Cycle Trekkers - Adventures around the world on two wheels!

September 28, 2016March 15, 2017

AND THE PRAIRIES ROLL ON…BIKING MANITOBA!!!

Michael’s write up of biking Manitoba during our cycle tour across Canada in the Summer of 2016. Click here to read Kelly’s write up of biking Manitoba.

Manitobans had a lot to live up to after the super friendly Saskatchewan locals made us feel welcome in the prairies. The border sign and their license plates say ‘friendly Manitoba’ so I think they’re up for the challenge!

We parted ways with our German cycling buddies Jacque and Luisa in Deleau and rolled into the small town of Hartney. Our first dealings with a local was at a gas station that only accepted pre paid gas cards (which we didn’t have) when we tried to fill our camping stove without success until the kind farmer paid the 80c with his card to let us fill up! Not exactly a huge amount, but a pretty kind gesture and it made cooking dinner slightly easier with fuel!

First impressions of Hartney were that it was a borderline ghost town, but after visiting the local supermarket and chatting with the cashier we were told it was actually the town festival that night and we should stick around for beers, fireworks and general shenanigans. It didn’t take much convincing (they mentioned beer) and we decided to call it a day and check out how they party in Manitoba!

Biking Manitoba… Friendly Manitoba!

It wasn’t quite on the scale that we’d been led to believe but it was still a fun night where we met half the population of the town and had drinks bought for us the whole evening before watching a surprisingly kick ass fireworks display. We were even invited to a wedding, had several offers of places to stay and given contacts for our onwards journey.

Unfortunately the night got a bit shitter after the party when we returned to the municipal campsite next to the public swimming pool which had basically been transformed into the underage kids after party. We had a swarm of smashed teenagers sitting meters from our tent cranking shit music, drinking and shouting until 4 am before ripping down the fence around the swimming pool to jump on the diving board. It sounded like we’d set up our tent in the middle of the shittest blue light disco ever held.

The police eventually came and the kids dispersed…only to come back again briefly to finish the beers and discuss how hardcore they were for vandalizing a fence.

Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep so the next day was a slightly crappy time on the bikes, and when we eventually decided to call it a day in Belmont didn’t really feel like staying at the town’s campsite….it was also their the town festival and the campsite was in the same park. Never fear though, friendly locals to the rescue! A lovely old lady called Irene invited us back to her place to camp in her ridiculously big back yard where we sipped fireball and hot chocolate and scoffed down a massive plate of banana bread courtesy of Irene’s wicked baking skills and slept like fluffy little lambs.

elgin manitoba — Love these small town buildings we kept passing as we were biking Manitoba

Awesome campsites… a plus of biking Manitoba!

One of the best parts about biking Manitoba was never having to worry about where we would be sleeping that night because there was always a town roughly every 20 Kms with a municipal campsite for a measly 10 bucks a night! Felt odd for us getting to shower that regularly and being able to set up the tent without fear of having the cops called on us or having a farmer shoot us in the butthole with a 12 gauge for sleeping on his land.

Saved by a couchsurfer!

We had a couchsurfer lined up near Morris and had planned on riding down the unpaved gravel rode to his farm until my newly purchased EVO front low-rider rack decided to be a metallic prick and snap in two making it a bit hard for me to carry all my crap along a bumpy road without having an accident and potentially injuring my precious face. Our couchsurfing host Jordan kindly offered to drive out and pick us up and it just so happened that his father had an aluminum welder and his neighbor was a blacksmith! Well that’s handy isn’t it!

Over the next couple of nights at Jordan’s place we heard all about the Mennonites and Hutterites.

We even got a chance to visit a Hutterite colony and see how they lived which was a pretty cool experience. They were pretty much self-sufficient growing and making nearly everything they needed to survive and spoke a German dialect and wore traditional clothing. They did drink beer though and baked some mighty fine bread so it seemed like a pretty rad life and one I could probably put up with.

Everyone in the colony was very friendly and welcoming to us even though they are generally suspicious of outsiders and even gave us a parting gift of a jar of honey from their own beehives, a fresh loaf of home baked bread and 3 dozen eggs. Yes, 3 dozen eggs. We were on a protein high for weeks.

Turns out as well as having a Hutterite hook up, Jordan also had his pilot’s license and half owned a light plane with his father so we were off the bikes and into an airplane! It was a very random couchsurfing experience but it gave us a different view of Manitoba and from the sky confirmed what we had suspected; it was a fucking flat place and the roads were dead straight as far as the eye can see.

view from plane canada manitoba — The view from Jordan’s plane – you can see how flat the Prairies are!

We were nearly out of the prairies!!!

At times it seemed that they stretched on forever but we were finally rolling to the end of theses flat friendly lands! To give us a proper send off they decided to give us one last tornado experience in the town of Vita where we stupidly set up outside a local school under a rickety old wooden storage area.

The rain and wind started up not long after we hopped in the tent and soon sounded like a freight train approaching our flimsy little home to mount us in our sleeping bags. At the time we thought it would be smart setting up somewhere under cover to shelter from the rain, but soon realized it was not the wisest choice as it seriously sounded like the whole aging wooden structure was trying its best to rip away from the earth and fly off into the night.

Luckily no debris flew off the shelter and sliced us in two and we weren’t crushed in our sleep, but we did learn a valuable lesson about where not to set up a tent in a storm. Later we heard from locals that a tornado did indeed touch down in some fields not too far from the school so were pretty lucky really.

We could see trees! Lots of trees!

That was a dead give away that our time in the prairies was at an end. We spent one last night camping near the U.S.A border in a weird town called Middleboro In a local park where we had some kids stand outside our tent while we were in it discussing if they should ‘tackle’ the tent. Happily they decided not to and I wasn’t forced to use my mad knife fighting skills to defend our home and the next day we zipped to the U.S.A border to enter Trump country! So we have come to the end of biking Manitoba and the Canadian Prairies.

Goodbye Manitoba, your license plates are correct you friendly little minx!

Interested in what gear we took with us – check out our gear list! Kelly’s also been a bit geeky and kept trip notes and stats of our trip through Canada.

September 23, 2016March 14, 2017

Cycling Ontario: Onwards to Ottawa

Kelly’s write up of cycling to Ottawa, during our coast to coast Canada cycle trip. Her other Ontario blog posts are cycling to Thunder Bay and Cycling Lake Superior. Click here to read Michael’s write up of cycling in Ontario.

We still had 850km to cycle to reach the country’s capital, Ottawa. After some discussion, we decided to take the most direct route to get there. This would mean we could meet my brother in Montreal on 14^th September, and also have a few rest days before then.

