Winnipeg

The train ride to Winnipeg was pretty uneventful... slept a lot, looked out over the prairies, and took up about 10 seats, since there were hardly any other passengers.

We arrived later than expected, which is apparently normal for the train, and got a hotel room at the Fairmont. We had a few errands to do, preferably without our bikes, so we booked two nights at the hotel so we could leave our gear in the room. We spent two days checking out the city and picking up some gear.

Winnipeg has some beautiful areas with parks, cultural exhibits, and historic buildings. The church in the picture is in the French Quarter, and has been partially restored. We were lucky to be hitting the city during the long weekend, it was busy and there was a cultural festival going on. We walked through the Forks, and toured the trails in the area. I think it was a perfect time to visit the city, everything was green and lush looking. Our hotel was right on the intersection of Portage and Main, which is apparently not always as nice.

I was especially fond of the Nutty Club buildings close to our hotel.

On our way out of town, Luke heard some strange sounds coming from his bike, and wanted to get it checked out. Unfortunately, it was a holiday, so we needed to wait another day. We got a campground just outside of the city, and spent another 2 nights. Since we were stuck in Winnipeg for a while longer, we decided to make the most of it and took a tour of the Mint. There are two in Canada, the one in Ottawa makes silver and gold collectable coins and the one in Winnipeg makes circulation coins. I got to hold a gold brick, worth $250000 and of course took a picture in the beaver coin.

To get his bike checked, Luke and I went to Olympia Ski&Cycle. For those of you who don`t know, Luke worked at the Olympia in Prince George when he was younger, and the Winnipeg store was the original. It was cool to check it out, and talk to the owner who had heard all about Luke years ago. I had also been having troubles with my seat (with Luke telling me to quit being such a baby) so we tried out a new one. I got a nice women`s specific gel seat, and it has been making a huge difference in my comfort level. I am only sorry I didn`t do it earlier!

We eventually did make it out of Winnipeg, and powered by monster cookies we biked 140km to Falcon Lake. The campground there was pretty, and along the way we found some Mr. Nutty candy so we stopped to enjoy it.

The next day we went about 75km to Kenora, and stayed at the campground on Lake of the Woods. The roads were great, freshly paved and wide shoulders.

It seems like we have made it a long way now that we are in Ontario, and we have been on the road for a month. However, Ontario is a very large province and will most likely take about another month for us to cross.

Flintabbity Flonatin

Sunday night we arrived in Flin Flon, the town where Luke was born. Flin Flon got its name from a character in a book, who built a submarine and went deep into the earth mining. His name was Josiah Flintabbity Flonatin, and there is a giant statue of him in town. The main industry is mining, and the population varies with how well mining is doing. Mining in the area begin in the 1920`s, and the main building period for homes was in the 1940`s. Many of the homes around were built during this time, and are built close together on very rocky land, with narrow streets winding through town.

A lot of Luke`s family still lives here, and we got to do a lot of visiting! We stayed with Luke`s cousin Kenny, who picked us up from Prince Albert, and spent one night out at Kenny`s cabin. It was really great to give our bodies a bit of a break from cycling, and lazing around at the cabin was a perfect way to do it.

Tonight (Friday) we are driving to The Pas, where we will catch a train (at 3am) heading to Winnipeg. Because our original plan was to follow along the US/Canada border and weather forced us up north, we have fallen a bit behind on our schedule. Taking the train to Winnipeg, and cycling on from there will help us to make up a little lost time.

Saskatchewan

Leaving Wainwright in the late afternoon we hit the road bound for Saskachewan. Less than a kilometer out of town we got this view and more or less could see what we had ahead of us. 60km later we reached the border and 25 beyond there we arrived in a cute little town Neilburg, Sask. We started looking around for a campground we heard was in town. We ran into a father and son out for their own bike ride. They invited us over to stay with them and we were happy not to have to stay in the gravelled parking lot that was supposed to be the campground! It was a great night, and after a hearty omelette and toast breakfast with Sheldon, Lorelie, and the kids we left to see more of Saskatchewan.

