Day3 (Ride:757 KM | 470 Miles)

Day3 (Ride:757 KM |  470 Miles) – 

Orillia ON to Sault Ste-Marie MI to Somewhere south of Cloquet MN                

05:30 I’m up.  The campground has a public shower I can use and both Ken and I want to get an early start.  I’m not down yet with the packing up the tent and I let Ken know that I’ll take care of it after he takes off to beat the cross border Labour Day traffic returning home.  At 7am we grab the campgrounds complimentary coffee; we have seconds and take a stroll to the water front to chance a view of the sun rise over Lake Nicolet.  I don’t know what hit me just then but it takes all my concentration to keep the tears in check. I simply choked up there for a moment.  I guess the emotions of taking off on my own and heading out West are finally settling in. 

Ken’s all set – Oh those pipes of his will definitely get of some folks up!  At least he does not give it that little extra throttle.  So off he goes - this is it.. I’m officially on my own!  After seeing Ken turn off and rumble away towards April I turn around and decide it’s still early, so let see if I can update days 1 and 2 of my blog.  I get all the electronics out.  Fiddle around trying to get the laptop to reach the power supply.  Need to move the picnic table closer and then…nothing. Computer won’t turn on.  Check the power supply there is a light on the laptop that proves power is coming to the laptop…however it simply won’t boot up…now ask me why I hate PC’s…My iMac has not given me one once of trouble at home in over 4 years…but this Lenovo T60 piece of crap has always been a royal pain in the A$$.  Anyway, I figured I might as well start to tear down the tent and keep the laptop plugged in while take a go at it.  I’m hoping this will an easy exercise to put everything back in its place as it was when I left Brossard on Saturday.  Well surprisingly it did, the ONLY thing was it took way too long!  You see I had company, my 2 neighbours decided to come chat to me the whole time I packed my gear, what should have taken 20 minutes at best took an hour.  Nice guys, Rich and Chuck both have ridden and had full plethora of complaints from their GW and FLH days.  Seems they both liked the RG though and we’re impressed with how all my gear fit on the bike nice and tight.  Even the LapTop decided to joing in the celebration by finally booting up.  But by this time I decided I needed to get some ridding done.   Richard suggested that I take route 28 West on my way to Vancouver in lieu of route 2 which had been my original ride plan.  He said it was a nice quiet road in good condition and that I’d probably miss some of the traffic of folks heading home and that 28 would merge back into route 2.     I thanked him for the advice and wished them both well and kicked-off at 09:00 West Bound.

Finding 28 was fairly simple, using my GPS with the ‘’highway avoidance’’ mode set to on.  It took a little longer to connect to 28 but then the scenery is always more pleasant than hitting the Super Slab and I don’t have any stress of time; I do have all the month of September off.  I do want to get to Vancouver in decent time but I know my pace will be relaxed for a bit and that’s a nice feeling when on a bike in the middle of ‘’NewWhere’’.
Has I ride these new and unfamiliar roads I set the radio to the local rock station to try to get an idea of what kind of weather I will be in for the day, Rich at the campground warned of some bad weather heading my way but for the moment the sky is clear and again the wind is low.  Another great ridding day in perspective…or so I thought.

Traffic is nothing to light as I continued on.  Sometime before lunch I see the shade of dark grey looming out in the horizon ahead of me.  I’m not quite sure how close I am but I don’t make out any of those shower curtain effects you see in the sky when you KNOW its pouring somewhere.  But they do seem ominous and dark and low.  At the very next Rest Area I decide at the last possible moment to pull out and swap gear.  Out comes the full 360 High Vise HD jacket and pants.  Was not sure if I should have brought this along with me or not, but then THIS is exactly why I bought them, that is for long rides and hopefully allowing me to continue on longer in inclement weather.  I don’t have my chaps off that a few drops of rain start to hit me.  Still the sky directly above me looks clear and the wind are still fairly mild,  but I feel the pressing need to dress up quickly.  Off goes the half helmet and on goes the Full Face.  Everything's tied down to the bike.  I wobble my way back on to the bike.  These pants aren’t the most efficient for walking they make me think of snow pants but with some extra padding.  Looking like a soldier from a G.I. Joe movie I get back up on the saddle and tear out of the Rest Area.  The winds picked up very shortly after, the windshields starts to show the 1^st signs of what’s to come.. I about 20 minutes away from the Rest Area and then the sky become to rumble loud enough that I feel the ground shake.  I’m thinking I’m about to test out my rain gear in some real serious conditions.  So down it comes!  I mean HARD.  Some of the cars have all way flashers on.  I’m slowing down to 3 gear trying to keep my visor clear enough to see.  My thought is it can’t last long, or so I hope.  I’m about to take and incline into some mountain pass when the worst possible thing can happen.  All the cars in front of me are pulling over…here comes the hail!  Now this is only my second time in hail, and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that one:  you don’t ride in hail and two:  you better find cover if your on a bike…I know  just passed some commercial building maybe 50 yards back.  Traffic on both sides is stopped so no trouble pulling a 180.  I get to the place and find the smallest of covers which is at the front door of the business that is closed for the holiday weekend.  I simply take the RG up the crosswalk right up the door and parked it.  It’s so small that only two thirds of the bike and be under cover.  I’m not worried.  Everything on the bike is doubled up in Dry Sacs and should resist the water.  I’ll know for sure when I pitch the tent at my next stop. 

