Day 44 - White River to Wawa (Part A)

93.6 km - Total so far 4,011.53 km - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5610786

We got on the bikes at 07:45 a.m and by 07:46 a.m. a light mist was coming down (I call it rain but was directed to describe it as a light mist) and the light mist (rain) persisted until about 10:30 a.m. We tackled our first climb at about 07:55 a.m. in a face wind. The 90 or so km ride to Wawa was going to be loads of fun.

We were not expecting to encounter any sort of services until we got to Wawa but about halfway we stopped for coffee at the "Fishing Moose Lodge" where we had a cup of coffee and a chat with Jeremy Archibald, the owner. This place was not listed anywhere in the tourist information we had picked up or asked tourist information people about. You can rent a cabin with shower for $60.00, nothing fancy but when you are cycling and need to get out of the rain, it works.

Jeremy gave us an idea of what to expect at one of our planned stop at "Montreal River" and that is nothing. There used to be a place to eat but it is now closed. He did tell us about the big hill that we understand to still be there :-)

This morning we toyed with the idea of staying put in White River because the forecast called for 50mm of rain in 24 hours beginning in late morning. However we decided that it was preferable to ride in the rain and take a motel in Wawa versus camping.  This allowed us to stay on track with getting to Sault Ste-Marie.  Good thing we chose to ride since the rain was not that bad during the day and we made to Wawa before the downpour started. We did stick with the plan to take a motel and that was a good thing as you can see by the video below, the rain started around 4:30pm.

As we arrived into Wawa we stopped at the visitor center in order for Hélène to shock and awe the staff with a barrage of questions and entertain me in the process.  They made a couple phone calls for us about prices for motels.  We were going for the cheaper one but as we rode into town we took our chances on a third motel that had some real bikers drinking beer in front of their units.  The place was cute and our unit is clean and well equipped. We went and sat outside to check out the police action across the street at the motel we had initially thought we would stay at.

Our very own version of 'Cops' the police show happening across the street

Us, the bikers and their 'wheels'

View of Hwy 17 from the Wawa visitor centre. You can trace the road up to the middle

'Wawa' is a misappropriated Ojibway word wrongly translated to mean 'Wild Goose'

How Wawa got its name

How Wawa residents fought to keep the name

Not a 'Dollarama' but they have just as much stuff...but it costs more that $1.00

Today we reached 1,000 km in Ontario.  While preparing for this trip we always thought the prairies would be most demanding both physically and mentally as we faced large expanses of nothing but flat land. We could not have been more wrong. We hold very fond memories of the prairies as we got to meet and share experiences and stories with warm, generous and engaging people. These first 1,000 km of cycling in Ontario were nothing short of a difficult grind. We have had to focus on getting from A to B every day with little or no opportunities to interact with anyone. However we are still glad to be cycling Ontario, we believe things will change for us once we get to Sault Ste-Marie and other more populated areas.

Amazing how after 44 days on the road we are still 'Living the dream!'
This picture was taken while wet from the 'light mist' and being eaten alive by black flies.

Keep scrolling down to Day 44 - White River to Wawa (Part B) to see 2 more videos

There will be no post tomorrow Day 45 as we are heading to Montreal River roughly halfway to Sault Ste Marie (the Soo) and there is no cell phone or internet service. The next post should be from Havilland Shores and will have both Day 45 and Day 46. 

58.16 miles - Total so far 2,492.64 miles