The pedalling was pretty easy for the most part, but we ran into more hills than we were expecting. The northern route we took has more valleys and rolling hills than the route we originally planned for our trip. Although most of the highway had very little for shoulders, and the pavement was rough and rocky, the traffic was light and it was easy to stay out of the way. Our biggest troubles came when large tractors crossed our path, we had to watch out for some slow moving large loads.

From Neilburg we passed through Cut Knife, Sask and checked out the worlds largest Tomahawk, had some of Lorelie`s tasty energy bars and powered on to the Battlefords. After going from visitor info, to the public library, to a corner gas station in Battleford and not being able to find anyone who was willing to help answer any questions, we got frustrated and headed another 5km over the brigde to North Battleford. After a few more negative experiences with the people in North Battleford, we finally (after 120km) found a campground we could stay at. After 1000km of cycling, this was the first time we had people yelling at us out of their cars, and making inappropriate comments. It was disapointing after being shown so much hospitality on our trip to have such a negative experience and we were glad to get moving again.

After another 80km day we arrived in Hafford, where once again the people were friendly and we found a free local camping area next to the town ball diamond.

Another 80km and almost no washrooms later we reached Shellbrook, and another community campground. By the end of the day the headwinds were so bad that we were pedalling hard and barely moving. We saw several twisters in the fields around us that were at least 30feet wide at the bottom! This is something that we don`t often see in BC, so it was a little bit scary but also a little bit exciting. One of these passed through on the highway between us, but luckily it was behind Joanna and she didn`t know about it until after it was gone.

Our last day in Saskatchewan was a short 45km ride into Prince Albert, where Luke`s cousin Kenny met us and drove us back to Flin Flon, Manitoba, Luke`s hometown.

Edmonton to Wainwright

Heading out from Edmonton we ran into some pretty strong headwinds which slowed our progress. We only made it about 45km to Tofield before we decided to give up for the day and set up camp in the local RV park. The next morning John (the local cycling representative) came by to welcome us to the town with coffee and cookies. It was such a nice treat and friendly gesture! He was able to tell us about the roads (and shoulders) in the area, including accurate distances only cyclists seem to know. We got a later start that day due to visiting, and still faced some headwinds, but with some nasty storms lurking we managed to sneak through into some sunnier and warmer weather.

We passed through some wonderful/interesting towns. Bruce for example, typical small town Alberta has everything someone could ever need in a town as the sign clearly shows. Gas, Diesel, Propane, a Stampede of course and lest we forget a curling rink - Lets just say `Paradise`. Around 70m later we arrived in Viking(Home of the Sutters, for all you hockey fans) where we pulled over to look at our map and figure out a good place to set up our tent for the night. While we were looking, a man came over and started telling us about the local attractions, so we asked him if there was a good place nearby to camp. He offered us his backyard, which turned into his spare bedroom, dinner, breakfast, and a loaf of freshly baked homemade bread for the road in the morning. Thanks Dodds and Sharon! It is so nice to be shown such great hospitality while we travel!

We finally hit some warm beautiful weather and a good tail wind, and made in another 80km to Wainwright. Wainwright, formally a Parks town home to the buffalo is now home to a large Canada Forces Training facility as well as oil, gas and agriculture and was much larger and busier than we were expecting after passing through so many tiny towns.

Edson to Edmonton

The weathernetwork was calling for minus 7 with the wind chill, but it felt more like minus 20 so we braved the elements for as long as we could. Even still we`d stop at every business we could find just to warm up even a little. After a couple of hours of fighting the north cross winds and 45 km later we stopped at a campsite along the highway at Niton Jctn.



We had multiple warm showers and tasted sausage/bacon and eggers with coffee to fuel our next day. We knew we were about to have a big day, as we were heading to Auntie Kathy and Uncle Dean`s house 115km away. I dragged Joanna out of bed, and we rode well for 60km and then began to slow down. We decided to stop and warm up at the next town, which turned out to be Gainfield, a real "treat" for anyone passing through. We enjoyed the local entertainment provided at the restaurant. Re-engergized and warmed up we pushed on and did really well again for a while... but then faded out and dragged ourselves the rest of the way, but made it safe and sound. 116km later it was our longest ride so far on the trip.

