Day 40- Zoom Zoom

The other cyclist and I had decided to ride together today, so we both got up at 7 AM, aiming to be gone by 8. We finally realized we hadnt introduced ourselves to one another, so we did so. Turns out he does have a name; its Shane, and he is originally from Ireland but living in Calgary right now. We ended up getting underway just shy of 8:30, and it was still nice and cool out.

As promised, the terrain was much flatter now, with long stretches of straight and level road, interspersed by shallow rolling hills through grassy countryside. How easy the terrain was would turn out to be my saving grace. As it turns out, Shane is a considerably faster cyclist than I am, so I stuggled to keep up with him all day. I was pedalling my heart out until my legs gave out to stay behind him, in the slipstream created where he was blocking today's stiff headwind. Even with the advantage of the wind block, I could barely keep up, and actually lost him completely a few times.

We travelled along at that frantic pace (for me at least) all day, taking one lunch break and one snack break. I didnt take many pictures today as a result. We made great time though, finishing the 138 KM to just outside Blind River in 6.5 hours, strong headwind notwithstanding. I stopped at my planned camp for the night since my next few days are meant to be shorter, while he continued into town to find a place to watch the soccer match. We said our goodbyes, snapped a few pictures, and exchanged some contact info. Perhaps we will meet again.

This area is rather nice. The highway follows along a river for many kilometers, forest on either side. Quite nice riding, though it turned out to be very hot and humid.

This will be another day where I have lots of time to recover. In a while Ill take a run down the road to find some supper.

I realized there was an interesting story from yesterday I forgot to share. Early in the morning, on my way out of the Provincial Park, I had just finished cresting a large hill, when I saw a mother black bear and two cubs about 10 meters away on the other side of the road. Ive always heard that this is one of the rare scenarios where black bears will actually attack humans, so my heart skipped a beat when I saw them. She stopped walking, and watched me go by with her whole head, but thankfully she never moved towards me. I kept going in a hurry, anxious to put some distance between us.