West of Toronto at Last

Another good day. More rain this morning - but it varied from a drizzle to fairly heavy - and never got bad like yesterday. The rain all wrapped up by about 10:30. Then, out of the cloud and in to sun by about 14:00.

This was my route - see Google maps. I am so glad I stopped at  St-Côme - the piece of  347 to Mont Tremblant was fantastic. Very Very pretty - and a fun fun ride at the speed limit and sometimes below. On a dry sunny day - this would maybe be the best bike road in Eastern Canada that I have ridden on. Really. The entire ride from Mont tremblant to Les Escoumins via the route described yesterday is really worth putting on your list of things to do!

So - running up 117 was pretty - but the only really great picture was the Chute du Brule on the Gatineau River. Worth 2 pictures:

By the time I had arrive at Chute du Brule - the rain was over - but I left the rain gear on - because it was cold! Down around 15C and 16C - and I had not zipped the liners back in to my riding suit - because yesterday was so nice! OK - some details on that - when I got up in the morning and saw the rain - I went to grab the liners out of the canoe pack. I had been and idiot and had not hung them up. They were damp - so stuffed them back in the pack. They are hung up to dry properly tonight!

I do not want you to think that 117 is not pretty - it is. You cross a ton of huge rivers - I really had no idea how may really really big rivers there were in this part of Quebec. I think I crossed at least 4 notably large rivers. Very pretty - I enjoyed the ride - but no other really WOW photo shots.

At Rouyn-Noranda -the Garmin wanted me to go north on 101 - I was sure it was wrong  - so I ignored it and continued west on 117 to 66 - and thus to Kirkland Lake.  Somewhere between  Rouyn-Noranda and Kirkland Lake - I am rolling along at the operational speed limit - and boom -out of the ditch on the right side of the road comes a bear cub - I hit the brakes - it scoots across the road and into the ditch on the left side. I thought  about stopping, turning around, and trying for a picture. But - dealing with helmet, gloves, and camera does not make for a quick escape if you turn out to be between Momma and Baba - so I passed on a photo.

So - here I sit in a Super 8 (clean, hamburger was good, nothing special but not bad) in Kirkland Lake. I wondered - where am I? turns out I am at 48.1497° N, 80.0315° W. Mimico -where I live is at  43.6146° N, 79.4957° W.

BOOM - I am west of where I started! I therefore declare this to be the beginning of the Westbound Loop!

So - in the morning- north on 11 - pick up 101 - and shoot along the cost of Superio on 17. I think I will  just ride to Wawa and call it a day - or  I might continue to White River or Marathon. We will see.

Oh -one other issue - I am running "high" on the bike's mileage - about 1500 km over budget.The concern is when to do the tire change and the next scheduled maintenance. No big deal - I just need to keep an eye on it - maybe do the maintenance in Edmonton before heading north? The good news is that the stock Bridgestone Battleax BT023s are holding up well - so at this point - they are not a limiting factor.

One other interesting thing today. I bought a "car charger"for my Pixel phone.I have only used it one other day -nothing to report - it worked perfectly. Today - phone got low - plugged in the charger- and I got a curious error message on the bike's dash. I will monitor this for a re-occurrence and take appropriate action if required!

Cheers all!