We took the next two days off to rest up, do some laundry, and pick up a few needed bike parts. We walked the entire length of West Edmonton Mall, went into two stores, and spent $24. We did our best to eat Dean and Kathy out of house and home, as our metabolism was really starting to speed up. We were very happy to have a warm bed, and warm showers, and decided to keep up the trend by heading to the other side of the city to stay with Uncle Gary and Petra. (By vehicle of course).Somehow Joanna`s bike went from being a cool Giant bike, to being branded a Harley Davidson. If all Harley`s were this cool, I might actually consider buying one. After being spoiled by the luxuries of great food, fun company, and real beds we finally decided to press on and get back on the bikes.

jasper to edson

With clean clothes a half re-built wheel and a new direction of travel we rolled out of Jasper. In what was a cool slightly stormy day we were fortunate enough to have a perfect circle of blue sky above us. It headed east at apx 25km an hour and so did we. With the blue sky and a nice tailwind we made great time cruising by elk, sheep and of course the mountains, the last of which we will not see for a long long time. We stopped in Hinton for some fresh food at the IGA where joanna visited the bear(see picture). With the blue sky still moving east we decided to continue on. We continued over the rolling foothills out of Hinton, and guys, if your girlfriend asks, the Obed Summit(highest point on the yellowhead hwy) is the second really big hill about 30km east of Hinton. Anyhow after conquring the obed we soon powered out at 105km our longest day so far and with no campgrounds in site we spotted a nice flat piece of quad trail about 20m off the highway. Although not the most luxurios camping spot the cheese filled smookies finished the day off perfectly.

The next morning we awoke to the sound of snow softly sprinkling all over the tent. With the highway clear of snow we decided to brave the elements rather than just sit in the tent with no idea of when the weather might change for the better. I think it was a bad call, we fought headwinds, and steady mix of rain, sleet, and snow all day. Through in a flat tire some extremely cold feet and hands and it was decided to make this night a hotel night. After freezing all day the hot showers, hot tub, and waterslide were just what the aching legs were screaming for.

It`s clear out but very cold(minus 7 with the windchill) and we`re preparing to head out, would prefer another day in the hot tub but oh well.

Prince George to Jasper

The first day on our cross-country cycling tour was short, but went smoothly. We didn`t leave Prince George until around 3pm, cycled a little under 40km and camped at Willow River rec site. We were still smiling at the top of the hill looking back over town as we left.

Day two we went on to Hungry Creek (about 60km) and set up camp again. It was a great spot for us to set up for the night. Although we could see bad weather all around us, we managed to stay dry except for a brief hail storm.

Day three we were lucky (?) enough to see a lot of wildlife. Deer, a moose, a coyote, and 8 bears. Most of the bears just checked us out as we rode by, but one male black bear got a little more curious than we would have liked. Luckily there was enough traffic that we could pass by the bears while vehicles drove by, making them too nervous to check us out closer up. At one point I (Joanna) was riding ahead of Luke and came upon a grizzly in the ditch right beside the road. We didn`t notice each other until we were side by side and I am not sure who was more nervous! Definitely the closest I have ever been to a grizzly, and after my heart stopped racing and we had pedaled by without incident I had to admit it was pretty cool.

About 1km from our next camp site at Lasalle Lake (75km) Luke had a spoke break on his bike, making it un-ridable. We were able to walk the bike to the camp and set up for the night. In the morning Luke`s dad came by to help us out, picked us up and drove us to Jasper, where we were able to pick up the needed parts. It was a nice rest day for us, and helped us to make up some time and distance. Thanks Barrie!

Tomorrow morning we are heading out towards Edmonton. We originally wanted to head through the Icefields Parkway to Calgary, but -15 weather and lots of expected snow has called for some changes in our plan. Fortunately we have lots of time and no real schedule to stick to, so we are looking forward to whatever will come next!