Day 26 - Relief at Last!!! (Beausejour MB - Kenora ON)

After a great night sleep, we started out at a little before 8 AM for our longest leg of the tour (106 miles).

Our route today took us due east through more prairies, and then south east through a provincial park in eastern Manitoba. 

Before we got to the park, we had one last bit of prairies to cross - here is my final (I hope!) East/West perspective - notice how the wheat fields on either side of the road have been replaced with woods!

About an hour into the ride we rode through the little town of Gladstone MB, and stopped at a tea house for freshly baked cinnamon buns.  Well worth the stop.  The lady running the tea house had checked her calendar from last year and figured out when the "Tour" riders would be coming through so she had plenty of freshly baked "sticky buns" ready for us - not so simple a task given the number of bikes on the lawn.

Halfway along the route, we finally saw the last of the prairies, and on entering the Provincial Park started our ride through the Canadian shield.  Finally a real change of scenery :)  Who ever thought rocks could be so exciting!!!

In the park I wanted to stop at the Goose Sanctuary, where they advertised 181 protected geese.  Somewhat of a disappointment when I found that the geese which were protected were Canada Geese, which are basicaly urban pests in New Jersey - we have probably 200 of these geese on each of the soccer fields at home in Randolph.  Needless to say I did not stay long.

Today marked our entry into the 5th province of the tour - Ontario.  We were greeted with 10' wide freshly paved shoulders which made for great riding (at heast for the first 20 miles).

After what seemed like a few weeks of riding in great, sunny weather, our luck finally came to an end.  About 10 miles from Kenora, the skies opened up on us and we got soaked!  We stopped to warm up, and attempt to dry off and wait for the storm to pass before pitching our tents.  No such luck, I ended up pitching my tent in driving rain, and having to mop it out before putting our stuff in - it worked out quite well and despite the torrential rain (until 4 AM) I got dry and warm.  Apparently it rained over 3" in less than 8 hours.

Rest Day tomorrow!!!