edwards block

Yorkton to Roblin, MB. DAY: 95.26km. ODO: 2,778km. AVS: 14.8km/h. MXS: 42.0km/h. ATM: 6:24:01.

If every day was like today, I’d have packed it in and flown to Costa Rica by now. When I got up this morning, it was quite cool, and fully overcast (it had been clear and mild when I went to bed). I had breakfast and was packed and ready to go by 9:00. I had put on my rain jacket and water-resistant pants, just to keep warm. As I got on my bike to leave, I felt a drip.

I waited to see what would happen. I don’t like to over-react, otherwise I end up going to all the effort of digging out the rain gear and suiting up, only to find it’s just a brief shower. A few more drips. After a few minutes, the drips had become a light drizzle. Since the sky was solid grey, I unpacked the real rain gear and put it on. I left at 9:30. Before I was three blocks away, it was pouring.

I resigned myself to a day of rain, not too upset, as I have been very lucky so far. Everyone I meet tells me that it has been raining in Saskatchewan for two solid weeks, but this is the first I have seen. It might, of course, be like Vancouver, where it will be dry for ten straight days, and when it finally rains everyone whines “all it ever does here is rain”. (And they say I’m negative).
I rode eastbound on highway 10. The first thing I noticed is that yesterday’s north-easterly wind had become an easterly wind, with increased velocity. I remember before I left home – so many people telling me how I’ll sail across the prairies, barely needing to pedal, pushed by the winds at my back. What rubbish! I had a tailwind from Banff until Calgary, a cross-wind from Stettler to Biggar, and it’s been cross- or headwinds ever since.

Seven kilometres out of town, I got a rear flat. As you will recall from yesterday, this is a brand new tube. In wind and driving rain, I put another brand new tube in, reassembled the load, and carried on, now with numbed fingers. Three kilometres later, it’s flat again. I decide to walk the 10k back to town, and sort it out, figuring that I’d probably need to stay another night and start again Wednesday. After 5km, a nice guy with a truck stopped and offered me a lift to a bike shop.

As we rode into town, he asked me where I was from, and when I said Vancouver, he told me a story about the time he went to visit a friend in Fort Nelson. This often happens when I meet people in small towns. One woman said “Oh, you’re from Vancouver, what a coincidence! I lived in Kamloops for two years back in the 80’s”. Anyway, the guy in the truck reported that he hadn’t enjoyed the trip, as the scenery was nothing but rocks. Uh, you mean the Rocky Mountains?

Anyway, I went to the bike shop, and I decided that the problem may very well be he tire itself, as I can see a couple of well-worn spots on it. So, I bought a new tire. After that, I grabbed a little lunch in town. Recognising that the sensible course of action would be to find a hotel and relax, I decided, since it was only 1:30 and I had eight hours of daylight left, to get back on the road.

What a gruelling ride! The wind seemed to get stronger, and both pairs of my Gore-Tex gloves, as it turns out, are about as waterproof as a sea sponge. My canvas shoe covers don’t seem to be dong much to keep my feet dry, or warm, either. I knew I should have bought the neoprene covers. I have neoprene gloves, but they are buried in the bottom of one of my panniers, and you can bet that if I start searching for them on the side of the road that they will all be open and emptied before I find the gloves.

Thus, within two hours my hands and feet were all soaked, and numb from the cold. But, I think about other things, and carry on, and there isn’t a hell of a lot of choice, besides turning back, which I wasn’t prepared to do.

At about 4:30, the rain stopped, but the trucks that passed were blowing all the residual water up off the road. It was another hour before the roads dried up. I tried to wring out my gloves, but the liners, being fleece, don’t ring out well. I was forced to suck the water out of each finger. After that, they warmed up considerably.

I arrived in Roblin, Manitoba at 7:45, but then I remembered that I am now in the Central time zone, so it was actually 8:45. I checked into the local motor hotel and grabbed dinner at the only place open: “Chicken Delight”. Ugh! The resemblance to actual chicken is purely promotional.

Doubt the power of the wind? Check out my average speed for the day: 14.8 km/hour. That’s six hours and 24 minutes of almost continuous riding (only stopping to drink, eat chocolate, and urinate). Incidentally, I recently weighed my bike at one of the truck weigh scales. 110 kilograms (including rider). That would be a total of 240 pounds or so that my poor Achilles tendon is pushing into to the wind.

