I forgot to set my alarm last night, so I ended up not waking up as early as I wanted to. I packed pretty briskly, and was out the door by 7. I said goodbye to Greg and thanked him for letting me stay at his house. He even gave me a digital copy of his band's album to listen to and share with friends to help promote his band. I look forward to hearing it.
On my way out of town I stopped at the bakery Greg had mentioned and grabbed two more persian buns. I packed them in my saddle bags for later, and all day long they nagged me to eat them. It took a lot of will power to resist. As always food works as a great motivator for me. I managed to save them until nearly the end of the day, and as promised, they were even better than the previous two.
I left town on a small road that follows the coast of the lake, which eventually joined the Trans Canada Highway just outside the city. My view of the shore was mostly obscured by trees, but I got a few glimpses beyond which were quite nice. I still seemed to be struggling to go forward, and my legs felt quite tired, so I was in a rather whiney mood about everything. I had the option of either doing this section as two short days like in my planner, or doing one long and hard day to make ground. The long route was looking pretty unlikely with my mood as it was, and it carried on until well down the Trans Canada.
Suddenly, just before lunch, a switch flipped in my head and just like that I was brimming with drive and determination. I stopped complaining about being tired, and just started bull dozing through like it was no big deal. I reached the short day cut off point around 1 PM, and breezed past, feeling like I was no where neat ready to stop. Up until this point the terrain was still mostly flat or easy hills, and I was far enough away from the lake that I barely saw it.
I continued to cruise along, intent on completing the 175 KM double day, despite the hard terrain I knew was coming. With 60 KM left until my scheduled stop, I arrived at the first monster hill. It rose up and up, its steep slope bending around corner after corner, through carved out red rock. Finally, I crested its top, and emerged onto a fantastic cliffside view of Lake Superior. Everywhere I looked there were cliffs of red stone descending down to the lake's waters, forested islands scattered everywhere. Now this is what I had been waiting for. A huge grin cracked my face, and scarcely left over the intense next couple hours, regardless how hard I strained.
This hill was far from the last. For hours I climbed giant sprawling hills on the banks of Lake Superior. One of the later ones stretched on for over 4 KM of uphill battle. They were truely ferocious, with shear size and steepness I havnt seen since Manning Park. I would argue that this section was harder than Allison Pass; I am just in better shape now. I still struggled though, and pushed past the point of exhaustion, as the afternoon heat gave way to the early evening. There is a certain sense of gratification after conquering hills like these, and that feeling got repeated many times, until I walked away quite happy with myself. I couldnt ask for better scenery either.
Around 7:30 PM, 12.5 hours and 175 KM after I began, I finally arrived at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park; triumphantly exhausted. I set up my tent right on the beach, meters from the crystal clear waters of Lake Superior, and got to work preparing my feast of rations. Next it was time for a desperately needed shower, and then it was time to relax on the beach. Life is good.
Today really illustrated how important attitude and your mindset are. Ir began as an unhappy morning, but with a change of attitude it turned into one of the defining days of the trip thus far.
Since I did another double day today, I gained another day, and I am now back onto my original schedule. I plan on shaving more time in the future, but these hills are supposed to continue on and off until Sault St Marie, so I will go a little easier on myself and do regular length days for the next while.
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