Discovering Amish Country

After all the steep inclines around Lake Superior, we finally got to enjoy a relatively flat road. The cycle from Sault St Marie to Sudbury also took us through Amish country. To our delight fruit stalls and bakeries started to appear along the road. We also spotted a few horse and carriages on the highway and horse powered plowes in the fields.

September Long Weekend

Cycling into Sudbury on the Friday before a long weekend was definitely not a smart choice. In fact, it was horrible and very dangerous! Not only did we have to put up with road works, a terrible or non-existent hard shoulder and soft gravel, plus a cross wind, we also had constant RVs and trucks to keep an eye out for.

After a very long, scary day, we pulled off the highway onto a quieter road, just as we were coming into Sudbury. We had decided to try and avoid the highway as much as possible. It was getting late in the afternoon, and we decided to start looking for a campsite, just as a car pulled off just in front of us (this is one of Michael’s pet hates).

“Friendly-cycling-enthusiast” to the rescue

Out of the car popped, Patti! A keen and very enthusiastic cyclist, who insisted we make it to her house that night, to shower, do laundry and sleep in a proper bed. The only problem was, Patti lived at least another 30km away (we discovered later it was more like 40km). There was no way we were going to push on another 30km. We were done for the day and felt completely defeated. Patti then offered to drive the bikes and us to her place. Usually, I would consider this cheating and decline the offer, however after spending the day on the busy highway, fearing for my life, we decided, screw it, lets do it! Cycle touring is about the experiences you have and the people you meet, not about cycling on dangerous, busy roads.

Picnic sites make ideal camping spots

After spending the night at Patti’s we woke early, feeling rested and in good spirit. The weather was good, so we decided to try and smash out the kilometres, getting as close to North Bay as possible. North Bay is where we had planned to take a rest day off the bikes. Having a long day would mean a short cycle day into North Bay and a bonus afternoon off the bikes.

The cycle day was great! We managed to find a camping spot at the picnic site about 20km west of North Bay. We camped behind the drop toilets at the picnic site, which was also an amazing viewpoint and sunset, looking out over Nipissing Lake. It would have been an amazing camp spot if it weren’t for the smell of the toilets.

Since arriving in Ontario, we discovered how great picnic spots are. They are practically free, basic campsites. Sometimes there might be a “no camping” sign; however a lot of the time, there is no sign at all. Some of our best campsites have been at these picnic sites.

Campsite next to the highway on the way to North Bay — “Campsite” next to the highway on the way to North Bay

Rest day in North Bay

We arrived into North Bay early the following day. We had arranged to stay with Liz, a warmshowers’ host from Australia (the first Australian we’ve met since leaving BC). It turned out, she also had a love for beer, worked in a local brewery, and fed us free, tasty and local beer! We definitely scored!

We were in North Bay for September long weekend. After the traffic we experienced heading into Sudbury on the Friday, we decided cycling on the Monday would be hectic, and to take the day off cycling. This meant we got to experience North Bay’s September long weekend festival next to the beach. The town definitely had a great community vibe, and quite a nice beach.

Deep River

The cycle to Deep River was quite pleasant, which meant we were getting used to cycling on the busy Ontario highways, which lacked any decent hard shoulder. The scenery was quite beautiful, and the roads were slightly quieter after the long weekend, which meant we felt quite relaxed. If Ontario roads were cycle friendly and had good hard shoulder, then I’m sure it would have some of Canada’s best cycle routes.

Once we arrived in Deep River, we were fortunate to stay with Mike and Danielle, two warmshowers’ hosts that had toured a lot around the UK. Mike, like Michael, had a interest in fine beers, so we spent most of the evening sampling and learning about beers. It was great! Beer is full of carbs, so it’s great for cycling. They also helped with our route into Ottawa and told us away to avoid all the busy highways.

Goodbye Highway 17!

After Deep River, we finally got off highway 17 and onto some quieter country roads. We had been on highway 17 since Thunder Bay, so more than 1000km on the same, crappy quality road. We were ecstatic to be off it.

The country roads were awesome! On the way into Ottawa we camped out the back of a gas station, for the first time in Canada. On our last cycle trip, camping at gas stations was the norm.

Onwards to Ottawa

We stayed on the country-roads until we reached the start of the city’s cycle paths, about 20km outside of downtown Ottawa. The cycle path led us right to Parliament Hill in downtown Ottawa. It was probably the easiest and most stress free cycle into a capital city we have EVER experienced.

We arrived into Ottawa a day early, so decided to stay 4 nights in Ottawa, to check out the city and rest. After 10 weeks of cycle touring, we were definitely beginning to feel a bit drained.

Our warmshowers’ host, Richard, was awesome! He had loads of interesting stories and loads of interesting bikes to go with it. He showed us a whole world of bicycles and bicycle touring that we didn’t know existed. Ottawa is an awesome city! Super bike friendly, with great markets and a real community feel. It felt more like a big town then Canada’s capital city. We were definitely sad to leave.

There were two options when leaving Ottawa, to get to Montreal in Quebec: the Quebec route or the Ontario route. The Ontario route was 20km shorter, so we decided to take that option. The route led us onto an old railway path that was converted into a very quiet cycle (gravel) cycle route. Though it was on gravel it was great, and a brilliant way to end our trip through Ontario.

Bonjour Quebec!

If you’re planning a trip across Canada you might want to check out our gear list, cycle stats or route notes.

September 17, 2016March 15, 2017

HEADWINDS AND MOSQUITOS: STRUGGLING THROUGH SASKATCHEWAN ON TWO WHEELS.

Michael’s write up about discovering Saskatchewan on two wheels during out cycle trip across Canada in the summer of 2016. Click here to read Kelly’s write up about Cycling in Saskatchewan and Pedalling the Prairies.

Ready to discover Saskatchewan on two wheels

We rolled out of Calgary full of hope for dry weather and favourable winds through the farm belt of Canada; the prairies! We were both still in need of a bit of a break and the one full day off we had in Calgary wasn’t really enough, so spent a couple of nights in Airdrie just outside Calgary guzzling craft beer with our awesome couchsurfing host Kolin, playing with his 3 cats and cleaning our stinky tent as it now smelt like a sweaty pair of soiled manpants. After a few extra rest days, we were ready to head to Saskatchewan on two wheels.

It didn’t take long for the scenery to change and the Rocky Mountains to recede into the distance behind us. The world became flat! Yellow Canola fields popped up everywhere and the farmland began again. We spent a night camping in a rest stop next to horseshoe canyon with dozens of cute furry prairie dogs darting around our feet hoping to catch some stray spaghetti falling from our plate…no chance little prairie dogs, I’m a hungry cycling fatty with a huge mouth.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”rU3GT” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]SASKATCHEWAN ON TWO WHEELS[/ctt]

Drumheller was an interesting place, a mix between Cappadocia in Turkey and a weird tacky dinosaur theme park.

