What a day. Man if it rains it pours, and then there's the good side of when it rains it pours. So this is how it went down.........
I was kept up to nearly midnight last night by a guy next door from the grocery store......cutting his lawn, logs, stumps, and any other thing his mower can hit, run over and crush. It sounded like Davey Tree over there the way he/she was blasting through junk for 2.5 hrs. Yup, nearly 3 hrs of lawn mowing/stump removal! Needless to say I could not for the life of me get to sleep during this time. It was totally crazy. And I just lay there sticking my fingers in my ears trying to block out the bushwacker next door. So I must of finally dozed off around 12:30am or 1am.
Then got up to a super cold morning. I mean in the upper 40's for gosh sake. Horrible thing of getting out of bed and putting on the cloths (which I'm wrapping up in my long sleeved jersey and sleeping with to keep warm for morning) to get out there and push the pedals in the cold. Now add the mosquitoes to the mix and it was that much more of me not wanting to get out of that warm sleeping bag. But........Ryan had me up, and by God I was getting up so we could leave early. So I pack, listening to the CBC radio news, still in my sleeping bag, put on cloths in sleeping bag, and finally, put bag and pad in stuff sacks and march out into the cold and mosquitoes for my final deed - tearing the tent down.
So I'm slapping and throwing a towel about chasing away the bugs as I'm getting the tent put away. It's like I'm working in 78 speed rather than 33 to get this done (those of you who have never used records.........forget about it). I get numerous bites as I finish the packing, and I rushed into the grocery for a hot coffee and danish. We hammer it down and then get out onto the roads. The temp has to be mid 40's, and the wind is still blowing hard from the northwest, but more from the north today. I really needed an ear warmer and tights, but they were packed and I was too lazy to take all that stuff apart and redoing. So I go with double shorts and dbl jerseys. Damn was I cold. I was nearly shivering as we took those first few pedal strokes down the road. Ryan I'm sure was pretty cold to.
Now the road was devoid of cars. Nothing coming up or back. And it was more of a country road now, with the giant rock outcroppings everywhere, now very typical of shield country. The road resembled like, Lake Rockwell Rd, as it was in fair to poor shape, but it was a blast to ride. I mean the scenery was awesome, what with the rock everywhere, streams of rust or tea color coming from every direction, and the clouds above us, thundering by with the wind. Very ominous, but very cool. So I get a rhythm going, and feel like I had finally warmed up, this about 6 miles into the ride, when something happened. I mean my right foot just kicked loose from the pedal, and I'm thinking that I must have come unclipped. Look down and my worst nightmare.........no pedal in the pedal axel. Matter of fact, only 1.5 inches of pedal axel there. The pedal was still attached to my shoe. And I tried to put my foot back in and knocked out a bushing from the inside of the pedal. So I know right off the bat that I'm ...........well, you fill in the words.
I stopped and waited for Ryan because there was nowhere to park my bike-yak to hunt for the bushing. Ryan gets there and is kind of amazed. We look for the bushing, but no luck. And I'm thinking, "heck, it's not really going to do me any good anyways, so the heck with it, I'm just going to continue without it." So we move on, with me sticking the pedal in the tiny piece of pedal axel and trying to pedal. It was pure hell. It would slip out every couple of revolutions, and I could not really put any significant down pressure on it. So I continue like this for a while, and my right leg is really starting to hurt. So I stop and have Ryan hold my bike while I change into my my one hiking shoe to try that method. Get one hiking shoe on and try it out. Wow, very difficult. Imagine 1.5 inches of axel to make contact with your shoe's sole! Slipping off every other pedal stroke. Hills? You're kidding me, I basically had to do one-leg exercises going up the hills, which I might add, just really started to hit us again after a week of the flats!
So I would do these one leg exercises on the hills, which got longer and higher as the ride wore on, and then I'd do the balancing thing on the flats and descents with the hiking shoe on the tiny pedal axel. It was insane. So I tired of the hiking shoe real fast. Back to the cycling shoe with the pedal hooked on it. Now at this point I had about 12 more miles to go before we got to the gas station at West Hawk Lake, an eternity the way I was pedaling. After about another 2 miles I had totally worn out the inside of the pedal so that it would barely hold the peg of axel on the crank arm. Ok, 86, pedal and just go with the cycling shoe. But before I could stop I slipped out of the axel and hit the ground with the pedal, knocking it off and into the bushes. Again, stop, get Ryan to hold bike while I hunt for the broken pedal. Found. And next step was to ride with shoe only.
