Day 39 Spragge to Little Current ON

Bob and I finished our TCH riding today. It wasn't nearly as bad as
reports had led both of us to expect. Riding on Saturday and Sunday
morning certainly helped. Sunday morning wasn't as nice as Saturday
evening, but it wasn't bad. You do get used to traffic wizzing by at
100+ kph a foot or so away! Riding down to Manitoulin Island on highway
6 was a real change from the TCH. The cars wizzed by a least 50 kph
slower.. That road was quite hilly and the shoulder was nearly
nonexistent. What was worse was that the bailout area had sand and
gravel so soft that it was impossible to ride on it. I came very close
to going down when my front wheel went over into that area and sank in
the sand. I jerked it back out and my rear wheel went in and slid
sideways out into the soft sand. I fought for control and sucessfully
got my left foot out of my pedal and down on the ground. In the process
of saving myself from going down, I had swerved out into the traffic
lane and ended up stopped crosswise across that lane. Not a healthy
place to be.

We had a good nights sleep at the inexpensive motel in Spragge and a good
breakfast at the restaurant there. My pancakes were excellent - why are
Canadian pancakes better than US pancakes? - but not large enough.  I
was hungry again less than fifteen miles later. Bob went along with my
riding style today, so we didn't stop till near Walford. Then we sopped
by the side of the road and ate a snack from our supplies. We stopped in
Massey for an early lunch at a Chinese restaurant.

I had thought of taking a back road from Massey to Espanola, but the
TCH had just been repaved in that section so riding it wasn't bad. W
were surprised to discover that the shoulder was no wider on the ne
section than on the old, but it was smooth. There is a Tm Horton /
Wendys at the intersection of 17 (TCH) and 6 (the road to Manitoulin
Island.) I did Tim Hortons while Bob did Wendys.

Heading down through Espanola wasn't great fun - lots of traffic at noon
on a Sunday in the summer - but just south of Espanola it got quite
hilly. I rather liked it (pretty country), but Bob, whose bike is a road
bike with a two front rings had a harder time cranking up those hills. I
find it quite remarkable that Bob, who is 63, rode the North Cascades
route on a loaded bike with a 40 inch or so low gear. When he got to
Sandpoint Idaho, he had it changed to a wide range (13-30?) cassette
which was 'nice' when he rode the Going to the Sun road! Bob is quite
athletic, but he has a lousy bike store that sold him a Trek 1400 for
loaded touring.

Riding highway 6 south on a Sunday evening meant seeing far more traffic
coming towards us than going the same way we were. It would have been a
bad time to be riding north. 6 is quite hilly for 20 miles as it goes
across part of the Canadian Shield. We stopped at Whitefish Falls for a
good meal at the local tavern where Bob challenged a slightly inebriated
lady to a game of shuffleboard. He was winning rather decisively when
our meals were ready. I think he had an ufair advantage.

After we got across the shield area, riding was pretty easy, but Bob was
beginging to have a hard time. He had adopted my riding style today and it
didn't work too well for him because he doesn't drink while riding.
He had been buying and drinking gatorade when he stopped, but we didn't
stop that often today and he didn't drink gatorade. We limped in to Litle
Current with Bob barely functional, but he recovered pretty well within
a few hours.