Cool mars like rockscapes and the most intense heat of the trip so far…but around this time is when the mosquitoes really became an issue. Horrible swarms of the nasty little shit-tards would descend on us and annoy the piss out of us constantly, not just when the sun went down but during the day! The rudeness! Mosquitoes are supposed to give you a break until nighttime, that’s the rules!

The constant headwinds, savage horrible mosquitoes and heavy rain took it’s toll on us through Saskatchewan, as well as the distances between towns to get water and food as we had chosen a less travelled route along the number 4 road to avoid the busy trans Canada highway. Although it did make for a trying period of cycling, I’m glad we decided to take this route as we met some incredible people and experienced levels of hospitality we hadn’t come across since cycling in Iran several years ago.

Our introduction to discovering Saskatchewan on two wheels was long stretches of not a whole lot other than abandoned farms and ominous storm clouds rapidly approaching us. On the second night we were forced to take shelter in a slightly creepy (but also slightly cool and photogenic) abandoned farmhouse on the side of the road. The thunder and lightning had started up and it was raining very heavily so we reluctantly dragged our bikes inside the derelict house that was still furnished with a burnt out old cot bed, an oven that appeared to predate Christ and some busted up kitchen cabinets. We managed to squeeze the tent into a dry section where the roof wasn’t leaking and settled in for a pretty poor nights sleep, both of us half expecting the roof to blow away in the middle of the night or an axe murderer to appear and help us shed weight from the bikes by hacking our legs off in our sleep.

Death by Mosquito

The mosquitoes were relentless and whenever we saw a slight hill in the distance a sense of impending doom gripped us knowing that we would slow down going up hill giving the bloodthirsty little pricks a chance to land and feast on our already weakened bodies. I’ve never ridden anywhere before where the mosquitoes actually keep up with you while riding and attack every inch of you body including your face. Saskatchewan on two wheels definitely had new challenges we didn’t consider – mosquitos being one of them!

We pulled into a tiny village called white bear with a population of 13 to treat ourselves to an ice-cold beer at the bar…only to discover that they were closed on Mondays. Locals in Eston the previous day had told us of this pub and it’s reputation for ‘the best wings in Saskatchewan’. Not really interested in the wings, but after a few days of boring hot riding with occasional freak downpours, the thought of a cold beer and being able to refill our water bottles was pretty appealing so we were close to broken when we arrived at the pub to see it was closed. We plonked ourselves down on the table next to the pub feeling very sorry for ourselves and started sporking our jars of peanut butter and Nuttella when a guy called Russ pulled up in his truck for a chat. He invited us back to his place to refill our water and ended up offering to let us stay in his ‘spare house’ behind his own place!

Befriending the locals

The pub may not have been open, but we did end up getting fed many ice cold beers, met nearly the whole town and ended up at a BBQ at the bar owners house where he cooked up a feast and we learnt all about life and history of White bear! The bar owner was originally from Bangladesh but had lived in Toronto for 25 years and randomly ended up buying the local pub in White Bear, but his wife and kids weren’t too keen on the isolation of living in a town of 13 in the middle of the prairies so chose to stay put in the slightly larger Toronto.

Being a pair of weirdo biking vegetarians at a BBQ in rural Saskatchewan we filled up on baked potatoes and salad while the others scratched their heads as to why we weren’t touching the mountains of chicken wings and burgers. We didn’t help get rid of the meat but I definitely did my best to help clear the beers and felt pretty rough riding the next day. After the BBQ we visited a local couple Lynn and Darryl’s farming property nearby, had a few more beers and then returned to Russ’s ‘main house’ and into his amazing crazy basement saloon for a chat before sprinting like fuck to his ‘spare house’ to avoid the clouds of savage mosquitoes.

My memory of our time in the prairies is always going to be linked with mosquitoes and the feeling of being constantly on edge and under attack, it was not possible to step outside without being swarmed and face fucked from all angles. I think I am going to be permanently mentally scarred by Saskatchewan mosquitoes.

We pushed on through the prairies stopping in Swift current for our first hotel of the trip where we basically lazed around in air-conditioned glory and I filled my system with booze and chocolate. You’ll notice a theme to my traveling habits here; booze and food. It’s basically why I ride.

Amazing People and cheap campsites

One of the best parts of riding throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan on two wheels was not having to worry about where you will be sleeping that night, particularly in Manitoba as there was a town roughly every 20km and the vast majority of them had a municipal campsite for 10 bucks a night! We also had quite a bit of success with the website ‘warmshowers’ in the prairies meeting some amazing people who have been involved in the cycling community for years. Glenda in Moosejaw was particularly cool seeing as she wasn’t really into biking, had never done any bicycle touring, but over the years had hosted hundreds of cyclists! She called it her “summer hobby” looking after cross country cyclists and giving them awesome history and cultural lessons in her kitchen while feeding us amazing food and telling us about her time in the 80s as a best selling microwave cook book author! Not surprising really seeing as she had also rescued and looked after 6 or so cats too! Cycle tourists are pretty similar to stray cats really; living off scraps, sleeping in bushes and bathing themselves in public.

The ride through Saskatchewan while sometimes boring and windy was made a whole lot better by the quietness of the roads allowing us to ride side by side without fear of losing a limb to a passing truck. It got busier heading into Regina, but even then pretty cruisy compared to most other cities we’ve ridden in.

Warmshowers’ Legend!

Ron in Regina was another colourful character we stayed with; for over 50 years he’s been tinkering with bikes and touring across Canada and since his retirement from teaching he’d set up his own fully decked out bike shop as a hobby in his basement and helped out cycle tourists and locals with low cost repair work and maintenance. Ron was a super cool generous guy with a big heart who cooked amazing Asian dishes and while he could no longer cycle due to knee issues was still passionate about biking and pretty much an encyclopedia of bicycle knowledge…handy for me because I don’t know a fucking thing. He replaced Kelly’s stretched chain and I used his workspace to fit a front low-rider rack as I was getting pretty sick of wobbling all over the place due to an unevenly distributed load on the bike.

We had to stay a couple of nights longer in Regina as it was a public holiday and Kelly needed to see a doctor about her eye which had developed a red swelling since the beginning of the trip and had not gone away, so we got to stay indoors for a while like real life normal people which was nice for a change.