Again, that was just as hard, just as maddening, just as frustrating as the other two options. But, no choice. I had to get this rig to the West Hawk Lake. And what there? I was hoping that I could get a junk pedal from someone's bike to get me the rest of the way to Kenora. So that was the plan.......junk pedal.........new pair of pedals in Kenora. So we keep going. And I can barely get this thing up hills, and then coast down the descents, and struggle on the flats. By 6 miles of this my right leg was really getting sore, and then my left leg started getting sore due to me doing a one legged exercise for miles. Add insult to injury a bear runs across the road just behind me, and then a car pulls up to me, signaling me to stop. So I stop and the guy tells me there's a mother moose up the road with youny that just charged his car. GREAT. Now all I need to do is run into this moose with one good leg. I could just invision myself doing a one legged sprint ahead of this charging mother moose. So I proceeded cautiously up the road. No moose. Thank God.
More hills, more struggles. Now I almost had to walk one of the hills, but kept er going with the one legged gig. Made it. I finally saw a sign: West Hawk Lake 12K. Now 12K normally is cake, but with one pedal.........eternity. So on we go, Ryan behind me, me creeping down the road with my right foot slipping off of the axel every other stroke. It took over 1.5 hrs to go those 13 miles, but we finally came to a store at West Hawk Lake. I go in and explain the situation to a lady in a plumbing shop. She does not have an old bike, but let's me use their tools, and directs me next door to the chain saw shop/post office for bike help. I go there and the lady in the postal part of the bldg says she has two old bikes that I can take a pedal off of, and directs me to her house, about 5 min away up a dirt road. I took my pedal axel with me just to be safe. Get there, take the pedal off with a crescent wrench borrowed from the plumbing shope, skrew in my broken axel into the old bike crank.YES! Now I'm feeling good. I go back and offer to give the postal lady 10 bucks but she says have a nice trip and all the best! Happy to help.
So I put in platform pedal, change into one hiking shoe/one cycling shoe, and off we go. And at this point I'm freezing from being off of the bike so long, and from building up a sweat and still being damp. So I tell Ryan I have to get rolling to get warm, and fly down the road. Now that platform pedal felt like heaven! Ecstacy! And I got it clicking.......right into a cross headwind. So my pace slows to a crawl despite my new pedal. I ride over the border, into Ontario, and all of a sudden the Rt 17 turns to complete and utter ----. No berm, the road was potholed and broken, a complete mess. It was under construction, and I'm in the middle of the lane with trucks and campers whizzing by. I'm dodging potholes, and trying not to fall into the gravel berm. I mean there's not let up here. And then there's the hills......with potholes, one platform pedal, trucks, hardly a full lane, and oncomming traffic. It was a complete catastrophy. And this continued for nearly 10 miles.
Finally, at a flagger traffic was stopped, and I asked the guy, "just how far does all of this go?" Wondering to myself if this mess went 300 miles to Thunder Bay? "Just 4K," he responds. Finally, some relief today. And sure enough, 4K and it was picture perfect asphalt with a berm a lane wide. Ok, just the cross headwind to deal with.........until Ryan jumps out of a car and flags me down???????????? "Dude, my yak wheel is trashed," he tells me. "I got a ride from Guy. We're going to Kenora to the bike shop." So I tell him to tell the fellers at the shop to be ready for me. And they go. It takes me nearly 2 hrs to do that 30 miles to Kenora, over hill and dale, against the cross headwind. I was mentally beat to a pulp by the time I pulled into the city. It's a beautiful place, right on the shore of Lake of the Woods, a massive inland lake as big as probably Lake Erie. Very picturesque.
So I go to the bike shop, the only one in the city, and there's Ryan and Guy at the counter, with Ryan paying for a new set of bearings and races for the yak wheel. They set me up asap with a set of Egg Beater pedals. No more Candies for this kid. I went with a heavier pedal axel. Slapped them on and off to lunch two doors down. Now Ryan had called Clayton to see if we could still crash at his farm, and they had connected and Clayton was on his way to meet us while we ate lunch with Guy. Great lunch, great place. Clayton comes in and my first question was, "do you live east or west of here?" And Clayton responds that he lives 10 miles east of Kenora. He was going to load our bikes in his truck and drive us to his house. I just could not do it. I had to ride seeing all of the problems we had today, and more importantly what this trip represents to me. I could not skip out on ten miles. And both Clayton and Ryan were good with that, so Clayton gave me directions and I rode to his farm. And I get there and am blown away. This is more like Bonanza, the Ponderosa, the spread, the kingdow. It's just amazingly huge. Hundreds and hundreds of acres. Now I'm going to let Ryan go into more detail on this place, but I was so knocked out.
