The End of the World As We've Known It

Hello from Kenora, ON - out of the prairies (dare I say it? At last!) and time to do laundry and play catchup.
Day 25
The glorious start to the day (great road, lots of sunshine, and good views of the valley as we left) overshadowed the loss of my backup cycling mirror to someone who decided they deserved it more than me. It had been in my toiletry bag that I foolishly forgot in the camp washroom.

Smooth pavement and sunshine to start the day 

However, that sentiment was not to last as the road deteriorated to provide a constant buzzing ("TdC butt massage") punctuated by sharp neck-snaps as we passed over cracks in the pavement. Our final few km into Portage la Prairie were on the shoulderless Trans-Canada Highway, but as the road is 4 lanes wide at that point, it proved not to be a problem. Apparently, according to those who tried it, even the dirt shoulder was quite rideable.

Yet another view similar to those of the days before  

In fact, many of us arrived at the (beautiful) campsite before the truck arrived. And the hot weather lent itself to alternatives to the camp showers (3.5 minutes for $1. It always irks me when you have to pay extra for showers - not an uncommon situation - especially when the timer continues to run even if you have the water turned off).

 
Day 26

Today was a day of superlatives: the worst roads, but the best showers. I chose to forego a visit to historic Old Fort Garry in favour of a visit with my former colleague Ricki, and discarding the recommended route to Winnipeg, headed straight down the Trans Canada Highway enjoying a newly-paved shoulder and a tailwind.

Posing With Ricki Outside Her House  

This didn't mean I had to miss out on wildlife: I  saw a deer calmly walking across from Assiniboine Park - which is right in the city! Road conditions, however, subsequently forced me to a crawl - sorry, Winnipeg: you get my vote for worst roads in the country.

As usual, I went looking for a postcard and had difficulty finding any store that carried them (on principle, I refuse to buy any that cost more than the inflated price I paid in Canmore, so that ruled out purchasing one at The Forks). But I found some in a downtown mall and was about to make my selection - my hand was actually holding one in the rack - when I got busted by a mall cop who objected to the presence of my bicycle and made me leave. I should've taken his picture, but that didn't seem like the proper course of action at the time.

More of same: prairies, road, train, sweaty cyclist

I then managed to get lost temporarily when I missed a sign downtown because it was hidden by the overhanging branches of a tree. But I eventually made it to Beausejour, where our campsite lived up to the town`s name - it had the most wonderful shower barely contained in a rustic structure; it was as close to showering outside (a real treat) as you could get.


But today`s learning point came at Ricki's: after several weeks of camping I couldn't believe how wonderful it was to experience real toilet paper instead of the typical newsprint-on-a-roll we`ve had to contend with.



Day 27
Simply put: the advertised `rough road`deteriorated to fresh chip-and-seal and the promised `lovely ride through the park`wasn`t. And then the weather turned.

 Lumbering through the chip and seal. Note the gathering clouds.

Why isn't this man smiling? Read the sign (this after 80 km of bad road already)

The good news was that I got to the campsite ahead of the deluge that hit all but 4 of us - even though once again my dry arrival was impeded by stopping to help someone.

I was riding by and heard a voice from the ditch....

But we bagged another province (and I still haven't clued in that there's a smudge on my lens, not on the screen as I had been surmising).

When the heavens opened, almost half of our group (apparently including several scheduled for cook duty that night) opted to stay in a motel. These plucky two didn't.

And we have heard our first loons, a sure sign we're in prime canoe/camping territory.

Mmmmm (Magnificent Misty Manitoba Monday Morning)

Day 24

 I said it in 1994 and I'll say it again -

Manitoba: Saskatchewan with trees

The day dawned cool and misty, the recent time change having taken an hour's worth of sunshine out of our schedule. But the day gradually improved, and even pedaling the Road With No End from Birdle to Shoal Lake proved delightful.

The Road With No End

Note the lack of vanishing point 

Shoal Lake itself (the town) was a gem, and a woman I met who had recently moved there from Edmonton told me she did so because "Land was cheap", a fact soon confirmed by this sign down the road.

Stopping for lunch off the highway in Newdale was perfect: plenty of sunshine and only the sounds of birds chirping to keep me company.

