Northern Ontario Wildlife

As of this writing we are in Wawa, ON which Aiden would like to mention is the birth place of Chris Simon (one of my personal favorite ex-Calgary Flames.) Northern Ontario has had some really nice scenery, I've been thoroughly impressed. I was expecting just a lot of trees on some rolling terrain with a view or two of a lake thrown in. Sure it has been like that but they have been some great looking lakes, and some good looking rugged rocky stuff. Certainly better than I thought it was going to be. What hasn't been better than I than I thought has been the bug situation; at times it has been horrific. The mosquitoes are pretty standard, not much I can complain about there, but the black flies are something else. They just won't leave you alone, no matter what you do. What's worse is that just putting on pants and a long sleeve shirt isn't enough, the sick little creatures will crawl up under your clothes to bite you on the exposed skin. Pretty savage.

As for larger wild life, on Canada Day, Aiden and I both saw a bear and moose. It was pretty cool, we had been waiting a while to see either of these two. The bear was up on a ledge overlooking the highway, upon catching a glimpse of us, he stood up to take a better look. It wasn't too long before he decided he wanted nothing to do with us and turned around and went into the bush. It wasn't a large bear, Aiden says it was probably a teenager and was certainly not a grizzly so posed little threat to us. The moose was pretty much the same deal, it was just standing there on the side of the road, took one look at us, wasn't very impressed and then turned around to walk casually back into the woods. Given how quickly all of this unfolded and the pathetic zoom on both of our cameras the pictures left a lot to be desired. They might be salvagable and uploaded at a later date when we have more time.

In Thunder Bay Aiden's Uncle Simon joined us on his Spyder (essentially a three wheeled motorcycle) and it has been great having him along. He normally goes ahead, does his own thing for most of the day, and then sets up camp at a predetermined site. It's pretty awesome because by the time Aiden and I roll in some hours later he has dinner pretty much already made, a fire going to keep those savage black flies away, and of course some cool beverages to quench our thirst after a long day on the bike. I don't know how much longer he is going to be following along with us (or ahead of us...) but it is definitely most appreciated.

On the way to Nipigon, ON my front pannier rack broke again. Yes, this is the third rack I've broken, so I'm getting pretty tired of it. Luckily there was a welder in town that could weld aluminum so the rack is better than new with his heavy duty welds. I should have special ordered in the custom rack for the bags instead of the cheaper ones in the store; certainly didn't save any money... Anyways, he was a really great old guy with plenty of stories to tell as he was doing his work so it was a fairly entertaining experience. One thing he told us wasn't a story of his, but a current event, and that was that two cyclists had just been killed in Manitoba and two others were injured.

There is no reason for things like this to happen; there is plenty of room on the road for everyone. Manitoba has had the worst section of Trans Canada that we have been on, there are no paved shoulders and the road in general is in poor shape. It is ridiculous and the province holds part of the blame, that is for sure. This is exactly why Aiden and I are avoiding the Trans Canada at all costs, just too many cars, as such we did almost all of Manitoba on secondary highways. Thankfully the Trans Canada here in Northern Ontario has a paved shoulder almost everywhere. I have no idea how much more money it costs to add that extra couple of feet of pavement but I imagine it would be negligible. Aiden and I get passed by hundreds, if not thousands of cars a day, and we haven't had a problem yet, and the drivers passing us don't seem to have a problem either. So I can't help but to wonder what the person in the Honda Civic was thinking, but that is most likely the problem, he wasn't.