Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire

 

We’re not in the prairies anymore

After leaving Winnipeg where we seemed to eat constantly (the frying pan), we made our way east towards smoky Ontario (the fires). We got really lucky in that after only one extra day delayed because of bad air quality, the winds blew the smoke away from us. Since then, we’ve had a few nights of rain. Even Karen, whose biggest fear on this trip has been biking in wet feet, was happy for the rain.

We made it into Ontario and were excited to bike on hills again. If felt like we were changing gears for the first time since the prairies. A few milestones are that we entered the Atlantic Watershed (all watercourses now form part of the Great Lakes’ drainage system and all streams flow into the Atlantic Ocean). We’re also the farthest south we’ve been on this bike trip. We’re now below the 49th parallel, which is especially strange because all the signs call this “Northwest Ontario.”

Helmet hair at the second highest waterfall in Ontario

Many people warned us Ontario was by far the the longest and most difficult province to bike through. One person called it “the Bermuda Triangle of Canada,” but so far it’s beautiful, the hills are fun, there are only a few mosquitoes, and there are many small towns so we don’t feel isolated. Having said that, we’ve only been in Ontario for five days. 


It’s redundant but worth saying again that people have been incredibly kind to us. We’ve had strangers and friends of strangers offer up their lawns to pitch a tent or homes to sleep in.


Karen’s Ontario book of the week: Seven Fallen Feathers 


We’re back in bear country. In the past 48 hours we’ve come across four bears: two live, one roadkill, and this jerk. 




Comments

  1. Heckler_099June 16, 2025 at 11:44 AM

    Happy to see you made it all the way to Ontario! Bear with it ;)

    ReplyDelete

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