Total distance: 5392 km
Since Sault Ste. Marie, the topography has changed noticeably. To this point, the rolling hills of Ontario made for a dependable pattern: as I scaled each small hill, I knew I would be going down it in two or three hundred meters. But now, the land is flatter, and farming is more prevalent.
I traveresed Sault Ste. Marie to Blind River with relative ease. With the shores of Lake Superior behind me, I was now travelling along Lake Huron. Locals tell you to expect a change in the weather, but for me, it continued to be hot and humid. This made for some fascinating morning fog on the morning I left Blind River.
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| Morning fog in Blind River |
From Blind River, I put in a long day of cycling to cover nearly 170 km into Sudbury. Peter, who I contacted over couchsurfing, was kind enough to host me for the night and give me a walking tour around the city, which included Science North - a kind of Telus World of Science located in Sudbury. Sudbury also has Canada's second tallest free-standing structure: the 380 m tall stacks from the nickel smelting facilities. The immense height of the stacks is intended to disperse the pollutants into the atmosphere as much as possible.
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| Science North is shaped like a snowflake from above |
The next morning, I finally got my bicycle chain and cassette replaced before I left Sudbury. It was paricularly hot, so I drenched my towel in water and draped it over my head. It wasn't long before I had people approaching me speaking Spanish!
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| Senor Michael |
On a day where the weather was so extreme, I found a lot of people were compassionate to me, the lowly cyclist. At a rest stop en route to North Bay, some RVers connected with me, and stocked me up with ice and chilled water. I stopped in at a number of gas stations just to wet my towel and quench my desire for a cold drink. Beating the heat also meant taking a fully-clothed dip in a lake along the way. According to the forecast, it reached 36 C / 97 F, but according to the waitress at Tek's seafood restaurant in North Bay, it hit 45 C. The restaurant was great: I had all-you-can-eat fish and chips, and placed a few phone calls back home to connect with family and friends. I really enjoyed my stay in North Bay, and found the downtown area to be much like Gastown in its architecture and brickwork.
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| Monument at North Bay |
From North Bay, it was three days of cycling to get to Ottawa. The first day was flat until I left Mattawa at lunch time. After Mattawa, it was a struggle to get to camp. The terrain turned hilly all of a sudden, and everything seemed uphill. Each hillcrest revealed another hill behind it, and the pattern continued for more than 4 hours. I got to camp exhausted; unfortunately it was a provincial park, and like all provincial parks, it was notoriously expensive. It was also full of noisy neighbours and children on bicycles. Until the parks have walk-in or cyclist rates, that will be the last provincial park I stay at if I have any say in the matter!
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| First look at Ottawa River from the Provincial Park |
The second day to Ottawa took me past Deep River (a Manhattan Project community), Petawawa (a Canadian Forces Base) and Pembroke. I had a late lunch and several calorie-rich drinks at Pembroke before heading to Cobden for the night. I was on pace to have some relaxation time at camp, but I caught a flat just 3 km from the first campground. I didn't know precisely how close I was at the time, so I fixed the flat on the spot. It turns out a staple pierced the side-wall of my rear tire. I reached Bona Vista campground at about 8 pm - enough time to tent out and freshen up before sundown. I found it to be a well-serviced campground and a pleasure to stay at.
Finally, I was within a day to Ottawa. It was Sunday morning, and for some reason the Trans-Canada was packed with traffic in both directions. At times along my trip, the noise of the traffic has been overwhelming, and I desire for it to go away so that I could cycle in silence. I think it's busy here for good reason, however. The highway turns into the 417 near Ottawa - a big 6-lane (or more?) highway that cyclists cannot ride on. Instead, I detoured into the city of Arnprior, where I grabbed lunch and zig-zagged my way down quieter secondary roads and cyclepaths into Ottawa, where I met with several brothers and sisters for dinner.
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| A view of Arnprior, where I got some lunch before reaching Ottawa |
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The Parliament Building and Peace Tower, with 53 bells
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| The Rideau Canal |
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