Day 34, July3 156km; 875m vertical, 22°C W. wind, nice & warm.

Fort Frances to Atikokan
It would have been a reasonably early start at 9:30 but when we pumped the tyres up a bit TimB’s valve tore out of the tube (the third one since he landed in Vancouver) so we were delayed until 10 o’clock. The new tube now has a piece of the old tube around the neck of the valve to cushion it against the edge of the hole in the rim. If this doesn’t work I’m out of ideas other than getting new rims!!!!! We are well and truly out of the prairies now. The terrain is heavily wooded, hilly and there are loads of lakes and rivers. Have a look at a map (or Google earth) of the region west of Thunder Bay and you will see what I mean. The terrain is such that there is no farming but plenty of fishing and hunting on offer at lodges well away from the road. There are hardly any private residences and we saw only one business (a gas station) where we could get a coffee in the whole 155km. The prairies were like market day compared to this part of the country.

Day 33, July2 88km; 215m vertical, 16°C N. wind and cold

Rainy River to Fort Frances
Just getting used to hotter weather and then this. Today was a gentle ride to preserve some energy for the next two stages. This is our first day in Ontario, 4 provinces done and 6 to go. We met another couple from Vancouver at the motel who are also riding to St John’s. They saw us way back at the laundromat in Creston (2200km ago) but since then we have been on slightly different routes. This morning they set off a little before us but we met again at Emo for a lunch break. There aren’t many places to stop at on the 440km to Thunder Bay (hence the long stages for the next couple of days) so we will probably be seeing them again soon. That makes eight groups or individuals to date either doing the same as us or on long rides to other destinations. I guess we will not get lonely.

Day 32, July1 67km; 76m vertical, 32°C nice and hot.

Warroad to Rainy River, Ontario
We left the campsite at Warroad at 9:30 and immediately stopped for a leisurely breakfast in Warroad. It is a pretty little town on Lake of the Woods, situated on a river that the Indians used to raid each other. Hence the name Warroad. We only planned on doing 70km, so it was a slow day. The highway to Baudette and Rainy River is labelled the flower road and had wildflowers in abundance. We lunched in Baudette and then crossed into Canada at Rainy River. I had wanted to find a Canada Day picnic with hamburgers and drinks but the only party that day was for children. However, there was a fireworks display at 10:00 (sunset). We had a hamburger at the hotel, a beer at the Legion and went to the fireworks. Happy Canada Day

Day 31 June 30 117km 175m vertical. SSW wind. Pretty hot 32°C.

Vita to Warroad, Minnesota.
As the motel restaurant was still closed we decided to set off on half a tub of yogurt, no tea or coffee and have a late breakfast break at Piney. Piney, situated near a crossroads, had been signposted for around 90km so we expected to see some services. On the 45km to the crossroads only 3 cars passed us in our direction. It sure is quiet around here. We turned right at the crossroads to go the 1km to Piney only to find the hotel closed and for sale, the garage had been derelict for years and the only business open was the financial services office. So there was nothing for it but to tighten our lycra and head back to the crossroads and carry on east . We had covered 70km and were running on fumes when we found a small restaurant at South Junction. Copious amounts of tea and toasted sandwiches did not restore us to our full former glory but at least got us back on our bikes. A drink break at Sprague and a favourable wind helped us zip along to the US border where we crossed into Minnesota for the last 10km to Warroad where we set up camp. After 3 dry nights some restorative action was necessary so it was not long before we found our way into town where we visited the Legion (bar & restaurant). I wasn’t half way down the first happy hour beer before I was chatting away and being interrogated by John Lofton and Erik Bloomqist. TimB was busy chatting to Barb (all 103.5lbs of her. Apparently they were talking about weight and cycling over mountains. That’s his version anyway. It’s up to you whether you believe him). John and Erik were generously treating us to drinks and we were soon needing a cushion for the intake. Sue, behind the bar, said the kitchen was closed but recommended a place round the corner so that was where we ate before returning to the legion to pick up where we left off. We were further treated to more beers by John and Sue and an hour of ready wit and repartee between Sue’s mother and John. You can’t wish for finer hospitality than we received today.

