Day 41: Kindersley, SK -> Harris, SK

Date: Sunday, June 25, 2023
Start: Kindersley, SK (Municipal Campground)
End: Harris, SK (Wild-ish camping)
Distance: 122km

It was a warm morning in Kindersley.  I could tell the day was going to be hot!  I woke up at 7am and packed.  Breakfast used up what little fuel I might have had left of my stove fuel, so it was good I was getting close to Saskatoon to buy another!  Being Sunday, it was a sleepy morning in Kinderlsey.  I packed and left the town at 9am hoping to put a bit of ground under me before the heat of the day set in!

I biked out of town and passed endless farm supply businesses.  After that the farmers fields were filled with pump jacks.  Instead of individual jacks every couple of kilometers, they were grouped up to half a dozen at a time.  And it was clear that a lot of oil was under our feet based on the number of pumps.  Past this were the grain elevators, but the modern variety.  Whereas the classic looking elevators are wood or metal clad with a style that can be recognized from the horizon, these newer variety are mostly just concrete silos.  No ornamentation.  They lack the character of their predecessors.

There were only wispy clouds today, and the sky was blue and endless.  The land had also flattened considerably from the previous day.  A light headwind coming in at about a 45 degree angle gave a bit of resistance, but nothing that made the ride difficult.  I made a point of changing my bike computer away from the days total distance, as it was easy to start focusing and obsessing over the number.  This was a clear sign that I was getting bored and so I popped in a headphone and listened to an audio book (The Blindside by Michael Lewis...not his best).

50km went by quickly.  At just before noon I found Fiske, Saskatchewan.  I watched their two grain elevators as they got closer and closer for almost 15km.  When I reached it, I stopped in the shade of a model water tower and ate some lunch.

After about 30 minutes I'd cooled down a bit and was full of crackers, cheese, bread, and salami.  Time to press on.

Again, nothing big to report.  The land was flat or rolled ever so gently.  This might sound monotonous, but I loved it.  Not only because it's easy cycling, but because it's so incredibly beautiful.  I'm sure a lot of people don't enjoy farmland.  I know some of you don't see the beauty in it, and I get it.  But I grew up in a rural area and can appreciate an open field, or a rolling hill, or the endless horizon.  I want to say that I'm able to "delight in the mundane" but that would call The Prairies mundane.  They're not.  They're full of life.  Bugs, crickets, grasses, birds, grains, hawks, coyotes, antelope, crops, cattle, horses, people.  And because I'm biking in the shoulder of the highway I have plenty of time to be able to look around and enjoy it.

I rode into Rosetown at around 1:30pm.  This marked about 85km for the day and the last official campground before Saskatoon.  I could stop here and do 122km the next day or keep going and have an easier day into Saskatoon.  I decided to head to the local library (which was closed because Sunday), steal some wifi, and catch up on blog posts.  I'd see how I felt when I was done.  I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and saw the graduates of the local high school in the window of the grocery store, giving you a sense of the size of the town.  Nice to see a small town taking pride in their youths!  The streets of Rosetown are all vaulted with trees, and it was a nice change from the direct sun of the open prairie.

When I was done I decided to press on.  It was still a nice day and I was feeling energized and motivated!  I grabbed some water on my way out of town as I'd be wild camping and likely wouldn't have any refills tonight.  I rode out of town at about 4:30pm.

Immediately, I noticed a storm front moving in just behind me off my right shoulder.  I could see the long fingers of cloud reaching down to the ground where it was dumping water across the far off fields.  I also just the wind at my back that was pushing it.  If I could stay just ahead of it, I could ride this wind all the way to my destination just outside of Harris, SK.  And sure enough, I was able to go between 25-30km/h with the storm always just behind me.  I rode a zephyr across the prairie!

I don't think I ever dropped under 25km/h.  And I covered the ~40km in under two hours.

Before reaching my destination I came upon a small town named Zealandia.  It was just off the highway and I was curious about the name.  There's a region of The Netherlands called Zeeland and I wondered if there might be a connection.  New Zealand also sits on the Zealandia plate.  Maybe that's where it comes from?  I biked the streets of the town and took in it's charms.  A little research showed that it's actually one of the smallest municipalities in Saskatchewan with just 75 people living there.  I snapped some pictures, but couldn't figure out where the name came from.

I watched the storm move from my right to my left, but always stayed in front of it.  By the time I was just outside of Harris it had moved off into the distance.  I'd found - what I'm guessing was - a sort of abandoned campsite just off the highway.  There was a gate that was opened, porta-potties, and individual camping spots along the periphery cut out of the trees.  Someone had clearly been moving the grass.  It wasn't the managed campgrounds I'd been staying at, but for $0 the price was right!

I tried to find a place to setup my tent but kept running into problems.  The ground was uneven.  There was cactus growing all over the place.  There were mosquitoes when I got too close to the trees.  The porta-potties hadn't been serviced in a LONG time.  I think soiling ones self would have been cleaner than using them!  I didn't want to be anywhere near them.

Eventually I settled on a spot.  I ate a banana, apple, tin of tuna, bun, crackers, and cheese.  I didn't want to cook.  I walked to stretch my legs and noticed the sky clouding up with dark clouds.  I quickly setup for a wet night and went the rain started to trickle down I jumped into the tent and decided to get to sleep.  It was around 8:30pm.  I popped in my earbuds and listened to some music as I drifted off to sleep.

And at some point I woke up with a start.

I couldn't figure out why.  I was half asleep and half awake.  I noticed that the sound of rain on the rain fly of the tent was VERY loud.  It was raining hard.  And then the lightning flashed.  What had woken me up was my tent lighting up with each flash.  Everything would go bright white.  And then the wind hit.  Or maybe it was wind.  It might have been hail.  It pressed the entire tent down on me.  The walls started pressing in and the sound of whatever was hitting the rain fly was oppressive.  A sense of panic started welling up inside of me.  And then the thunder started rolling.  Non-stop.  Sometimes for 7 seconds at a time.  It was clearly directly overhead.  It shook everything and I felt it in my bones.  I started messaging family and friends just to give myself a distraction.  For about 30 minutes I had to focus on my breathing and keep telling myself that the tent was the safest place I could be right now.  I wondered how much punishment plastic could take and knew that if it failed me, I was going to have a VERY long night.

The weather radar showed a red blob passing directly overhead.  But behind it was clear sky.  Once this passed it would be a clear night.  After about 45 minutes I noted that the thunder had passed from left to overhead to right.  The storm had passed me over.  And my little tent had managed to stay afloat!  I was happy I had resisted the urge to peek outside.

Once the thunder and flashes had moved far enough away I put on a face mask and popped the earbuds in again.  I'd survived the most intense storm I've ever experienced in a tent.  Thanks to any of you who I messaged!  I tried to make it seem like a fun and intense experience...but I was internally panicking the entire time!

I slept the rest of the night despite the humidity after the newly fallen rain.  I could drink the air in.  But the day had been hot and long and I was happy for the sleep!