Funny thing about this commercial building I pulled into.  I just got off my bike when an official looking vehicle pulls up right next to the front door and an officer pulls out.  I thought the guy was an officer because of the gun on his belt.  Turns out it’s the Fire Protection Department and he needs to get in.  I’m blocking the only entrance!  That is my bike is.  So I get back on pull back out into the rain (oh did I mention they have no rain gutters?)  So I’m getting poured on by thunder showers and the massive water fall coming off from the roof…he tells me its ok to park right back once he enters.  But that will only happen once he finds the right key…and when he does, it’s kind of a finicky lock…you need to wiggle it one way then the other then pull it out a bit then finally it turns…wrong way!  Ok wiggle it some more pull it out stick it back in turn it the other way and ‘’CLICK’’ by Joe I think he’s GOT IT, none too soon either…I’m still sitting on the HOG and getting DRENCHED.  Well it was not so bad after all…I still had the Full Face on and the gear seemed to keep me dry.  You get what you pay for I guess.  I’m really impressed thus far with it.  The only thing that was really soaked was my leather sheepskin buttpad and my gloves, and that’s ok with me. So I get off the bike.  It’s still coming down hard; the hail had stopped though soon after I found the shelter.  Looking up at the sky I see what every biker loves to see when stuck in bad weather..‘’Clearance!’’ woot!  So I spy some blue in the sky, I take a quick little video of the passing storm front to clear weather.  

(Will insert a video here once I get home and access to my MAC dumb a$$ PC)
YouTube Clip:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7ZTJ_RGWI&feature=g-upl

Moments later, I’m still debating If it’s safe from the hail as the sounds and rumbles seem to still be hanging directly overhead and at that moment, a nice lady cracks the door open an inch or two as that’s all the room available with my bike in the way.  We have a nice conversation, her name is Kay.  It’s at this point that I find out it’s not a police station but a Fire Protection Department.  She rides a Kawa750 and we talk about where I’m from and where I’ m going typical biker talk and then she offers me to come in.  I thank her but don’t really want to stay much longer and she offers to go view the weather map and let me know what to expect on my westerly route.  Moments later she returns with a positive feedback that it’s all clear after this mountain ridge and looks good all the rest of the day.  Now that’s good news.  I thank her for her help and ride off.  The worst of the storm has passed and sure enough as I keep going West the weather keeps getting better.  Moments after leaving my coverage I ride pass a bad head on collision that must have happened only moments before I passed.  It looks bad.  Firetruck is there though, no ambulance or police yet, I was to pass them some 20 miles later.  I hope the persons involved in the crash survived.
Not long after passing the accident my deerskin gloves are nice and dry…I love those things too. 

Now at this point I start remember some of Shrug’s adventure and some to the little things that can add a little stress to the ride and case in point it’s lodging.  Where will I be staying?  What will I find?  Will there be room?  Is it safe to simply camp in the wild?  I have so many questions but no answers.  I decide to try and use the GPS for this by typing a keyword CAMP…and see what pop’s up.  Well the 1^st place it found was close enough and it was getting late, and I was not really in the mood to try and set up the tent in the dark.  I don’t think I’m that good at it yet.  So the 1^st place I pull off too thanks to my handy GPS is probably what can only be described as the Municipal’s City Dump Ground!  Some guy put up a sign allowing campers on his lot but the only amenities I could discern from my 1^st ride by was the carcasses of what used to be at one point in their lifetime a panoply of RV’s and mobiles homes.  None of which could offer adequate shelter unless you were a rat.  So thank you GPS for finding me this GEM of a place.  It’s getting darker and I decide to call it quits for finding a campground and I decide to ask my friendly GPS for LODGING instead of camping.  Closest it finds is about 25 minutes south of my current position a little bit off my route but at this point I’m feeling a little bit stressed.  It had the name mountain lake lodge in the title so I figured I’d find a nice logging cabin type resort.  Well surprise surprise, it turns out to be an RV campground and they have room for a tent for 25$ a night without water or electricity.  The other person in the place at the reception/bar is this one guy and he comments how he did not know it was snowmobile season already (pun at my FF).  I tell him I’m all the way from Montreal and rode through a hail storm and severe thunder showers awhile back.  He quits bugging me and once he sees that I’m willing to pay 25$ for next to nothing for a patch of land he says and rent me a night in his camper for 15$, he’s a local and can stay at his home.  I turn down the offer, I’m guessing it might look like one of the rat infested versions I saw at my previous stop and I still wanted to improve on my tent pitching skills (have I mentioned I had never camped before, I forget?).  No registration, no taking down any of my information, I’m thinking the barmaid pocketed the money and the client tried to cut  it on the easy deal my offering me a lower rate.  Barmaid 1 – Client 0.

 I found a nice spot away from most RV’s.  It’s dark!  Guess I’ll be able to test my night time tent pitching after all.  Oh and throw in some ravenous mosquitoes to the challenge!  No worries, my only exposed skin are part of my face and I brought along some Musk Oil.  Well I got the little lantern on the forehead deal going and it works quite well at throwing the light at where you need it whilst at the same time drawing every known species of night insect that love the light!  Skills improved.  I got the tent up in less than 15 minutes, that’s 5 minutes off yesterday’s time and this in the dark to boot.  It really was a nice camp ground, right on the side of the lake

My only mistake, was I pitched my tent right next to the public bathroom and shower building.  So I got to hear all the comings and goings most of the evening to the loo when natured called.  But then again it was not that bad as most of the folks had RV’s and their own washrooms. It also worked out fine because I got to keep a close eye on my gear and bike when morning came and I took my shower.