The whole ‘sleeping indoors’ thing continued as we left Regina and stayed with a warmshowers host’s brother Brad and his wife Lisa and their kids in a little town called Sedley 50 km from Regina. Brad and Lisa ran the local newspaper for Sedley and the surrounding areas so we got quizzed about the trip while enjoying a few frosty cold beverages and we eventually made it onto the front cover of the local paper so felt like cycling celebrities!! Fame at last!

Tornado?! WTF?

The weather had not improved and we rolled out of Sedley in the rain the next morning, made it 50km before finding out the town of Stoughton where we had planned to camp was under a tornado warning! A fucking tornado! The prairies really did hate us, but we loved its people so in the end we won the battle. There was really no point continuing any further for the day as every km we pedaled into the 60km an hour headwind brought us closer to where the tornado was supposed to touch down so we decided to camp in the small town of Fillmore where we had heard about the imminent tornado. There was no need to bust out the now rarely used tent as a local lady called Ava heard of our plight and immediately offered to let us sleep at her place! Sleeping indoors again! We really were being spoiled. Ava and her family were totally cool, took us around the local farms and showed us a little bit of harvesting of wheat, fed us a kick ass dinner and gave us a warm comfy place to sleep. The kindness and generosity of people really never stops amazing me and is always a highlight of cycling. As well as being able to drinks lots beer and eat lots of food without feeling guilty, that’s a highlight too.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”50ly0″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]The kindness and generosity of people really never stops amazing me and is always a highlight of cycling[/ctt]

The weather cleared up the next day and we managed to make up for lost time by smashing out 137kms, our biggest day of the trip so far! Unbeknownst to us, we had had two other cycle tourists hot on heels for a while now and today they finally caught us! Jacques and Louisa were also cycling across Canada but had started in Victoria and zig zagged through the Rockies and other areas, and had first heard of us from Glenda in Moosejaw and then Ron in Regina who they had stayed with days apart from us! It was awesome getting to ride with another couple doing the same thing as us and we spent our last evening in Saskatchewan at a cheap official campsite in Redvers chilling out with our new friends over a few beers and huge camp dinner.

Visiting Saskatchewan on two wheels had pushed us to our limits mentally sometimes, but the friendly helpful locals had made it a great place to ride in the end and if we had to do it all again I definitely would not skip this province! I’d skip the mosquitoes though. Actually I’d strap a giant vacuum cleaner to my bike and suck all the little fuckers out of the air before depositing them in a blender. Bastards.

Next stop Manitoba!

If you’re planning a trip across Canada then you might find our trip notes, stats and book helpful. You can also check out these 10 secrets to cycle touring!

September 11, 2016March 15, 2017

Cycling Lake Superior in Ontario

Kelly’s write up of cycling Lake Superior! Click here to read Michael’s write up of biking Ontario.

Lake Superior is friggin’ huge!

Cycling Lake Superior was one of the highlights of our cycle trip across Canada. It’s the largest freshwater lake in the world, and has some stunning national and provincial parks, and I’m sure some amazing hiking. We spent 10 days cycling Lake Superior. We cycled 7000km and only covered about a third of the entire route around the lake. To put things in perspective, 700km is like a return trip from London to Paris.

The day we left Thunder Bay and headed north to Nipigon it rained. On top of this we had a terrible head wind, there were construction work for about 60km and there was next to no hard shoulder, which meant we were pretty much cycling in the road of a busy highway. It was not fun! And, it didn’t feel particularly safe. We had our lights on the whole time, but still I’m not sure we were that visible. The issue was, we had nowhere to get off the road, and so we had to keep going. 110km later and we finally rolled into Nipigon at around 8pm. The raining was still not letting up. We decided to screw the camping, and treat ourselves to a motel.

As it turned out, earlier that morning, before the rain started, Michael found an iphone on the side of the road. As luck had it we were able to return the phone to the owner. And, he gave us a $60 reward. That reward would be our cheap motel, which was actually pretty expensive for a motel ($90 – that’s our budget for 3 days), but the owner did give us a huge thermos of coffee and we managed to dry all our gear out.

Cycling Lake Superior — Beautiful (but cold) Lake Superior

We woke the following day to find the rain had stopped and the sun was making an appearance – woohoo!

After we had finally packed up, it was already a late start, but we decided to check out the town and grab a coffee. When we finally started cycling Lake Superior that day it was almost lunch time. The ride from Nipigon to Marathon was supposed to be hilly, but also very scenic. Straight away I realise we underestimated just how hilly this section would be.

The previous day we were shivering in the rain, today we were sweating, climbing up hills in direct sun. The kilometres were slowly clocking up. We had planned to do about 90km that day, but only managed 75km, and by the end of the day we were knackered. That night we camped at a picnic spot, right on the lake. It was one of the best spots we had camped all trip.

We took the following 2 days cycling to Marathon fairly easy. Allowing ourselves time to stop and enjoy the views and also not to burn out. The ride was challenging, but the scenery made the blood, sweat and tears all worth it. For me, cycling this section of Lake Superior was more difficult than cycling in the Rockies. Finally we made it to Marathon, and stayed with a local guy, Lloyd.

From Marathon the cycle got easier – or we got used to cycling steep gradients.

It felt like we flew to White River, and we arrived nice and earlier. Enough time to chill, have a shower, relax and eat a shit load of food. Apparently there had been a lot of bear sightings, so we were on extra alert. I was sure we would see a bear at some point around Lake Superior – we never did.

The next day cycling was just as good, and we arrived at Wawa at a reasonable time. In Wawa we meet a guy, Zoltan, outside the supermarket who invited us to camp in his garden. He actually ended up going the extra mile and setting up his trailer tent for us to stay in. The generosity of people during the cycle trip, never fails to amazing. People are genuinely amazing! Anyone that thinks otherwise should hop on a bike and go on a cycle tour – within a couple of weeks I can guarantee you would have experienced unbelievable hospitality and kindness from strangers.

Cycling Lake Superior Provincial Park

Cycling Lake Superior Provincial Park was one of the highlights of our cycle across Canada. It is definitely up there with Bow Lake and Banff National Park. We took our time cycling through the park to enjoy the beaches and vistas. One night we camped at Sinclair Cove – it looked like we were on a tropical island paradise. It has to be one of my favourite campsites (though I write this while we’re camped at a picnic spot, next to a stinky drop toilet).

I had to keep reminding myself that it was a lake and not an ocean. I love the ocean and often miss it when I’m travelling. What I’ve discovered is how awesome lakes can be – swimming in a lake feels refreshing like a cold bath, you can drink the water, it doesn’t sting your eyes and there are no sharks.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”mKHT6″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]I had to keep reminding myself that it was a lake and not an ocean [/ctt]

We only had 2 days left of cycling Lake Superior before we reached Sault St Marie, and finally got a rest day off the bikes. I had been told there was a steep incline into Sault. Other than that it should be pretty easy going. We decided to take it easy and set up camp on the beach to enjoy the sunset. We got chatting to some people, and a local told us we would get moved on if we camped on the beach in this area. Complete bumper! Ian, the owner of a local RV park, came to our rescue, and let us camp in his RV park for free. This is just another example of the unbelievable kindness from strangers that we experienced throughout the cycle tour.

