Day 53

Sunday, August 15th
Canoe Lake to Ottawa
124km

Another great riding day.  Today's memorable feature was fog.  Thick, wet, low lying fog for most of the morning.  It made for some great photos.

Canoe lake looked wonderfully surreal as the sun rose and brightened the fog while we were riding out of the camp.  There was a lone canoist in the middle of the lake, who became the unknowing subject of many TDC photographs.  Several cemataries along the route also made for fantastic photo opportunities.

The fog was so wet that my glasses had beads of water on them, and I had to ride without them.  My arms and eyelashes collected dropletts of water as well.  In fact, most of the time we couldn't see the end of the rolling hill that we were climbing up or coasting down.

There was one hill just after Westport that was a real shocker.  Everyone agrees that it was the steepest climb of the trip so far...even though it only lasted a few hundred meters.

The route map for today had us riding on a lot of bicycle paths as we arrived in Ottawa.  A few of the Ottawa natives recommended an alternate route into the city, to avoid the Sunday afternoon crowds.  This is the route that Rosalyn and I took.

We stayed in Dundas residence at Carlton University today.  Always nice to have a night indoors.  I don't actually have any trouble sleeping in my tent, but somehow it is easier to get organised indoors.

Ryan's parents hosted a BBQ for all of us tonight.  He probably had about 30 friends and family over to his house, as well as most of the riders.  There was plenty of food for everyone, which was very much appreciated.

My sister, Alison, and her boyfriend, Rob, stopped by the party to visit with me for a few hours.  Alison is going into her final year at Sheridan College, and spending her summer as a medical resource for Olympia sports camp near Orillia.  Rob lives in Prescot, which is about an hour from Ottawa, and Alison was visiting him for the weekend.  It was nice to see both of them, and catch up on summer stories, Alison has limited internet time this summer, and limited interest in reading all of my blogs, so she was hearing most of my stories for the first time.
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831