The rain finally ended and I’m in my tent. It’s 9:30 PM. Too tired to eat. Or cook for that matter. Having some crackers and tuna fish. Hopefully no bears nearby. I got a bear spray in case one is attracted to the smell of my “dinner“.
In every life a little rain must fall. Some of it fell on me today. My dry run was more of a wet run. Black Sturgeon Lake is around 150 km from Thunder Bay. And I made it to within 5 km of the lake. As you might observe, there are NO marked roads on Google Maps. But Garmin Explore is a bit better, it’s what I was using but I just forgot to take a screenshot at the relevant moment. Anyway this is about where I was, on both:
I had no problem on the pavement, but then I seem to have forgotten where the backwoods road was. It’s been a few years since I was last on this road. Camp 45 road, unsigned. I did find it eventually.
At times today, I wasn’t sure that finding the road was a good thing. I will let some more of the photos speak for themselves.
As you can see, at one point after traversing a difficult washout, Betty (I’m still not sure about her name) decided to have a little nap. What the hell am I doing here?
Today was hard! Although this may have been described as a road at some point in the distant past, it is now a rutted rocky muddy wet trail with washouts in sections, deep gullies and huge puddles.
It was about 120 Km on easy pavement and then I covered about 50 km of gravel today and I’m done! Riding this trail is a LOT of work. I have a feeling I’m a better motorcycle rider now than I was when I got up this morning. I am grateful that I have some experience mountain biking because that was the best preparation for this experience.
Note: power is your friend, use momentum and speed but not too much, get up on the foot pegs, don’t hold the handlebars with a “death grip” look at where you want to go, point the bike in that direction, and DON’T overcorrect!
I never made it to the lake, thanks to a too-busy beaver. The road was completely submerged to a depth of 4 feet by my guess. I could walk along the top of the beaver dam, which, unfortunately, was on the downstream side of the road. I would not have attempted to drive on that beaver dam, if I’ve been chased by a whole pack of bears. But I was so frustrated with the beaver that I began to disassemble the dam before I realized that this was a fools errand. It was a surprisingly well-built structure holding back a lot of water. I have to concede a grudging admiration for their building skills!
So I turned around and traversed a few other difficult sections that I had previously thought “thank God I only have to do this once“ and reached my pre-established stop-moving time of 8:30. By that point I was too tired to go on but might have persisted had I not firmly set a stop time.
I pitched my tent, off the road somewhere in a clearing with some breeze. Even so, the number of black flies and mosquitoes was astonishing. Now I can hear spring peepers and other frogs, white throated sparrows calling “Oh, sweet Canada, Canada Canada“ and the whining mosquitoes just outside the tent and I’m wondering what I’ll dream about tonight.
I have a Garmin Messenger because there is no cellphone service once you get far enough away and I sent my wife a text saying “I’m having a great time“.
This is sort of true. I might be more sanguine about my chances of going down gravel roads tomorrow morning. It may help if I remind myself that this is no ordinary gravel road. But then, neither is the Dempster Highway.
What am I happy about? These:
My Givi Adventure boots! Bought for me as a gift from my loving wife a few years ago, I’ve worn them biking but never put them to the test like today. And they kept my feet dry (astonishingly), warm, comfortable, and (as will be revealed later) protected!
Short addition next morning:
No bad dreams that I can remember. I did wake up once or twice through the night and I’m a bit sore. I guess I’m not 25 anymore! What a beautiful morning . .
The mosquitoes, as before, are atrocious. If I wasn’t anaemic before I will likely be so before I get back home.
Now I’m having my coffee and breakfast, it’s a beautiful sunrise and I’m thinking about some of those washouts and gullies that I’ve got to drive through to get out of here. So, if you’re reading this blog that means I made it. Either that, or it’ll make a lovely obituary.
Later . . . Well I made it home (relatively) intact.
Will update once I feel up to it but now unpacking, taking stock, ordering replacement parts for my damaged bike.