Sault St Marie

Finally after almost 2 weeks we made it to Sault St Marie, where 2 amazing warmshowers’ hosts, Juanita and Jeff, greeted us. We spent a couple of night exchanging stories, drying out and cleaning our gear and recovering, and eating some amazing meals, with our awesome hosts.

There is a bike store in Sault, called Velorution that has a free campground for cyclists. We decided, we had to spend at least one night at this campground. Unfortunately, there were no other cyclists staying there the same night as us. We’re in the tail-end of cyclists crossing Canada, so we tend to miss most of the cyclists, but it was still an awesome set up, and we were thankful for the extra rest day.

Already it has been over 2 weeks cycling through Ontario, and we still have 850km before we reach Canada’s capital, Ottawa. That means we would have cycled over 2000km in just Ontario. Ontario is just crazy big!

If you’re planning a cycle trip, you might find cycle tourists’ non training plan handy!

[ctt template=”8″ link=”k5Srw” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Ontario is just crazy big![/ctt]

September 5, 2016March 15, 2017

Cycling Ontario: To Thunder Bay

Kelly’s write up of cycling Ontario to Thunder Bay. Click here to check out Michael’s write up of biking through Ontario.

Cycling Ontario and it’s Lake-lands

Originally we had planned to dip into the USA and cycle the south side of Lake Superior. We had heard several horror stories about cycling Ontario, particularly the roads between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, and though we’ve probably cycled worse roads in Iran and the Stans, we didn’t see the point in putting ourselves at unnecessary risk, especially when there were alternatives. So we headed to the USA border on highway 12 saying “goodbye” to Manitoba and the Prairies.

Highway 12 turned into highway 11 as we crossed into Minnesota in the USA. We followed this highway for 60km through the USA and back into Canada. The ride in the USA was absolutely horrible. It was 60km of hell, complete with thunderstorms, an extremely busy road and a hard shoulder with a rumble strip right down the middle, forcing us to cycle in the busy road.

Finally we made it back into Canada and started cycling Ontario! The road conditions immediately improved, and we couldn’t have been happier to be back.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”6M8sc” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]We couldn’t have been happier to be back![/ctt]

Canada Won the Toss

The plan was to follow highway 11 through Ontario from Rainy River to Fort Frances (which was only a hundred odd km), then head back south into the USA, however our plans changed once we got a message from our German cyclists friends, Luisa and Jacque. They were also heading to Fort Frances, so we arranged to meet up at the campground. We caught up on stories, over what turned out to be Canada’s most expensive beer. They told us they were planning on taking highway 11 to Thunder Bay after locals told them that highway 17 was really dangerous. Michael and I looked at each, found a quarter and flipped on what to do. Heads go through the USA, tails (or I think it was a moose head) stay in Canada. It was the moose head! We were staying in Canada. Bring on cycling Ontario!

I learnt that the route we were following was known as “Mom’s Way” – the alternative route from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, which (strangely) included the 60km stretch through the USA. It was a lot quieter, with less services than the more popular and direct route to Thunder Bay.

ontario by bicycle — Pretty obvious… exploring Ontario by bicycle!

Cycling with Friends

Surprisingly, though we have done a cycle tour before, Michael and I have not cycled with our cycle tourists that often (well it’s been twice, with the same people), so to cycle with other people was definitely a new and exciting experience for us. Unfortunately for us, Lusia and Jacque had been cycling about 8 weeks longer than us, and have covered a lot more distance, which meant we were the slower cyclists (mainly me being the slowest – which isn’t always fun). On top of that, my knee was starting to ache. However, it was still enjoyable cycling with others and time spent in the saddle definitely went a lot quicker. Hopefully, we’ll get the chance to cycle with others cyclists again (hint to any cyclists out there on our route).

The “Mom’s Way” route

The cycling Ontario from Fort Frances to Thunder Bay was enjoyable. The first night we spent on a First Nation’s reserve at Seine River. The locals were really friendly and even opened up the community centre to let us use the showers and fill up our water bottles. The second night we spent next to a lake, which meant we all got cold baths before bed. This is where Jacque taught us his trick of hiding his food bag in the (bear proof) bins, so the bears couldn’t get at it.

The last night to Thunder Bay was spent next to an ice cream van. We managed to cycle 115km in the heat, humidity and storms, and arrived at Shabaqua Junction hoping to find somewhere to camp. We found that, plus more! An ice cream van, complete with a cool chillout area was there to greet us. It was the perfect end to the day!

Lesson Learnt: Don’t drink and then set up the tent

Michael being the alcoholic that he is pulled then out a bottle of rum. I was feeling it after just one rum and ginger beer – and we still had to set up the tent and cook dinner. We somehow managed to do all this just in time for a huge thunderstorm to hit. This is when we learnt that we should not drink before setting up the tent – we set the tent up pretty wonky, and unfortunately we did get a bit wet!

After surviving the storm, we woke up in a rather wet tent. We decided to cycle 500m to a gas station and make breakfast there. Unfortunately, the gas station owners were jerks, but we did meet another cycle tourist, called Mike, who was also heading to Thunder Bay. It turned out he was also going to be staying with the same warmshowers’ host (5 cyclists in 1 warmshowers’ house – I hope he’s got a big house). Mike told us he started in Vancouver 3 weeks early, and was cycling something ridiculous like 150-200km. Personally, I can’t understand why you would even want to cycle that much – I don’t know how you would see anything along the way, and it must be so boring spending so many hours on the bike by yourself. You may as well just be driving or catch a plane. Anyway, each to their own!

So, we were on our way, all 5 of us stinky cyclists, heading to Thunder Bay – that last about an hour before Mike decided to zip on ahead to meet someone for lunch.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”4Tbm7″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]We were on our way all 5 of us stinky cyclists heading to Thunder Bay [/ctt]

Thunder Bay

We stopped at Kakabeka falls along the way, and strolled into Thunder Bay just after 3pm. It was hectic! Thunder Bay was the biggest and busiest city we had been in since Regina, and it was safe to say we were no longer use to so much traffic.

We decided to stop in at Walmart, and then stop in at McDonalds (the German couple had somehow managed to score a $100 gift card for McDonalds, for free, from one of the owners). They kindly shouted us to a hot drink and treat. After that we headed to our warmshowers’ house, to meet our host, Frank. We had a great couple of days relaxing in Thunder Bay, and started to feel somewhat clean and normal, again.

