. Well never trust a non-biker to give an assessment on terrain. The road was “flatter”, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it was flat.

I'm staying in the middle of nowhere with a nice lake in front of the motel. I hope to make an early start tomorrow and see if I can make it to Wawa.

July 15: White Lake to just north of Wawa (112.72km)
The wind Gods may have been in my favour yesterday, but they apparently didn't appreciate my smug attitude, because they turned on me with a vengeance today. The first 40km weren't too bad because I was going in an eastern direction, but then the road veered south which was where the wind was coming from and it was just pounding me. At 80km into the ride I had the option to stay in a motel or continue on to Wawa. Even though I was tired, I thought I could make the remaining 50km into Wawa and arrive at a reasonable hour. As the afternoon progressed, however, the wind got stronger and got head winds even when climbing hills (usually the hill blocks the wind). When I saw the first motel 15km outside of Wawa, I thought it was time to pack it in.

The motel is a dump, but it was cheap. The owner is a bit off-putting in that he is too keen to please. He's, I'm guessing, in his late sixties and insisted on giving me a hamburger and wanted to give me popcorn and insisted that I could use his kitchen if I wanted too or to bother him if ever I needed something. It gave a Bates'ian (Psycho) feel to the whole transaction. But, I think he's simply a lonely nice guy who wants to have company.

I have a bit of trepidation about the next two days ride between Wawa and Sault Ste Marie, because every time I ask people about that stretch of road, a knowing smile comes to their face and their eyebrows raise and they say how much I'm going to hurt. Apparently it has very steep rolling hills. In order to allay my fears, everyone assures me that the scenery is quite beautiful. We'll see. Apparently, the terrain flattens out after that however.

July 16: Wawa to Agawa Bay campground (110.55km)
I got a late start today, sort of. Since I had very little food left, I had decided to bike into Wawa for breakfast. So when I woke up at 7:00, I prepared to leave. I then looked outside and saw that fog had settled in the area. I could however see the sun through the fog and assumed this was a good sign in that the sun would burn off the fog in no time. So I set off for Wawa.

Well, my assumption was wrong and the fog got thicker. I could barely see anything through my glasses because the mist left little drops on them. I could tell that the cars had difficulty seeing me even though I had a light flashing on my bag. Luckily there wasn't much traffic and I pulled over anytime I thought it might be too close (e.g. if I didn't have much of a shoulder and a truck was coming).

I finally did make it to Wawa and decided I wasn't budging until the fog lifted. So I had my breakfast and did some groceries and finally the sky cleared. By this point I was debating whether to take the day off or not. It was already a bit late (10:30) and I hadn't slept well the night before (the Bates Motel had many mosquitoes and some strange noises – no regrets leaving that place). Finally, I decided that it was too nice a day to sit on my butt in Wawa.

The ride was better than I had hoped. As I said yesterday, I had been warned about the hills and even though there were some significant ones, it wasn't too bad. I don't want to speak too soon as I'm told I'm not out of the woods until the Sault. I was a bit disappointed with the scenery most of the way. It was nice, but it had been oversold as being some of the best in Canada. Well, most of it is just ok. The last bit before the campground that I'm staying at is really nice though. There a few spots where you have a great view of Lake Superior and some land on the other side of the bay – nicely done God/random geological formations (depending on your inclination).

The accommodations are few and far between in these parts and I'm staying at a nice campground, but my site is right next to the Trans Canada. We'll see how well I'll sleep tonight.

July 17: Agawa Bay campground to Heyden (121.75km)
Today I was riding in the hills that I had been expecting for the past few days. They were numerous, some were quite steep, but they were relatively short (usually about a kilometer or two). The scenery was nice and the air was very muggy which made for a sweaty day.

I was hoping to reach Sault Ste Marie today, but as I was getting closer to the city at around 5:00 the traffic was getting heavier. I was going against the traffic, but there were still a lot of cars passing me way too fast (Mike and Erin, your compatriots drive like Brian:) and way too close for my comfort especially considering that the shoulders were pretty meager. When I got to Heyden which is about 20km north of the Sault, I stopped for the evening.

Since tomorrow morning I will be going with the traffic when I'm going into the Sault, the owner of the motel gave me a few tips on how to get around. So sorry Mike and Erin. I will be skirting around your home town and miss the beauties that it has to offer.

July 18: Heyden to Thessalon (102.84km)
This was a relatively short day, because I deliberately left late. Even though I was planning to avoid much of the busy roads, I couldn't avoid them all together. So I slept in and left at around 9:30 (after rush hour).

The roads have flattened out considerably compared to yesterday and the going was pretty good. However, there were a lot of cars on the road and the province is stingy with the shoulders in some parts. It's not as bad as Manitoba, but some areas did give me flashbacks. I'm going to try and do as much mileage as I can over the weekend to avoid traffic. Hopefully, I'll be past Sudbury by Monday.

I decided to stop relatively early, because I had some groceries to do and I wanted to update my blog. Thessalon is a pretty town whose reason for being seems to be summer tourism. It's right on the lake and has picturesque scenery.

Check out my pictures.