Rest day over I’m officially past the half-way mark so it’s time to start the journey home. Leaving Manitoulin Island means taking the ferry back to Tobermory and the first ferry of the day leaves at 11:10am so there’s no need for an early start. Even still, once I’m up there isn’t much to do at camp so I figure I may as well go down to South Baymouth, get some breakfast, buy my ticket, and hang out there until the ferry comes in. South Baymouth is tiny, you could walk the whole area in 5 minutes, but it has a couple of Pokemon Go gyms for me to take over and a picturesque little lighthouse. After that I just spend my time looking at the water waiting for the ferry to come in, it is very clean!
One thing about being on a bike waiting for the ferry is that you stick out a fair bit. Pedestrians are able to book passage on the ferry neither the Bruce Peninsula or Manitoulin Island have much in the way of public transportation so all the other passengers had their cars with them. So there were curious people asking where I was going and where I had been. For whatever reason a lot of these were Americans. I’m not sure if Manitoulin Island has more American tourists than anywhere else in Ontario. It could be there are lots of American tourists in Toronto or any of the other places I visited on my trip but because I didn’t talk with them I didn’t know they were American. It could also be that American tourists are just more outgoing so they were the ones to start conversations with me. I had fairly long conversations with a couple of Americans both waiting for the ferry and on the ferry itself. Once you’re out of sight of land you’re just surrounded by endless water, which is nice for a bit but gets boring, so you may as well talk.
Leaving Manitoulin at 11 means that I arrive in Tobermory around 1pm, half the day’s already done! I stop at the Foodland to pick up some sports drink, granola bars, and cookies. Also they had foil emergency blankets so I get one of those – maybe I’ll be able to sleep warmer at night. My goal today is to make it to Lion’s Head, which isn’t too far from Tobermory but the route I’ll be taking meanders. On the way up I made my own route using navigation apps and it was pretty much the shortest route that kept me off main roads. On the way down I’m using the Great Northern Bikepacking Route which was developed with contributions from people that live and ride in the area. I’m not sure exactly what to expect but the route has me zigzagging my way down so it looks like it’ll be a fun day.
The route immediately takes me away from Highway 6 onto some small deserted road. Nothing here but driveways to cottages. I follow the road to it’s end and there’s supposed to be a hydro cut I can follow to connect me to the next road but for the life of me I can’t find it. I walk around the area ignoring the no trespassing signs and while I can see the hydro wire the terrain underneath it doesn’t seem passible for as much as I can see. I could probably hike it, but pushing my bike along for however long until it gets clear doesn’t seem like the best idea so I decide to backtrack. That means going back to Highway 6 and passing the Foodland to go down to the next road my route would have connected to. Not the most auspicious start to using the GNBR but on the next turnoff it starts to get better. First off I pass by the secret cottage of 2 founding Avengers and soon after there’s a nice lookout onto Lake Huron. The road passes by a campground and after a bit more I’m back to Highway 6, but just to cross onto the other side. The road on the other side has a No Exit sign on it which means adventure is up ahead, the gravel gets a bit rougher and there’s a pretty big downhill that goes on a for a long time and at the end the forest road opens up onto a couple of farmhouses. Past the houses the road is blocked by a gate but an ATV trail continues beyond it so I just need to open it to continue. The gate isn’t locked but it does require me to solve a puzzle in order to continue, I’m figuring its a way to make it so that people can open and close the gate but livestock wouldn’t be able to. I need to move the chain along the slots so that I can remove it and open the gate. I’ve never seen something like this before and while I know what I’m supposed to do it takes me a bit to figure out how to actually move the chain in order to do it. But eventually the gate is opened and I can continue on my way, but first I have to close the gate and put the chain back in.
Just like riding on gravel roads is more fun but slower than riding on paved roads. Riding on ATV trails/doubletrack is more fun but slower than riding on gravel roads. The trail goes from forest to clearing to forest again and because it had rained a couple of days ago in some sections there are puddles, some that I can blast through and some that are really big I have to be a bit more careful crossing so that I don’t totally soak my feet. As I approach and ride through the smaller puddles all these frogs that were hidden in the water jump out in every direction. It’s both creepy and cool and I tell myself that I probably didn’t run any of them over. While I’m riding I spot a small lake and decide that would be a nice place to take a break. Along one side of the lake it looks like there are a bunch of cottages and some people are even swimming by their docks. The lake is really small and from where I am the water looks pretty murky. It probably isn’t that bad but I’d rather swim in a larger, clearer lake.
One problem with riding through forested sections is if I stop then the bugs will be all over me. I didn’t bother packing insect repellant because I figured I’d be moving most of the time and I’d be sweating it out pretty quickly anyway. Even while moving some mosquitoes and black flies will land on me but it’s a lot better than when I have to stop, like when I need to tree pee. As I approach Lion’s Head the forested road opens up and along one side I can see the bay right under me. It’s an abrupt change and while riding on the trails and roads didn’t feel particularly claustrophobic there is definitely a very welcome feeling of openness one this stretch of the road. I make my way into town, the campground is right on the lake by the beach. Kids are playing on the beach and going for a swim would be fun but it’s pretty late in the day and I want to make sure I can get supper before places close for the night. By the time I get there the local Foodland is closed so I won’t be able to get anything for tomorrow’s breakfast from there but at least there are open restaurants for supper today. Back at the campgrounds there are washrooms for campers, you need a combination to open the lock, and I can take a nice long shower and leave my battery for charging for a while. When it’s time for bed I decide against opening up the emergency blanket I bought today as an added layer because I’m worried about condensation, it might get pretty damp right by the water. Hopefully it won’t get too cold tonight.
tariq.ca 