Thunder bay to Wawa

Thunder bay nipigon 113 km
wild hand picked blueberries 28 / basket in thunder bay!
More of a challenging day in some ways this leg. Both jude and I feeling a little sluggish. The highway is hilly and we had a head wind. One too close of a call with a red dodge durango, and the last 30 km the shoulders were not great. The Store in Dorion boasts the worlds largest continuous wildlife mural, and they had a great supply of home-made baked goods. Me and judy stuffed a 1 pound loaf of rye and and a 3 pound loaf of banana bread into our packs. The evening at the camp was incredible burritos, for super, afterwards I cooked a bag of chanterelles for everyone I had picked earlier while judy cleaned her bike.

Nipigon to Neys 169 km

The day started with some really good climbs today comparable to anything out west, lots of short aggressive hills.
Fantaboulous lunch in Rossport. OMG it was sooo good. I had a wine with our swiss machines. I thought "If it works for them, I am willing to try it!" After lunch I got back on my bike....those boys are on to something! I rocked out a great ride. I had spanikopita, and Kelly had fresh lake trout done to a T. Absolutely beautiful scenery all day, lots of climbs and some fun descents. Followed the shoreline of Superior all day - it's big....really big. Our camp tonight is on the shores of lake Superior, the great beach reminds me alot of Slave Lake. Finished off the evening with a romantic walk on the beach with my man.

Neys to White Lake PP 103 km

Up at 7am and yup last tent standing in our site.Got to sleep in this morning because the support crew was hosting lunch at the halfway point. Breakfast was great, the 1st time we got special order eggs and toast at camp! After breakfast kel and I along with the french connection went for a hike at prisoners cove. The shield country has much to offer with geology and many history lessons as well. Used to be a POW camp, the prisoners did most of the logging in the area back in the 40's. The old boats in the picture were used to take prisoners and supplies to camps in the region.
2 Cool bug eating plants, sundew and butterwort growing here. (see cool picture of them growing side by side)
Beautiful, hilly, windy ride into Marathon. A 4 km decent took us down to Pebbles Beach where we met up with the truck for lunch! Yay!! we are officially 1/2 way! Because of our wonder full hike, We missed the group photos...no regrets!
After lunch we had an amazing tail wind and flat terrain, Had some fun at Manitouwadge snapping photos with the group. Quad / Sled country!
Nice camp no bugs, another great day.

White Lake to Wawa 132 kms

Interesting old water tanker on display on the way out of the campground...this thing used to be hauled with 2 horses and hold 20 to 30 tons of water!!! Used for putting water on roads in the winter to build them up with ice.
Sitting here in a log hotel room at the Wawa motor Inn. quite nice! Interesting town for sure.
Great ride today. One of the faster riders comments (trevor) when we were working hard to keep up to judy on the hills..."I am glad you are married to her not me!" We gorged on blue berries on some of our road side stops...and a breakfast stop at White river, the 40 km mark for extra energy. White River where the famous bear cub 'Winnie' was originaly rescued before heading to the Winnipeg zoo.
Later on we finally saw a moose! don't know why that would be exciting...we have lots of em back home...This part of Ontario is supposed to be famous for its moose and we thought it weird that 42 riders for a week and a 1/2 now, all day on the hwy..and no one else has seen a moose yet??? We are convinced they are mostly nocturnal here.
Judy has earned a funny nickname on this trip. PRINCESS. Mostly because she buys her own 'special' food, has her own supply of wine on the truck, is fussy about things like the coffee, has had a couple of extra hotel stays, and had a hair salon appointment in thunder bay. To top it off after she forgot her camel back at one of the stops and someone who luckily noticed ended up carrying it the rest of the day for her!. Finally there are some that figure that I cater to her a bit. Not really correct as she more than pulls her weight and 'caters' back to me lots too...but still fun to think about the toughest girl on the trip (maybe tougher than some of the boys) is being called 'Princess'!!
Meal tonight was a traditional swiss meal in honour of their National holidays cooked by our Swiss contingent. A potato dish with onions and bacon served with poached eggs yummm. Later they sang their national anthem, their regional anthem, and a couple of bonus songs.
The skies opend up 1/2 way through the night and into the day....we were so glad we were in a Motel. 45 min walk in the rain to a large pile up of riders at the local laundromat. Laundry day can be VERY competitive....it always seems like a race to see who can get dibs on a washing machine 1st...40 riders can use quite a few machines. This rest day many riders busy with their bikes changing chains and tires as we are over the 1/2 way point. Me and Jude opted to try for few more kms out of ours. I had 2 steaks today! steak and eggs for breakfast, and a 10 oz New York for supper, and no guilt!