Day 30 June 29 108km 106m vertical. North wind

Winkler to Vita
We were on the road by 10:00 heading due east. The wind was from the north at times gusting to 40kph. The first 40km were slow, but then we flew due south for 6km on a newly paved shoulder. We had a health food lunch of waffles and pancakes at Letellier and then headed due east again. Shortly after lunch we passed the Red River, the source of so many floods. Since we got to Winkler the land has been extremely flat and you can see why a 10 foot rise in the river can flood 40km wide. We arrived in Vita at 5pm to find everything closed - Motel, restaurants, and bars. At the only convenience store that was open we got canned turkey and rice for supper. We did get a motel room when we found the owner, but the liquor store was closed and we had another dry night. For the last half day it has been easy to tell we are in a Ukrainian district of Manitoba.

Day 29 June 28 Rest day in Winkler.

Library, Laundry and Tim Horton’s.
Winkler is a dry town. As a result we have spent the last two nights at Tim Horton’s drinking Tea. We have had some very nice teas: Orange Pekoe, English breakfast, Earl Grey and Chai. What a delightful change from beer.

Day 28 June 27, 125km, 276m Vertical, 19°C overcast, strong NW wind

Cartwright to Winkler.
A cool start around 9am with zilch for breakfast. The possibility of 10mm of rain was forecast but fortunately we only had a few drops and the bad weather stayed about 50km north of us. It was an uneventful start and we targeted Crystal City (a grand name for a farming village) for a breakfast stop.

Now I must digress to provide some background info. A few days ago TimB noticed that the left hand lowrider frame was rattling and he found that the metal around the bottom screw holding the frame onto the bottom of the fork had broken. We needed somebody who could weld aluminium.

We hadn’t spotted anywhere open to get it fixed until entering Crystal City. The guy at the first auto repair shop sent us round the corner to a workshop where there was somebody who it appeared was able to repair a wide variety of machines. John Pride is the man. His inspection of the problem on TimB’s bike elicited the comment “who made this piece of crap?” but he didn’t pursue this line of enquiry seriously and proceeded to remove the frame and retire into the workshop. In the meantime 3 other local men have turned up and suddenly six chairs are set up in the workshop and we all sit down and chat away. Before too long John has welded a new end piece onto the lowrider frame, drilled a new whole, sprayed it black and fitted it back on the bike. What service, what a hero, and for a miserly 10$ (6.60 Euros) for all his effort. My guess is that John’s repair will easily outlast the other mountings.. After this marvellous experience we stayed in the village for lunch (being in the meantime too late for breakfast) and then set off for La Riviere where we dropped into the river valley hitting 68kph for the first time since the Rockies and had a short tea break before starting the climb out of the valley. Lariviere is the home of the wild turkey. The next 10km were a dream. A brand new asphalt surface as close to being as smooth as a billiard table as a road can be. In the meantime the prairie wind had strengthened to 40+kph and we tore along the last 50km to Winkler at 40-45kph. It was great. Let’s have more. We have now settled in a motel here for our rest day.

Day 27 June 26, 92km, 25°C heavy showers followed by sun. S. wind

International Peace Gardens to Cartwright.
We had a record slow start to our day as we left the campsite at 1:55 pm. We awoke at 6:30 to light rain so we stayed in bed. At 9:00 we had wind and heavy rain so we stayed in bed. At 10:30 the sun came out so we left everything to dry and rushed over to the park café for breakfast (breakfast ends at 11:00). We had a nice breakfast and a good chat with the lady who manages the café. We returned to our tent to dry things out, pack up and depart. We immediately hit the US border which took another half hour to process TimG (an alien). We finally hit the open road at 2:30 and rode about 40 km east through North Dakota and then returned to Canada. The guard in Canada spent more time chatting with us than usual because he was curious about our trip (and appeared to have a very quiet border post). We carried on to Cartwright where we are spending the night in a motel because thunder showers are forecast.

Day 26 June 25, 76km, 25°C cloudy, NW wind

Deloraine to International Peace Gardens.
We had a good start to the day with the NW wind pushing us east at a healthy clip until we turned south to head up Turtle Mountain (it’s only a hill really and doesn’t deserve the name mountain)It was only 19km to the park where we intended to camp but there were no places with grass for a tent and the overflow site had grass but only pit toilets and no showers or running water. TimB claimed he wanted to stay there but it was a little too close to nature for me so we moved off down to the Peace Gardens on the border to think about it. As it turned out the Peace Gardens had a much nicer campsite and full facilities so that is where we stayed. We did the walk through the gardens and rode the north and south scenic routes around the woods and lakes. The chef cooked dinner on a campsite table and we enjoyed chicken soup with rice followed by rice with tinned chicken flakes tossed in. I was glad I’d had a nice strawberry milkshake at the park café. I won’t give you any details on the park, have fun looking it up on the web. The full name is International Peace Park. Night night.

