Day Twenty Six - Kenora

This morning it took a while to get up.  I still feel like I’m running on Pacific time and we are now two time zones away in Central.  Even though it didn’t rain everyone’s tent was soaked from the morning moisture from the grass.  John’s wife came at 7 to bring bagels, cream cheese and salmon.  Thanks again!

Today was the last of 6 days that we will be biking in a row.  Tomorrow is a rest day.  In the past six days we have travelled close to 1000 kms.  We did 172 kms today and it was supposed to be an “easy” century ride.  Some people did find it easy but my legs were very tired.  

As soon as I left camp today I noticed that my rear tire was rubbing on my fender.  I rode for a while like that until the group caught up to me and encouraged me to look at it closer.  I eventually took the fender off and it was ok for a while.  About 30 km after that the tire started rubbing on the frame.  I stopped and checked the wheel to find that a spoke broke away from the rim of the tire and the portion of rim was also gone.  No chance to replace the spoke.  I loosened the spokes around the missing one to balance out the wheel and that worked to Kenora. The wheel was still very unbalanced for most of the day.

Our first stop was to be at a bakery in Whitemouth.  One of the veterans had gone there four years ago but when we arrived there it was not there.  We opted to go to the hotel restaurant close by.  Most people enjoyed the apple, cherry, or blueberry pie.  At that point it was 11 and we were not very far into the ride and most people made it a short stop.

The terrain changed today from very flat prairie to undulating short hills.  It was a welcome change and for most of the day I found the scenery to be interesting.  One very notable point was the horseflys that were swarming around us.  There were about thirty around the five of us.  A couple of people got bit more than once but I didn’t thankfully.  We noticed that they were so big that they cast their own shadow. 

Our next stop was in Rennie for a cold drink.  A woman and man came up to us and asked about our travels.  The man said that he had completed a fund raising trip from Niagara Falls to Winnipeg.  People are interested in why we are doing this tour, where we are going, and where we came from.

The last stop was for some ice cream in ice Whiteshell.  We were told by other riders that we should stop but we didn’t find anything special about it.  I had a “fresh” pineapple shake.  It consisted of 3 rings of pineapple that had been quartered and then added to a vanilla shake.  Not really what I had in mind.  Cold and refreshing non the less.

Once we finally got into camp it was the normal rush to get the tent and sleeping bags dry with the remaining sunlight.  I asked the galley crew how long until dinner.  Then Matt reminded me that I was supposed to be on tonight.  It seemed that I just did it a couple of days ago.  The days seem to blend together and its hard to separate one place from another.

The hilight of the day was listening to a folk band practice for a performance while I was waiting for my laundry to complete.  Matt went back to the campsite to tell the group about it and two more people joined us to enjoy the music.  Tomorrow is a rest day and I plan to sleep in and then late morning make my way to the bike shop to see if they can help me with my wheel.

Manitoba done! Now only three weeks until cross through Ontario

Hills and more hills.  Come on rest day!

Panorama on bridge just before Kenora ON

Listening to musicians practice their folk music while waiting for laundry to finish at the campground in Kenora