Day 61: White River, ON -> Wawa, ON

Date: Saturday, July 15, 2023
Start: White River, ON (Information Centre Free Camping)
End: Wawa, ON (Warm Showers host)
Distance: 97km

The night of rain we were promised never showed up.  I might have drizzled lightly at one point in the night, but otherwise we were quite dry!  The corollary to this was that the bugs were out in force.  White River is about as deep inland as we were going to get on the Lake Superior section of the ride and mosquitoes and black flies were as bad as they'd been the entire trip.  However, to give some context, there still weren't THAT many of them.  I've been to places in the past where the black flies are so thick they form clouds and mosquitoes so thick they're in your nose, mouth, and eyes.  As long as we stayed covered up, the bugs didn't really bother us.  Prime bug season is May-June here, so we'd missed the worst of it!

But when I woke, I saw a lot of mosquitoes that were on the mesh of tent, under the rain fly.  They bounced around, probing for weaknesses in the mesh.  Maybe the carbon dioxide from my breath kept them close, but it was a eerie sight to know that as soon as I unzipped the mesh I would be pounced on by the bugs!

I woke, packed up, and tore down.  I set the rain fly out to dry and Gavin and I chatted about our luck avoiding the rain.  At some point it was going to hit us...we just weren't sure when that would be.  It was very cloudy and seemed to be threatening rain at any minute but also fairly warm.  Gavin was going to A&W for breakfast and I opted to join him.  Bacon and eggs sounded good!

As we walked up to the A&W there was another bike loaded with gear.  Clearly someone else on a big trip.  We took a second to admire the bike and walked in to try to find the owner.

We found the owner sitting with coffee and researching away on his phone.  We introduced ourselves and exchanged the usual who/where/direction/goal/timeline kind of information.  He pointed to someone outside that was riding by on a recumbent bike that was heading West for Vancouver.  We ordered breakfast and sat with him and talked about our journeys thus far, itineraries, and the people we'd met.  He was from Montreal and had started in Vancouver.  We decided to all leave around the same time as we were all going to Wawa, Ontario.

And that's how I met Michel

I put on the Lake Superior anthem to start the day right.  That banjo intro always sets the rhythm...

We all set off from White River at just before 10am with a few minutes between each of us.  We were all solo riders.  Almost immediately we were treated to a nice wide shoulder with signs marking it as a bike route!  I had no idea why it suddenly started here, or for how long it went.  But on this remote stretch of highway I wasn't going to complain!

The goal was Wawa, and it was only about 95km away.  This would mean a pleasantly short day!  Except the hills were starting to return.  Though not bad, they would slow us a bit.  But the worst part was the headwinds.  The day was shaping up to be quite windy and it was full on in our face.  White River to Wawa was bringing us back to the coast of Lake Superior and that meant more winds!

It was pretty brutal.  I spent a lot of the ride on my drop bars, trying to cut the wind a bit and give me a shot at maintaining a decent speed.  As it was going, I was pushing to maintain 18 or 19km/h.  After about two or three hours I came upon two cars pulled over on the shoulder in the same direction we were going.  Some people were out and clearly trying to change the tire.  I stopped and offered to help.  They were on their way to a funeral in Sault Ste. Marie and the cell signal had stopped only 2-3 kilometers before.

One of the lug nuts on the wheel would not budge.  I pushed, put all my weight on it (I know I know), and even stepped hard on whatever basic tool they give you to change these things.  Not long after, Michel came up and also stopped.  Gavin was only a few minutes behind him and stopped also.  Michel had a bottle of degreaser and sprayed the bolts to try to get some lubrication on them.  They looked rusty.  He tried the same things I did but this time managed to get some movement and in about 15 minutes we had the tire changed.  The family offered us money but there was no way we were taking it!  We were all recipients of so much help and kindness on this trip, we had to pay it forward.  Also...I believe that Gavin and Michel are just genuinely good people and would never have taken the money.

