tmacphail.ca

I left the campground early to have breakfast at a bakery I had seen in town because I was running low on oatmeal packets and wanted to ration them for a couple days longer. I still got off to a pretty early start and eventually had lunch in Wynyard where I picked a shaded spot on the grass in one of the parks in town (all the picnic tables were out in the sun).

These days are all sunny and hot and I’m now wondering why I complained about the cold last week. Somewhere in between would have been best.

Half of the day was spent going through the Quill Lakes International Bird Area which is a protected area of lakes and marshes because of all the birds that use it while migrating each spring and fall. There didn’t seem to be many birds there at this time of year though. However, that didn’t stop a small group of birds from trying to chase me away (probably due to a nest not too far from the side of the road).

I setup at the Foam Lake Campground and then went into town to do some long overdue laundry. I wore my bathing suit and my one cleanest shirt so that I could wash everything else at once. While waiting for the laundry I bough a few groceries including a 2L carton of milk. It had been marked down in price because of the upcomming expiry date and was cheap enough that I could buy it and not be bothered if I had to through some away because I couldn’t carry it with me. It also enabled me to buy a box of Kraft Dinner to eat tonight.

While having dinner I checked my phone and discovered a couple voicemail messages left over the last couple days and called home in response to them from the mosquito free safety of my tent (the mosquitos here are awful). Unfortunatelly my phone card didn’t last very long despite supposedly having $10 on it. I guess it either had pretty bad rates or a high connection charge.

It was a hot morning because of the lack of shade in the overflow area. This sapped my energy and caused me to take my time in packing up. It’s not right to be sweating at 8:30 in the morning while doing nothing.

I had a break in Clavet in front of their highschool and read for a little bit before continuing on to the Elstow rest area where I had lunch offered to me by two Salvation Army officers who were there. They had first offered me coffee but I declided that because it was far too hot out for a warm drink. We talked about my trip for a while before they had to get back on the road.

Not long after lunch I got a flat in my rear tire from a shard of glass which I then gave myself a small cut on my thumb with as I removed it. Luckilly I had just patched the holes in my spare tubes the night before because when pumping up the tire after replacing the tube, I severed the tube around the valve stem and had to replace yet another flat.

As I passed through Colonsay I went to the co-op for a drink and to see if they had any bike parts. I needed a new spare tube and some tire levers because my current ones may not last through another flat. They didn’t have any so I will just hope I don’t get any more flats until I can find some.

This felt like a long day because of the heat and I would have happily stopped earlier if I could have found any campgrounds. Unfortunatelly, there were no campgrounds or suitable places to camp at the side of the road until the Lanigan Lions Campground.

I woke up early this morning to try to get an early start. This was not to be because I was invited to a Canada Day pancake breakfast with the Saskatoon Trailer & RV Club at 8:30. Who am I to turn down a free meal.

After I breakfast and packing up, I discovered that my front tire had somehow gone flat. I broke one tire lever and nearly broke the other two getting off the front tire which hadn’t been removed (and thus loosened) before. I didn’t get on the road until after 10 which was considerably later than I had planned for since I was going to have another long day riding all the way to Saskatoon.

There was a light tailwind today. Though it was hardly enough to help my riding. I stopped in Raddison for a snack and to refill my water which had become warm in the sun. The welcome sign to the town said “Welcome to Raddison – Taste Our Water”.

I had various other stops on the way into Saskatoon though I don’t know how often or how far apart they were because I have been trying to look at my odometer less lately. I find it causes me to worry too much about how long the day is (or how long the whole trip is).

I had trouble finding the Gordon Howe Campground because the camping guide listed the head office’s address and not the location of the actual campground. There were signs on the streets which I didn’t notice because I was following directions from my GPS to the address in the guide. When I finally got there after calling for directions, I ended up in the overflow area because it was a busy weekend. The overflow area was a field with no shade other than the fence around it which wouldnt provide shade until later as the sun sank. At least they charged me less than full price for being out there.

There were fireworks over the river that I saw while brushing my teeth but didn’t stay up to watch them. It had been a long day and I wanted to get to bed.

