Day 41: Ignace, Ont. to Dryden, Ont.

Another day, another mother trucker

Distance: 109.9 kms
Riding Time: 4:36 hrs
Average Speed: 23.8 km/h
Max. Speed: 47.4 km/h

Last night I sprang for a motel room in Ignace, so I slept in today and only got on the road by 10:30 am. The winds were going - you guessed it - from the west, so it was another day of duck and pedal riding. You just wait until I get a tailwind though; I'll go 300 kms! I promise.

Lately it seems that there is at least one close call with a big rig per day and today was no exception. Like a said before though, 99 % of truckers are considerate and share the road (I am thankful to every person that passes me safely), but every so often you get a psychopathic operator behind the wheel of this enormous and very fast cyclist-bulldozing machine. (This episode of Near Death on a Bike is brought to you by Depends. Depends, because sometimes you get the SH!T scared out of you.) Today I was leisurely biking along the very generous 1-2 foot shoulder when I am startled by the sound of a 18-wheeler's air horn approaching fast from behind. The horn continued for at least 10 seconds as the truck approached quickly and all sorts of things went through my mind. I couldn't turn around to see the issue because of the narrowness of the shoulders, but I could see there was no oncoming traffic so this trucker should not have any problems passing me safely. Well, for reasons unknown to me this person decided that I would be a good person to nearly kill. And I'm not being overly dramatic - this guy NEARLY killed me. He was so close and going so fast that if I had moved a few inches to the left I would have been clipped and severely injured, no doubt. And to add to the terror he kept his horn on the whole time! I'm not sure if many people who are reading this have ever cycled on a highway, but most have likely stood on the shoulder of a highway while cars drive by. You can really feel the air being pushed around by these machines, so imagine the scariness of a truck weighing several tons flying beside you at mere inches while the horn is blowing and there is only a loose gravel shoulder to turn to that will surely cause you to do cartwheels should you try to ride on it. Anyway, I was absolutely livid at this driver, wondering why someone would intentionally be so hateful as to do such a thing, and I was plotting my revenge should I see him again when I pulled into a rest stop to gather my nerves. A gentleman by the name of Jerry approached me and asked if I needed food or water (he was a cyclist himself), so I gratefully accepted. I told him about this trucker and, sure enough, he was being obnoxious and dangerous to everyone on the road, not just me. Jerry told me how he was behind the same guy and he wouldn't let any other drivers pass him (quite annoying on a two lane highway). Anyway, it was good to know he doesn't just have a hate-on for cyclists, I guess. (Dear Mom and Dad, I know right now you are probably worried for my life, but I'm okay, so no need to worry!)

I got to Dryden and got a bite to eat, went on the comp for a bit and tried to find a place to camp. A local guy I talked to mentioned that there were some woods in behind Walmart so I was headed there when I spotted somebody sitting on the side walk beside a bike and a trailer. I went to see if everything was okay and we started talking. His name is Bob Gent and he was heading from Banff to Montréal with his dog Harold, when he blew out is calf trying to race a bicycle courier. Silly. He was trying to hitchhike to Thunder Bay, but had been there all day and was having no luck. So I stayed and chatted for a bit, shared a beer and some stories. He had been on the move, without a fixed address for about 8 years. He carried a saxophone and made money playing that. He also told me a great story about how he beat the boredom of riding through Manitoba; he biked naked! For about 5 kms, he said he stripped down to his birthday suit and biked down the highway. I might just have to try this! haha.

Tomorrow I'll head to Kenora, then finally, out of Ontario.



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