Day 38 - Upsala, Ont. to Thunder Bay, Ont.

June 20, 2026 (Saturday)

Start Time: 6:40 am (Eastern)

Stop Time: 2:00 pm (Eastern)

KM Travelled: 131.4 km

Elevation: +780/ - 1,051 m

Special stuff: Sharing from other bikers and their experience, Good drivers, My Oma

Waking up this morning, I prioritize booking a massage in Thunder Bay. As suspected, everyone is booked - ALMOST. I am on a mission and find a Thai masseur (male massager) at Thai Smile (I know, sounds dodgy, but I'll take my chances) and I book a traditional massage for tomorrow afternoon. All part of the adventure.

Living on Eastern Standard Time, I notice a major change that affects my riding. It is still too dark to ride at 6:00 am. Maybe it's the just the rain clouds that make it this way, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to get going this early.

By 6:30 am, I’m ready to leave. I look at my bear spray and practice the move to take the safety off and remind myself which direction I need to point the spray. I mentally play back the video that a Knowledge Keeper sent me about how to use it. I’m ready for bear country!

Hearing the click of the motel room door close always feels such a final thing – it means that the ride of that day WILL happen. It means that some time in the next 8 hours, I WILL complete the planned ride, and I WILL be at the next destination. I imagine myself there. All I need to do is bike – that is my only job.

Today there is a risk of thundershowers starting around 11:00. At that time I, expect to be about 100 km into my 130 km ride. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do if there’s a thunderstorm, other than to put on my rain gear, keep my helmet on, get away from my steel bike, and take cover!

There are many sections of this highway with a super narrow paved shoulder to ride on. The shoulder itself is wide, but most of it is soft gravel – unridable. Some sections have a wide paved shoulder and the riding is fabulous! On the skinny shoulder sections, I am watching for wildlife on both sides of the road, I am looking for traffic coming towards me and the traffic coming from behind me. When it looks like two big rigs or campers are going to meet right beside me, I pull off onto the soft shoulder and let them pass. (This was a really great piece of advice I got from one of my experienced rider interview conversations). Sometimes I miss one, and the big rigs slow right down and wait to pass me (thank goodness). Overall, I’ve been impressed with truck drivers. I would say 97% are amazing. There are 3% who are complete idiots (drive past me fast and/ or close). I understand that sometimes truck/ campers/ vehicles can’t pull over, but ALL of them CAN slow down (including me when I drive). 30 seconds or even a minute of going slower is not a major hardship – hitting a biker and living with a lifetime of regret is a much bigger price to pay. I am someone who used to be intolerant of bikers on the road - this experience has done much to raise my awareness of biker safety.

Ontario has safety signs all over the place, things like “Fatigue Kills Take A Break”, “Watch Kids Around Water”, and “Life Jackets Save Lives”. This sign today, I just can’t believe they needed to make: “Can’t See? Don’t Pass” (I mean, seriously.)

At 8:30 am, I come across the change to Central/ Eastern Standard Time Zone sign. It is very clearly identified. There should be NO confusion about where the time changes - it's pretty obvious (but...maybe there are factors related to the time change that I'm not aware of).

Around 9:00 am, I come across a rest stop that identifies the Arctic Watershed (elevation 504 m), which means that from here, all streams flow NORTH into the Arctic Ocean. Wow, now that is pretty darn interesting! Not sure why there is a moose and a bear on the sign though - maybe the hotel manager back in Upsala put them there.

Because of construction stopages, the traffic in my lane flows with a pattern, I try to time my stops for when the the traffic is going past me. I observe that there are A LOT of people hauling fishing boats. They come past me in groups between 2-7 vehicle/ boat combos. I assume they are all together because they are one right after the other. I wonder, does each fishing person have their own boat? That would seem lonely fishing alone…maybe there are two people per boat. I’m guessing walleye is the fish people are after here too, but that has not been fact-checked.

The ride today is challenging because I need to be so focused on traffic and safety. It’s hard to enjoy my time on the road. Progress is slow. I need to play some mind games to stay motivated. I ride 5 km and get rewarded with a break and a snack. Anything past 5 km and I celebrate with a mental ‘pat on my back’. Small wins and successes are kilometers in the bank.

Eventually the highway shoulder is fully paved and I’m making great progress to Thunder Bay. It starts to rain lightly. I enter the city following my Ride with GPS route and come through a rural neighbourhood. There is a smell that I can only describe as 'Sunday Afternoon' – the damp air smells of evergreens, lilacs, and earth. If only I could capture this smell in a bottle!

Here is a picture with a whole bunch of lupins...lupins in so many different colours have been everywhere along my ride in BC and Ontario (not so much in the prairies - there were very few flowers in the prairies).

For Mother’s Day, my husband and I gave my mom a potted lilac. She loved the gift and said it's the flower that blooms around my late Oma’s birthday. My Oma was (and still is) very special to me – I miss her a lot. It may sound strange, but I feel like she is with me on this ride. I see her in the flowers, I smell her in the lilacs (lilacs too have been blooming everywhere along the ride in BC and Ontario), and I feel her on cold days keeping my feet warm (with the socks she knitted). I even think that sometimes she brings me a cloud to give me shade when it's super hot. It is a comforting feeling having her here with me.

I get to my hotel (Day’s Inn, of course), have a shower and head off to the bike shop by taxi to pick up some supplies at 3:15 pm. I plan to be quick, so I hold the taxi for a return trip. While in the bike shop, the sky busts open and DUMPS, like DUMPS rain and hail onto the city. It’s a crazy, awesome experience (and thankfully I'm not on my bike). I have THE BEST taxi ride back to the hotel sheltered from the thunderstorm and enjoying a chat with the taxi driver.

I drop my goods off in my hotel room and go next door for dinner as the afternoon sun comes back out. I have chicken parm on a bed of spaghetti with some garlic bread on the side for dinner - this has turned into my ‘meal of choice’ after a long day’s ride. If it’s on the menu, I always order it (so interesting - the body must know what it needs).

Tomorrow is a rest day that I look forward to very much!