Personally, I wasn’t overly impressed with Thunder Bay. It didn’t have a good vibe about it, and we didn’t find it particularly nice to cycle around. It did however have one of the most amazing dinner buffets EVER! Tokyo House – a Japanese buffet, only you order off the menu and they make it fresh for you. It was great! It was probably the best thing about Thunder Bay! Persians – a sweet kind of donut with pink icing topping, are also pretty good. Definitely worth trying if you happen to be in Thunder Bay.

After a few rest days in Thunder Bay, we said ‘goodbye’ to our host and our cyclist friends. They had decided to catch the bus for the next section of their trip. So, we hit the road, just the two of us and our bikes, ready to explore Lake Superior and continue cycling Ontario.

Are you planning your own self supported cycle tour? Check out this article about how to make money while cycle touring.

cycle tourists manitoba, Cycling Ontario — Our German cyclists friends – having lunch just after crossing into Manitoba

August 31, 2016March 15, 2017

Cycling in Manitoba. New Province, More Prairies!

Kelly’s write about about cycling in Manitoba. Click here to read Michael’s write up about biking in Manitoba.

Cycling in Manitoba

As we entered Manitoba the roads went from bad to worst! The hard shoulder disappeared and was replaced with a soft shoulder (or gravelly road that cannot be cycled). This meant while cycling in Manitoba we were forced to ride in the road. Luckily, the roads were relatively quiet and the drivers were very polite and would tend to get right over in the next lane when passing.

Just the two of us…

We had another great day of cycling with a strong tailwind! Luisa and Jacque cycled with us for the day. The four of us managed to smash out 85km by lunchtime. After lunch we said “goodbye” and headed our separate ways. Lusia and Jacque were headed to Winnipeg, where they thought they might catch a bus from, and we had decided to bypass the city and head towards the USA border in the south east of Manitoba.

Originally, we thought we would cycle the south side of Lake Superior, which would mean cycling through the USA for a couple of weeks. We came up with this plan based on several recommendations from other cyclists and because we had heard horror stories about the highways between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay in Canada.

cycle tourists manitoba, cycling in manitoba — Our German cyclists friends – having lunch just after crossing into Manitoba

Country Town Festivals

Hartney was the next town we were passing through, and we needed to stop for supplies (ie. food). The town looked like a ghost town! We headed to the grocery store and got chatting with some locals. Apparently the town had it’s annual weekend festival, and the locals we spoke to convinced us to camp at the local campsite and join them at the festival.

The festival was cute and the locals were super friendly. We joined them for some beers, watched the fireworks then headed back to the campground. Little did we know the campground would turn into a nightclub in just a couple of hours. Teenagers were up until about 4am making a racket, breaking into the pool and just being super loud. So, we didn’t get much sleep! We discovered that it was an annual tradition – we just wish we knew that before we decided to camp there.

The next day was pretty much a write off, though we did manage to cycle 90km and made it to the tiny town of Belmont. When we arrived we headed to the town campsite (surprisingly, most towns in the Prairies had a town campsite with facilities). We then discovered it was Belmont’s town festival! Not wanting a repeat of the night before, we took up an offer of a local that said we could camp in her garden. We had a great night sleep and even woke to homemade banana bread – people are awesome!

elgin manitoba, cycle touring videos, cycling in manitoba — Love this buildings in the towns we cycled through in Manitoba

Mennonites and Hutterites

We still had a little way to go before our planned rest day at a farm near Morris (100km south of Winnipeg). I had arranged for us to stay with a couchsurfer (Jordan) there. Originally we were only going to stay 1 night, but ended up staying 2, which gave us enough time to clean the bikes, our gear and ourselves, as well as hang out with Jordan. Jordan was awesome! He taught us loads about Mennonites, and the Christianity religion common in the area. We even got to visit a Hutterite community.

If you’re not familiar with Hutterites (or Mennonites for that matter), they are similar to the Amish in the USA. Like the Amish, Hutterites have their own communities. Simply put (and how it was explained to me) the biggest differences between the 3 Christian types; Mennonites don’t agree with violence and don’t live in communities like the Amish and Hutterites. The Amish don’t agree with modern technology, so live in communities that are completely cut off from the modern world. And, the Hutterites believe in living in common (kind of like communism), so everyone is equal, and they also live in communities, though they do use modern technology, but everything they have must have a purpose and be practical. There are different degrees of conservativeness in each group.

Visiting the Hutterite Community

The hutterite community we visited was quite conservative. We were shown around the community by some of the schoolgirls. They wore homemade clothes, with shawls or bonnets. Hutterites even speak their own language, which is a German delict. They also pray in High German, but are taught in English. This meant they had a very distinctive accent. The community was super modern and was made up of about 120 people (approx. 17 families). They had a commercial hatchery for eggs and a dairy farm, beehives, vegetable garden and grew wheat, and were practically self-sustained. They also had their own school. If a Hutterite wanted to leave the community to visit family in another community then they would have to get permission from the Minister. If they needed to visit the doctor or buy something, they would need the minister’s permission. Everyone had a job, which was assigned to you.

Though this all may sound quite restrictive, at the same time, they never had to worry about unemployment or poverty. I don’t think I could live in a community like that, but it works, and it is sustainable, and the people lived good, happy lives. It was an extremely interesting experience. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photos, so I can’t show you what it was like, but if you get the opportunity to visit one, I highly recommend it. This is definitely something you’re more likely to experience cycling in Manitoba, opposed to driving through in a car.

Flying the high life

After visiting the Hutterites Jordan took us for a flight in is Dad’s plane – yep, we flew in a plane. Not exactly eco-friendly, but it would have been rude to decline. The wind was quite strong, which made for a bumpy ride, but we got to see for ourselves just how flat the Prairies were.

Friendly People

The next day it was time to hit the road again! We planned to make it 2 the US border in only 2 days, so we still had a few hundred kilometres of cycling in Manitoba. The first night we spent in the cute town, Vita, where we were greeted by more friendly people and a really good café and grocery store. If I could sum up Manitoba in one word, it would be “friendly” and funny enough, that’s what it said on the “welcome to Manitoba sign” and even on their car registration plates. The people most definitely live up to that expectation.

Tornado?!?

That night we camped at a school, under a shelter as we heard there was a bad storm coming. The storm was terrible! Hail, strong winds, rain, you name it we had it. Jordan had told us when you hear a tornado coming; you will hear a noise like a train speeding pass. We heard cycling in Manitoba could be a challenge, but we didn’t think tornado warnings would be apart of that. That night while we were camping, we heard a train, only there was no trainline anywhere near Vita. After about an hour or so of terrible weather, it suddenly went completely silent. It was an eerie silence. We never found out whether a tornado did touch down that night, but it was definitely one of the worst storms we had ever camped in.

