Kenora to Dryden, 140km

Today began a bit slow. While pumping my tires, the valve on the presta tube on my front wheel broke off so the tube was no longer functional and I had to replace it. Bob was still in camp when the incident occurred and he helped me put a new tube in my wheel :)

I left camp with Erik and Louise. Today we primarily followed Route 17 to get to Dryden and the scenery consisted of trees, rocks, and mini lakes, it was a nice change from the endless Prairies.

The day began with rain. At approximately kilometer 30 we took a break at the side of the road. I discovered some raspberry bushes and picked some to snack on, they were quite yummy. We were going to continue on for another 30km; however, at kilometer 45 we noticed several bikes leaning against a restaurant and so we stopped to have a break with some of our fellow riders. We were wearing rain gear which was quite soaked and so we were not allowed to enter the restaurant. We took our gear off and hung it in the general store along with everyone else’s gear; it was amusing to see all the rain gear just hung up all over the store.

I left the restaurant with Dan and Joyce as my gears were not shifting properly and so I asked Dan if he could check it out. It was important that I fix my gears because after this cycling segment we would be heading into the hilly terrain north of Lake Superior. I needed my granny gears to work to battle those hills. Dan figured I needed a new gear cable which I could pick up at our next rest stop.

At lunch, Dan, Joyce and I stopped at an isolated motel where we met Neil, Elaine, Michel, Bob, Irene, and Mike. The rain had stopped which was a blessing. Our next break was at Vermillion Bay and then we headed to our campsite, Springwater Park, located outside Dryden. To get there we took route 596 which was a lovely route, it reminded me of the county roads I trained on. It had hardly any traffic and several rolling hills, which Dan and I zoomed over, trying to be the first to get down and up the next hill :)

When we reached camp we discovered it definitely wasn’t one of the better campsites. There were only two showers which looked quite unsanitary and there were two outhouses. But oh well, you work with what you have :) Although the campsite wasn’t the greatest, the sun was fully out which was an awesome way to end the day.