Day 22: Dundalk to home. Final trip total: 2653km

 

Perfect day for my final ride.  Sunny, with no humidity or wind,  and pretty much downhill the whole day.

After more than 2500km, I finally got my first flat tire

With today's 121km ride,  I've covered 2653km in the past 25 days (22 riding days). While riding,  I averaged 120.6km/ day,  which is a little above my touring average.

At the top of the Niagara Escarpment,  about to hit 75.6km/hr on this descent 

Arriving home

It's too soon to fully digest the trip, but here are some initial thoughts.

1. It was hot.  I rode through the horrendous heat wave that we've all been dealing with, and I pushed a little too hard at times.  I definitely suffered heat exhaustion on a few days,  but had little choice but to keep going because I was usually in the middle of nowhere when I started noticing the symptoms. I'll chalk it up to bad luck weather wise,  but I could've taken more days off and avoided the riskier days.

2. It was flat. Until I hit Manitoulin Island,  I didn't have much elevation to deal with, just annoying little hills that slowed me down enough for the flies to catch up with me.  By the time I hit Espanola, I might as well have been on a track, with the only real challenges being distance,  road conditions, and weather. The two days from Espanola to Dundalk included over 1000metres of cumulative elevation to climb,  which seemed like the Rockies after such a level ride up to that point.

3. I'm not sure why I went around Georgian Bay. It's not technically part of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail,  and it certainly isn't bike friendly. I'm glad I took the long route around, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it over going straight through Bruce and Manitoulin. It's hard to keep your bearings on the backroads because they wind in every direction and you're not close enough to the Bay to follow the coastline. It was a challenging few days.

4. Painting was good idea.  I'd brought my watercolours on previous tours but never actually used them.  This time I forced myself to pull them out from time to time and it really helped connect me with places that might have just drifted by otherwise. There was a lot of monotony on this trip and painting really helped me pull out little moments with more vibrancy and clarity.

Thanks for following along,  and feel free to shoot me any questions if there's something I didn't cover or fully address.

Until the next tour, 

Mark.

Day 21: Wiarton to Dundalk. Trip total: 2532km

Wiarton Willy

Today had all the weather in store for me.  It was hot and humid right at 7am, so I decided to take a 22km detour and hit Sauble Beach. Although it added an extra hour to my ride,  it was well worth it take a quick swim before the hot ride ahead.

The radar showed a pretty active storm making its way along the route I was taking,  although I'd hoped it would stay ahead of me,  and it did,  for the most part.

Randomly came across some friends heading home from the cottage

I could see the storm clouds ahead of me for the entire day,  but occasionally I ran into its aftermath with a refreshing drizzle that never lasted long,  until...

I only had 5km left to reach my motel when torrential rain, wind, and hail battered me.  If that wasn't bad enough, the road that was all but deserted for the past 10km all of the sudden filled up with traffic that probably couldn't see me at the side of the road through the wash out conditions.

I had little option but to soldier on,  being mindful to duck onto the gravel shoulder if it didn't look like vehicles were moving over to accommodate me.

Suffice it to say,  after 130km I made it to my destination intact. Very wet, but intact.

Day 20: Espanola to Wiarton. Trip total: 2402 km

I had my longest ride of the tour today. I covered 117km from Espanola to South Baymouth,  then another 74km from Tobermory to Wiarton.  The rides were broken up by a 2 hour ferry ride.

Dolores waiting for the Chi Cheemaun

All 191km were on highway 6, and there wasn't really much to see along the way aside from rocks and trees.  Just a long,  relatively straight line down Manitoulin Island,  then down the Bruce Peninsula.

The first 2 hours of my ride were shrouded in fog

Last stop before the ferry

This is what all 73km of highway 6 along Bruce Peninsula looks like

Day 19 1/2 - day off

I spent today mentally preparing for tomorrow's 190km ride.  I have about 115km to South Baymouth, about a 2 hour rest during the ferry ride,  and then about 75km to my motel.

I've covered this daily distance on previous tours a few times,  but never with deadlines to meet.  Ideally I'd take the 9:10am ferry so I'd have plenty of time to get to my motel, but that would mean leaving well before 4am to give me enough time to bike there with a buffer for poor terrain or weather.

I don't like the idea of riding on highway 6 in the dark, which means leaving closer to 6am, and that puts me on the next available ferry at 1:30pm.

I'm a little disappointed I won't have time to hang out in Tobermory once I get off the ferry, but I'll need to book it to get to my motel before check in closes. It'll be tight, but I'm confident I'll make it.

As well as mentally preparing for tomorrow,  I biked around Espanola for a bit and did some painting.

Highway 6 outside Espanola

Spanish River

I'm planning to hit the sack early tonight, I'll need to be fresh in the morning.

It's going to be a long day.

Day 19: Blind River to Espanola. Trip total: 2211km

Today's ride was very level and straightforward.  Road conditions are pretty good between Blind River and Espanola on highway 17, although the traffic can be a little tight on the sections with narrow shoulders.

I'm in a weird spot right now because there's a little over 100km to South Baymouth where I need to catch the ferry to Tobermory,  but there's aren't any available accommodations around Tobermory once I cross over. It doesn't help that I'll be passing through this area on a Saturday without any advance planning.

I decided to take tomorrow off for rest,  and then do a really long ride on Sunday that will take me down to South Baymouth, across to Tobermory,  and then all the way down to South Bruce Peninsula.

Day 18: Sault Ste. Marie to Blind River. Trip total: 2115km

Today and tomorrow I'm retracing my steps from the previous two days to get me back towards Manitoulin Island.

This had me nervous because I knew there'd be a 20km section of highway 12 heading east into Blind River that's like riding on a cheese grater, has a minimal shoulder, and lots of big rigs. The alternative is backroads with worse surface conditions, but no rigs.

I lucked out because the construction work that pushed me onto the backroads two days ago was a road crew repaving the highway! Rather than 20km of cheese grater, it was only about 10km to deal with.  And where they had yet to repave, they had construction cones blocking off half a lane which served as a makeshift bike lane for me,  which was a nice consolation.

To bad I didn't start my trip a little later,  they might have had the whole section repaved by the time I passed through.

Day 17: Thessalon to Sault Ste. Marie. Trip total: 1977km

I took a chance and went off the highway today,  fortunately the roads were all paved and pretty flat all the way into Sault Ste.  Marie.

I settled into my motel before finishing the final leg out to the terminus for the waterfront trail, which was a little over 20km further west. I was hoping for a marker of some sort, but the little waterfront trail signs that dotted my journey were nowhere to be found.

It was satisfying that the road actually stopped at the Lake Superior shoreline so at least it felt like it was as far as I could go. I say 'felt' because I know from experience that there's another 700+km of shoreline along the Canadian side of Lake Superior that I could bike to technically cover all the waterfront,  but I'm not one to argue with the route mapped out by the good folks at the Waterfront Regeneration Trust.

Speaking of the mapped route, I deviated significantly from the official route by cycling around Georgian Bay,  but I'll be covering the missed section on my way back down through Manitoulin Island heading home.

All told, between my cross Canada tour and this one  I've now cycled the entire Canadian shoreline of the Great Lakes.  It goes without saying that Canada is huge,  but I'll never underestimate the sheer size of Ontario all on its own.

I have the luxury of retracing familiar territory on my ride back home, so I'll get a chance to hit some spots I wanted to check out last time around without feeling rushed.