Last night, Scott from the place with wifi gave me a bag of marshmallows for the journey. Those marshmallows let me introduce myself to the retired couple camped opposite and I toasted some on their fire whilst they told me stories of their travels in Canada. Once it was dark, I snuggled down in my tent to the sound of the waves lapping the beach and the frogs singing in the ponds.
I set off onto the quiet highway with a tailwind and the sun behind the clouds - perfect riding conditions! I merrily made my way north, enjoying the views and taking the huge hills in my stride. 7kmh up, 70kmh down, and repeat :)
On one of the hills I was cranking my way up, there was no traffic for a while and the world was peaceful. The trees rustled, the birds sang, the frogs made their whistling music and then a wolf stepped out of the woods! He walked halfway across the road, stopped to look at me, then kept going until he vanished into the trees.
I did my allocated 65km by lunchtime. When I arrived at the campsite, the sky darkened and it started to rain. So after lunch, I got back on the road to avoid a boring afternoon. It rained for the whole of the 5 hours it took me to get to Wawa and the smell of the lush green forest filled my nostrils. Sometimes it rained a normal amount, sometimes it hammered it down and a few times, it rained so hard that the road turned into a river and I had to pull over because I was invisible in the torrent.
The scenery was still beautiful the whole way. I saw a beaver dam and a moment later, its creator! I saw a vulture circling some road kill. And I saw a sign for a motel in 6km - salvation!
By the time I checked in, I had ridden 145km of mountains and I was knackered but happy with the day's work. And if I'm honest, I'm glad of the change in the weather. I got a tailwind, a break from the relentless sun and not a single biting insect could fly in that rain! Not to mention that I feel totally hardcore - there's no way I would have managed that a few weeks ago.
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