Day 42 - Terrace Bay to Marathon

87.8 km - Total so far 3819.33 km

We left Terrace Bay this morning at 7:45 am, heading to Marathon 65 minutes away or 85 km for those of us on bicycles. Within a kilometer of our start point, the road went down hill and did so for almost 10 kilometer. That was a heck of a lot of fun. We quickly came back to reality as we faced our first hill of the day. Innocent looking at first. this climb turned out to be almost 4 km long. Our level of fitness now enables us to carry on a conversation as we pedal up an incline. We would never have been able to do that in British Columbia when we started this trip.

Our first hill today

About a 1/4 up the hill

1/4 of the way up and still smiling

Before hitting the hill, we came across a large bird walking in the ditch. Never seen a bird like that before and we did not get a chance to take a picture. We will however look for it as we scan pictures of birds of Northern Ontario on the Internet. When we find it, we will bring you all up to date.

I also spotted my first bear today. He was yellowish brown, wore a red shirt with a bow tie and answers to the name 'Winnie the Pooh'. He was on a large sign announcing the town of White River where he is originally from. Again no pictures, but we will get tons when we get to White River tomorrow. We also saw a red fox on the other side of the road. He was a pretty cool customer as he just sat down as we went by. I guess he sees tons of cyclists every summer and knows that spandex wearing people are no threat to him.

We had a really nice ride today. Although we were some distance from Lake Superior we still had lots to look at. We saw many rivers, lakes and hills that reminded us very much of Cape Breton (or la Haute Gaspésie). The pavement was generally pretty smooth with a good shoulder. What made the ride fun were the near constant up hill, down hill, left turn, right turn and very limited sight lines, so you never knew what to expect in terms of terrain. Once in a while, we did catch a glimpse of an up coming hill but that was very rare.

Another climb hiding in the upper left corner

Railroad infrastrucure over the Steel River

Lunch and stretch stop

We had some interesting moments when we stopped on a bridge to take pictures. Cars that went buy were no issue but when a large truck drove by, the whole bridge shook. It was all pretty safe but it came as a surprise.

The shaky bridge

View left side of shaky bridge

View right side of shaky bridge

Lakeshore

My latest tool find...too heavy left it where it was found

At the campsite, we had a chat with constable Glen from the Ontario Provincial Police who gave us some insights as to some of the best view points on our way to White River. He also explained why such a big difference in temperature between lake shore and inland. Lake Superior for the last two years has frozen in its entirety and there was still ice present in late May. Even now the lake water is still very cold and that is what causes the large difference in temperature (can be twice as warm inland as it is by the shore) and the fog that comes and goes all day.

Home sweet home in Marathon, ON

All along the road we could see imprints (tracks) on the soft shoulder. The tracks were somewhat faded as they appear to have been there for a while. We thought at first that they might be footprints left by Steve O'Brien or maybe from a moose heading to Ottawa to meet up with Marcel. Every once in a while, there was also a large pile of animal poop, this effectively eliminated the imprints as being human. Hélène thought that it might be someone riding a horse. Why not we had observed other unusual things on this trip. It was confirmed by constable Glen that it was indeed a horse and rider heading to British Columbia. The lady had started her trip in Montreal.  I am discovering all sorts of abilities in Hélène that I did not know she had. I think she is surprising herself as well!

We had a very nice ride today and look forward to the same tomorrow as we head to White River. We were passed by Kyle today as he was heading to White Rock and Wawa tomorrow. That will put him a full day ahead of us. 

Using my new found tool before I have to say goodbye for ever :-(

54.56 miles - Total so far 2,373.22 miles