Saturday 18 June

We left at 10am on Saturday 18 Jun with the goal of riding an easy 500km to Pointe Au Baril (just north of Parry Sound), where we would stay at Larry's Motel and Tavern. We took a combination of major and secondary highways in order to avoid the rush and hassle of riding through Toronto. The day's ride was pretty uneventful and relaxing, although it was cool and overcast with a few spots of rain for the first few hours. It cleared up in the afternoon and we had sunny skies and warm winds for the rest of the day.

The rest of the trip went well, save for the occasional idiot cager and brainless turkey vulture wandering about the roadways. I saw a small turtle frantically gunning it across the highway just north of Sault Ste Marie; I hope he made it because there were a lot of trucks going in both directions. We had a small confrontation with a deer a little further up the road; I didn't notice it standing on the shoulder until I was almost upon it. Angie, however, had spotted it long before I did and reduced speed just in case it tried something stupid. When I finally saw it at the last minute I was so mad I flung out my arm and gave it the finger; the sudden movement startled it and it turned tail and fled back into the woods. Stupid friggin' Bambi.

After a quick trip to the store across the highway for some supplies, we unpacked and settled in to begin our vacation. The waterfront view was just as we had remembered from last year. And so was the water wildlife - we were treated to the sight of two families of loons, one with three babies and the other with six, slowly making their way along the river towards Lake Superior. We also saw a large crane, the usual flock of seagulls and hundreds of tiny fishies swimming about in the shallow waters. We waded in amongst them and the water was surprisingly warm; I was even inspired to do my impression of a floundering whale as I swam about rinsing off the grime from a day's ride. It looked like we were going to have a great vacation.

We slept in and ate a late brekkie before heading into Sault Ste Marie to do some grocery shopping. It's amazing how many groceries you can stuff into the saddlebags of two bikes, we had at least three days worth of supplies in there by the time we had finished. It was very hot and sunny and by the time we returned to the cabin we were pretty much done for the day because of the heat. We splashed about in the water for awhile, wandered the beach and just hung out enjoying the serenity and scenery. Towards nightfall Angie got the camera out and took a few pics of the area to paint when we returned home.

We left the displays and headed back towards the cabin. It had warmed up by now and we were not quite ready to call it a day yet, so we decided to do some browsing at the local tourist traps.

We went to Northern Cycle first, an aftermarket shop catering to Harleys and metric cruisers. Angie found a great set of saddlebags and a tail pack that suited her bike nicely and the owner cut her a good deal on them - including free shipping! We then went next door to the Kawasaki dealer to get a replacement bolt for Angie's bike; I had noticed one missing from the rear fender struts the other day and we needed a replacement ASAP as the fender was loose. The lady behind the counter was very helpful and after realising she had none in stock went to the back and took one off of a new bike. She was also kind enough to loan me the tools necessary to install it. We then went downtown to the public library so Angie could continue her genealogical search, this time with microfilm records. After that we decided to head back to the cabin with a stop for lunch somewhere along the way.

We made it back to the cabin just in time for a much needed nap after which we spent the rest of the evening sitting on the porch waiting for the loons and other wildlife to make their nightly appearances. And what a show - we had both loon families drift by, saw many large fish jumping about in the deeper waters and watched a Kingfisher bird do its thing. It was perched on a tree branch overhanging the water about 100m down the shoreline; every few minutes it would launch, fly up to about 15m, hover for a few seconds and then nose-dive straight down into the water. It would pop up a few seconds later and return to the tree branch but we couldn't tell if it ever caught anything or not. By 9pm the waters were absolutely calm and we were then treated to the sight of three families of geese come sailing in like a mini armada, headed p the Batchawana River. Unfortunately, they were out of the limited range of our digital camera but our neighbours in the next cabin were out on the shoreline snapping away with their telephoto lens equipped 35mm cameras, so at least someone was able to record the event.

The day didn't start out too promising as it was rainy with very strong winds. We decided to do some much needed laundry at the on site Laundromat and see if the weather would improve later on. The plan was to rent a canoe and paddle up the Batchawana River in search of wildlife, but only if the waters were calm and the sun shining.

Although I had remembered to slap on some insect repellent prior to leaving, I had forgotten about sunscreen and my legs and arms were a bright red by the time we returned. Angie had remembered the sunscreen but not the insect repellent, so she got a nice tan but was harassed by several large deer flies throughout the journey; they seemed fascinated by her blonde hair. The attention got worse when I gave her the bug juice I had brought along, it seemed to act more as a perfume than a repellant to them.

We were too tired to do anything else after supper, so we just sat with our drinks and watched the night wind down on the riverfront. But it soon became apparent that my sunburn was worse then I'd thought - I was in agony and no amount of soothing creams, Ibuprofen or Jack Daniels were of any help; my legs were on fire.

I didn't sleep well and wasn't in the best of moods when I awoke early in the morning. I made some coffee and went outside to sit on the deck and watch morning arrive in the camp. I had left some peanuts on the railing for the little squirrel that had crawled all over my Harley the other day (ok, ok, so I'm a softie) and they had disappeared overnight.

Unfortunately, my body wasn't. The pain of the sunburn was getting worse so I hobbled across the highway to the store and bought some burn ointment; it helped a bit but I was still pretty cranky for the rest of the day. Angie had mentioned that the drive chain on her bike was loose again so I took a few minutes to adjust it, then we rode up the highway to the Voyageur's Lodge for lunch.

They offer an adventure tour where you can paddle about for 7 days in a replica voyageur canoe with 8-10 other people just as silly as you. They take you down an old fur trader's route and you live the life of a Voyageur, paddling all day, sleeping under the stars at night and eating authentic food like bannock and fresh fish. Not my idea of a good time, especially since no beer is allowed for the duration of the trip.

By the time we finished lunch the skies were looking suspiciously dark to the west, but we decided to risk a trip in that direction to The Canadian Carver, as Angie wanted to buy something she had seen there the other day. As it was only 4km away we decided to risk getting wet; it's not like we've never ridden in the rain before. Of course, it started raining as soon as we got there but it was only a light drizzle at first, so we had enough time to make the purchase and return to the cabin without getting soaked. But five minutes later, the skies opened up and it POURED for a good 40 minutes. The rest of the day was overcast, drizzly and cool so, seeing as how it was our last day there, we decided to just relax and watch all the loons frolicking about in the shallow waters in front of our cabin while the clock ticked away the hours until we had to head back home.

But despite this stupidity on my part, we had traveled over 3,000km in one week and had a great time doing it!