We had a fantastic start to the day thanks to Dan and Elizabeth. They cooked us a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and bacon, and gave us frozen juices to take with us. They also froze one of our water bottles for us. They sure knew what it was that we would really like! After having a nice chat in the morning, we eventually had to get back on our bikes. We said good bye to Dan, Elizabeth, and Emma and got back on the road.
The weather was great, and as we started the day the roads seemed to have flattened out. Then at the intersection of highway 4 and 118, we spotted another touring cyclist on the other side of the road looking at his map. He was the first touring cyclist we had seen since Quebec! We were very excited and stopped to talk to him.
His name was Dale and was very enthusiastic and friendly (like most touring cyclist, especially when we encounter one another 😉 He was currently living in Halifax and had flown to Vancouver for his work and was biking to Ottawa to catch a flight home. He was a seasoned touring cyclist and had many great stories and tips for us. He mentioned the bike shop in Sault Ste. Marie and how fantastic they are to touring cyclist (free camping and showers even!). We recalled that the touring cyclist we had met all the way back in Edmunston, NB, had also mentioned the same store. We had a great chat and exchanged our names and contact info, and got a photo of each other. Dale was biking 190km a day and with a flight to catch in Ottawa within the next couple of days he had to keep on trucking. We said our goodbyes and parted our ways. It was so nice to talk to another fellow touring cyclist, especially Dale who was a great guy.
We stopped in the small town of Gooderham for a quick break, and had one of the frozen juices that Dan and Elizabeth had given to us. They were so amazing and we wished we had a mini fridge on our bikes so we could have them everyday.
We biked some more and came across “The World Smallest Bookstore”. Very cool!
Our next stop was Kinmount, where we grabbed some lunch at their beautiful park right in the centre of town along the river. Katherine casually mentioned that we should probably cut the tie wraps that kept our newly purchased bear spray closed. I told her I doubt we would see a black bear now that we were headed towards the big city of Orillia the farmlands near Kincardine.
We decided to stock up on groceries in town, when the weather drastically changed and it down poured for a good 20 minutes while we waited at a dry spot at the grocery store entrance (we’ve always been lucky so far and have avoided being on our bikes in the pouring rain). As the rain calmed down and the sun came out, we hopped back on our bikes towards our goal of Orillia. Right outside the town we came across a very bizarre collection of shoes on trees (you’ll have to see the picture yourself)!
The roads were flattening out and it seemed like we were mostly going downhill towards Orillia (finally!). We even started to get a tail wind!
About 10 minutes later, as I was enjoying the change of terrain and the tail wind, suddenly a black bear came running out of the forest about 30m in front of me. It stopped in the middle of the road and quickly looked at me. I stopped right away on the bike. Next thing I knew it ran to the other side of the road and disappeared in the forest just as quickly as it came out. While this happened I was trying to get my camera out (perhaps the bear spray would have been the better choice but luckily we didn’t need to use it, especially since it was still tied up with the tie-wraps since we bought it!). Katherine witnessed all of this from about 100m away down the road. I was surprised our small black bears are. Grizzly bears on the other hand would be different story I am sure.
We realized that to the North of us was the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park, which occupies a large area and would explain the black bear. It was strange because there was some traffic on the road but no road signs mentioning bears. I guess you can say that this was my highlight of the day!
The rest of the day was not too bad biking wise. We came to the town of Uphill, which actually wasn’t at much of an Uphill at all. We made good progress with the flatter roads, little to no traffic, and the tail wind. In the end the tail wind had died down but by then we were very close to Orillia.
We eventually arrived at the Maya Provincial Park just outside of Orillia on the shores of Lake Simcoe. The park was actually very swampy, and there were quite a few mosquitoes. We camped as close as we could to the showers as this was another record setting day of biking (132+ km!) and we wanted to minimize our exercise in the evening. We decided we would take a rest day the next day to let our bodies recover and get us to Kincardine. We looked forward to not having to pack up our gear the next morning and to be able to visit Orillia to stock up on groceries and do some laundry.
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Trip Around The World 
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