A Voice In My Head That Drives My Heel

I left Shoal Lake and continued north on Hwy. 16. After about 20km, the paved shoulder disappear and I began thinking of other options. I looked at the map and I hadn't yet strayed too far North to return to the TransCanada Highway, so I decided to do it.

I took a series of dirt roads named like County Road 99 or Township Road 148. I forgot how much I enjoyed riding on dirt roads. One of my goals at the start of the trip was to ride off paved roads at least once a day, which I had done for most of the first month of the trip, but had neglected a bit in Western Ontario and the prairies. I stopped in Birtle and ate an ice cream. As I was packing up, a man named Ron came up to me and asked me about my trip. He told me he bicycled from Vancover to Halifax in the summer of 1972. It must have been quite the trip back then! (Hi Ron!)

I went to a grocery store in St. Lazare and as I walked in a guy saw my bicycle and said, "There's big hills leading out of town no matter which way you go!" I got some chips and pop and then I was standing outside looking at my map on my phone and deciding which roads to take to return to Hwy. 1. The same man walked by again and said, "Oh, you won't have WiFi here!" Why all the negativity?

(There weren't big hills leading out of town -- maybe 50m of climbing. The man had clearly not ventured too far from St. Lazare, Manitoba in his life.)

I entered Saskatchewan on a gravel road near a large Potash mine. There was no sign to take a picture of my bike beside, unfortunately. After about 25km on the gravel road I got to Rocanville and ate some snacks. I had a choice of heading south on a paved road and re-joining Hwy. 1 in Moosomin, or staying on gravel roads and rejoining in Broadview, which would be shorter geometry, but unpaved for another 40km. I decided to stay on the unpaved route.

I had a blast tearing down the gravel roads with a decent tailwind. I must have been going 25 mph at times, with gravel spraying off my tires like the wake from a motorboat. I felt energetic even though I was near the end of a long, hot day.

Around 7pm I got a text from Robin saying that she had also returned to Hwy 1. She had been on a more southern route, but also didn't like the road conditions. She was staying in Whitewood for the night and we decided to meet up agian. I turned south a bit and arrived at the municipal campground just before dark. It was nice to see Robin again. We decided we'd ride together a bit longer.