The observant reader will notice we have been behind in our story-telling for quite some time. This is largely due to the lack of computer time available. We've both been taking daily written notes, but transcribing them online is a hassle. At the time of writing this, we are in Kenora's public library. So that we don't get too behind, we will be writing two articles. This one will tell of events up until around Thunder Bay, and the next, by Geoff, will tell of events between Thunder Bay and Kenora.

Day 15 began in the woods with some light rain. We got tired of waiting it out, so we packed up our wet gear and headed back into Marathon. We bought some groceries and found the library. We were two-for-two in terms of nice librarians. She let us take our bikes inside and we spent a few hours inside, writing the now very ancient Day 10 and Day 11 entries. Happily, the hill to get out of town wasn't near as bad as I'd remembered last night. I guess I was tired. Somebody in the library told us that we would have some hills to climb between Marathon and Terrace Bay. She was quite right. She also told us it would flatten out past Terrace Bay. She was quite wrong on this point, but maybe her advice helped inspire me to make it through the first day, having some hope for the next.

Although the hills were sometimes several kilometres long, it was well worth it, in my opinion. The scenery was stunning. We wound in, out and over the mighty rocks which compose the Mighty Canadian Shield. We would finish an ascent, completely exhausted, and then we would have exhilarating drops, doing 50-60km/h, with views of lush forests stretching either to Lake Superior in the distance, or right to the horizon. And then, immediately, another long ascent. Sometimes the road would go through huge canyons of rock, with walls on either side rising to 100 feet, having been blasted out of the shield to put the highway through. Geoff remarked that it made him feel like Indiana Jones. We passed many smaller lakes, which were quite pretty too. The traffic was very good, and we had nice wide shoulders.

We finished the day by finding a hiking trail just past Terrace Bay, going about 500 metres into it, and pitching a tent at the first grassy spot we sighted. It was about a metre from the path, but we didn't encounter anyone that night or the next morning.

Day 16 began on that path. Our spaghetti meal last night was not much fun to cook on the floor of the path, so we went to a pic-nic table at the entrance of the hiking trail to cook our breakfast oatmeal. We discovered on this day that the lady at the library had told a very big falsehood regarding the flattening out of the land: it was just as mountainous as the previous day, if not worse. Although the after-lunch ride was relatively flat. We persevered, and the weather was gorgeous, and the scenery was still great.

We saw our first moose on this day. It was drinking from a puddle in the ditch beside the road. We stopped to take pictures. It stared at us intently, but was unconcerned with the cars and trucks. It ran off into the bush as we got closer.

We rode to Nipigon, a nice little town, where we had another Warm Showers host lined up. His name is Michael Elliott and he runs an outfit called Epic Adventures. A very nice man. We set up our tent in the yard, and he and his teenage daughter cooked us some delicious pasta for dinner. After dinner he was very kind helping us to clean up our bikes and fix some minor problems. He knows a lot about bikes, and is an avid mountain biker. We chatted for a long time about his business. He loves Nipigon. He claims that it has all the natural beauty and attractions as British Columbia, it is just not advertised well enough. This is why Epic Adventures is his passion. He takes groups on hikes, kayac tours, and mountain bike trails in the local region.

We were a bit frantic, or at least I was, in the evening, about where we were going to stay in Thunder Bay. We really wanted to take a rest day there. Muscle is best strengthened by taking a day of rest between workouts, and we had been working out for many days in a row. There was one guy on Warm Showers who looked like a perfect fit, but he hadn't responded to the email we sent from Marathon, and he wasn't picking up his phone. Eventually I left him a message, his name is Frank, apologizing for late notice, and asking if he might email us before the morning with a 'yes' or a 'no'.

Day 17 began on Michael's lawn. I checked my email and was very relieved to find a reply. We were amazed at the level of trust Frank had for a couple of guys that he had never met: he said that he might not be there, but he told us how to get to his house, and how to get in.

Michael had a 17km hike planned for the day, so we packed up and left just as his customers were arriving. Coincidentally, he was going to be hiking the trail we had slept on the previous night. We were scared of the winds that had been howling all morning. Happily, they turned out to be tail winds. And the terrain was more or less flat. The day's ride was a breeze, pun intended. The roads were either perfect, or awful. This was because they were probably all awful last year, but have been repaving them one bit at a time. One nice road feature they are putting on some of the newer stretches is a rumble pad to the left of a wide shoulder. Those are are really nice and safe.

Back near Wawa the road signs were very intimidating, quoting large numbers like "530 km" to Thunder Bay. But we eventually reached it, and I think we are both very glad that we chose to ride North of Lake Superior.