Riding Day 46 – Not Our Favorite

Somehow it never occurred to me that the worst combination of heavy traffic and poor shoulders would be in Canada. The Trans-Canada Highway from Spragge to Sudbury is mostly two-lane, although there are a number of places where there are three lanes, with a passing lane on one side or the other. The paved shoulder is mostly only a foot or so wide, barely wide enough to ride in. The traffic is not continuous, but it is very frequent, and often consists of strings of vehicles. There are lots of heavy trucks. Most people move over to the left when they pass us, if they have the opportunity, but they can’t when there is oncoming traffic, or when they themselves are being overtaken. The result is a high frequency of close shaves. As is true everywhere I’ve been, the logging trucks are the worst offenders.

It all added up to a very stressful day of riding. Fortunately, it was only 63 miles. I think there was some pretty nice scenery, with woods, lakes, rivers, and farms, but we didn’t get to see much of it, because our eyes were glued to the shoulder and our mirrors.

We did have some very nice interactions with local folks. A couple of very hospitable rural neighbors graciously allowed us to eat lunch in their yards when we really needed a stop. One of them even invited us to use the table in her back yard. And a bit later, when we wanted to be sure we had the right side road to get to our campground, a man even volunteered to draw us a map. And it’s always great to hear the local accents and speech patterns,

So we’re camped in a nice rural RV park with lots of trees, a lake, and lots of long-term campers. They advertise wi-fi, but it only works near the office, so I hope this gets posted today. And they recommend boiling their water before drinking, because they didn’t pass their last inspection. Ah well, we’re one day closer to Maine!

BTW, today's photo is of Kate and Tom Stohlman (me on the right) during their visit yesterday. I tried to upload it yesterday, unsuccessfully.