Day 20: Highway and wilderness

I packed up my wet tent in a small cloud of midges and hit the road in the calm and relative cool of the morning. There was no escaping the highway today. There were beautiful forests and lakes all around, but no lovely backroads. It's strange that there's endless wilderness in every direction except for one narrow strip of road with the occasional town along it. It's pretty remote now, I only passed a few houses all day until I got into town.

My tiny hard shoulder was pitted with what looked like construction vehicle tyre marks made before the asphalt set. It wasn't until I went over them going fast downhill that I realised it was a rumble strip. Luckily it only lasted half the day because it wasn't much fun to ride on when the trucks came past.

It was a hilly one today - not a flat piece of road all day! I hit a new speed record of 53kmh on a particularly long downhill section. It got breezier over the course of the day and I was suffering a bit with the headwind by the time I came into Mattawa at lunchtime. I'd done 70km and a thunderstorm was passing through so I decided to call it a day and get myself and my kit cleaned and dried.

Since I left Pembroke I've been riding alongside the old railway. In Quebec, they turn their old railways into cycle paths. In Ontario, they just rip up the rails and sleepers, leave them on the side of the track and let the quad bikers have at it. At least someone is enjoying it, I suppose. I just selfishly feel sad that it isn't me!