Heat Waves, Sea Caves, and Birthday Raves


Our bikes got a break on a ferry ride.

This week we finally made it past the Great Lakes. Earlier in the week, we went on the Chi-Cheemaun ferry from Manitoulin Island to the Bruce Peninsula. As common users of BC Ferries, we hurriedly locked up our bikes on the ferry and rushed to get a seat with a good view. Unlike BC Ferries, there was open seating everywhere. The variety and quantity of seating on the Chi-Cheemaun far outmatched BC Ferries. The ride itself was beautiful, but I will say, it’s tough to compete with seeing whales in the Georgia Strait or hearing the iconic BC Ferries horn as they go through Active Pass.

On June 22, Karen celebrated her 34th birthday, and it was a full day. We hiked the famous Grotto, a shoreline sea cave with beautiful blue waters; we had ice cream, twice; we saw a memorial to Canada’s late and great soothsayer, Wiarton Willie; and we biked 134 km. In all, Karen is able to stay impressively active well into her advanced age of 34. There wasn’t a literal rave as the blog post title suggests, but according to Karen, “having ice cream twice in one day is like a 34-year old’s rave.”

The Grotto was beautiful but no more remarkable than the other Superior or Huron sights from the previous few weeks. If anything, it was a reminder of just how much stunning scenery we’ve encountered already around the Great Lakes.

One other highlight from the past week is that one night we stayed on a farm that had hundreds of snakes on it. We would regularly see at least a dozen snakes walking the 20 feet from our tent to the outhouse.

Three snakes managed to slither their way into this one photo.

Later in the week we hit our first truly hot day, it got as high as 34 degrees. This ended up being one of the tougher days we’ve had, constantly sweating and cycling through significant elevation. We learned later that the route we chose is called ‘horseshoe highway’ because that’s how the road winds through the hills — shaped like horseshoes with all the ups and downs. We both got sunburned that day because we kept sweating off our sunscreen, but the slurpee/ice cream breaks helped power us through. Karen and I do well at balancing each other out during tough days. When one of us gets down or unmotivated, the other stays positive (to be completely honest what I mean by that is I can be an emotional rollercoaster during tough days with emotional highs and lows, while Karen is optimistic and encouraging 99% of the time). The day was gruelling but rewarding, capped off with a swim and a home-cooked meal.

At the end of the week we made it to Karen’s cousin’s place. It was refreshing seeing familiar faces for the first time in 19 days. It was great having a rest day, going swimming, lounging, and hiking in Muskoka.

Hanging out with Karen’s cousins at their family cabin


Karen’s Ontario book of the week: Son of Elsewhere

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