LAKE SUPERIOR PRV PARK AND DAY21

Hello from Sault St. Marie on a beautiful sunny, warm evening. Todat started literally with a bang. As we left the motel in Wawa his rear tube exploded. Bad luck wheel, 4th tube to go. Changed and away by 0530.
Great run for first 30 km in about 1 hour and then into Lake Superior Provincial Park. Who knew about this park? Highway 17 passes through and has awesome cycling. Terrain is great, stiff climbs and great descents and good pavement, sometimes good shoulders and always great views. Early am it was 5 degrees, and as the sun rose the mist over the many little lakes was picture perfect. Again early there is little traffic alowing us to enjoy the silence of nature, which of coarse is a special sound ful of creatures chatting, wind playing in the leafs and grasses, and birds directing all activity. I strongly recommend that you try the stretch of road from Baldhead creek to Clearwater river, probaby the best 18 km of biking I have ever done. Largely down slopping, with one fun climb and several steep descents. This park is definetly beckoning me back. Agreed it is not for the novice cyclist but for the average person or skilled it is great. Too soon we were finished out 89 km run throuth the park and back to the climbing expected in htis beautifully rugged area. Great views of Superior, but also many smaller lakes and rivers. Rocks, trees and almost every shade of green the Irish could wish.
ater in the dat at Pancake Bay, and Batchawanda Bay there were kilometers of beautiful sandy beaches, almost deserted. At palces people were wadding out 75 meters for 4 feet of water. Awesome place for children. We expexted bugs, these days at least there were far fewer little pests that in Lanark County. Almost no communities along this route and certainly ater in the day there were lots of trucks and cars.
Todays run was 231 km, at average speed of 25 kph, and maximum of 57kph. This later was down the hill to Montreal River, it is a great descent. Perhaps because we had been cautioned about it on several occasions, and also because it twists and turns I applied the barkes generously. All was wel and will snacking 1 km later Tom commented on my front tire, The whole sidewall had seperated and the tube was prolapsing. The tires are said to last about 2500 km and that one had about 4000km, was it that, or more likely the braking overheating the wheel and damaging a well worn tire. My these particular tires are difficult to mount, both Tom and I were in a sweat before the job was completed. Today again our ascent was 2056 meters, so the legs are teling a story. Our bike computer is calibrated with our weight the bicycle weight, and has GPS input. With all of this it calculates energy consumption, Tom is averaging about 8500 calories a day for his cycling alone. Allowing about 1000 for routine he can and should eat a full meal every 2 hours. Neat stuff, probably not terribly accurate. However when in gets above 20 degrees and sunny dehydration can become a real thing very quickly.
Lake Superior is at its low since 1968, beaches are wider and the affects are unknown, We did see a nude sun worshiper lying on the rocks, with his trusty ATV at his side. However realy very little devepment evident along this part of the lake.
Bikes are cleaned and lubricated ready for the am, we are well fed and ready for another long run tomorrow, hoping ror another 230 km day. Forecast calls for 15 in am, the warmest yet and a 40% chance of showers. swarm showers are all together less threatening than showers at 5 degrees when all the fun factor is suspended.
At present we are following our schedule and hopefully that will translate into a visit to our own beds June 27 th. More to tell then. RRM