Day 25 June 24 72km; 22°C sunny start, clouding later; 121m vertical

Pierson to Deloraine.
Oh oh oh were we late starting today. Lazed around in the tent under a bright blue sky reading novels and eventually decamped to the Heritage Café for breakfast. The café was full of locals who had all probably done half a days work by the time we got there at 9:20. We ate, chatted to several people, shopped, phoned home, took some pictures and eventually got on our way shortly before 12. Now we thought we might crack on like we did yesterday but the wind had turned 180deg. and was in our faces again. It turned out to be a slow day and the skies darkened steadily. We didn’t arrive here in Deloraine until after 4:30 and we still had 50km to do to get to Turtle Mountain when it started to rain. That caused us to rethink our target and when we found a motel room for $62 (42Euros) we decided to stay here for the night and move on to Turtle Mountain tomorrow where we will camp at the provincial park and take time out to visit the International Peace Gardens. They have a bar here as well. Night night.

Day 24 June 23 122km; 22°C and cloudy, clearing later; 101m vertical

Carlyle to Pierson: What TimB didn’t mention yesterday was that when we arrived in Carlyle and checked out the campsite we were attacked by the mosquitoes and both bitten 3 times in less than a minute so we escaped to the only motel in town. Being a Sunday the bar & restaurant were shut but this morning the restaurant was open and offering cooked breakfasts which was too good to pass on. So, after a leisurely breakfast, a visit to the shop for our daily supply of bananas and a visit to the bank for an injection of cash it was 11 o’clock before we were on our way. A short sharp shower as we left town made the day look fairly ominous but it stopped before I could get my rain jacket on and for the rest of the day we only saw showers at a distance. Yesterday had been hard work with head winds but today we were rewarded with a SW wind pushing us east swinging round to NW at midday just in time to blow us south from Redvers to Cairevale. The 46km from Redvers to Carievale were done mostly at around 35kph and even the 13km of roadworks didn’t slow us down significantly. The last leg was 25km to Pierson taking us over the Sask border into Manitoba where we entered another time zone and advancing the clocks an hour meant we had arrived after six and were too late for the shops again. Fortunately, we were able to eat at the Heritage Café which seemed to be a meeting place for the locals. The waitress was very helpful and telephoned around to arrange for us to camp on the sports ground near the baseball diamond. When we went over there after dinner TimB was looking around the grounds for the toilets when too guys turned up in a pickup truck and showed me the ice rink arena and decided to leave it open for the night so that we could use the hot showers and toilets in there. All this is at no charge!!!!! I can’t imagine that happening in Europe.

Bob, the only sad bit was… not a beer in sight. And though all the cows came over to see us we really didn’t fancy warm milk.

Day 23 June 22 122km; 26°C and overcast; 195M vertical

Weyburn to Carlyle. We left Weburn at 9:45 and headed east on Highway 13 again. For the first time ever we had a strong head wind from the south-east. Instead of cruising at 30kph we were cruising at 20kph. The forecast said a 11kph south east wind; the reality was a 30-40kph south east wind. We battled the wind all day and we had to stop more often than usual. We did see some bends in the road to help keep the excitement level up. We even saw a hillock in what has been our flattest stage to date. More interesting than the bends and hillock were the pump jacks we saw scattered all over the countryside. We do not know the volume of oil pumped but just from the number of pumps working the volume must be significant. Many farmers have the mineral rights on their land still and our making big money for every pump jack on their land. Sadly for those who feel their heating bills are too expensive, we saw several burn-offs scattered near the roadside making big flames and loud noises.

Day 21 June 20 169km 444M vertical, 26°C and sunny

Assiniboia to Weyburn: Today was our most ambitious day to date. We were up at 6 am and on the way by 8 am. We wanted to get to Ogema for lunch and it is 82km down the road. We started with 13km of construction on the highway that left us dusty and dirty. Then the construction was over, the north-west wind came up behind us and we were on our way. The prevailing west wind has been consistent and strong since we hit Alberta. We are benefiting from the gentle push almost every day. When we go northerly we get a strong side wind but it’s better than a head wind. We reached Ogema at 12:30 and had a leisurely lunch. Then off again for Weyburn. We chose to ride 165 km in one day because there are no towns after Ogema where we could stay. Also, Saturday being a rest day, we wanted a larger town so we could shop and replenish our supplies. Because of the distance we stopped every 20km for a leg break and a banana. Bananas really are a miracle fruit. We cruised at about 30kph when we got up to top speed and the wind was favourable. The roads in Saskatchewan are not flat, but they sure are straight. In the afternoon heat the road seems to stretch forever into the distance. The traffic is so light that we normally ride down the middle of the lane, however once in a while we get some interesting traffic coming towards us.
We arrived in Weyburn at 18:30 and booked a motel for 2 nights. (What Luxury!) We now have wireless and cell phone service again.

