All I Need is my Bicycle, Part 3: Canadian Shield

I entered Part 3 of my journey with mostly enthusiasm sprinkled with some caution. While I generally breezed through the Prairies and was feeling strong and healthy entering the Canadian Shield I was aware of new challenges that lay in the terrain ahead.

While the Prairies were open and flat, sunny and dry, the Canadian Shield would be forested, humid, dotted with lakes and inhabited by bears. In some places there would be more desolate stretches than in the Prairies. Oh... and of course, lots of rolling hills.

This was definitely the strangest part of my cycle touring adventure. Here's why...

Day 20 - Ontario border, 160 km

I left out of the gates of Winnipeg as it transitioned into the Canadian Shield - forests and marshes began appearing. I reached the Ontario border by sundown, cooking dinner in front of Ontario's Welcome Centre. Here, I had a brief but wonderful conversation with a positive individual named Rob.

The Welcome Centre's foyer was open 24 hours for truckers to use the washrooms. Out of a combination of laziness and not wanting to hide my food from bears, I snuck my bike into the Accessibility bathroom, locked the door and slept on the floor!

Welcome to Ontario! I slept in the Accessibility bathroom

Day 21 - Fort Frances, 115 km (+158 km hitchhike)

Upon entering the Canadian Shield in Ontario I immediately started to feel the rolling hills... I knew this could be the most difficult leg of my journey if I didn't tone down my expectations on mileage. However, one upside of this is the lakes... beautiful and abundant!

Get this - in Ontario alone there are 160,000 sq. km of lakes - that's larger than the country of Nepal! And that's second in the country to the province of Quebec. Canada is believed to have around 2 million lakes in all, with a total area of 890,000 sq. km, larger than the country of Pakistan!

Classic Canadian Shield terrain - highways cut through rolling sedimentary rock

The town of Kenora, located on Lake of the Woods

Upon passing through beautiful Kenora I decided upon an alternate route moving forward - I took Hwy 71 instead of the TransCanada Highway to Thunder Bay. It would be a longer route, 560 km instead of 480, but much quieter traffic and potentially more beautiful.

A few hours after turning on to Hwy 71, a vehicle stopped in front of me. Out came Rob from yesterday! He spontaneously made plans to come down this way and had a larger vehicle too - he offered me a ride and I decided to take it! We had more great conversation on the 160 km ride in to Fort Frances and swapped contacts as he dropped me off.

Day 22-24 - Atikokan, 141 km; Shebandowan, 120 km; Thunder Bay, 92 km

This was an extremely difficult stretch of days - full on rolling hills through desolate wilderness. I pushed hard for Atikokan - there was only one hamlet in the middle where I was able to fill up water - but fell just short, legs burning with fatigue. But I did poke around a highway maintenance facility, and found an unlocked shed and slept in it!

 

I slept in a traffic sign shed in a highway maintenance facility!

 

 

If things weren't hard enough already, here comes the rain! I pulled in to an RV park in Shebandowan just as it started to pour. The owner of the RV park let me sleep in the downstairs part of her house, where her son lives but was out of town! I rushed indoors without taking my food bag with me and it got raided overnight by raccoons.

 

The next morning, the owner offered me another night's stay because there was a big storm in the forecast later - so kind of her! I decided to chance it though, so I left some cash as a gift, and took off. Just as I got into Thunder Bay it poured on me like never before, soaking through my not-so-waterproof layers. But I was glad for it. I had been lucky with rain up to now, so here was a chance to even out the karma. At least I was able to pull in to my friend's place shortly after to dry everything off.

Her son's place was quite a mess, but I was very thankful for the shelter

I carelessly left my food bag outside overnight - raccoons unzipped it and made away with goodies!

Kakabeka Falls, Thunder Bay, Ontario

 

So thankful for a dry shelter, warm bed and bath with my musician friends!

Lise and Dave sing to little Arlen everyday, especially before bedtime

We went for a walk in the forest and successfully identified crab brittlegill mushrooms with our field guide, then through a spore print. And made a beautiful omelette out of it! And yes, it tasted like crab.

Crab brittlegill mushrooms

Day 25-29 - Nipigon, 111 km; Terrace Bay, 105 km; Marathon, 84 km; White River, 99 km; Wawa, 92

 

My arrival in Thunder Bay signaled my arrival to Lake Superior. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by area, and third largest by volume. It is also famous for its scenery and its pristine beaches. The tradeoff? You can't have scenery without hills!

So far the hills in Northern Ontario were rolling so that it felt like one after the other, and pretty steep. After Thunder Bay, they started to get big - and I mean big! I was surprised that these hills were gnarlier than the ones in British Columbia. In fact, I later learned that this highway was constructed only about 50 years ago due to the challenging terrain. British Columbia's mountains may be much grander, but Ontario's highways are much steeper and frequent.

I climbed maybe 5 hills at minimum 6% grade in BC. I did maybe 8 in Ontario!

Lake Superior has lots of nice rocky beaches all along its Canadian shore

 

Along this stretch I happened to find a few more orthodox sleeping spots - in gazebos! In White River locals warned me that a bear was wandering around town. During my own wandering I found an unlocked gazebo behind a seniors home. Next day it poured on me again as I entered Wawa. I found another gazebo in a backyard, and this time I asked the homeowner, who granted me permission to use it!

I snuck in to this gazebo behind a seniors home in White River

A homeowner in Wawa allowed me to camp in his gazebo out of the rain!

 

Day 30-32 - Agawa Bay, 91 km; Spirit Bay, 52 km; Sault Ste Marie, 96 km

I left Wawa and entered Lake Superior Provincial Park, where the finest of the hills and beaches are concentrated. I have been ambitious all trip about making distance, so I'm glad I was able to pace myself sustainably through this difficult stretch, and enjoy the nature, taking 2 to 3 lake dips everyday to cool down the muscles. There were quite a lot of tourist spots in the park, and I had lots of nice conversations with curious and inspired people!

It's easy to mistake these sweeping views of Lake Superior for an ocean

 

 

Beautiful beaches in Lake Superior Provincial Park

 

Just outside of Lake Superior Provincial Park I stayed with a Warmshowers host, Andre, at his cabin on Lake Superior. Andre is probably the coolest guy in Sault Ste Marie! He broke the speed record for a bicycle in Lake Superior Provincial Park - he rode a recumbent at an average 40 km/h! By contrast, I averaged maybe 11 km/h. He started the bicycle shop Velorution in Sault Ste Marie which hosts cycle tourers and fixes their bikes for free, and is a vocal advocate for bicycle infrastructure in his community.

A fat tire, cycle touring and recumbent bike - so many shiny toys!

 

I was very tempted to stay another day on his idyllic property, but I figured I'd come back another time as we connected really well. I took off on yet another blustery rainy day to Sault Ste Marie, where I happened to run into a bunch of his friends. One of them let me stay in his backyard.

I ran into Andre's friends at the local brewery!

And just like that I was finally out of the Canadian Shield. It took me 13 days to complete this leg, including 8 days just to clear Lake Superior! There would still be more hills moving forward but not nearly as daunting.

My legs were weary from the slog but my spirits were high! After 32 days of riding I completed 3870 km, maintaining over 100 km average despite slowing down in Ontario. I was truly in the home stretch, less than 600 km to go, and sensing home.

This has been my home for the past 51 days (32 riding) and 3,870 km!