Back on the highway, the tailwind continued. In fact the only thing marring today's trip was the rough road for 5km leading into Minnedosa, which was compensated for by ice cream in town (I was lured in by the promise of more than 24 flavours of soft serve, and stayed for an assembled-in-house ice cream sandwich as well). 
I cleaned up with a refreshing dip in the lake, and tonight we are to have a bonfire after dinner. Life is good.

The prairies and the railroad: inseparable

The Difference Between a Friend and a Foe Is Only 90 Degrees

Hello from Binscarth, MB a different province and time zone from where we last left off. Incredibly, the weather has fallen into a consistent regime of high winds and calm, sunny evenings. Yes Virginia, there really is a summer.

Day 21 (Rest day in Regina )

Just wanted to show you how seriously the town (indeed the whole province) takes its football.  Because one of our crew was the principal at the high school a Rider (as in Roughrider, not cyclist) attended, we went down to Mosaic Field to attend a walk-through prior to the next day's game. It was all very casual: I got to ride my bike right out onto the field, and when the session was over, everyone got to approach the players.

 Rest day art shot

Day 22
Rest day had ended in a beautiful summer evening, but the rest of the province was not so lucky: the animated radar screen I looked at that night showed a line of thunderstorms just north of us rapidly moving eastwards. The display showed colours I had never seen in a radar shot before; indeed, later that night we could see amazing flashes of light in the clouds off in the distance. It was thus a surprise when we awoke to the now-usual conditions of howling winds driving dark, scudding clouds.
Fortunately, I had previously devised a breakfast concoction to give me the energy to cope with such conditions: the Saskatchewan Rumble. This consists of oatmeal with brown sugar sandwiched between two slices of French toast covered in syrup, crowned with a dollop of yogurt, and garnished with gorp.

In fact, the day proved not too bad, and a bit of effort against the raw, mostly crosswind early in the day when we were headed northeast earned us more free miles once our trajectory leveled off on a more easterly bent. We enjoyed dropping into Fort Qu`Appelle with a tailwind. As you can see, they really do have 'truck downhill' signs (and even ski hills) in SK.

O

Of course what goes down must come back up, too.

 Later in the day the sun even came out, and I learned to get out of the way of things like this when they come up behind you.

We topped our ride with a great sausage barbecue with ice cream for dessert, and this fellow dropped by to show us how deep Rider pride is. The only downside was the road to the Motherwell Homestead, whose 3 km of soft gravel proved too difficult for my narrow tires to negotiate, so I had to forego a visit there.

Day 23

Just to keep things interesting, I started the day backtracking over 13 km we had ridden yesterday (putting me straight into the wind, which continued to blow as strong as ever), in order to ride 50km along the Qu`Appelle valley. The area sure doesn`t fit with most people`s stereotype of Saskatchewan's topography:

And we finally got to see some flax blossoms, which could easily be confused with the river.

Of course, there were also potash mines (not nearly as pretty).

And soon enough we were in Manitoba, changing time zones and crossing the beautiful Assiniboine valley

Strange But True

Hello from Regina, SK and apologies again for the lack of posting activity (due to the lack of wi-fi at our campsites). Just in case that happens again, here are our remaining rest day dates: while I may be able to post prior to them,  checking in at those times should guarantee there will be something new to read.
July 23, July 28, August 2, August 10 (possibly August 7 as well), August 15 (in Ottawa), August 20, August 27, September 4.
And posting photos here is even slower than in Drumheller, so I have abandoned that for the moment. I`ll see if I can do better tomorrow. But with all due respect to people from the prairies, most of the images are redundant anyways: lots of flat land, some of it yellow with canola blossoms, leaning with the wind.
Now back to our saga....


Day 16
The day dawned shrouded in fog.

 Giant lizard in the mist (and a dinosaur too)

Although that cleared as we climbed out of the valley, as the day progressed a wicked crosswind developed.

Even when we made a 90 degree turn to earn a tailwind, a hill materialized to try and defeat our spirits.

 Requisite prairie scene

Undeterred, I later stopped in Hanna to watch the World Cup final, which went into extra time just to make my life interesting. Leaving town, not only did the crosswind intensify but road conditions deteriorated (rumble strips ate into our meagre shoulder) as traffic volume increased.

Collapsed after having fought the wind

It was thus welcome indeed to finally arrive in Youngstown where once again the townsfolk hosted a great pot-luck dinner for us; I even thought I recognized one gentleman from 16 years ago!

Many of us took advantage of the opportunity to camp on the community centre floor, which proved the wise choice as rain fell overnight. For a change.

