If You Thought Yesterday Was Clunky…

If you thought yesterday was full of fits and starts and clunky, today just put that to shame. It was one of the weirder traveler days for sure

I was leaving the hotel in Wawa, and a couple of other bikers were staying there, two guys on Harleys from Minnesota doing a tour around the Great Lakes. Just started chatting. They loved the APOTA name and the decals they loved the whole idea. I could not get away from them. These guys gobbled up, I don’t know, how much time chatting, I mean, I was involved too, but I bet there was an hour burned just on bike talk, travel talk, family talk, life talk, everything. They were two really great guys. I never did get a picture of them, but they were heading north, and I definitely wish them the best of travels. Never did ask but it's possible they left in 2023 at their current rate of travel.!!
So I was late getting out of Wawa, again. Same kind of thing, overcast, not raining, not cold. Actually a little warm and humid, but definitely overcast. Wasn’t going to go far, was actually planning on just the short bounce, a couple hundred km to Sault Ste. Marie, and call it a day early. Get a room, check out Sault Ste. Marie. I think it has a lot to offer, so that was my plan. Plus I could catch up on stuff if I got into a room early.

The best laid plans of mice and men.

On router, I stopped at a little roadside place about 80 km north of Sault Ste. Marie. Two fuel pumps, bake shop, all kinds of knickknacks, a couple of stores. It was a very popular touristy stop on the route. Great coffee, good-looking stuff from the bakery (I didn’t have any), and all kinds of stuff in the stores, blankets, trinkets, and a convenience store with everything. I thought I’d have a coffee since I was so bright and shiny early in the day. So I bought a coffee, sat down on the wooden walkway, and once again, without fail, accosted by Biker Bob. Okay, his name wasn’t Bob. It was James.

James was on a BMW. He wanted to tell me all about his bike, all about his gear, all about his trip. Threw in the odd question about my bike, but mainly it was “I have this, I have that, I really like this, I had one of those but I bought one of these…” A really nice guy. I’m laughing so hard while writing this. But again, it seemed like, all of a sudden, another hour went by. I had my "this guy wants to listen" look on apparently.?

And the shame of it that it was a good day riding, Gru felt great just rolling along. I’mjiust in cruise mode , the road’s okay, fair bit of traffic. I think people just wander up to this country for the drive and the scenery. That’s mainly what I heard people chatting about while I was sitting listening to James.

Anyway, I got to Sault Ste. Marie, looked around for a few hotels, thought, “You know what, I kinda want to be closer to downtown.” A couple of museums down there, closer to the water, that would be great. Went into the first hotel, asked if they had a room. They said no, fat chance, there will be no rooms. You’ll have to go out of town to get one. Maybe you could try some of the smaller hotels. So I called around. Didn’t matter, expensive hotel, economy hotel, nothing. There just wasn’t a room to be had.
On the way out of town to the "campground" yes I said that and remember, it’s still overcast, I stopped at a couple of those little roadside motels and asked around. One gentleman said he had one room, but it was way too expensive for one person. I asked him how much. He said $260 before taxes. Double-bed room in a little roadside motel. I thought, “I’m going to take my chances camping.” It didn’t really look like rain. I checked the app, and it said it may rain a little bit, so I thought I’d take the chance. I am not complaining, on a trip like this I don’t overly plan or make reservations, so this is all to be expected, taken in stride, and part of the adventure

Got to the campground. It’s $40 for a camp spot, which is okay for a nice campground, which this wasn’t. Got to my site, and everything seemed okay. The people beside me were telling me about the phenomenal storm the night before. Blew their gazebo away, poured rain, etc., etc. They hoped it didn’t do that again tonight. I said, “Yeah, no kidding.” Anyways, I start setting up and it seemed all okay, but before I was even done, it started sprinkling. Then it really started raining. I had to hurry putting the rest of everything together and jump in the tent to wait it out. Seemed like an hour plus long rain.

