Future Olympians, stuffed moose, and a near conversion experience

Day 56 Northbay to Driftwood Provincial Park
approx. 85 mi

In the morning we packed up and loaded our bikes into the elevator to get back onto the streets from Coltin and Sam's fourth floor apartment. Tamara's Nonna made sure to hug us all goodbye with redrimmed eyes- reminding us to be safe. Thanks again to Coltin, Sam, Andie, and Nonna for your hospitality!

The day began overcast with low hanging clouds that melded into the air, forming a sort of misty fog as we wound our way out of North Bay and back to the 17. Gradually over the course of the morning the clouds dissippated, giving way to a clear sky, intense sun and humidity. By 1pm we were hungry and hot, so we stopped in a Subway in Mattawa for an air conditioned lunch- cucumbers and hummus per usual (though now we have Nutella.)

The afternoon's ride was hilly and desolate, in the sense of a notable absence of people, towns, humanity, civilization, you get the idea. Instead, we biked through tall pine forest, the Algonquin Provincial Park to our right, and the Ottawa River just beyond the stands of trees lining the north side of the highway. Towards the end of the afternoon a brief but furious rainstorm descended, drenching only about 20 yards of road in heavy, ice cold raindrops. We biked through it in about a minute and then were back to the intense heat, albeit soaking and refreshed (evaporative cooling at its best).

We stopped at a gas station outside Mackey to inquire about camping. We entered looking for shelter and mildly hungry. We exited with directions to the Driftwood Provincial Park campground on the River, a small stuffed bear by the name of Jacques and a slightly larger Canadian moose named Marcell. Equipped with mascots we embarked on our final 5 miles of the day.

That night we got a sweet spot next to the river and made a green curry with coconut milk and lots of veggies and quinoa! After dinner we went for an evening swim in the Ottawa River. The river stretches several km across, is flat and on appearance looks more like a lake than river. Past the trees, the sun cast a light violet hue across the water. Pontoons and fishing boats dotted the flat surface. A fog rolled in from the north. And we giggled. Having dissolved into a pod of travelers able to complete each others'sentences we have come to realize that many of our conversations probably aren't that funny, and wouldn't make sense to most other people. Get excited to socialize us on our return!


Day 57 Driftwood Provincial Park to outside Castleford
approx. 90 mi

The morning ride started with an immediate steep (12%? grade) hill out of the campground that had us (or at least me) out of the saddle in the granny gear. Mornings on the 17 we have found quiet and cool, with little traffic. We've been lucky and had a tailwind for the majority of our time on the King's Highway and this morning was no exception. We cruised into the town of Deep River and stopped at the nearest Valu-Mart we could find off the highway. There we munched on an excellent second breakfast of banana bread and newly made gorp. We also met- on the recommendation of a woman who met us outside the store and tipped of the paper- a student journalist who interviewed us and snapped our photo for the newspaper. We countered by taking her photo for our blog. The bike rack at the grocery store ended up being quite a social center and after chatting with another Deep River cyclist, we changed our route to come off the 17 early and cruise on the 'River Rd', a small highway curling through dairy farms and alongside the river.

For lunch we stopped at Hugil's Blueberry Ranch, just off the 17 on White Water Road. Anyone who plans on being in the Ottawa region should check this place out. They have blueberry, pies, muffins, ice creams, fudge, frozen yogurt, smoothies, and a lovely shaded picnic area. We spent about two hours there, procrastinating biking and taking turns riding the ranch's single mustang- of the tin and steel variety. (photos below)

That evening we continued down hwy. 4- the Queen's Line- until bumping across a campground just outside Castleford. There we made burritos and were extensively prostheletyzed too, resulting in new jewelry items! Each bracelet has five beads, representing different stages in one's personal relationship to Jesus.

Original Bead meanings
Gold- streets of Heaven
Black- sin (as in ours)
Red- Jesus' sacrifice absolving us of sin
White- purification after accepting Jesus into our hearts
Green- growth through relationship with Jesus!

So we changed them
Gold- Fields of hay, grains (which we eat a lot of)
Black- chain grease- particularly on our calves
Red- beautiful sunsets
White- snowy mountain passes (alternately our upper thighs)
Green- the lid of the peanut butter jar (alternately lovely forests, depending on hunger levels)

Then we all took showers like civilized folk and went to bed.

Day 58 Castleford- Ottawa (Cathy's house in Orleans)
75 mi
The day begins, we start biking and end up in Arnprior around 9. There we stopped for lovely English scones and hot drinks followed by handfuls of gorp because the scones were tiny and really not filling.

Afterward we cruised through farmlands for quite a while, stopping in Carp at a bakery where we had lunch. 10 miles after Carp the city appeared out of nowhere, glass paneled technology firms sprouting from between the maple trees. After a construction detour we made it to the main bike parkway along the river shooting us straight into the city centre. Along the way we passed a small colony of rock sculptures, Parliament, and a very large castle-looking hotel that we mistook for Parliament and posted on our blog. Ooop.

Next we kept going out of town, being led to the Rockcliff Parkway by Joanna, whom we met serendipitously, looking lost and trying to take dead end sidewalks in hopes of the miraculous creation of a bikepath before our front tires. Joanna, as it turns out did an early spring bike tour for 49 days from Vancouver to Petersborough (sp?) and so we chatted and compared stories for a few km until she popped off to go home and we continued out of the city.

On the Rockcliff Parkway we encountered massive amounts of miniature, lithe muscle balls of bikers with space age helmets and space age bikes zipping by us solo or in small packs. We decided we must just be lame and Ottawa must be the most serious biking city we've ever been to.

Turns out....we ended up in the middle of an Olympic qualifying time trial. And by the 'in the middle' I mean, we biked past the starting line and then realized what we'd done and figured, 'oops.' So we turned up the music and cheered for everyone as they passed us going a gazillion miles an hour. We got lots of waves and smiles and stares between the grimaces of lactic acid agony worn by most riders.

We arrived at Cathy's house ( a friend of Tamara's mother) and had a lovely dinner of salad and kaiser rolls. Today Cathy has been a wonderful host and taken us all over the city, which we would write about except we're all out of time!
Ciao!

Day 59 Exploring Ottawa!
several miles by foot