Goodbye Prairies – you’ve been fun!

For the rest of the day we cycled to the US border, with the plan to camp as close to the border crossing as possible. The terrain had already started to change. We could tell we were leaving the Prairies and coming to an end of cycling in Manitoba. We managed to camp only 5km from the border crossing.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”UdS72″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Goodbye Prairies – you’ve been fun![/ctt]

Throughout the Prairies, I spent a lot of time staring at a grain elevator in a distant town. I wondering whether we’re ever going to reach this town, or whether I’m actually hallucinating. You really feel the distant on the straight flat roads, and a lot of the time you feel the strong winds too. I think these are the main reasons why many cyclists dislike the Prairies. However, they are still quite beautiful, with beautiful people and beautiful towns. So, though the Prairies go on and on, don’t skip out on cycling in Manitoba or Saskatchewan! That’s over 1000km of Canada you’ll be missing, along with some amazing people and beautiful, but challenging landscape.

Are you about to finish a long term cycle tour? Or changing to a different style of travel? Check out our article on the transition from cyclist to backpacker to see what to expect.

August 26, 2016March 14, 2017

Pedalling the Prairies: Swift Current to Manitoba

Kelly’s write up of pedalling the Prairies during our cycle tour across Canada in the summer of 2016. Click here to read Michael’s write up about cycling in the Prairies.

Pedalling the Prairies of Saskatchewan

While pedalling the Prairies we discovered friendly people, good campsites and great cafes. We also discovered that the Prairies went on and on, and on. from Swift Current we got on the Trans-Canada highway 1. It felt like a dream after spending a week cycling through the bumpy roads of the forgotten Prairie lands. The section of highway between Swift Current and Moose Jaw had a wide, smooth hard shoulder. It even felt like we were on a slight descent, though I’m sure we probably weren’t. We were smashing out the kilometres! It felt great! On top of this there were plenty of cute towns to stop at. All of them had a museum, coffee shop and free wifi. We were in cyclist heaven!

We spent an enjoyable couple of days cycling to Moose Jaw. Spending too much time at the various towns and cafes along the way.

One thing I noticed about Saskatchewan is the interesting town names. We visited Kyle and Herbert, and seen signs for Elbow, Eyebrow and Cereal. Moose Jaw and Antler also got a visit from us. I can’t help but be intrigued to how a town got a name like Eyebrow – at least it gives you something to ponder while on the bike.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”1xzLX” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”] I can’t help but be intrigued to how a town got a name like Eyebrow[/ctt]

Warmshowers’ and Prairie Hospitality

Once in Moose Jaw we were greeted with the lovely Glenda, a legendary warmshowers’ host. This was followed by a few nights stay in Regina with Ron, another legendary warmshowers’ host. And then yet another warmshowers’ host in Sedley and an offer in Arcola.

People tend to give Saskatchewan and the Prairies (in general) a hard time! We were told numerous times to skip the Prairies; that they were boring and had nothing worth seeing. Well, what I have to say to those people: if you want to see boring head to Western Australia and drive 5 hours east – red sandy desert for days. You’ll be lucky if you even pass a gas station or see another person!

The Prairies on the other hand are fully of extremely friendly people, all whom have an interesting story to share. We met ranchers, famers, Mennonites and Hutterites, Germans, British, Ukrainian people, plenty of cyclists and people enthusiastic about cycling, and just a whole bunch of awesome people. In fact, I don’t remember one person that I met in the Prairies that wasn’t amazing in one way or another. For me, a large part of travelling and cycle touring is the people you meet, and we met some amazing people in the Prairies.

regina, cycling the prairies — With our amazing host in Regina!

Rest Days in Regina

We decided to have a few rest days in Regina. There were a couple of reasons for that, firstly for Ron’s amazing cooking, secondly to get a few bike things sorted, and thirdly to sort out my eye! 6 weeks (since the day we arrived in Canada) and I still had an infection on my eyelid. Obviously, at this point I was a little concerned about it and decided it was a good chance to get it checked out. I was told some good and bad news. The good news was it didn’t look like a virus so it shouldn’t spread to my eye and affect my eyesight. The bad news, it will still take some more time to heal and potentially I could have a bump on my eye for the rest of my life. At least I didn’t have too much to worry about!

After Regina we planned to get off the highway and head onto some quieter roads through some smaller towns. Usually the roads weren’t as good, but they were quieter. We also got the opportunity to pass through less travelled areas, which we always preferred.

Cycling through Canada’s Tornado Alley

One thing we hadn’t considered to be an issue or concern while pedalling the Prairies, were tornados! To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even know Canada got tornados, so when I received an email from Brad (another warmshowers’ connection) about a tornado warning in the town we had planned to camp in that night, we were a bit concerned. The day had already been struggle, with 60kph+ headwinds we were at times barely cycling 8kph.

We pulled into Fillmore at 1pm for lunch and pretty much passed out from exhaustion and defeat. After lunch we headed to the town hall. This is when we discovered the tornado warning! The lovely people of Fillmore came to the rescue. Before we knew it we had a basement to sleep in and was being shown around the local towns. The random kindness of strangers never fails to amaze. It really does restore your faith in humanity.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”3TJQ0″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]The random kindness of strangers never fails to amaze.[/ctt]

After a goodnight sleep, out of the danger of any potential tornado or hailstorm, we were back on the way. And, for once, the wind was at our backs! We were practically flying down the road towards the next province, Manitoba.

Saskatchewan, pedalling the prairies — Friendly hosts in Saskatchewan!

Making Cycle Touring Friends

We had just passed Stoughton (where we were supposed to camp and where apparently a tornado did touch down the night before), when we heard some strange noises behind us. As it turned out, a German, cyclist couple, Luisa and Jacque had been following us for a few days. They finally managed to catch up with us. They were the first couple we had ever cycled with, so it made a nice change to cycling just the two of us. So all four of us continued pedalling the Prairies together.

We spent the rest of the day, cycling with an unbelievable tailwind and made it 137km to Redvers, right near the Saskatchewan/ Manitoba border. Redver’s had an awesome (and cheap) campsite, so we decided to camp there for the night and celebrate with a few beers.

After 2 weeks pedalling the Prairies of Saskatchewan we finally got to cross into the next province, Manitoba.

Though Manitoba would be a new province, we still had a few hundred kilometres of cycling through the Prairies before we would be out of the pastures and meadows and into the lakelands of Ontario.

