Unfortunately the ride data for the first 185 km was lost during the trip.
I was up at 4am but it was pouring out so I ended up sleeping in until 9am, long after the others had left. The skies were muggy and the ground damp from the nights rain. It was chilly but tolerable in a t shirt. The roads weren't as hilly today with a lot of flat stretches.
The first 100 km went by and it was close to 5pm at this point. I had taken two breaks to eat and dry out my tent. I hadn't seen any sign of the others but a fellow at the gas station who had come from the east said he had seen cyclists a ways up the road, not very specific.
I decided to ride on to the next town which I thought was another 60 km but it was closer to 80 km. The roads really flattened out and I was cruising along when I noticed the entire sky behind me was covered in very dark clouds. They eventually caught up and overtook me while pushing me with a nice tailwind.
Unfortunately with dark clouds comes rain. First it was little bitty stingin' rain, then big ol' fat rain. I finally got some use out of my rain jacket. I didn't bother to put on the rain pants so I ended up a soggy bottom boy. The rain got so heavy that cars pulled into the rest areas and I had the road to myself!
Eventually the rain ran it's course and a double rainbow came out! Woahhhh! Anyways my waist down was pretty wet by the time I reached town with 185 km behind me so I hung out at a closed store, had a snack, and put on less wet socks. The pop machine had lured me there but was all sold out but gave me a free toonie. At this point it was 9:30pm and I was still feeling fine and Thunder Bay was around 70 km further so I decided to do a little night riding again.
The moon was up in full soon after I left the small town and the traffic was sparse. At one point I was climbing a hill and I had the low beam on my headlamp on to watch for any bumps when I came across what I think is some kind of a wolf laying dead on the side of the road. It startled me at first seeing an animal of that size but I quickly realized it was dead. It had a compound fracture on one of it's front paws and had probably died not too long ago.
After getting a picture I realized I better have my bear mace out in case one if these gets brave and tries to attack me. Of course it's in my back bag under my bag of food, so the whole street smells like delicious bologna and I've got a good look at the size of the wildlife now so I'm a bit excited. I put the mace in my drink holder on the handlebar bag and moved along.
About 4 km up the road I noticed my solar panel is missing when I was patting around to check all my gear. One of my bungee cords was gone as well. Great, came off when I was getting the mace I figure. So I head back to the corpse and find the panel sitting there. No sign of the bungee but no big deal.
When I leave again about 2 km up the road my headlamp catches a pair of eyes 10 feet off the side of the road. I could feel the hair on me shoot right out in a pathetic but funny primitive reaction to danger and after an instinctive "Holy fuck!" I made a silly "AHHRAARAARA" type barking sound and it ran off with a glimpse back before it vanished. A little later I caught sight of a small fox across the road as well looking like it bobbed along with something in it's mouth. He ran off into a bush and I watched his little fox eyes follow me as I passed by.
The moon was out in full for a good while and I was able to ride by it's light alone but the clouds came again and covered it over and dropping a light rain. The glow of Thunder Bay's lights had been creeping closer and closer as I went on.
Eventually the woods left the sides of the roads and farms started showing up with a few street lights popping up here and there. I came across the Thunder Bay city sign but had to go on another 15 km down the TCH (which is 17 in Ontario) which at this point had tiny shoulders and only one lane each way. Bikes are actually not allowed on this road but since it was past 1am and the traffic was sparse I went on. In the day I wouldn't dare ride this road.
The big city finally showed up but was mostly a ghost town. The wind had been pushing me a good ways and now I rode alongside city trash that kept up with me surprisingly well. I found a walmart and set up behind it for a well deserved rest after my new longest ride on record.
