"Congratulations, you have a hernia"
- Actual diagnosis at the emergency room in Kenora's hospital
I should be clear that I'm not in any pain or need of immediate medical attention! Last night I noticed a slight bump below my stomach, but since Kenora has no walk in clinics, I had to wait in the emergency room to get a diagnosis.
For those who don't know, a hernia is kind of a scary issue where a small part of your intestine gets pushed past the muscles and whatnot that usually hold it in place. It actually pushes to make a visible bump just below your stomach and complications can make it very painful and dangerous. The doctor said that I should try to get surgery for it sometime in the next month or two unless it starts becoming very painful, in which case it needs to be taken care of in a matter of hours. Also, that strenuous activities (lifting in particular) should be avoided. Interestingly, he said that cycling should actually be okay and that I should decide for myself whether or not to continue the tour.
The main problem and ultimately the reason why Kenora will be the last checkpoint for this tour is just the huge distance between checkpoints and lack of larger towns in Northern Ontario. Because our route home called for a few stops in between towns at campgrounds off the highway, it just isn't worth the risk of being in the middle of nowhere if my condition does happen to get worse.
It's hard to accept that something unrelated to the actual act of cycling is preventing me from continuing on. After over four weeks on the road, I've never felt stronger, so it's a bit disheartening to get hit with a condition that sometimes occurs because of muscle weaknesses.
If it did have to happen, we're glad that we managed to reach our home province! Four provinces cleared entirely by cycling is no small feat! Our odometers actually just passed the 3000km mark which is kind of amazing to think about. There have been a ton of experiences along the way and it's been a pleasure sharing them with our dedicated readers! :)
Tomorrow we're packing up our bikes and hopping on the next Greyhound back home. Not looking forward to that 29 hour bus ride!
Thanks again to all our readers! See you next tour!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Kenora, ON - 122km
Ontario! We finally made it! Even though we're still a long way from home, it feels like we're almost there. It feels great to have made it to our home province even though it's a beast of its own. It's actually been one of the most obvious transitions between provinces. Going from BC to Alberta and Saskatchewan to Manitoba, there was hardly any change in landscape. But coming into Ontario, we were immediately greeted with lakes, trees, rocks, and hills! Sadly we had the worst welcome sign when compared to the other provinces. It felt like the 17 took more turns today than the 1 did through the entire second half of Manitoba. It's actually such a refreshing change of scenery that we don't mind the hills that much. It's still that blasted sun that's draining our energy. We were lucky that most of the ride today was overcast, but the moment the clouds left us, the sun beat us down and our speeds dropped. (That could have been partially the fault of the hills, though.) So far the roads have been alright. One lane in each direction, but the shoulder hasn't disappeared completely except for a few times. Actually we were surprised to be able to ride in very our own bike lane into charming downtown Kenora! Our previous problem of trying to get a good night's sleep with trains running by several times a night has been replaced with trying to fall asleep in 30+ degree heat, lying in a pool of our own sweat. Also the bugs! My god, the bugs. There are massive, bloodthirsty and surprisingly quick flies that have been chasing us down even as we ride 25+km/h! They lock on and follow us around which makes it impossible to be still around camp. The moment we retreat into the tent, a flood of mosquitoes manage to squeeze their way in with us. Even just quickly exiting the tent and going back in can let in 10-15 of the bloodsuckers which takes a while to clear out!
That's all for now. Also, isn't it supposed to be "yours to discover", not "more"?
Edit: We were just debating whether or not to grab a frozen lemonade at Tim Hortons after commenting on how fast the day flew by when we realized that we actually crossed into Eastern Time today! Wow, it's hard to believe we've travelled across four time zones by just our own power!
That's all for now. Also, isn't it supposed to be "yours to discover", not "more"?
Edit: We were just debating whether or not to grab a frozen lemonade at Tim Hortons after commenting on how fast the day flew by when we realized that we actually crossed into Eastern Time today! Wow, it's hard to believe we've travelled across four time zones by just our own power!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Winnipeg Rest Day & Whitemouth River - 105km
Today we'll do another trip update and mailbag thanks to the awesome comments left recently! Check out the photo map for all the new pics since Calgary too.
During the rest day we had enough time touring around the city to culminate our thoughts on being a cyclist in general. Straight away, it must be said that it has been an utter failure of cycling infrastructure in Manitoba, and particularly in Winnipeg itself. The shoulders have disappeared on the highway and the inner city cycling situation is nothing short of shocking - a true breakdown of cyclist education, driver education, and city planning. We have to voice our dissatisfaction, as it's truly a shame given how potentially great car-alternatives can be for everyone. Totally uncool!