Clayton has half of the farm self sufficient on electricity - using wind, solar, and hydro. Very impressive as he did it all himself - everything! Anyway, he took us for a tour on his ATV, down to the lakes, to the various houses and cabins. We were all over. And it's just beautiful. Finally we come back and his wife Diana has this fantastic dinner made for us - fresh battered fish, chicken, potatos, vegies, rice. The works. It was fantastic. We also met Clayton's dad and his dad's girlfriend. Now his pop is 88, and he has a girlfriend. That's cool!! The gentelman is quite a character, and we enjoyed some of his memories from the WW2 and first coming to Kenora here and clearing out the land for a farm. Definitely old school.
Well, I'll let Ryan take over, as he has a lot to talk about today. All the best. PS - no skype here so I cannot call folks today. I'll try tomorrow. We're staying here for a day, Canada's July 1- Canada Day. So I'll try in town with some wifi. Using Clayton's computer this eve........Pete
Ryan Adds:
What a day.I was freezing when I got up. I have been cold for 2 straight days. I ride my bike I'm cold. I change into my clothes I'm cold. I get in my tent I'm cold. Cold. Cold. Cold. We get riding and Pete breaks his pedal. He puts it back on and it flies off into the bushes. I'm laughing because that's what I do when I cant scream in frustration. We go do wn the road and a Bear crosses the road. Pete has big time Bearanoa. I mean the dude in Bearanoid. All through BC he is making bear comments. I was gonna spread hamburger on his tent one night to mess with him but I didn't. So immediately I thought how hilarious it was that Pete had one pedal and a bear had come to hunt him down. Superman trying to fly with no cape. I stopped hoping the bear would taunt Pete but he didn't. He ran away. A short while later a car stopped and warned us about an angry moose that charged their car. I got excited. I hoped the moose would chase us because then I could be cold and scared at the same time. We rode-no moose. We found a service station place and they gave Pete pedal. Canadians are so ncie and laidback. I think I am Canadian somehow. Maybe in a former life. We get to riding again and my yak tire is rubbing against the hub and making obnoxious noises so I stop to fix it and it is broken. I try for 30 minutes. No luck. 3rd time this trip I am in the middle of nowhere totally broken down. I pary a prayer for an angel to come by. Within minutes a Dude named Guy comes by and picks me up. He is 48 and is retired and said he wasn't going to Kenora but he had nothing else to do so he took me there. Crazy. Another amazing Canadian! We drive to Kenora. go to bike shop. Bike gets fixed for $34.03. The bike mechanic looked at the bearings and said "Dude this is really dangerous." I thought "whats dangerous about pulling 75 pounds of gear down roads I have never been down going upwards of 40mph at times." No biggie right. Guy ended up getting some bike gear. Pete rolled in and we ate at a Pub called Haps in Downtown Kenora. Amazing place. Boats. Houses. Islands everywhere. Another little slice of Canadian paradise. Then Clayton showed up and picked me up in his pick up and we headed back to his house. Pete and I met Clayton the other day in Beausejour. He told us to call him if we came to Kenora to stay at his farm. Um right Farm..
Farm means different things to different people. This place is 500 acres with 1.25 miles of direct lake access. Hills everywhere. Trees. Dirt roads. Solar panels. Wind towers. Geo Thermal panels. He even has a hydro generator in his river that generates electricity. Dude has his own river. Dude has his own lake with 15,000 trout in it. I did not stumble-15,000 trout. Heck I might even catch a fish with that many in there. It has it's own beach with a Bungalow. It has about 15 buildings on it. 4 houses. 3 workshops. I have seen alot of things in my life. I have traveled alot in my life. This place had me picking my jaw up off the floor. He has a really cool dog. Some canoes. Tractors. We rode around his property in an ATV. He has 250 chickens. He had a music festival here in 2004 on his property and 10,000 people came! This place is 1000 miles from Hudson and I hope to get to bring Quinn and my parents here someday. We had an enormous dinner. Fresh fish. Chicken. Veggies. Potatoes. Rice. Pie. Ice cream. Clayton brought out some crazy Canadian moonshine and I think he wanted to see me drunk. These Canadians are so nice and they keep trying to get the Ryguy intoxicated! Hasnt happened yet. Maybe in St.Johns. We are taking a day off tomorrow and hanging with Clayton and his family tomorrow to Celebrate Canada Day. I guees its like there version of 4th of July or something. Should be really fun. We are going canoeing, fishing, swimming in the lake, and I am going to shoot his 10 guage shot gun and kill some crows!
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