Day 60 - Craighusrt to Norland

95.5 km - Total so far 4,992.23 km - http://ridewithgps.com/trips/5813657

Before reading about today, first check out the following: 

Day 54 - Comments by Nick (at Agriculture Canada)

Day 58 - Wiarton to Meaford. We added 2 new videos.

We seem to have lost our sense of urgency in the morning. We used to be all packed up and on the road by 7 am most days but recently, we take more time in the morning and leave around 8:30 am. We still cover a good distance but because we can now ride a bit faster than we used to, we don't stress out as much. We might have left a few minutes earlier this morning but some of our neighbours came over to see us off. One of the neighbours is a kind lady who offered us some of her daughter's birthday cake the evening before and we had to decline as we heading to the showers.

Finally I have a jersey with a VW bus on it

If you don't have the biggest camper make it up by having the biggest truck!

 

Broke my bell so I replaced it with a horn. Once again compliant with the law in Ontario

We normally like to have a 10 km warm up completed before we start to climb hills but this morning the hill appeared at 4.1 km and went on for 3.8 km. The second half of the hill had to be one of the steepest we encountered on the trip and most definitely the steepest in Ontario. Once we got to the top, we got a picture of the sign warning opposing traffic of the hill and its grade which was 10%. When we were more than halfway up the hill, a large truck also started his climb up the hill. We heard the driver shifting through the gears down to his lowest. As we neared the top of the hill, the truck moved slowly behind us and only when the hill leveled off did he slowly pass us. We still had some uphill and downhills on our way to Orillia but all where easily manageable.

The near side of the hill we just climbed

The sign warning drivers of steep hill ahead. Yes that is Hélène on the road well after climbing the hill. 

Looking East from the top of the hill and we can see easier climbs ahead

In Orillia, we stopped for coffee and used the Internet at MacDonald's. We got onto the multi use path in Orillia so we could be by the waterfront. On the bike path, we encountered two cyclists with luggage from the Ottawa Bicycle Club heading in the opposite direction. We did not have a chance to chat with them. We did however chat with a lady who wanted to know how Hélène went to the bathroom on the road.

Orillia waterfront and multi use path

Once we got out of Orillia, we were inland so there was not much to see for a long while until Helene spotted wildlife in a pond on the left side of the road. At first when the bird spotted us they just hid in the tall grass. It took us a while to get them to move using our whistles and my new horn. We got the picture below.

These are the birds of the week (the other bird is trying to hide on the right of the picture)

Flower of the day. Can we ask Helen (Dowd) to sit this one out and give someone else a chance :-)

We finally made it to Norland at a very reasonable 3:30 pm and decided to stop for refreshments before heading to the campground.

Still smiling even after going up that very nasty hill

The Riverside pub and Inn in Norland

The riverside in Norland

Tomorrow we are aiming for Bancroft.


59.34 miles - Total so far 3,102.02 miles