It's really a sign of a culture that's behind the times. While we were in the city, we saw tons of ridiculous things - tons of people cycling on the sidewalk, people cycling on the wrong side of the road, and cars completely unsure how to drive with bikes in the lanes. Jan even had a near collision with a cyclist who was going against traffic and turning into him. All of this is much like Ottawa or Montreal as of 10-15 years ago. When there is a breakdown of city initiative and trust between drivers and cyclists the result is this dangerous mess of a situation.
All that aside...it was a great day of rest in the city and a great day of cycling into the countryside. The attached forecast was right on the money - positively scorching hot. However we didn't mind game ourselves out of the distance and focused on getting half way to Kenora. Ontario, here we come!
Mailbag time!
Plan of attack for Ontario? - Mike
It's hard to call Ontario the home stretch when it spans such a massive distance! As we mentioned, it's actually two and a half weeks of riding days, meaning it will be a bit more depending on how often we rest! There will be a few long treks due to the vast stretches of nothing between certain checkpoints.
What to eat and what to watch out for in Northern Ontario - James
Thanks for the tips, James! We have seen some of the Ontarian dead space you're talking about on Google Maps and are trying to work around it. We will fill our bellies with the delicacies you recommended! Thanks for the heads up about the 17. We just got our first taste of what it will probably be like since a large section of today's ride was actually shoulderless! We'll be careful coming home. Also we actually have yet to do any wild camping on the side of the road. We've heard mixed reports about it and prefer to plan our checkpoints around cities and real campgrounds. ;)
Is there anything of note in Winnipeg - Jeff
Well we loved the downtown core and did all the nice things we couldn't do since Calgary - ate gelato, rested in cafe's and generally relaxed like the city bums we are ;)
What happened to Jay's phone? - Jeff
It's just an old phone that I had dropped a bazillion times and now it finally just crashed on me. Going to get a new one in Ontario as apparently Manitoba is a Bell-free zone?? Argh!
What do you listen to music on? - Jeff
Haha, thankfully we don't listen to music on our phones otherwise I'd be totally screwed! We both picked up little Sandisk mp3 clips. It's a surprisingly awesome no-nonsense, tiny clip. Just drag drop your songs and away you go! The other benefit for us is we can save that phone batter for other more useful things, like finding the closest Tim Hortons ;)
During the rest day we had enough time touring around the city to culminate our thoughts on being a cyclist in general. Straight away, it must be said that it has been an utter failure of cycling infrastructure in Manitoba, and particularly in Winnipeg itself. The shoulders have disappeared on the highway and the inner city cycling situation is nothing short of shocking - a true breakdown of cyclist education, driver education, and city planning. We have to voice our dissatisfaction, as it's truly a shame given how potentially great car-alternatives can be for everyone. Totally uncool!
It's really a sign of a culture that's behind the times. While we were in the city, we saw tons of ridiculous things - tons of people cycling on the sidewalk, people cycling on the wrong side of the road, and cars completely unsure how to drive with bikes in the lanes. Jan even had a near collision with a cyclist who was going against traffic and turning into him. All of this is much like Ottawa or Montreal as of 10-15 years ago. When there is a breakdown of city initiative and trust between drivers and cyclists the result is this dangerous mess of a situation.
All that aside...it was a great day of rest in the city and a great day of cycling into the countryside. The attached forecast was right on the money - positively scorching hot. However we didn't mind game ourselves out of the distance and focused on getting half way to Kenora. Ontario, here we come!
Mailbag time!
Plan of attack for Ontario? - Mike
It's hard to call Ontario the home stretch when it spans such a massive distance! As we mentioned, it's actually two and a half weeks of riding days, meaning it will be a bit more depending on how often we rest! There will be a few long treks due to the vast stretches of nothing between certain checkpoints.
What to eat and what to watch out for in Northern Ontario - James
Thanks for the tips, James! We have seen some of the Ontarian dead space you're talking about on Google Maps and are trying to work around it. We will fill our bellies with the delicacies you recommended! Thanks for the heads up about the 17. We just got our first taste of what it will probably be like since a large section of today's ride was actually shoulderless! We'll be careful coming home. Also we actually have yet to do any wild camping on the side of the road. We've heard mixed reports about it and prefer to plan our checkpoints around cities and real campgrounds. ;)
Is there anything of note in Winnipeg - Jeff
Well we loved the downtown core and did all the nice things we couldn't do since Calgary - ate gelato, rested in cafe's and generally relaxed like the city bums we are ;)
What happened to Jay's phone? - Jeff
It's just an old phone that I had dropped a bazillion times and now it finally just crashed on me. Going to get a new one in Ontario as apparently Manitoba is a Bell-free zone?? Argh!
