Day 29 Beausejour, Manitoba to Kenora, Ontario on Lake of the Woods

 84.6 miles, 1220 ft ascent, 7 hours, 37 minutes riding time.

We had a very strong head wind all day, with steady wind velocities of 10 to 12 mph, along with gusts of twice that.  My shoulders got extremely tired holding the line and fighting the wind.  I would compare it to riding up a grade of between 3 to 5% for 84 miles.  In addition, several of us independently misinterpreted the ambiguities in the map and took a wrong turn that added  15 miles to what was already a 105 mile route.  We got to within 35 miles of our destination, Kenora, when a huge thunderstorm drenched us.  Water was rushing over steep parts of the road, carrying pebbles and rocks onto the roadway, so we had to dismount and walk around the obstructions in the downpour.  Once we were again able to mount our bikes, we rode to the tourist town of West Hawk Lake, in the Provincial Manitoba Park.  We were soaked, cold, and exhausted, so it was dangerous to continue on.  Campers in the area, seeking relief from the storm had taken all the motel rooms in town.  Two riders in our group had decided that their legs were wasted, and they had reserved a motel room in advance.  They could only put one of the four of us remaining cyclists in their room, so that was not an option.  We knocked on the door of a fire station in town to ask if we could sleep there, but no one answered.  There were no rental cars available nearby, no Uber, no Air B&B. This picture gives you an idea of what we were up against in the storm.

 

We had tried everything we could imagine and were discussing our desperate situation in a motel lobby/store, when our Guardian Angel overheard our conversation and offered the four of us a ride to Kenora in her short bed pick-up truck.  She had been in Kenora on an errand, and felt sorry for three old men and one college student cycling in the bad weather.  To fit our bikes in the truck bed, we removed the front wheels, so that the bicycles could fit cross ways into the truck bed.  As providence had it, there was a cardboard  recycling center across the street that we raided for soggy cardboard to stuff between the bikes and protect the front wheels which we had placed between the bike frames.  Everything fit snugly into the truck bed all the way to the back tailgate, and the tight fit prevented the bikes and wheels from moving around.  Ideal in the situation.

Our Guardian Angel phoned her husband during the drive to tell him that she had picked up four bikers in West Hawk Lake and was driving us to Kenora.  The silence that fell over the car speakers was deafening!  She drove on and discussed sights along the route in this lovely part of Ontario.  We stopped at an A&W, my favorite fast food spot in Canada, where we picked up takeout, before she dropped us of at the camp site in the continuing rain.  

Below you see our Guardian Angel observing as we unloaded bikes from her truck at the campsite.  Thank the Good Lord for kind people like her who step up to assist the desperate out of the goodness of their hearts.  We offered to pay her for the ride, but she refused compensation.  Eventually we convinced her to accept money to donate to a charity or to give to someone in need.

 

 

Some Birch trees in Ontario, similar to those in my home state of Minnesota.  We rode out of the Canadian prairie today.

 

Here is a view of a granite outcropping on the Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, a large area of exposed igneous and metamorphic rock, much of it granite.  It forms the core of the North American Continent.  Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil, through which igneous bedrock resulting from its volcanic history is frequently visible. The Shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland.  It also extends south into the northern United States.  We will be riding on the Canadian Shield during the next two weeks.  We expect rolling hills, as well as steep climbs and descents, since the roadway follows the contour of granite rock that is impervious to the blade of a bulldozer.  For this reason the Canadian Shield involves more difficult climbing than the passes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

 

Thankfully, tomorrow is a well needed rest day.  Come back to see some sites in and around our campground, before we take on the remainder of the Canadian Shield!