The Cowboy Room

The Tourist Information Centre in Terrace Bay proved to be a successful, albeit occasionally noisy, spot for wild camping. Unfortunately, and for reasons I can’t really explain, I didn’t sleep particularly well last night – and it had nothing to do with the traffic noise throughout the night. You’d think after pedalling for eight hours and traversing 172 km of hilly terrain that I’d have no problem sleeping. That was not the case. For whatever reason, I found myself (and more specifically my legs) fidgeting for much of the night. And fidgety legs does not make for a quality sleep. Oh well, at least I was safe from the mosquitos.

As would be expected, I started to get my best sleep as the morning hours arrived. In addition to slumber, the morning hours also brought with it rain. Light rain. But still rain. I tried to convince myself that it was just a dream, but it wasn’t. And so, when I woke up again at around 7:00 and still heard the light rain on my tent I knew it was time for action.

The idea of packing up my already wet tent in a downpour did not appeal to me so, at 7:03 I started to move. By 7:19 everything was packed up and loaded onto my bike. A light rain was still falling. And the heavy rain I was looking to avoid never actually occurred. I guess I could have slept a little longer after all. Oh well. Hindsight is 20-20.

Despite being ready to go so early, I really wasn’t ready to go. So, instead I hung out in a nearby gas station coffee shop with the hope that the rain and fog might move on. It didn’t. Eventually Moritz arrived and he too was not particularly motivated to hit the road. As such, we found the one open restaurant in Terrace Bay and went for breakfast.

With a hearty breakfast filling our stomachs, we finally concluded that we could procrastinate no longer. The rain wasn’t going anywhere but we were. Today’s goal was Nipigon and it wasn’t getting any closer by just sitting around looking at the fog. And so, after a somewhat quick detour to Subway, we were on the road.

Despite the weather, the first 35 km went by pretty easily and quickly so I felt that stopping for lunch would be a good idea. While stopped, one of the numerous passing cars pulled over about 100 metres beyond me. The driver got out and walked my way and so I walked towards him to meet halfway. Turns out he just stopped to make sure I was okay. A little bit of northern hospitality. We then had a bit of chat about the usual things during which time he assured me that the road from this point flattens out until Nipigon. While I’m confident he meant what he said, I didn’t believe it for a second. Once I was back on the road, it didn’t take long for my skepticism to be proven correct.

As anticipated, there were two very large hills on the way to Nipigon. The second was about 3 km long with a 7% grade. Patience is really your only weapon against hills of that nature … a good granny-gear doesn’t hurt either! I really don’t know how long it took to get to the top – it’s really best not to notice such things – but the sense of accomplishment after a big climb is always satisfying. Very satisfying. And this hill was no different.

With the big hills behind me, the weather finally started to clear with about 20 km left in the ride. Of course by that time, fog and sweat had pretty much soaked me completely. Removing my rain gear at that point just would’ve given me a case of the chills that I would rather do without. So, I just pedalled on.

About 5 km from Nipigon I had my second moose sighting. Unlike the first sighting, this moose was just staring at me from the opposite side of the road. I followed what I believed to be proper moose etiquette and stopped to stare back. This seemed to be acceptable to the moose as it just stood there and continued to stare. I can only assume it was thinking, “Nice bike.” As such, it continued to admire my bike long enough for me to get a couple shots off (that’s probably a phrase most moose don’t want to hear!). Fortunately for the moose, my only weapon was a camera.

With evidence of my moose encounter secured, I wished the moose well and we went on our separate ways. For the moose, it was back into the woods. For me, it was to Tim Hortons. Where else? As mentioned before, I was well past soaked for the last few kilometres so arriving at Tim’s couldn’t come soon enough. On the upside, by the time I arrived the sun was out in full force allowing me to hang much of my wet gear on my bike to dry while I took a break inside.

After that there really isn’t too much to report. I ended up getting a motel room for the night at the Pine Crest Motel – located directly behind the Tim Hortons. After a week of not spending any money on accommodation, I figured I’d treat myself. While at Tim’s, I did some research on the limited motels in the area and this one seemed adequate (Yes, my motel standards have elevated their way all the way up to “adequate”). What amused me most was a couple of reviews making reference to the decor of one specific room in the motel. Some liked it. Some didn’t. But the room in question was room #5 and it was described on more than one occasion as “The Cowboy Room”. I had to contain a laugh when the guy at the counter reached for key #5. It would seem my day would end in “The Cowboy Room”.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 110.55
Ride time: 5:24.41
Average speed: 20.43 km/h
Maximum speed: 58.33 km/h

Total climb: 3,233 ft
Total descent: 3263 ft