Is This Lake Wobegon?: Day 34 - Kenora to Caliper Lake - And Then We Pedalled...... Cross Canada 2015

July 6, 2015

Is This Lake Wobegon?: Day 34 - Kenora to Caliper Lake

I'm sitting at a picnic table looking out onto the sun starting to set on Caliper lake. We had a wonderful day for biking and this puts an appropriate finish on the day.

We headed south from Kenora along hwy 71 as we are starting to work our way eventually around the south shore of Lake Superior. It was cool today, we wore our windbreakers all day and were comfortable, we also had a fairly strong tailwind all day.

When we set off this morning we were both expecting to be riding through remote country. Not much showed up on any of the maps we looked at. Sioux Narrows looked to have about 6 streets and Nestor Falls about 2. Our goal for the day was Caliper Lake Provincial Park. We stocked up on food for the next two days in Kenora as we did not expect to see much of anything until Ft. Frances/International Fallls some 220 km away.

It turns out we were pleasently surprised on just about all fronts today.

Hwy 71 more or less runs down the east side of Lake of the Woods and there are fishing resorts, campgrounds, motels and lots of other services just about the entire way. And hwy 71 has been great, very little traffic and good shoulders for the most part. And the scenery is subtly beautiful.

We are certainly in Canadian Shield country. Granite outcrops everywhere, particularly where the road has been put through. Very interesting shapes in the rocks, angular and often quite colourful. Almost makes me think that Picasso may have worked on a road crew here to get his cubist inspiration (I can hear my artist daughter groaning).

Not much more to say. Just a lovely day and a very serene night at Caliper Lake.

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Song of the day:

Ineffable Mysteries by Sphongle .....

It's what I'm listening to now. Think Ravi Shankar with a synthesizer and tape loop

Historical monument of the day....

This is stretching it ... A gift shop in Sioux Narrows that billed itself as one of Canada's oldest. We're taking there word on this. We didn't stop in, no room in the panniers for anything that may have tempted us

Leaving Kenora this morning. So many people have big ceramic deer in their yards we almost ride right past this guy without even noticing

Lakes trees and rocks - welcome to western ontario

This is what most of hwy 71 was like .... Nice

Stopping for a snack - rocks make great bike stand and they were nicely warmed up by the sun

Kirsten warming her feet and drying her shoes after yesterday's spell of dampness

Another beaver dam - this is what drew european's into this area. They trapped these little buggers and turned them into felt top hats for all the dandy's in London Paris and Vienna.

Another gourmet one pot camping dinner. Everything tastes good here!

Today's ride: 129 km (80 miles)
Total: 3,431 km (2,131 miles)

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