The primary thing to note about Manitoba, from a technical-cycling perspective, is that the highways suck! In most places, if there is any shoulder at all, it’s about two inches wide, with a three inch drop to the gravel, which is generally quite soft and quite unsuitable for riding upon with road tires. However, in most cases the width is moot, as there is no shoulder at all, just a white line painted against the gravel edge. Fortunately, I have encountered little traffic, and of that, most motorists have been quite cooperative. I’m not sure if will be as good after Winnipeg (toward the lakes and Ontario), though.

I don’t think the Roblin area riding is held by the Liberals:

Tuxford to Regina. DAY: 89.04km. ODO: 2,459km. AVS: 17.6km/h. MXS: 38.0km/h. ATM: 5:03.

I woke up at 5:00am, as all of those lovely birds that I am so fond of were all chattering up a storm. However, as I was awake, I did notice two White-tailed Deer standing twelve feet away from my tent. They hung around for about ten minutes before moving on. Then, I got more sleep.
However, I was up again at 8:00, and I got packing. Though I am constantly getting more efficient at packing up all my stuff, I’m not getting any faster at it, and I still wasn’t on the road until 10:00. There were still no park staff on site (must be a union shop), so I didn’t have to pay for the past two days.

I was heading southeast to Regina. Unfortunately, the wind was coming from the southeast, just my luck. The wind had much less strength than previous days, but once you et moving into it, it still seems pretty strong. On the way to the Trans-Canada junction, I spotted a Marbled Godwit looking for food on a stubbly field.

I was quite lucky with the rain once again. As I was slogging down the Trans-Canada, about 30km west of Regina (you can see downtown Regina from 35km away), there were sheets of rain coming down about a mile to the south, but it was still a mix of sun and cloud where I was. About 10km from Regina, I got hit with just a few drops, but it started pouring behind me (no doubt onto the other cyclists from BC that I had passed). I checked into my hostel at 5:00pm, just as it started to pour. Beat it again!

I stopped for lunch today at “Chubby’s Bar and Grill”, in the town of Belle Plaines. In these small towns, wherever I stop for lunch, they always have a TV playing, and they all seem to be tuned to the same channel – some CTV station. The show that is always on is some sort of talk show cum self-help program, hosted by a woman who looks vaguely like a young Marlo Thomas. Today’s topic was on sleeping problems, and they had some kind of expert on that was explaining sleep issues from all sorts of perspectives. At one point, he said that he was accustomed to seeing numerous patients who do not know that caffeine causes sleeplessness if consumed in the evening. What kind of moron can grow to adulthood without learning a thing like that? If these are the kind of twits that are sucking up the heath care dollars, maybe a little privatisation is a good idea. If they have to pay $35 to ask a doctor a stupid question, maybe they’ll use their brains a little.

And as long as I’m on a good rant – the commercials on daytime television! There was one ad, one of those ones that shows someone in some “lifestyle activity”, with a voiceover explaining why this product is perfect for his or her activity. This one showed a guy climbing a Kilimanjaro-like peak in burning noon-day sun, and his commentary was all about how he needed a good, strong antiperspirant that could handle the job. There were lots of camera shots up the guys’ armpit, etc. Who the hell cares what you smell like when you’re doing something like that? Need to smell nice just in case you run into Prince Charles and Camilla out on some precipice? Give me a break!

As long as I’m in complaining mode, let’s talk about these guys (I have yet to see a woman driving one, though I’m sure it must happen) in giant motorhomes that have every convenience of home. What kind of mileage do these things get? It can’t be very good if they can justify burning the extra fuel to tow their Grand Cherokee behind them! It’s this sort of resource wasting that really burns me. The parodist in me is tempted to continue my trip across the country with a small tricycle tied to the back of my bike.

Tuxford (Sightseeing). DAY: 37.26km. ODO: 2,370km. AVS: 22.0km/h. MXS: 51.0km/h. ATM: 1:41.

Since I’ve been here, I have seen: White Pelicans, Common Loon, Western Grebe, American Wigeon, Franklin’s Gull, Spruce Grouse, Grey Catbird, Rufous-sided Towhee (spotted western) and a Chipping Sparrow.