What do you listen to music on? - Jeff
Haha, thankfully we don't listen to music on our phones otherwise I'd be totally screwed! We both picked up little Sandisk mp3 clips. It's a surprisingly awesome no-nonsense, tiny clip. Just drag drop your songs and away you go! The other benefit for us is we can save that phone batter for other more useful things, like finding the closest Tim Hortons ;)
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Winnipeg, MB - 174km
Jason here again. We made it to Winnipeg! Wow, what an incredibly challenging ride. It was a non stop 31 degree heat for over 6 hours of bike time. The funny thing is that we thought the day's journey almost over when we made it to Winnipeg's sign (which we of course took a picture of!) We almost forgot what an actual big city is like, as it was another 10k or so to get to the city center.
Winnipeg seems to be a real city; bigger than ottawa's downtown by a hair. It's truly a marvel that such a place exists when just outside the city limit are the endless flat fields. What a stark contrast in landscape and lifestyle.
We found a hotel in the heart of the city and are giving our weary bones a break! And although we didn't arrive in time to see the Tour de France time-trial day on the telly, a kind man from Portage de Prairie who does gentlemen's bike tours down south filled us in on all the details over Tim Horton's lunch break. Thank you! :)
Our plan is to get our clothes smelling nice and our bikes in tip top shape before we make a break for Ontario. The shoes and socks in particular are offensively bad and are in need cleansing. And my bike has almost worn down the back tread while the front tire tread remains defined. We speculate the back tire just gets more weight and even loose spin on the gravel, making it wear out much quicker. Still, our odometers say we've put in around 2800 kilometres since we landed in BC - we are pretty proud of that mileage :)
We hope to upload all the new photos soon if we can find a computer! Nerds out!
Winnipeg seems to be a real city; bigger than ottawa's downtown by a hair. It's truly a marvel that such a place exists when just outside the city limit are the endless flat fields. What a stark contrast in landscape and lifestyle.
We found a hotel in the heart of the city and are giving our weary bones a break! And although we didn't arrive in time to see the Tour de France time-trial day on the telly, a kind man from Portage de Prairie who does gentlemen's bike tours down south filled us in on all the details over Tim Horton's lunch break. Thank you! :)
Our plan is to get our clothes smelling nice and our bikes in tip top shape before we make a break for Ontario. The shoes and socks in particular are offensively bad and are in need cleansing. And my bike has almost worn down the back tread while the front tire tread remains defined. We speculate the back tire just gets more weight and even loose spin on the gravel, making it wear out much quicker. Still, our odometers say we've put in around 2800 kilometres since we landed in BC - we are pretty proud of that mileage :)
We hope to upload all the new photos soon if we can find a computer! Nerds out!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Carberry, MB - 143km
This is actually Jason, as my phone finally bit the dust. I'm going to try and replace it once we're in Ontario but for now Jan's phone responsibilities have doubled!
Today the heat beat us down with unrelenting 30 degrees. Over the last week we have formed a love for slush drinks that treads into obsession. With the insane hours and energy output in the sun we want to keep drinking, and the colder the better. It's also a break from warm water as it tastes great. It's gotten to the point where after a couple hours I actually do start fantisizing about the next slush drink. When we finally punched through the last 10km into Carberry, we stopped and drank 2 of these things each - 1 of each flavor. We are that hooked!
4 weeks ago exactly we left Vancouver! Here's the general strategy overview as of tonight: we are going to try and muscle our way through 150km to Winnipeg tomorrow, under mercy of winds. If we make it, we are going to take a rest day there! The stretch after Winnipeg even in Ontario is devoid of major checkpoints so it seems the best place to rest and gear up. We should be able to manage the Ontario border in 1 or 2 days after that. From West Hawk Lake (very close to border) we begin the last massive leg of our journey. Ontario, by every account we've heard, seemingly goes on forever . The numbers corroborate this too, with our estimates showing a whopping
2000km road. Our best guess is to take 2 and a half weeks of riding days to do this plus some rest days. That should put us home at the beginning of August some time :)
A final note for tonight: we are beginning to think we'll never get rid of the train tracks at our camp spots. Every night we are woken up to absurdly loud trains that even use their horns. Our little ear plugs...they do nothing! And every time we set up camp and think we are safe, sure enough we hear the "toooooooooot!!" and know our sleep is forfeit. Aye yai yai!