Our good deed done, we set off again.

After about 60km into the day, as randomly as the bike lane had started...it ended.  No idea why, but in some random place along the highway it just stopped.  The next 35km would be the thin shoulder.

With 20km to Wawa the winds intensified.  The final 20km was a slog.  At one point I was rounding a long curve in the highway on a down slope and pushing as hard as I could to try to keep 15km/h.  Gusts kept hitting.  I was having difficulty moving forward.  I should have been coasting downhill but I was just trying to keep enough momentum to stay upright.  My patience ran out and I actually started yelling.  "OH COME ON!!!  JUST GIVE ME A BREAK!!!" (I think what I actually said was a little more HBO than this, but I've cleaned it up for you)

A highlight of this section was reaching the 1000km marker for highway 17.  This meant we'd done 1000km since crossing the Ontario border at Manitoba.  Gavin and I stopped to take pictures and celebrate!

We rode along passing rivers, ponds, streams, and lakes.  The landscape was rocky and treed.  Each piece of water offered it's own unique charms and features.  It was wild to believe that the landscape had changed so much from 1000km ago, but it was a new kind of beauty and majesty.  I genuinely loved every hill that revealed a new lake or river.

After crossing the Magpie River we climbed towards Wawa, Ontario.  If you're not familiar with this town, it is known for it's giant Canada goose statue that stands overlooking the highway.  In the Ojibawe language, wawa translates to goose.  The original statue was built in the 70s to honour this and a new one put up in the 2010s to replace the older one.  If you know the town for anything, it's probably this.  It sat high on a bluff overlooking the highway and we pulled in and stopped at the visitor centre.

Almost immediately, a local - Jim - stopped to chat with us.  He asked about our trip and asked the usual questions (I've had this interaction hundreds of times now and could probably answer the questions in my sleep).  In typical local fashion, Jim also started telling us about Wawa...and then about whatever came to mind.  Jim's friend owns the Canadian Tire in Kenora.  I know that now.  I didn't ask...Jim just got there somehow.

We managed to break off from Jim and went to the goose to take pictures.  Michel arrived not too long after us and we all grouped together!

Gavin's mother (Erica, remember that name) arrived as his family has a cottage nearby.  He was going there to spend the day visiting his grandmother before she left.  I was going to be stopping near his cottage the next day and we agreed to meet then.  Michel and I biked into town to look for food.  It was now about 3:30pm and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.  I was starving.

We stopped at the local general store and I got two scoops of the best ice cream of the trip.  It was called "Moose Tracks" and was vanilla ice cream with fudge and Reeses peanut butter cups.  I ate it so quickly I didn't have time to take a picture.  Michel had found cheese curds - the first we'd seen across all of Canada - and bought them.  But they weren't as fresh as we usually got in Quebec.  Shameful by Quebec standards, it was still better than nothing!

We were looking at our phones for a place to eat lunch/dinner and some locals overheard us and recommended Philly Wawa Hoagie.  We thought that sounded good and set off.  When we arrived we found it was a hoagie/philly/schwarma joint and we got the shwarma wraps and salads.  It was good to eat some green!  We both agreed it was an ideal dinner.

We broke off from here.  Michel was going to a hotel and I was going to a Warm Showers host.

For privacy sake, I won't say much about the Warm Shower host, but it was a really great stay!  Neighbours invited me over to a their fire pit and shared a glass of their homemade wine with me.  "Chateau Wawa" - as they called it - was a March 2023 wine.  It was a good month!  One of the people at the fire turned out to be born in the same city as I was, though we were about 35 years apart.  I enjoyed their company as they told me about the area.  Lifelong Wawa-ers, they loved their town and were active members of their community.  At some point I had to excuse myself and turn in for the night.  It had been a long day and I needed sleep!

I lulled off and thought about how I was only two days from finishing the Lake Superior portion of the trip.  Another good day spent in good company and finally getting to visit a town I've wanted to see for so long!