Day 20 June 19 122Km, 358m Vertical Climb, Clear and warmer yet again.

Ponteix to Assiniboia. We were up early and visited by 2 deer investigating our campsite. Our early start was interrupted by a flat tire before we even left the campsite. Then we visited 2 banks (to get no money), 2 food stores (to get some food), and the local bakery for breakfast. We are having trouble finding food stores open when we arrive in a town late and tend to eat in restaurants a lot. We finally got on our way at 11:15. Forty km later a second flat. As Tim G said bad things happen in threes. We had a good lunch at Lafleche and after lunch Tim G went to the only ATM in town to get some money. The ATM completed the transactions but Tim got no money so he had to get the bank involved. The bank was initially reluctant to get involved but was convinced to help when Tim announced he was staying in the bank until they made sure the ATM didn’t charge his account. They did check the records and give us enough documentation to get any errors corrected and we were on our way. Because of the flats and the bank incident we arrived in Assiniboia at 6:15 and again were too late to shop for food. We set up tent at the regional park and found ourselves next to a group of cyclists who were heading from Victoria to Halifax. They did have an RV as a support vehicle and they were doing less kilometres per day, but they were all older than us. (OAS’rs)

Day 19 June 18 114Km, 519m Vertical Climb, Clear and even warmer.

Oh oh. What happened last night? Yer can’t beat a fried breakfast after a late night. I’m going to have to start doing the fried eggs though. Tim B. should stick to the scrambled ones. Late start today. It was 11:15 before we were rolling south into the Cypress Hills but we did have the benefit of a north west wind pushing us along. After 42km we turned left onto the Red Coat Trail, route 13, to head east on a nice straight and quiet road. Well, bless my little cotton socks if there wasn’t a bend in the road after 31km. That raised the excitement level for the next 20 minutes when all was suddenly superseded by the sighting of our first buffalos. I think some of the bulls were being crafty and stalking some cows that were on the range too but I might be wrong. We also saw two cemeteries on opposite sides of the road with magnificent views across the prairies (not that anybody apart from us seemed to be enjoying them). It must be pretty dry around there because there were good solid wooden crosses that were apparently 50 years old. A wooden cross in the ground wouldn’t last 5 years where live. We pushed on to Ponteix where we were able to pitch the tent on a lovely bit of fresh cut grass next to the rail track. As they only get about 3 trains a week we expected and had a peaceful night. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We were too late for the shops so we had to eat out and the only restaurant in town had an All You Can Eat Wings Night. What more could one wish for? Being a bit late we didn’t get any salad so we made up for the loss with lots of wings.

Day 18 June 17 120Km, 458m Vertical Climb, Clear and warm.

Walsh to Gull Lake. The sun was up early and so were we. A cuppa tea, a cuppa coffee, decamp, a wave to Shelley and the squirrels and we were off. It was only 2km to the Saskatchewan border but 40 to the visitor centre where we took our first break. Tim B. sorted out maps etc. in the Centre while I sorted out a large cone of ice cream at the ice cream parlour on the edge of the car park. We moved on a couple of minutes to the cross roads at Maple Creek for a warm lunch at the gas station and then onwards to Gull Lake. For accommodation in Gull Lake we decided to try the hotel which looked pretty run down and thankfully Laura, behind the bar, had a two bedroom apartment with kitchenette available about a block away so that’s where we ended up. After a quick visit to the shops, a cooked supper (Tim B. needs some practice on the sunny side up eggs), a shower and a change of clothes it was off back to (yes you guessed it) the bar. When we were asking for a room Laura had said that she shuts the bar around 9pm if it is quiet so we hot footed it over there around 8:30. Laura was still there with a couple of local customers and we were soon busy chatting away. Bob Wellmann told us all about coyote hunting, steer roping, bronco breaking, the importance of different types of sage with their high protein content that are essential for the survival of buffalo and cattle on the range and about how many cow/calf pairs can be kept on a section (that’s a square mile). What do you get when you cross a buffalo with a cow? A beefalo. Yep, we learned that too. You know you're having a good day when the bartender buys you a drink. Anyway, sometime after midnight we decided to leave the serious drinking to those that don’t ride bicycles and staggered off back to our room and conked out within seconds.

