Day 35

Wednesday, July 28th
Quetico to Thunder Bay
172km

Pretty tough going today. Long ride with really lousy roads (stupid Younge St) and a fierce headwind.

Our first challenge of the day was finding lunch. As we approached Shebandowan, we saw a big billboard advertising the Shebandowan Hotel, which apparently features “Rooms, Food, Gifts, and Gas” (as is the trend in finer hotels these days). Impressed with their advertising, we rode right past a perfectly good resteraunt to turn off of highway 11 and ride 1.5km into Shebandowan. Much to our dissapointment, the hotel is only open on weekends. I can't imagine why anyone would want to spend a weekend in Shebandowan, but who am I to judge. I was very disappointed that I had to eat my peanut butter sandwiches instead of some tasty Shebandowan delicacy, but we ate and moved on. (As a side note, hotel owners don't appreciate you peeing on their bushes...even when you've riden 1.5km into the middle of nowhere to go to their hotel AND the bushes are over by the railway tracks, far away from the building.)

After that little adventure, we continued on to Shabaqua Corners...passing into the Eastern time zone along the way. Finally, my clocks all show the correct time again.

The highlight of today's ride was Kakabeka Falls, which was really impressive. It was very wide, very tall, and very pretty...with big rocks sticking out and several tiers collecting falling water. Not the same volume of water as Niagara, but nice all the same.

Kakabeka was also a highlight because we turned east at the falls and escaped the nasty headwind that had plagued us for most of the day. It was so bad that we were pedaling on downhills!

We had a great, 8 man paceline going on for the last 30km into Thunder Bay. That pretty much beat the crosswind, and made the ride pleasant despite the rough road surface.

We stayed in Bartley residence at Lakehead university. This was great for 2 reasons. First, we god to sleep inside, in a bed, without setting up a tent. And second, it gave me an opportunity to quench my residence addiction. I'll spare you a long description or the later, but suffice it to say that the stairs and halls and rooms of Nipigon House in Bartley residence shared the same “feeling” as my beloved Western dorms.
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831