There was a thunderstorm during the night but my tent kept me dry as usual. I took my time in the morning to let my tent dry, have a shower, etc. and was on the road by 10. I finally had a light tailwind.

Shortly after leaving town I saw an Edmonton transit bus on the highway. It’s a long ways from it’s route. This reminded me that I had seen three 98 B-Line busses on the highway after I crossed the border into Alberta. Those were even further from their route in Vancouver than this bus was today. Strange that I would see the same thing on my first day in two different provinces.

As per the usual, I had my first break at the side of the road in the grass. There just aren’t any services at any of the small towns along the way. I had lunch at the Halfway Park campground which was labeled on the highway as a rest area though I was able to find an unused site with a picnic table anyways. I don’t know what it was halfway to though.

After lunch I went 51km without stopping because I was enjoying the tailwind so much. After that I took a couple more stops heading into The Battlefords. I had to descend down to the North Saskatchewan River to cross a bridge which resulted in a large hill to climb back up to get to the campground.

At the David Laird Campground all the tenting sites were flooded due to the thunderstorm but I was able to get a RV site at the tenting price. When I had my shower after ariving I discovered that my shoulders are pretty sunburnt because I was wearing my sleeveless cycling jersey and obviously didn’t reapply sunscreen often enough.

I somewhat wished that all my dinners weren’t hot as I ate dinner this evening in the sun before the air had cooled down.

Nobody found me during the night so I got up at 7 and was on the road by 8:45. I’ve noticed that my shorts are getting pretty dirty so I’m going to have to do laundry soon. Until then I’m restricting myself to my one pair of less dirty shorts.

I took various breaks throughout the day as I was still fighting headwinds. They became more frequent later in the day. I had lunch in Vermillion in front of an A&W where I also was able to fill up on water again.

I finally got to Loydminster and stopped at Tim Hortons for some timbits. From there I crossed the border to Saskatchewan to get to the Weaver Park Campground. The border itself was just a line of pillars running down one of the streets perpendicular to the highway.

I checked the visitors center to get a campground/hotel guide for the province and also looked for a badge of some sort. They didn’t have them either. It looks like Yet yanother province without them.

2 provinces complete!

I was lazy this morning and got off to a slow start not looking forward to the continuing headwinds. It was a cloudy day and I took breaks about every 30 minutes. Since I couldn’t find anywhere for lunch I just lay in the grass at the side of the road on a bit of a slope to eat lunch.

10km later I gave up fighting the headwinds and found a small stand of trees not too far off the side of the road where I could hide my tent. I lay in the grass reading for a while longer before setting up my tent to test to see if I would be spotted. I wasn’t so I setup and had dinner. I would have to conserve water because there was no nearby source of it and I needed enough to make breakfast as well.

I had a late start this morning because I had to get groceries and also ate out again. Having rest days at hostels is probably going to be the most expensive part of this trip because I prefer to save my other food for camping.

On the way out of town I stopped at the Legislature building and Royal Alberta Museum to see if I could find an Alberta badge. Nobody seems to have them anymore. I guess I’ll have to look on e-bay or something if I want these when I get home. After wasting time looking for that, I finally started heading east where the roads were just as bad leaving as they were entering the city. I think this is what finally started the support bar on my handlebar bag to crack as it bounced up and down.

There were strong headwinds on the highway and I had to stop numerous times for a rest until I got to Elk Island National Park for lunch. It was already 3:00 and I was only half way to my destination for the evening. There wasn’t much to look at on the road so I just pushed on with more stops to rest from the wind.

I finally got into Vegreville and stopped for a DQ sunday because it had been such a long day. Once finished, I went down the street to the Elks Kinsmen Community Park which is next to the world’s largest pysanka (easter egg). It’s a pretty small campground and would have been very crouded if all 98 sites were filled. It was also quite noisy for a while as some high school grads were partying a couple sites down. Luckilly they lefy by 10:30 and I was able to get to sleep (hoping that there wouldn’t be too many trains in the night as the tracks run right through the park).