June 27 – Kenora to Dryden

Bike log: 138.9 km, 861m of vertical, avg. speed 29.7 km/h

The ride today from Kenora was one of the nicest is terms of scenery for a long time. There are lakes everywhere! Also, the road is very curvy with lots of little hills. We would have got some more photos but the rain and twisty road made it hard. Unfortunately it rained more or less the whole day, but not too hard, and the wind was mostly from behind. Overall it was a pretty nice day! The town itself appears to be a pulp mill town. It is on a lake but we are not near it. This part of the town is not much to look at, but I’m sure there must be better parts!

There are 2 ways to go from Kenora to Thunder Bay – Highway 71, south to Fort Frances then east to Thunder Bay, or Highway 17 through Dryden then on to Thunder Bay. I choose the latter largely due to some reports I’ve read of other people who have done this bike trip, The roads are supposed to be pretty bad on the other route, and quite good on this one. So far, the roads have been excellent.

Due to the sparseness of towns, taking this route pretty much ensures it is 4 days to Thunder Bay from Kenora unless you go nuts (or get really lucky with the wind) and do a 200+ km day. So the distances are not huge for the next few days compared to some of the days I’ve had. It will be nice to be “taking it easy.”