As I am staying another night, I wanted a little more food. The small store here in the park is only open weekends, so I had to ride into town. Tuxford, the nearest town, is about 15km away. I rode in with the wind at my back, only to find that Tuxford has no stores at all. Back through the wind I rode.

I went for a long walk up the lake, looking for the Buffalo (which are apparently kept somewhere nearby) as well as historical information – apparently this park is named after a place into which the Indians used to chase the buffalo, trapping them for slaughter. But I found nothing, other than a bunch of mosquitoes and a wood tick that tried to attach itself to my leg.

Tim’s legacy, coast to coast:

There are still no other campers here, but there are some people that come during the day with their boats, mainly to fish. However, there is a crew out there today water-skiing, with something that I’m sure they refer to as “music” blasting periodically over the water.

The squirrels here are a little annoying. They must be used to people feeding them, as there are several varieties that are forever running around my site. One kind, that makes a noise that sounds like a bad cell-phone ring, appeared under my picnic table suddenly this morning, as I was sitting at it reading Saturday’s Globe and Mail. He let loose his ear-splitting ring, startling me into smashing my knee against the top of the table and spilling my tea. I jumped up and threw a rock at him, but he only chased it to see if it was something edible. They need more birds of prey around here.

Cutbank to Tuxford (Buffalo Pound Provincial Park). DAY: 152.00km. ODO: 2,332km. AVS: 21.9km/h. MXS: 47.0km/h. ATM: 6:56.

As I was packing up, an American Goldfinch dropped in to feed on the dandelions. They were much higher than he, a problem he solved by walking up the stem until the top tipped to the ground and he could pick at the seeds.

I set out at 10:30 without a firm destination in mind, just a direction. I would travel southeast on highway 42, another quiet, secondary route. I thought about spending a night at (Tommy) Douglas Provincial Park, also on Lake Diefenbaker, but as it was only about 55km away, it seemed like too short a day. The next park was 150km away, which I didn’t know if I felt up to. The only practical place in between to camp would be a municipal site in the town of Eyebrow, a little more than halfway from Danielson.

By the time I got to Eyebrow, it was only 4:30 and I decided to keep going, as the Buffalo place sounded more interesting. Unfortunately, the wind (in a rather abrupt change from the past week) has shifted, and was now blowing from south-southeast. It wasn’t a strong wind, but I was heading straight into it, and combined with my own speed, added challenge.

After the town of Keeler, I spotted a pair of Willets on the bank of a marsh and stopped to observe them for a while. This turned out to be quite interesting, as I had an opportunity to observe them copulate, which was the most excitement I’ve seen for some time. Also along the way I saw some Eastern Kingbirds.

I arrived at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park at 7:15. I am the only human in the entire place. Very quiet! I don’t usually light a fire when camp, but I did this evening, for a change. It had been quite a cool day, and I was feeling a bit chilled at the end, and this warmed me as I prepared my dinner.

Birding has been very good since I left Saskatoon, and I can already see that it will be good here too, judging by the numbers of birds passing through my campsite (and singing around it).

Sunset over Buffalo Jump Lake:

Saskatoon to Cutbank (Danielson Provincial Park): DAY: 108.57km. ODO: 2,180km. AVS: 24.6km/h. MXS: 42.5km/h. ATM: 4:24.

I left Saskatoon at the bright and early hour of 12:00 noon today. I followed highway 291, a little-used southbound route that follows, roughly, the South Saskatchewan River. I passed a great little marsh where I saw a Horned Grebe, a large flock of Franklin’s Gulls, and a dozen Black Terns.

I am encamped within the boundaries of Danielson Provincial Park, which sits on the north shore of Lake Diefenbaker, an artificial reservoir created by the Gardiner and Q’Appele dams. I arrived at 5:30, which left me lots of time to prepare dinner and go for a walk. During my walk I saw two white-tailed deer, a beaver, a Yellow warbler, a flock of Cedar Waxwings, a Flicker, and possibly a pair of Grackles. Some nearby coyotes howl periodically as well, at sundown and beyond.
It’s not a bad campground, for a public park. Pretty quiet, lots of foliage. Reminds me of Bird’s Hill, near Winnipeg, a bit.