Day 9: Monday, June 23, 2003

I awoke at 9 AM and showered. The bike was covered with bugs from the night before. To that was added a thick layer of pine pollen that had fallen during the night. I had to clean it thoroughly. By the time I finished this it was 10:30 AM. I set out, looking for breakfast. McDonalds and Burger King stopped serving breakfast at 10:30, but I found the 3rd Street Bagel Shop in Marquette where I got a really good sun-dried tomato bagel with cream cheese, an OJ, and coffee.

Leaving Marquette at about 11:15, I rode for 10 hours and covered 450 miles. Most of the scenery was hardwood forest, very similar to the day before. The only real point of interest was the "Soo Locks" at Sault St. Marie, Michigan, which I had seen as a young child on vacation with my parents. There were a lot of workmen around. It appeared that the locks are under renovation. My recollection of visits as a child are that there was a pretty constant stream of shipping traffic through the locks, mostly ore ships moving between iron mines of Northern Michigan and smelting plants downstream in Ohio and Pennsylvania. I did not see any ships this time -- probably testimony to the current condition of the steel industry in the United States.

Riding Ontario Highway 17 east from Sault St. Marie, one of the coolest things is the Ontario highway patrol. In this part of the province they ride black-and-white Harley-Davidson dressers. Not only that, they apparently always ride in groups of two or four -- very impressive on the highway.

Highway 17 parallels the North Channel of Lake Huron, west of Georgian Bay, and I had looked forward to some pretty water views. In this I was disappointed. Although the highway must run fairly close to the water, it is completely surrounded by woods, and the lake was invisible for virtually the entire trip. I got pretty excited when I approached North Bay, Ontario, and actually saw water. The lake there is the smaller Lake Nipissing, not the vast expanse of Lake Huron or Georgian Bay.

I ended up for the night in a lakeside cabin in North Bay and found a good British-style pub in town -- the "Bull & Quench" on John Street -- for a couple of beers and fish and chips. This seemed to be the only place serving food late. It was a cozy place with a lot of friendly locals. Food and lodging prices in Canada were very reasonable, in part due to the current exchange ratio of the Canadian dollar, worth about $0.70 US.