July 12 –Sheguiandah to Lion’s Head

Bike log: 100.5km, 642m of vertical, avg. speed 31.8km/h

Plenty hot today, although not as bad as yesterday. Also not too long of a ride, due to the fact that we had a ride on the Ferry (Cheechimaun) in the middle of the day. We waited for about 2 hours for the ferry, and the ride itself was nearly 2 hours. A beautiful trip, though. Unlike BC ferries, the workers on the vessel seemed to be happy and friendly. The food was actually fairly decent as well. And there was a person there who told the cars to keep moving up until they were within inches of the one in front of them. I bet if BC Ferries had that, we would not have missed the ferry on the first day of our trip!

The ride across Manitoulin this morning was great. Lots of little rolling hills, and farmland everywhere. Somewhat reminicient of Vancouver Island. It’s the closest thing I’ve felt to homesick since leaving – although still a long way from actually feeling that way! The Bruce pennisula, as this stretch of land which separates Georgian Bay from Lake Huron is called, is also very nice.

Our campground is right on a beach which looks out to some really interesting cliffs – similar to the ones we saw up in Thunder Bay. They make you want to dance! We hit the water as soon as we got into the campground this evening (around 6). I was just about melting, it is very humid here. The water was very refreshing – cooler than yesterday but not so bad that you couldn’t stay in for 5 or 10 minutes. That did the trick!

The road here (highway 6) is not great – the pavement is quite broken up. There is no paved shoulder, but the traffic is light so it is not a problem. Still, the difference in traffic volume between here and Manitoulin is noticable. I am looking forward to getting clear of the southern Ontario congestion before the weekend! We are hoping to meet up with my aunt, uncle and/or cousins tomorrow in Collingwood. I have not been able to call them to warn them that I am coming since the cell coverage is so bad! I saw someone at the next campsite over using their phone, I think maybe Roger’s doesn’t have such great coverage here in the east. I guess you should not expect much from a cable company…

Due to getting in late, we ate dinner in a restaurant in town tonight. That was the first time in a long while we did not cook in the van. Nice to have a night off cooking and dishes! On the ferry, we met another 2 cyclists. They were going from Vancouver to Montreal. These guys had a pretty deluxe setup as well – one guy’s wife was driving a truck pulling a huge trailer. They had come through the US route, south of Lake Superior, and had met one of the other cyclists I ran into on the prairies (a 64 year old man from Holland). Small world if you’re on a bike!

I knew it would be a short(ish) day today, so I decided to ride it a bit differently than usual. Today was split into 3 sections of about 30-40km apiece (pre-breakfast, post-breakfast, and post-ferry) with a reasonable rest interval inbetween. Normally I try to pace myself for the long haul, but today I decided to go all out for each section, kind of like a time trial in bike racing. It was fun to go fast, although I was paying the price by the end of the day! Hopefully my legs will not be too mad at me tomorrow.