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Avery's Ride for PKU blog

I will be blogging about my preparation and planning leading up to the ride and will try to Blog as much as possible as I pedal across the country.

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  • Jul9Wed

    Nipigon and Terrace Bay

    July 9, 2014
    Its July 9 and we remain on schedule and arrived in Terrace Bay today.  We were in Nipigon yesterday after a chilly but nice ride from Thunder Bay.  We found a nice camping spot that was cheap, right on the water.  After a coffee at Tim Horton's we headed down and set up our tents.  It was cold and windy which made setting up my huge tent kind of hilarious as it kept blowing over before I could secure it.  Eventually I got it set up and had a nice relaxing night.  Nipigon is the home town of famed curler Al Hackner and has the smallest Canadian Tire in Canada.  We had a campfire with some wood that the previous people had left for us and made smores.  Svend had no idea what a smore even was. I was anticipating a cold night but it was not bad and after a slower morning I was on my bike again by about 8:30.  The ride today to Terrace Bay was absolutely beautiful, and one of the best days we have had so far.  There were three really big climbs today and I am finding I enjoy the challenge of climbing hills.  Plus the scenery on those climbs today was incredible.  I also met Frederick today when I came across him trying to fix his tire.  He explained that he had three flats in the last day or two and was out of tubes.  I had a few extra so I was able to help him out with that and some water.  Its quite convenient to have a support van along for the trip.  After Frederick got his bike fixed we rode together to Terrace Bay, he was hoping to get to Marathon today so he continued on.  Frederick is hoping to be back in Sherbrooke in 15 days.  He is doing lots of miles everyday and his bike is really heavy with all of his gear.  Again another advantage of having the van.  About 30km before Terrace Bay we stopped to eat lunch at a rest area and two other cyclists came in who were travelling east to west.  They left Halifax sometime around the end of May.  It turns out that one of the guys was also from Kitchener and they were students at Trent University.  Good Luck guys, hopefully the wind is kind to you in the Prairies!  Also at that rest station a lady must have seen the signs on the van and gave me $20.00 to go towards the ride.  I have her a card and she may read this blog and if so I just wanted to thank you again for your generosity.  Speaking of generosity my friend Kristie who I visited in Thunder Bay connected me with a friend of her's from Terrace Bay who was trying to arrange for us to get a hotel room here.  Turns out there is no campground that is close to Terrace Bay.  When we arrived I had no cell service so could not check to see if Kristie's friend had any luck.  I did have wifi so I emailed Kristie, the next thing I know she is on the phone paying for us to have a hotel room here.  Unbelievable.  Krisite, thanks again, your help tonight made a great day even better.  I appreciate it so much.  Everyday I'm blown away by the help we are getting.  Tomorrow we head to Marathon and are staying with Dave Koevoet's parents.  I went to Tyndale College with Dave and am looking forward to hanging out with his parents for a few days.  I think they have arranged some sort of meet and greet at the mall so that will be a great opportunity to share about the ride with the people there.  When I heard about this my first thought was "Marathon has a mall?"  After tomorrow we will also have our first rest day since Winnipeg so that is something Im looking forward to.  Lastly I've seen two bears in the last two days which if you know me you will know that this is a little stressful for me.  

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