Reports from Jamie's latest tour

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day 63

when you are down eat something!

Actual Date: 2007-07-06
Uploaded: sat, 7 jul 2007 06:11:08 -0700
Distance: 132.00 km

St. Ignace to Tahquamenon Falls.

The one annoying thing about early morning starts is the temperature at that time of day (5:30 am). My body really seems to hate leaving a nice warm hammock to enter the frigid outdoors. I throw on another layer right away but it doesn't erase that inital impression.

It was nice to roll out of St. Ignace this morning. It was time to move on.

I made a few equipment modifications based on the last week of touring. I removed my Bear Keg and replaced it with my Ursack bear bag instead. By mailing the Keg home along with my unlikely to be used sandals I've reduced weight by seven pounds but more importantly improved the bike's aerodynamic footprint. This could be very important if I begin to hit thermal head winds as I approach Lake Superior. Besides I would like to beat my current 56 km per hour downhill maximum.

Usually I feel ready to go after a rest day but today the engine was not answering all bells.

From St. Ignace I experienced an invisble climb that wasn't really apparent to the eye but did add up to hundreds of meters according to the altmeter.

When touring what should be relevant are those times when you aren't eating. Touring burns alot of calories everyday so you need to eat. One way the body tells you to est more is to make you feel sluggish, tired and moody. Eat something and you get happy again. I think that this was alot of my problem today.

I opened another construction zone surprise bag. This time I was allowed to travel on my own between convoys (only one lane was open) which was very nice.

Today I rode some distance along the shoreline of Lake Superior making it the second great lake of this tour.

There are two state parks at the falls so I decided to stop in at the first one to verify that the second one was a campground. I was surprised and delighted to discover that the park ranger was Janelle formerly at Tawas Point during my Lake Huron tour. It was cool to talk with her again and get a bit caught up on her backpacking escapades since I spoke with her last. She mentioned that within the last few days she had been mentioning me to a couple of touring cyclists.

I eventually arrived and checked out the falls. They were indeed interesting to see so thanks to Nancy and Wayne for encouraging me to do the extra distance.

To cap off the day as I climbed into my hammock to get an early sleep the main line snapped forcing me to do a repair. Not a big deal but somewhat entertaining for the other campers around me.

Now for the mail:

Sunniel: Thanks for signing my guestbook! It's probably good that i wasn't at the picnic. With my current intake there might have been slim pickings for everyone else! (grin). You know it isn't too late to fly into Thunder Bay for some real pedaling.... (very big grin)

Ian: It's really cool that you are following along and enjoying my daily updates. Writing them takes some energy but I really enjoy trying to share a bit of what I am experiencing. I never realized that people would be following me via Google Maps.

Bill: Riding along the lake shore was fun. I just happened along that road because my map showed it as closest to the shore. I want to thank-you for taking the time to tell me more about the area both in person and in the guestbook. Your entry was fascinating reading that I will research a bit more once I return home.

Ray: It was interesting visiting your shop and hearing more about how you came to own it. I did find the dryfit socks in the store next to the used book store as you expected. I haven't experienced any real bike issues since I issued my letter to the restless spirit of mechanical failure. I have recently noticied a clicking noise when I pedal strongly that I am working on isolating.

Today was a tough day for me. It's time to sleep so that I can eat, ride and explore tomorrow.

~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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