June 30 – Savanne to Thunder Bay

Bike log: 110.0 km, 627m of vertical, avg. speed 26.4 km/h

Another tough day even though it was not that far! Headwind with a heavy rain on the side, and a flat tire to boot. Only my 2nd of the trip, not too bad I guess. This one was due to the nail sticking out of a discarded furniture caster combined with the fact that the rain made it impossible for me to wear my glasses.

This was a pretty desolate stretch of the highway. The shoulder was not as good as it has been, but is still quite ridable. We passed through a “town” that was on the map called Raith, but there was almost nothing there. A very suitable name! It was just about the only thing on the map between Thunder Bay and the place we stayed last night. However, as we got closer to Thunder Bay, there were a few more hills, and then finally – Lake Superior!

The rain was pretty intense today. For the last half of the day, I decided to take off the rain gear and just go with my bike shirt & shorts with no resting at all until we made it here. It was not too cold in the afternoon (around 18C) so as long as you kept moving it was tolerable. With full rain gear on, it was just too hot! Plus I was pretty much soaked anyway, the wind just blew the rain down the front anyway. Needless to say I was dripping wet by the time we got here, so we decided to take July 1 off, get a hotel here and get dried out! It was actually kind of fun, and gave me a chance to push things on the bike a bit. Most days, I do not go at "full throttle" at all because I think it is a bad idea to push hard and risk burn out with so many miles to go every day. But the rain and the promise of a rest day gave me a reason to really go for it - more like the style of riding I am used to!

It appears that we have been staying just ahead of the floods – I read that Manitoba is now getting it. I am not surprised, because we have gone through several deluges and most of the rivers appeared to be very close to their limit already! Watch out, southern Ontario, here we come…