Day 69: Wawa to Montreal River

It was a cool and cloudy start to the day with a warning of thunderstorms for later on. I got a little rain on me early on, not hard rain but enough to wet everything, and keep me cool. In fact, I wasn't warming up at all, not a good sign.

The road tipped upwards on more than one occasion, and all I could do was spin. Once again legs have no power in them, but will tick over for days. I'm getting hungry too, far earlier than expected.

A little alarm bell starts buzzing internally.

There were beautiful coves and bays all along Lake Superior today, some appearing as you're hurtling down a hill at 50+ km/h, others as you're cruising by at under 20 km/h.

Most of what I was riding through today was Provincial Park, so campsites were over $40 a site, and there were no stores of any kind to top up food supplies.
I went and mentally hid and let my legs do what they do best, tick over and over and over.

I knew Montreal River was close and I kept checking my Garmin map to see what the road was doing. Each climb was getting harder and harder, and as I rounded a corner on what I thought must be the final stretch, I saw the road keep going up!

My heart sank and I was suddenly quite grumpy. No, angry!
I stopped the bike on the road shoulder, grabbed my last bite of banana bread I had saved for emergencies (this was an emergency now) and had a little rant to nobody in particular.

Rant over, the journey continued, and not 50m later, a sign for Twilight Resort made itself visible through the trees, and guess what? It was 5km away! And they had food. Double bonus!
Suddenly re-energised, I worked through the last of the hills and smashed the final descent.

Dan, the owner, met me at camp reception and checked me in. I showered and took ages to setup my tent, my brain was fried. Today had been a taxing day, physically and mentally.
While I was deciding where to pitch, 3 more cyclists rolled in and shared my site. Matt, Amy and Stephen, from Winnipeg.

For dinner, Dan cooked us the works. Double portions of poutine, hamburgers, chips and, for dessert, deep fried peanut butter cups.

Stephen went fishing after dinner but didn't have much luck.

Goodnight!

Deep fried s'more

Distance: 109 km
Time: 5:44:31
Height gained/lost: 1068m /-1142m
Calories: 3536