August 20th
06:00-18:15
Whitewood SA to Ignace On
838 kilometers
I got up and packed up my gear. At 06:30 I was on the bike and on my way. I crossed into Manitoba. The roads were quite a bit worse. Lots of “black snakes”, where they tarred the road cracks rather than repaired the road. It made riding much more interesting because they are slicker and almost cause you to track them rather than go across.
As I approached Brandon I could see rain clouds ahead. The humidity was noticeable now as well. The main route went around Brandon and the alternate one went into Brandon but also pointed directly at the clouds. I went ahead and made the right turn anyway. Immediately the road turned into gravel. As I went under a railroad bridge I came up to the back of a line of cars waiting on a flagman. He waved me to the front of the pack (about 15 cars) and when I got there said that it’d keep me out of the dust cloud being at the end of the cars. I thanked him for being thoughtful. How cool.
When he waved us on I went into Brandon and stopped at a gas station. I filled up and watched the rain clouds. Since it was starting to sprinkle a bit I broke out my rain gear and neatly packed up the leathers and headed off to find the main road. I was hoping to ride in the rain gear for a while but the rain let up fairly quickly and I had to stop on one of the side roads and get out of the gear. It was hot.
I got on and headed out to Winnipeg. The wind started picking up almost immediately and in come cases was quite strong. One thing that started was the loose skin at the left side of my neck started rippling in the wind (if you haven’t had it happen you don’t know what I mean). Initially it was an interesting feeling but it got sore after a while.
I got to their beltway (rt 100) and circled the city. Once I got to Rt 1 again I headed east towards Ontario. At one of the stoplights after making the turn someone in a beatup sedan chatted with me about my trip and destination. You know, lights are all that short so it was a brief conversation. After he pulled out though I noticed that he had police lights in his back window.
lots of construction, grooved roads. no pavement for a couple of km. arrive ignace at 6:15. reviewed path. going to sault ste. marie and probably toronto. i saw a jacknifed tractor trailer on the side of the road. it was starting to get a little muggy prior to brandon. black snakes, two bears on the side of the road. trailer on the side of the road on fire before the bears.