Cycling Journal: Day 3 (August 2)
Cycling Toronto-Saskatoon Journal
Day 3 (August 2): My Comrade Ray – The Chi-Cheemaun – Rainy Manitoulin – Drinkin’ wit some native kids – I run into a bear (literally)
Woke up in my bushcamp outside Tobermorey feeling surprising well rested. I was back in Tobermorey by 7:30, intending to catch the Chi-cheemaun Ferry to Manitoulin Island but discovered that the early ferry had left at 7:00 and the next trip across wouldn’t be leaving until after 10:00. So I had breakfast and decided to spend a bit of time cleaning my bike (pushing it through the bush to and from my guerilla camp hadn’t been good for it) and patching the tubes that were punctured yesterday, in case I needed them later on. Read more
Cycling Journal: Day 2 (August 1)
CYCLING TORONTO-SASKATOON
JOURNAL DAY 2 (August 1): Owen Sound (The Asshole Line) – Tobermorey (“Five Crappiest Towns I’ve Visited” Second Prize) – Sympathy of the Proletariat – Hunters – Wild Beasts – Guerrilla Camping Technique
I was on the road again by 8:00 this morning and made the 60k trip to Owen Sound in just a couple hours. Breakfast at the Old Bus Stop Diner, enjoying the company of a mildly retarded but friendly man with a singularly unattractive skin condition. We talked about the recent demise of Wiarton Willy (the famous psychic groundhog) and he gave me some vague advice about the road to Tobermorey (“it’s flat but there’s damn big hill in Wiarton!”).
The Old Bus Stop Diner, Owen Sound
In yesterday’s journal I mentioned how I later realized that Highway 89 was the Yuppie Cyclist Line because there are no YCs north of that latitude. Owen Sound was also a dividing line: it’s the Asshole Line. Read more
Cycling Journal: Day 1 (July 31)
CYCLING JOURNAL: Day 1 (July 31)
First day on the road!
catchin' the Go
I decided cheat past the Iron Curtain of big box stores, bitterness, and depression that forms the outskirts of Toronto by catching a Go bus to Georgetown. Was planning on hooking up with Friendly Rich for coffee there before setting out. But missed the early bus while buying cigarettes and got to Georgetown too late to hang out: Rich was getting ready for his CD-release show that night and I wanted to be off anyway.
Friendly Rich
The early part of this day’s ride set me straight on the question of whether it’d be better to stick to fairly major (but sometimes too busy) roads or go for tiny country roads that are seldom travelled: those roads are seldom travelled for a good reason. They’re terrible. Read more
