Life is a highway , no , life is the open road !!!: Day 39

August 4

A very long hot day, with lots of challenges . Five of us set out this morning Bob, Murray, Janice , Beth and myself , we set a brisk pace for the first 40 km which was quite easy terrain with the big lake to our right hidden in mist , once again for a while we had to put rear lights on . At around the 40 km mark Beth asked for a stop as she was laboring way to hard with her bike , after some investigation we discovered that her rear wheel was way out of true and rubbing on the break pads further investigation reviled that one of the spoke nipples had broken through the rim. We flagged down Greg and he tried to fix it as best as he could but the wheel was in bad shape and he was not able to get it ridable.

Our strategy then was to wave down the truck that had not gone by yet and were going to get them to take Beth and the bike to Sault Ste. Marie to the bike shop but that would have meant Beth missing 40 km of her cross Canada trip , Greg then offered a wheel he had in the truck as a patch up solution until we could find her a new wheel . So we went into truck watch mode and about 20 min later it appeared and we franticly waved it down , found the wheel , changed it , called ahead to the bike store, Mat and Erin took the wheel to the bike shop , we rode there , the first bike shop did not have the right wheel so they sent us to another shop that they had called and had the wheel Beth needed , off we went and left the bike there , together with Janice’s bike ( new chain needed ) . Mat and Erin came by after grocery shopping and picked up Greg’s wheel and we went for a nice lunch and returned to fixed bikes . Amazing how it just all worked out !!! ( Murray got his computer fixed also !! )

We thought that that was the end of our adventure but no , after about 11 km we turned onto this very nice quiet country road and for the next 50 km encountered some tough climbing with the weather in the mid to high 30s , it left us all tiered , we finally got back on to the Hwy just as the sweeps ( Kelly & Judy ) and Marie-Andree were getting there so I rode with them into camp. It has been a tough trip for Marie -Andree and I admire her determination to complete this trip, ridding into camp with her was a honor because today was an amazingly tough day and it took a lot of courage and determination for her to complete it .

The high lights of the day was seeing Sandhill Cranes twice today , the first two soon after leaving camp were youngsters by the side of the road just picking at stuff and not afraid of us at all, and then half way trough the tough section today we spotted what I thought were Emus at first in a farmers field , later as I was photographing them it came to me that the were not Emu's but Cranes instaed , about eight of them just wondering around the field . That whole section was beautiful but painfully, it was a mix of farmers fields and hills with exposed rock faces with the road just weaving its way through them.

The other high light was encountering Lake Huron , our secound great lake and we camped right on its shores today , unfortunately we didnt get in until after 6 and I had no time to enjoy it.

Very few pictures taken today .

Total ridden today: 180 - Average speed: 22.2 - Ridding time: 8.05