Sault Ste. Marie to Pancake Bay, ON
Traditional territory of the Algonquin, Anishinabek, Haudenosaunee, Ojibway, Odawa and Cree
120 km
Cloud, sun, lil' bit of rain and wind, 20 ºC
We finally left the Soo, it was a bit of a dilly-dally in the morning while waiting for my rear wheel to be built. Something the owner of Velorution worked on afterhours. What an accomodating place, a real mecca for cyclists and those of our ilk.
We happened to stop at a picnic spot which marked the halfway point of the Trans-Canada highway. It isn’t quite the halfway mark for us since we’re headed North but timewise we are at approximately the halfway point of our trip as well.
Years ago at this exact spot I met a Quebecois motorcyclist who was exploring his own sense of Canada and wondering how this massive expanse of land which had little connecting it all aside from railroads and this highway kept it together as a nation. It is a question many have asked and many will continue to in a multitude of ways.
I stopped at a trading post near Pancake Bay to pick-up some postcards and ran into this ridiculous 21-year-old who is cycling about 250 km everyday with the lightest amount of weight I’ve ever seen a long-distance cycle tourist carry. You can follow his adventures on Instagram: @the_golden_rooster
Not too far past that, a car with a trailer attached to it stopped next to me and a strange fellow said, “I’ve got a camp nearby with lots of room, I’m an avid cyclist. Come stay with us!”
Jonathon was pretty far gone but he offered to go tell him and bring him back.
He returned and insisted, it was getting late, so I followed suit. Turns out, he was the original founder and owner of Velorution! What are the odds. It poured and rained and stormed overnight and we had our own cabin (which they call camp, I assumed it was a campground ha!).
A lovely conversation which revealed lots of overlaps and connections, including the fact that their daughter worked at the farm I had a CSA with last year. Wah wah wee wah.*
*Used to express a sentiment similar to amazing+fantabulous+wondrous+splendiferous.