I left the pooh town and spotted a fellow I had seen yesterday pushing what I had initially thought was a baby carriage. Today I stopped to chat with him to find that he is walking across Canada! The carriage he is pushing is a trailer designed for carrying gear and a quick look at it and him was all I needed to know this man had been walking for some time.
His name is Pierre and he is from Quebec and living in Vancouver. He is making his way to St. John's Newfoundland covering about 45km a day. At 65 hes happily retired and is walking the world and plans to write a book about his experiences. It is to be called "Dream Walker" at the suggestion of a lovely girl he met in Ecuador. He told me of a few treks hes been on but after he mentioned Vancouver to Ecuador I was too baffled to remember the rest. I'm hoping I can run into him again in Newfoundland when he nears the completion of his trip. Meeting characters like Pierre has been one of the best parts of my trip as they burn with such a spark of life that you tend to catch a bit of it yourself.
After I bid Pierre farewell I started on my way down the TCH which would take a bend and lead me south until I reach Sault St. Marie in a couple days. The terrain was hilly as it had been the last while. With the thickness of the woods and the lumpy hills all around I sometimes feel like I'm riding across a massive chia pet. The wind wasn't too much of a bother today fortunately.
I met another cyclist pulling a trailer and heading west and we chatted for a bit. He was going from Ottawa to Vancouver on an old bike and trailer he had bought for next to nothing. His seat had come loose and he had wired it back into place and showed me its new fancy swivel feature which I thought was hilarious. He had also strapped a windscreen from a ski-do and a rear view mirror from a car onto the handle bars. He was like the hobo MacGyver of bicycle touring.
After a long stretch of desolate hills I arrived in Wawa and was startled to hear the roaring of car engines just over a hill in town. It turns out they were having a drag race show for the weekend but the fee to enter was $25 so I didn't bother to go in. I was however finally able to get on the internet again at a Tim Horton's and send an email to a WarmShowers host in Sault St. Marie. Hopefully I can hear back from them at some point and have a place indoors to relax for a day.
I was 200 km from Salut St. Marie at this point so I figured I'd push on and try to make it there by tomorrow night. I ended up doing another 40 km south from Wawa until it started getting late and I found a quiet area off the highway to camp. I saw a few bear tracks in a sandy area and gave the bear mace a test to see what kind of range it had. I didn't spray myself but I tasted it and its actually pretty good! Bear mace sandwiches anyone? My tongue is pleasantly tingling and I will be sleeping lightly listening for nosy bears tonight.
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