Today the heat beat us down with unrelenting 30 degrees. Over the last week we have formed a love for slush drinks that treads into obsession. With the insane hours and energy output in the sun we want to keep drinking, and the colder the better. It's also a break from warm water as it tastes great. It's gotten to the point where after a couple hours I actually do start fantisizing about the next slush drink. When we finally punched through the last 10km into Carberry, we stopped and drank 2 of these things each - 1 of each flavor. We are that hooked!
4 weeks ago exactly we left Vancouver! Here's the general strategy overview as of tonight: we are going to try and muscle our way through 150km to Winnipeg tomorrow, under mercy of winds. If we make it, we are going to take a rest day there! The stretch after Winnipeg even in Ontario is devoid of major checkpoints so it seems the best place to rest and gear up. We should be able to manage the Ontario border in 1 or 2 days after that. From West Hawk Lake (very close to border) we begin the last massive leg of our journey. Ontario, by every account we've heard, seemingly goes on forever . The numbers corroborate this too, with our estimates showing a whopping
2000km road. Our best guess is to take 2 and a half weeks of riding days to do this plus some rest days. That should put us home at the beginning of August some time :)
A final note for tonight: we are beginning to think we'll never get rid of the train tracks at our camp spots. Every night we are woken up to absurdly loud trains that even use their horns. Our little ear plugs...they do nothing! And every time we set up camp and think we are safe, sure enough we hear the "toooooooooot!!" and know our sleep is forfeit. Aye yai yai!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Virden, MB - 125km
Saskatchewan defeated! The "Land of Living Skies" is behind us now as we enter into "Friendly Manitoba". Tough province, though. It isn't flat like everyone told us it would be! Most of it was actually gentle inclines up and down, over and over like a very slow and boring rollercoaster. Unfortunately we didn't usually get to coast on the downhill, so it was just constant pedalling that occasionally got a bit easier or harder.
Continuing our recent trend of meeting cyclists, we met two women riding back to Quebec. These ladies had some serious gear and rode on a massive tandem bike that weighed just 35lbs! Apparently by riding these bikes you can really maximize efficiency by having both people's power while only having to cut through wind resistance once. We compared cruising speeds for today, and while we feel pretty good about being able to stay at steady 30km/h, these ladies were going 38! Huge boost!
Our suspicions of somehow being able to dodge bad weather the entire trip were also confirmed. They landed in Vancouver only two days before we did, but they had been rained on for 14 days straight while we were almost completely untouched. They didn't seem to mind, though. For them it was a vacation to celebrate turning 50 and they were enjoying every bit of it!
Unrelated: A random passerby asked us about our trip and said "good luck, have fun" to which we both cracked up a bit.
Continuing our recent trend of meeting cyclists, we met two women riding back to Quebec. These ladies had some serious gear and rode on a massive tandem bike that weighed just 35lbs! Apparently by riding these bikes you can really maximize efficiency by having both people's power while only having to cut through wind resistance once. We compared cruising speeds for today, and while we feel pretty good about being able to stay at steady 30km/h, these ladies were going 38! Huge boost!
Our suspicions of somehow being able to dodge bad weather the entire trip were also confirmed. They landed in Vancouver only two days before we did, but they had been rained on for 14 days straight while we were almost completely untouched. They didn't seem to mind, though. For them it was a vacation to celebrate turning 50 and they were enjoying every bit of it!
Unrelated: A random passerby asked us about our trip and said "good luck, have fun" to which we both cracked up a bit.
Whitewood, SK - 107km
After three weeks on the road, its starting to feel like we're functioning like a machine. Today's riding had an almost mechanical efficiency about it. We would ride at a steady 25km/h for about an hour, take a break, then go for another push, carefully streaming to conserve energy. After just four repetitions of this cycle we found ourselves in Whitewood, along with two other cyclists at the same campground!
We met Gaetan and Matias, both on their own journies going west. There's something interesting about traveling on the road by bike and meeting other cyclists. No one is ever travelling just for a day or two, or even a province or two. Almost everyone is planning to go the same distance we are or the entire country! It's great to talk with travelers going through the same challenges we are, or veterans willing to share their wisdom and experiences. Sometimes having some Nutella shared with you is just as good, though. ;)
We met Gaetan and Matias, both on their own journies going west. There's something interesting about traveling on the road by bike and meeting other cyclists. No one is ever travelling just for a day or two, or even a province or two. Almost everyone is planning to go the same distance we are or the entire country! It's great to talk with travelers going through the same challenges we are, or veterans willing to share their wisdom and experiences. Sometimes having some Nutella shared with you is just as good, though. ;)
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