Day 19: In my mind I imagined the rode to Kenora to be 500km of highway cutting through dense monotonous forest on either side, and nothing else. Happily, I was wrong. The ride out from Thunder Bay showed us towns, and farms, and various kinds of natural beauty. 30km into our day we came to Kakabeka Falls: a stunning gorge, the slate sharply and artfully cut by the flow of water. The river was a vital part of the trade route centuries ago, and the falls are home to the legend of Green Mantle, an Ojibwe daughter who is said to have tricked many enemy Souix warriors in their canoes over the falls.

As we ride on, the farmland eventually gives way to the gentle trees (spruce and birch?) which mingle in shades of green. I love these forests. Sometimes it's just spruce trees, and they are often very small trees, because of the short growing season up here but also because of recent logging. Somehow, they have short little branches compared to their heights, so you can see a long ways into the woods, and brown becomes a dominant colour. And when you bicycle, you move by them slow enough to notice them, yet fast enough so the colours mix in the rain. It's surreal to look at.

The scenery eventually gave way as the land opened up to let the railroad run beside the road, which then became flat and straight too. We rode fast, pushing ourselves in speed when we had safety on a big shoulder with a rumble strip between us and the traffic. We reached Upsala as a gentle rain began, so we decided to pay for a campground. It didn't really start raining for a while yet, but when it did, it would last all night, and long into the morning.

Day 20: When we woke the next day, we felt tired of riding in rain and decided to see if we could wait it out. But you can only stay inside a tent so long before you start to feel cramped and ache for a stretch (or spin!) of the legs. So in the mid afternoon we packed up and began what would be a miserably wet and cold day, making only Just to have wet, cold hands and feet can turn my mood down so much. Yet these hands and feet are a small part of my body; should I not feel happy that my core is warm? Could I? It's a struggle of mental focus, and I hope to get better at it as the rain goes on. We made only 75km to Raven Lake, some 30km before Ignace. A fuel line cut a wide swathe through the forest, and we camped behind a hill, in this grassy line, to hide from the highway.

Day 21: We packed beneath shifting skies, and rode quickly to Ignace. Eventually it warmed up and the sun stayed out, and gave us a feeling of strength that carried us through the day's 135km to Aaron Prov Park in excellent time. We arrived before four o'clock -- too early to start cooking dinner -- and we didn't know what to do with ourselves! So we hiked along some of the trails and dipped our feet into the cold water of Thunder Lake, but dared not go in for a swim. In the evening as we saw the sun go down over the lake, Ian indulged me in taking my much fantasied sunset-bicycle-lift photo. Hurray! The night was clear, and I woke around 3am to look at the stars -- my first sight of the thousands of stars I'd never seen before. Wonderment fell over me. All the struggles of the trip were worth it to see this alone.

Day 22: We woke early and packed in a record 30 minutes, happily finishing just before rain started. We ate our cereal in a nearby shelter and talked to a professor (of forestry and insects) from Lakehead, who was setting up an exhibit for the Dryden high school students. When the rain let up, we rode into a day long headwind and hills that saw us take breaks every 20km or so. It would be a long day, but I read some Lord Byron at lunch and began playing with my own poems (about the stars I saw the night before!), which kept my mind at ease and made the ride much easier. We planned to get to Willard Lake, a small town on our map, but rode the predicted distance and found nothing. We started looking for other places to camp, but eventually saw a "motel" sign in the distance. It turned out to be the Willard Lake Motel, and it was the extent of the town of Willard Lake. (Why the town is still on the map is beyond me!) Nonetheless, I asked the owner if there was a place to camp nearby and he offered to let us camp on his motel property! We ate at their restaurant which served delicious fresh caught Pickeral from the lake.

Day 23: Have you ever wondered what French toast tastes like with peanut butter? Stop wondering. It's not good! We've tried some interesting food combinations since starting this trip, and some have worked out marvelously, such as our peanut butter and jam with chia and trail mix "pizzas". We rode 50km to Kenora, beside dozens of lakes dug into the surrounding Canadian Shield hills, sparsely dotted with trees. The lakes were so still, only showing soft ripples across the surface. We got to Kenora early and spent the rest of the day in the library, catching up in writing. When the library closed, we found a trail on an island just west of the downtown, on which we camped. By tomorrow afternoon we shall be in Manitoba! Ontario has been beautiful, challenging, and felt safer than I anticipated.