July 13 –Lion’s Head to Elmvale (near Orillia)

Bike log: 160.0km, 627m of vertical, avg. speed 25.4km/h

As with the wind, or the rain, I will stop making comments about how hot it is, and how it can’t possibly get much hotter! (Anyway, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that gets you…) Today was a long day! There was big chunk of construction on highway 26 east of Owen Sound that stretched a 45 minute ride into 2 ½ hours – not fun in the sun! At places it was down to 1 lane for about 300m or so, and you had to wait for the flagperson to wave you through. I then had to sprint the distance so I wouldn’t hold traffic up too much going the other way – what a riot! I think most people who looked at me assumed I was crazy (a logical assumption) for being out there, but there were no signs up saying how long the construction went on for, or a suggested detour. There are alternate routes (I later found out) but you kind of need to know where you are going.

Traffic was pretty heavy today past Wiarton, until after Wasaga Beach (except for the backroads which my aunt tipped us off to). Probably the heaviest traffic we’ve had since near Winnipeg. I guess everything around here is under the Toronto influence to some extent – I am anxious to get through it. We are planning to go north of Lake Simcoe and head for eastern Ontario via backroads as much as possible. Probably take a bit longer but it will be much more enjoyable. The shoulder also alternated between excellent and really bad, which was a tough combination to deal with in heavy traffic…but I made it!

Inicidentally, Wiarton is know for “Wiarton Willie,” the albino groundhog who forecasts the end (or not) of winter each year. It is apprarently quite an event to see! The photo above is of a statue erected in his honour. It's a good 8 feet high!

After getting through the construction zone, we came to the town of Meaford, right on Georgian Bay, and hit the water! What a relief, to just get submerged in the water for 10 minutes. Normally it would probably be fairly uncomfortable, but in this heat it felt so good.

Today I finally met up with the “Family of cyclists.” I had been hearing about these folks since Herbert, Saskatchewan, and got reports every week or so that they had just been through. It is a family who was living in the Okanagan Valley and are moving to Nova Scotia. The parents and kids are all riding their bikes! Now that is an incredible achievemnt! The mom of the group flagged me down in Owen Sound to ask for directions, and mentioned she got separated from her husband and kids. I said, “Are you the family from BC moving to Nova Scotia?”, she said “Yes!”, and I said “I’ve been following you since Saskatchewan!” It was pretty cool to finally meet them. I really hope that they did not take the same road under contstruction that I took, I kept wishing I could get a message back to them telling them to go for an alternate route. Oh well, I am sure they figured something out.



Speaking of family, I stopped in for a visit and awesome dinner with my relatives (Aunt Lorna, Uncle Roger, and my cousin Nancy and her husband Rob) in Collingwood. It has been a long time since I saw them, although we used to see them all the time when I was young. They are still in the same house, it was really great to see them again! It was kind of a brief visit, but after today’s delays due to heat and construction, and the dread of dealing with the traffic around here, we needed to press on and get as many miles in before weekend traffic descends upon us. So we headed out, aiming to get close to Orillia, but we had to stop a bit short when the thunderstorm started up in Elmvale! Fortunately we had just passed a campground about 4km back, so we turned around and called it a night. Good night!