Day 8

I woke a couple times through the night – rain spitting on my tarp. It was cold too; it didn’t feel like the middle of summer, closer to autumn. Mosquitoes plagued me too, biting my neck and face. By the time it was light I was itching to get outta there and hit the road.

You never really know what days on an adventure like this will stand out and be remembered in specifics. This day was one of those days. The road hug close to Lake Superior – dense fog blanketed the landscape. The road undulated like a rollercoaster – grinding up hills that slowed my pace to unspeakably slow. Then crest the summit and fly down the other side at 65kph. Repeat over and over again.

Eventually the fog lifted and the scenery revealed itself. It was so worth the wait. A hundred years ago the Group of Seven (seven Canadian painters who traveled into the wilderness to capture Canada) spent four years here exploring and painting – I can see why.

After 140km I was still feeling good and decided to go for a bit more. The next place to stay for the night was another 40km away. The last 20km were pretty tough – plenty of hills and accumulated lactic acid from the day.

Arriving in White River I was exhausted and so ready to be done for the day. White River has a strange distinction – it’s the home of Winnie the Poo, well sort of. In 1915 a Canadian soldier stepped off the train for 6hrs in White River. While there he met a trapper who gave him an orphaned bear cub. By orphaned I mean that his mother killed by the trapper and made into a nice rug. The soldier takes the bear with him all the way to England, making it the regimental mascot and named it Winnie after Winnipeg where he was from. Eventually he has to leave England and go fight in France – he gives the bear to the London Zoo where a few years later AA Milne sees it and decides to write a story about it for his son Christopher. So a guy stops in a town for 6hrs, steals a bear, gives it to a zoo, a writer writes a story about it and the town where it all began forever associates itself with a story that in reality has nothing to do with it.

Recap:
Distance - 184km
Location – White River
Accommodation – hotel
Meal of the day – Poutine
Beard status – looks almost on purpose
Song of the day – Times Like These (acoustic) – Foo Fighters (it was playing just as a bear and her cub walked across the highway right in front of me)
Photo of the day – The Fog II