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day 84
a day stuck in time
Actual Date: 2007-07-27
Uploaded: fri, 27 jul 2007 18:18:07 -070
Distance: 136.00 km
Blind River, Ontario
Today was very much like one of those movies or books where the main character gets to repeat the same day over and over again while bringing a new perspective to the day each time.
Back when I rounded Lake Huron I covered the same exact route so for the first time on this tour since the first touring day I was covering familiar territory.
I've always said that one major advantage of touring by bicycle is that you remember the roads that you've ridden. Since I've only been on this road once before today's experience reconfirmed it for me. I was able to remember large hills, places I stopped at last time and other items of interest.
The sense of Deja Vu probably started because I stayed at the same place as my Lake Huron tour last night, had breakfast at the same restaurant this morning and then continued the repeats at lunch and snack times.
As much as some things were the same it was incredible to see how things were also different.
The first time through I recall enjoying the more remote feeling of the place and the less inhabited areas. This time around with the memories of Lake Superior fresh in my mind I noticied the large numbers of farms, the heavier traffic on 17, the closeness of the towns and the much larger presence of civilization.
If you refer to my route profile for this day in my Lake Huron tour you will see that there are definately hills and yet for me the land felt flat and fast to traverse even with no assisting wind. Perhaps this is because the largest hill was only 60 metres and most hills had a grade of 1 to 3 percent. The worst grade was only 4 percent making it almost unworthly of a downshift. It was alot easier just to stand on the pedals and give my legs a bit of a stretch as I powered over the bump (grin)!
I think remembering the terrain played a real role as well. Unlike with Lake Superior where you suspect that a real hill is lurking around the next corner (and the maps are so poor that you can't tell in advance) today I had no reason not to deploy my energy reserves and really let the power pour into the pedals. Man did it feel good to have the bike humming along at 26 - 28 km per hour for long intervals and have the reason unrelated to terrain or wind!
Unlike most parts of northern Ontario where the higher price of gas and the near parity of the US and Canadian dollars have crippled the tourism economy it appears that this area has continued to grow with new businesses since I last came through.
My tour around Lake Superior made me much more interested in reading roadside advertising then ever before. This is probably the result of some of the signs being quite funny and also the reality of needing to keep an eye out for services. Regardless I was surprised today to see a sign specifically targeting bicycle tourists. More details will be provided in a later update once I do a bit more research.
With my arrival on the shores of Lake Huron today I have now arrived at my third great lake of this tour!
Unlike my former pass through this day this time I stopped at Blind River so instead of an impressive imperial century I have a slightly longer then normal touring day.
One other thing I've noticed about advertising signs is our civilizations fixation on time. Historically the most important factor for travel was distance, as in how many kilometres to the next place. Today many advertising signs fixate on the amount of time it will take to get to their location which brings you to an interesting series of questions when trying to translate time back to distance so you know how far away a town with services is. Did they provide a time based on someone doing the exact speed limit or the more common average speed? Did they provide an extremely optimistic number instead for marketing reasons related to tempting someone to hold on just a bit longer? Was the amount of needed time even measured accurately?
For me time is the most valuable thing there is. I have an unknown but fixed amount and it's up to me to invest it wisely in the things that matter. Being buried with a billion dollars is meaningless if that money represents all the meaningful time that I didn't use effectively.
I met two more bicycle tourists today. One was from Germany heading westbound from Toronto. He was trying to decide whether to head north around Superior or cross into the US and ride along Lake Michigan until he reached his friends in Indiana. Now that was a cool conversation!
Guestbook replies:
John C: Don't worry the Surly rack is holding up just fine. Once I return home I am going to order you a brand new Surly rack to replace the one that you so kindly lent me. As you can see by today's entry I am now headed east on the TransCanada highway in Ontario so I won't be able to take you up on your kind offer to visit with you! Thanks again for helping to make my tour a success by lending me the rack! If we get a chance in the future when you again travel near London I would love to treat you to a meal.
Mike M: You continue to astonish me with helpful information. I am also surprised at the number of dispersed relatives you seem to have. Didn't I potentially race one with a tractor during my Lake Huron tour? That windmill sounds cool!
The biggest problem with routing around Georgian Bay is that there are several areas that are difficult/illegal to pass through on a bicycle and time is becoming too tight to allow me to explore my way through and fulfill a few other goals. (If Brian H or anyone else would like to make some routing suggestions my ears/eyes/mind are wide open).
With respect to the island you've mentioned two obvious routes that both have some merits, these being a second ride along the Lake Huron shoreline and the straight shot for home.
There are a few other choices and enough time remains to explore them. As someone who is reading my daily logs and updating an online map showing my position perhaps you've noticed another one of my unpublicized secondary goals. If so you will be able to guess where I am headed next (once past the island or the bay). If you have a strong guess please feel free to post it in the guestbook (very big grin).
Sunniel C: It gives me great pleasure to hear that you've been enjoying my journal. It takes a good chunk of time each night to write and as much as it is being written for me, it is also being written for others. Feel free to make a routing guess too if you like.
Another day, another great ride!
~Jamie N
Interested in bicycle touring? www.bicycletouring101.com
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Tour Statistics
(Based on riding days only)
Number of Riding Days: 34
Overall total so far: 3840.10 km
Daily Average: 112.94 km
Shortest: 53.00 km
Longest: 163.00 km
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