Day 17 June 16 116Km, 321m Vertical Climb, Clear blue sky and getting warm.

Bow Island to Walsh. Well I didn’t avoid the mossies. They bit my bum through my cycling shorts, both cheeks, back of both thighs, both knees, face and left wrist. So, first move after decamping was to visit the hunting sports shop in town to get some insect repellent. Bow Is. is not a very big town (about 10 shops) but the sports shop is Canada’s largest supplier of hunting bows and we got free education on the relative merits of crossbows and longbows and no insect repellent. When the need arises get a longbow because it shoots further and insect repellent at the foodstore because it is cheaper than the hunter’s odourless variety.
Eventually we got on our way through the prairies. We saw an occasional bend in the road and it went gently up and down most of the time. The prairies are not flat, they may seem like it to you folks in cars but that is probably because you’re asleep most of the time. We stopped in Seven Persons at the only cafe in town where all seven persons were having lunch. The microwaved toasted sandwich was not a success. Next stop was Medicine Hat where, after a more nourishing lunch break, we changed on to the Trans Canada Hwy for the last stage to Walsh situated just before the Saskatchewan border. Walsh is two gas stations and a few houses near the RR track. We saw there was a restaurant and bar so we set up camp on the small campground next to the Shell station. Shelley came over from her home to give us some advice on where to put the tent and when we asked about the location of the advertised washing machine she said it no longer worked so she took all our dirty laundry and put it through her machine. Now wasn’t that nice of her. Toilets and hot showers were available so after we got cleaned up off we went to do some shopping only to find that both gas stations only sold junk food, so off to the restaurant which was closed and lo and behold so was the bar. As we were the only people on the camp site we sat and chatted to a few Richardson Ground squirrels before turning in for an early night.

Day 16 June 15

Lethbridge to Bow Island. We left Lethbridge at 11 AM and headed down the road to Medicine Hat. We have changed the planned route to avoid going directly thought the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. We met 2 cyclists on the route who had gone through Cypress Hills and they lost their third companion when his bike was destroyed by the gravel roads. Since we both have road touring bikes we decided to play it safe and stay on the paved roads. Unfortunately we will have to go on the Trans-Canada which we were hoping to avoid. David, our host from Lethbridge accompanied us for the first half day and then he returned to Lethbridge. Near Tabor we saw two farms with strange looking Alberta Beef. We carried on to Bow Island, where we camped at the municipal park. Hallelujah the camping was a success. Since we are saving so much money by camping we ate out at a Chinese buffet. What a great way to avoid the mosquitos. We slept OK and woke up warm and dry.

Day 15 June 14 Rest day in Lethbridge

The longest trestle bridge in the world near Lethbridge
Day 15 June 14 Rest day in Lethbridge

Day 14; June 13; 101Km; 363m Vertical; Average speed fantastic

Pincher Creek to Lethbridge. What a ride. This has to be dedicated to Achim. Chain to the right Maenner und gib ihm. Average speed to Fort Macleod over 49km was 33.3kmh. Boy o boy what a strong tail wind can do. Tim B did want to stop for some reason (take a leak/photo, I dunno) but I told him at this speed no way.
We were due to stay with David & Sonia in Lethbridge so David had decided to cycle the 50km to Fort Macleod to meet us. Well, he had a lot tougher time getting there against the wind than we did with the wind. We beat him there by about an hour and a half and were ready for a third cuppa tea when he staggered in to the A&W (that’s like a MacDonalds to you Europeans but a different company). After a suitable period of recuperation for David we rolled slowly through town viewing the historical locations like the oldest theatre (that’s theater to Canadians) in Alberta and the Fort where the Mounties established there western outpost back in 18something. After this bit of sightseeing we left for Lethbridge, did a few photo stops along the way and still had an average of 28.8kph over the 101km. Eat your heart out you guys in Cologne.
We successfully closed out the day with Sonja and David and neighbours Charlie and Mike down at Pop’s Pub where we emptied two 60oz pitchers and three 100oz towers. Hey Bob we drank ‘em dry of Rickards Red so we had to switch to Molson Canadian for the last tower. Good going huh.