Had a bit of a nap while waiting it out. When I woke up, I realized my ground sheet was set up in such a fashion to collect water, as opposed to keeping the bottom of the tent dry. So now everything is soaked, and it’s early evening, I think I was setting up around 5, and now it’s 7, and I’ve got a whole bunch of wet junk. Luckily my sleeping bag didn’t get wet (it's down filled), but everything else did. The bottom of the tent, air mattress thingy… took the whole thing apart. Not apart apart, but emptied the tent, flipped it onto its roof, let the bottom dry out. Took a rag, wiped off the ground sheet, got it all dried up, but it literally had tide pools in it. Strung the air mattress across the bike. There was a very slight breeze, so I let everything dry out all over again.

Mumbling the whole time about why I don’t camp. I hate camping. Ok, really I do like camping. I like sleeping in the tent, the quiet, the freshness. I just hate setting up and tearing down in the wet and the rain. So there might have been some swear words in my mumbling.
I thought, “What a day.” I’ve made about 250 km, seen nothing, apparently struggling to survive .. I guess that’s why they call it an adventure.

At the end of it all I’m beside St Mary's River with the sound of the water lapping up on the beach. I took a video of it. So not a bad evening at all once the rain departed. I’ve actually got quite a smile on my face. For a rather discombobulated day, it was more humorous than anything.

Day like these are .. AllPartOfTheAdventure

A Hard Charge to Recharge..!!

Woke up to sunshine in Sault Ste. Marie. Yay. Unfortunately, everything still needed some drying out from the previous night’s fiasco. But I got up, made some coffee, got everything sorted out and dried out, packed away, and bounced into Sault Ste. Marie because I wanted to see the historic canal and locks.

So cool, it was worth the trip back in to see. They locks and canal are incredibly historic, and the engineering is impressive. If you walk down the canal, there’s a “swing gate” used in emergencies to shut the flow of water off if something goes wrong. I don’t think it’s been tested since 1909, so I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in it working, but it’s an impressive piece of engineering. It pivots to close off the canal, and these little flaps drop down to stop the water. Ok, that’s a huge oversimplification on my part, but you get the idea.

Beside the swing gate is a rail bridge that pivots on a stanchion to let ships in and out of the canal. The bridge is still functional. And all of this sits under the big bridge to the USA. So yeah, it’s all pretty amazing. The old buildings, the locks, the canal, the bridges, the machine shop, so glad I stopped.
I didn’t look at a whole bunch else in Sault Ste. Marie. Took a few other pictures. What I did notice was a lot of street people downtown. Also boarded-up and unused buildings. I’m not saying the whole town is a ghetto or a slum, but it definitely has an edge.

Other than my coffee stop at McDonald’s, it was kind of uneventful. And I was heading east toward the Muskokas, but thought I’d jump south at Espanola. Because there’s a cool hour-and-a-half ferry from Manitoulin Island to Tobermory. This time I actually called ahead, no rooms anywhere. You’ll laugh, but there was a campground so again my only option. But before I did that, one of the motel clerks suggested I check the ferry too. I didn’t think it would be that busy, but I called and asked if I needed to reserve. They said yes of course, what dates did you want .. uhmm tomorrow, they said that’s not going to happen. Maybe get me on standby for the evening ferry, which would land me on the other side at 10:30 at night or something like that. The whole thing just required more waiting and messing around than I was willing to put into it, so I shook that off and continued heading east. As a side note, I believe with travel to the USA by Canadians being a bit curtailed lately, and the airline strike, that tourism in the area, while always strong, is even more robust, hence the no rooms, traffic, etc.

Got to Sudbury a little too early to stop for the night. It would’ve been nice to stay there, but it didn’t happen. So I carried on into the Muskokas as I had the opportunity to stay at an absolutely wonderful lakefront cabin that was so generously offered up to me. Fantastic. Sit on a deck overlooking the lake, I'm in.!!

There’s a saying: Ride, Rest, Repeat. I think tomorrow is the middle one — rest. Rest meaning recharge. I was looking for this moment, so I think I may take a day or two to bum here, chill, enjoy the peace and quiet, enjoy the lake. Because this place is absolutely fantastic. I arrived in time to sit on the deck of the boathouse and watch the sunset. It is as quiet as can be. Perfect spot to just chill out, relax, recharge. I’m saying that word way too often, so it must be necessary.

Oh, and the country here is just beautiful. Even if I’m not at the cabin, you can turn your head in any direction and it’s spectacular. And the roads, did I mention the roads? Pretty fun-looking for an afternoon venture out.

It’s just .. AllPartOfTheAdventure









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