Use caution when cycling near windmills: Day 50 - Espanola to South Baymouth / Tobermoray - And Then We Pedalled...... Cross Canada 2015

July 22, 2015

Use caution when cycling near windmills: Day 50 - Espanola to South Baymouth / Tobermoray

Getting restarted again after three days off the bike was hard for me. Legs felt like lead even without the headwind. The same thing can't be said for Kirsten, she left me in the dust all day but was kind enough to stop and wait every hour or so. I guess we can attribute the good pace we maintained on the tandem to her!

We had a pretty good day for biking. If we were headed east it would have been phenomenal as there was a very strong wind blowing consistently out of the west. However, we were travelling south west in general, with long stretches of south (good) alternating with west (not good).

Brent not only drove us back to Espanloa where we had stopped on Saturday, he also decided to ride with us to Little Current on Manitoulin Island. This was reminiscent of our ride from Lake Louise to Canmore when Gaye joined us on her road bike. The light brigade rolling along with the Panzer division!

Highway 6 south from Espanola to the ferry at south Baymouth was an excellent ride (sans wind). Light traffic for the first half until Little Current and then very light traffic the rest of the way to the ferry. Shoulders were very good for about 80% of the way. it seems that if you stay off the main highways in Ontario, the cycling is quite good.

We stopped for a really good lunch at the Anchor near the harbour in Little Current. Brent rode with us a few km past there and then we said our goodby's. Thanks again for a great off bike adventure. Seeing Georgian bay up close from the water has been one of the highlights of our trip!

After lunch we still had ~ 60 km to go, with significant sections into the very strong headwind. Not much chance to really take in the nice scenery on Manitoulin. The wind combined with a few moderate 6% plus hills reduced my speed at times to 7 km/hr. Ouch!

We made it down to South Baymoutb with plenty of time to catch the ferry, in fact enough time to catch a beer! While we were doing this there were a couple of groups of people at the pub who were quite interested in our trip, and when we took our spot in line to enter the fairy, we struck up a conversation with Richard from Guelph about the tremendous variation in landscapes across the country. Richard said he was thinking of retiring and doing the same thing as us. Hopefully we gave him all the encouragement that he needs!

Uneventful but pleseant ferry trip to Tobermoray where we checked into a motel and then grabbed a decent dinner. Weather forecast for tomorrow has continued strong west wind, we'll be heading SW so we hope the forecast is accurate.

Heart

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Song of the day:

Reboot the Mission by The Wall Flowers ... 'cause that's what we did. Just starting the second half!!