Canada tour - Day 3 - Dwight to Wilno



The big day--85 miles, 40 of them through Algonquin park. I rode with Debi, Pat and Dave, the 4 of us now being called the Gung Ho team. Showing up early at breakfast turns out to be a good move as lots of other folks are similarly gung ho (or just plain hungry).



Dawn in Dwight

Debi, as always, was the most enthusiastic about getting up early and riding quick. At the third stop, Dave commented that she should have a whip to crack (he said it, not me). This prompted a number of unhelpful comments from myself, with me generally referring to her as "Mistress Debi".



Debi (artist's conception).



Algonquin park is lovely, but we don't see that much of it. We ride through it on Highway 60, the only paved road in the place. It would probably be a good spot for a mountain bike or hybrid bike camping tour.

For lunch, at mile 45, three of us had pizza, which isn't necessarily the most sensible idea in the middle of a long ride (Debi went for the sensible turkey sandwich).


Debi, Pat, pizza.



Crazy John, Dave, pizza. Crazy John, so named because of his constant wisecracks, showed up soon after we did and helped keep us entertained.



Pat, pizza, Jonathan, pizza, John, Dave. Daryl and Sher were in the background. If you've been riding up a lot of hills and not feeling great about it, you can be sure that a sufficient quantity of pizza will change the way you feel while hammering up the next one (ask Pat--it worked for her!).

At mile 56, Debi blew buy a planned stop and so we lost her until the end.



Huge dead-tree-processing operation. I'd never seen anything quite like it, so I paused to get some shots; as a result I fell behind for a few miles.

Like any sport, cycling is very psychological. Mile 55 of a 60 mile ride is a struggle to finish, yet mile 55 of an 85 mile ride is a breeze. I'm not sure if I was getting tired or if I was riding alone and letting my mind wander, but I decided that any motor vehicle with a bike rack and bikes attached was clearly haboring a bunch of lazy cheaters. And they were being rather blatant about it. I think I even yelled at one of them.

A construction zone up ahead worked out smoothly for me and slowly for Dave and Pat, so I caught them before the next brief stop at mile 74. Back with the team, I scaled back on the crazy-Jonathan behavior.



Daryl, Sher, ice cream (photo from Dave's camera). At mile 78, Sher and Daryl waved us into an ice cream place and we piled some ice cream on top of the pizza. It's nice when your friends look out for you like that. Rolo ice cream--quite the sugarfest.

The ride finished with drinks at Wilno station, mile 85. There was some confusion over rooms, leading Dave to be sent back to mile 82 by mistake, and again to mile 85, so he got in 91 to Debi's 85 and Pats 82 (she was staying at the motel at mile 82).

The route had some nice scenery, despite being a major thoroughfare (it was Rt. 60 from start to end). There were many hills and some long, fun descents. Here I discovered that my computer sometimes cuts out at high speed. Nevertheless, my computer recorded a high speed of 43 mph, right at the top of my comfort zone.


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Canada Tour / Jonathan Krall / revised September 2005