Day 50 – Rest day in Sault Ste Marie at Velorution

We said goodbye to our fellow touring cyclist friends this morning who were all departing today. We are taking the day off to catch up on our usual chores (laundry etc) and maybe go check out downtown Sault Ste Marie if we have the time (we tried their new Hub trail to try to get to downtown, but it wasn’t completed yet so we gave up).

We had been debating taking the South route through the USA to get across Lake Superior but in the end we decided to tough it out and stick to the North shore in Canada (we are crossing Canada after all!). We had a good chat about both routes with one of the bike mechanics here, and with Erin who did the cycle around Lake Superior with Amanda, and they all said we can’t really go wrong with either route (although the USA route is easier). I really want to see Terry Fox’s memorial so in the end it was an easy choice despite the traffic and the tough hills that everyone has been talking about (although Mark mentioned last night that the road to Terry Fox’s memorial doesn’t allow bicycles or pedestrians – of all roads it seems a little ridiculous!). It’s been really neat talking to everyone about the Northern Ontario route and how different opinions can be, but our general conclusion is that with the right attitude we will be okay. It also sounds like the shores along Lake Superior are just beautiful.

We are now sitting outside Velorution enjoying our time off and reading their guestbook. The store has now closed and unfortunately so far no one else has arrived so it may be just Katherine and I here tonight. While reading the guestbook we found some amazing entries in their guestbook that we just had to share with you. Here are some of the many:

“May the wind always be at your back,
and the shoulders ever wide.
And may the downhills always be longer than the ups”
– The Cyclist’s Toast
By Christian Pye

Also:

Entry June 14, 2010

“Jay from Vancouver. Heard from others on the road about cool bike shop. Arrived, showered, camped, had fire, drank wine and slept like a baby!”

Entry July 09, 2010:
“No matter where you go in the world, you’ll always find nice people..”

And also:

Entry June 2010
“Je n’ai aucune idee de la date qu’on est ni meme de la journee qu’on est, tout ce que je sais c’est trouve un Bike Shop avec un camping et des gars …”

Rough Translation: ” I have no idea what date it is or even what day of the week, all I know is that I have found a Bike Shop with camping and great people…”

It is amazing the number of people who have stopped by here cycling across the country (or the continent, or the world!). And to think of all the people who went by and didn’t know about Velorution, I’m sure the numbers add up to an incredible amount of people cycling across. We can’t wait to meet more great people. Sometimes you think you are the only ones cycling across, but it is amazing to know there are so many others doing the same thing! One of the staff told us that the other day they had 25 cyclist camping here!