Day 17
You're never alone on the prairies - the wind is your constant companion. In the morning the sun burns straight into your eyes, and when the wet weather hits there's no place to hide. But today the rumble strips appeared only in sections e.g. on curves, and the road, which tilted us distressingly into the fierce wind on occasion, eventually settled down to delivering a crosswind that although stiff, was not as severe as yesterday's.
It was flat

It was rolling

Then it was Saskatchewan

 And as we entered SK the road angle changed again - in our favour at last! And the sun shone and we were warm. The scenery didn`t change much, though

There is actually a huge climb at the edge of the province that I had forgotten about - you'll have to take my word for it, as I have no photo record:  the hill levelled out at the top and did not afford a decent vantage point to capture it's gradient. Likewise there are no photos of me racing the developing storm front (I mean, what's a day without rain? I don't know either) to get to our campsite, as I was more concerned with getting in before the storm hit than with capturing the moment. Alas, I got caught (something that wouldn't have happened had I not earlier gone on a 10km detour in order to buy a 6/49 ticket in Alberta before we left it - my plan is to buy one in every province), and the wind was so severe that only one side of my body got wet (albeit that side was quite drenched, thank you). Luckily I came upon a truck inspection station and was able to seek refuge in its lee before the hail came.

 Fallen hail (that`s my foot to give you an indication of the size of it)

But later that night things cleared out nicely, and we thought our rain ordeal was over. We were, of course, sadly mistaken.

Day 18

After a ridiculously windy and rainy night (ridiculous even by our now high standards) there was talk of renting a school bus to transport us to our next destination - things were indeed that severe as we struggled to make breakfast. I chose to depart nevertheless, and quickly ground to a literal halt before I even reached the road: the rain-soaked mud caked up my wheels almost instantly,  preventing them from turning at all. With much mucking about (so to speak) in the rain, and with the help of some handy puddles (it was, after all, still pissing), I managed to get them free but in so doing lost the use of my cycle computer, which was too bad since I would have liked to know how fast I subsequently flew once the wind was at my back. It was miserably cold and wet, though - so I took very few photos to document the ordeal: it was quite hard merely to get the camera out of my pocket and my rain-soaked gloves off so I could manipulate the controls. To give you an idea how bad things were, I even wore my thermal cycling jersey and a headband.

Roadside grass being flattened by the wind

At one point we had to turn 90 degrees and fight the crosswind for 4-5 km. That was 'interesting' indeed: leaning hard into it, hoping my tires wouldn't slide out from under me as I struggled to achieve 12 km/hour. At one point it did actually stop raining, and I might even have arrived at the campsite dry had I not stopped to lend moral support to another cyclist as he fixed a flat. As it was, I got caught in a downpour a mere 2 km from the campsite.

Trying to warm up in the campground bathroom

Day 19

 Enjoying the clearing skies and gathering wind

Finally our weather luck seemed to have changed: the day began cool but rain free and with mostly tailwinds, especially after we turned onto highway 11 and cruised down it at 40-45km/hour in sunshine.

 Refuting the myth that Saskatchewan is treeless

There was ample time for flower appreciation

In fact it felt like a rest day - we all got in early and sat around drinking beer.

It was a real surprise, then, when we got an evening shower (you could see in the broad sky that we were just on the edge of a larger system that looked like it would have bypassed us) and more surprising still when a huge thunderstorm hit in the middle of the night. The rumble was incredible, giving a great Surround Sound performance as it rolled through the valley.

BTW, here's what the truck looked like this morning - somewhat messier  than when we started.

Day 20
Amazingly (for in 1994 we had headwinds all across the prairies) we had another day of sun and tailwinds today, giving us what I call `free miles' (although far too many of them went through Regina's industrial section, once we reached town).

 Enjoying the tailwinds on highway 11 (look at the grass)

In fact we could easily have reached Regina in time for breakfast, had we not decided to throttle back and enjoy the day.

Taking the time to enjoy a roadside banana

Sadly, we are camped on the far eastern edge of the city, adjacent to the Trans Canada Highway. There are big box stores galore not far from us (it's actually hard to distinguish the parking lots from the city streets in places) but strangely, none has postcards for sale. But the sun is still shining and we have a rest day tomorrow - perhaps we`ll even get to see a Riders Practice before Saturday`s game against the Eskimos.