Planning your own cycle trip? Don’t forget to buy insurance! Check out this article to find out why it’s important to get sufficient cover on your trip.

August 17, 2016March 15, 2017

Cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies of Canada

Kelly’s write up about cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies during our coast to coast cycle trip. Click here to read Michael’s blog post about cycling the Prairies.

Hello Saskatchewan!

Cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies.

As soon as we crossed into Saskatchewan there was an instant change in road quality. No more wide hard shoulder and lots of potholes. The only things that stayed the same were the swarms of mosquitos and the scenery. We had heard mixed things about the Prairies, and now we had the chance to learn for ourselves what cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies is really like!

We still had another 90km to go to get to the closest town, Eatonia. Originally, we didn’t plan on cycling the whole way to Eatonia, but we were keen for some comfort food, some cold drinks and to escape the swarms of mosquitos that were chasing us. It didn’t matter how fast we cycled, the bloody mosquitos managed to catch us!

[ctt template=”8″ link=”PgcSf” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]It didn’t matter how fast we cycled, the bloody mosquitos managed to catch us![/ctt]

Mining Towns: Eatonia & Eston

The ride to Eatonia actually turned out to be the longest cycle day on the trip so far, 119km. Even more reason to celebrate! So, when we arrived into Eatonia we decided to treat ourselves to a campsite – yep, we know how to treat ourselves to luxury! And then we headed to the store to buy some treats and find some beer.

Eatonia was not a tourist town, but there were a few services, including a tavern and a cheap store with coffee and cakes. The lady working at the campsite warned us of another storm; so even let us camp in the shelter. What more do you need? We were pretty stoked!

All the people staying in the campsite were there for work, which I thought was a bit odd. I wonder what would happen if company’s in Australia started booking campsites instead of hotels when they sent their workers to rural towns to work.

We considered spending a rest day at Eatonia, but decided to head onto Eston the following day (only a short cycle – 55km away). In Eston we camped at another official campground. It was actually booked out when we arrived, but they luckily had some overflow campsites, which we were able to camp in. Everyone staying in the campsite was there for seasonal mine work. People literally moved into the campsite for 3-5 months to work.

More Prairie land

After leaving Eston we decided to head down the very quiet, 342. Just like the road we took into Saskatchewan, there weren’t many services along the way, but the road was dead quiet, and instead of 300km, we only had about 100km to cycle.

We were able to cycle side by side for the most part, and only seen 1 car every 15-30 minutes. It was great! Trucks were also not allowed on the road, so we didn’t have to worry about gushes of wind as they zoomed passed.

A guy in Eston told us about a hotel in a small town called White Bear. Apparently they served awesome food! All we really cared about was getting a cold drink and filling up our water bottles. It was a hot day and there wasn’t much shade along the route – another downside to cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies. Our focus was on getting to White Bear and that kept us motivated to keep cycling on.

White Bear

We eventually pulled into the small community of White Bear. It was tiny! I suddenly had my doubts that such a small place would have a hotel. Either way, we decided to find out. To our amazement the hotel did exist. We cycled over in excitement, just to find out the hotel was closed on Mondays – and of course, it was a Monday.

Feeling a bit defeated we hid in the shade of the hotel and started munching on some peanut butter and nutella. We sat there for close to 2 hours – we completely lost all motivation to cycle on.

Around 4.30pm, a ute drove passed us and stopped, curious to know what two bums were doing hanging around outside the hotel. We told the driver we needed water and hoped to get some from the hotel, but it was closed. With no other questions, he invited us back to his house to fill up our water bottles.

SASKATCHEWAN ON TWO WHEELS, Cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies — The small Prairie town, White Bear

Friendly people

Russ (the ute driver) had been living in the town his entire life. It was interesting hearing all the stories about how the town had changed over time. The town used to have grocery stores, repair shops, elevators and a school. All that remained now was the hotel and a few houses. The population of the town was once about 300 people. It was now 13 people.

After chatting to Russ for a bit he invited us to stay in his spare house – yes, he had a spare house, right nextdoor. Even though we had a relatively short cycle day, how could we pass up staying in an old farmhouse.

It turned out that every Monday, the owner of the hotel put on a BBQ for the community. Provoss (the hotel owner) kindly invited us along. We even visited the hotel to pick up some beer. Though the hotel was closed, we somehow managed to still visit it and eat the food we had been told about – mission accomplished!

At the BBQ we met about 90% of the community. Everyone was super lovely and even tried to help us with our route planning. Lyn and Darrell invited us back to their house for a bit, then dropped us back off at Russ’s. I can honestly say, I don’t know many places that have such a community spirit.

[ctt template=”8″ link=”cm0cV” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]At the BBQ we met about 90% of the community. [/ctt]

Cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies, SASKATCHEWAN ON TWO WHEELS — Making friends with the locals!

Kyle

The morning we left White Bear we were continuously attacked my mosquitos – honestly, I have never been attacked so bad. It was crushing our souls and making it very hard to enjoy the cycle. It also looked like it was going to storm (again). Great start to the day! We definitely found the most challenging thing about cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies to be the mosquitos.

The town of Kyle was only about 15km away, so we decided to head there and have a second breakfast. At Kyle we decided to book a hotel in Swift Current to chill out rest for a couple of days! The first hotel of the trip, but we needed it!

From Kyle we were back on a main road. This meant we could no longer ride side by side. After being on quiet roads for so long, the traffic (especially the trucks) took a little bit of getting used to.

It was only a 90km cycle day, but it dragged! We both felt exhausted and beaten down by the bad weather, but most of all the mozzies. Finally, we cycled over a hill and could see Swift Current in the valley. Yes! 10km downhill to the hotel! I was ecstatic. Swift Current, though only a small town, was the biggest place we had been to since we left Calgary.

I love the country, but sometimes it’s nice having access to things we usually take for granted. Like, food, cold water, beer, a comfy bed, not being eaten by mosquitos… the list goes on. Cycle touring definitely makes you appreciate the little things.

A bit of luxury in Swift Current

At Swift Current we checked into the Comfort Inn. Though a budget hotel, it felt like pure luxury. Comfy beds, breakfast buffet, free tea and coffee. We were living the dream!

We chilled here for 2 nights taking a rest from cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies. Happy to be away from the mosquitos and amping ourselves up for the cycle down highway 1 to Moose Jaw.

So, we got a taste of what it’s liking cycling in the Saskatchewan Prairies, but this was still the beginning. We still have a few hundred kilometres until we reached the next province, Manitoba.

If you’re planning a cycle trip, you might want to check out what made our first cycle trip different, to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes as we did during our first cycle tour.