kevin goes east

I stayed in Virden after the border crossing. I was trying to make it to oak lake but decided it was getting late and didn't want to get caught in the storm.

For the border crossing i decided to celebrate with a pitcher of beer and some nice pasta.

The next day i woke up pretty hungover, i haven't drank any beer since i started my trip and it really hit me pretty hard. I was not looking forward to biking 100 km feeling like crap but i guess lesson learned. I stopped in oak lake for some food and i was pleasently surprised to find manitoba's version of peters drive inn there.

From oak lake to brandon was a really nice ride, it was quite scenic from what i was use too in saskatewan. It looked like it was just about to start raining so i started to push the pace a little bit to brandon. Below is a hill from oak lake to brandon, i hit about 50 km/hr down it.

I was hoping for an exciting sign when i got to brandon, but it was just a pretty plain sign which kinda dissapointed me. I decided to go to Douglas 20 km east of brandon when it started to pour like crazy.

Douglas is a really small town with tons of mosquitoes. I had to wear my rain gear anytime i left my tent, i was basically a human meat stick walking around for mosquitoes to attack.

I biked around a bit and couldn't find anyone to talk too, so i started knocking door to door to ask if i could sleep on there lawn. The first person said no, but the second person i asked said yes.

 

I left Douglas around 8 am, i had a really hard time sleeping with a bunch of kids playing at 12 at night on the street and the constant pounding of rain on my tent.

There was an awesome tail wind that made me really happy, i was cruising at 35 km/hr on flat grounds just racking up the km's. I stopped in sidney for some lunch, but apparently everything is closed on sunday's in small towns. I had emergency food and water to make it to the next town but this was definitley unexpected.

I was cycling along and stopped on the side of the road to drink some milk when a female cyclist pulled up beside me. She was around 6' tall and had thighs that probably weighed more then me. Her name was nikki and asked how i was doing, and if i was biking across canada. I said yes, i was just in total shock of her massive legs and she was carrying such a small load on her bike. She had a road bike with triathlon bars and i think she average 200 km's a day which is just absoulutley insane. If you look up amazon in the dictionary, there would be a picture of her. We rode for a bit, but once a hill hit, she just dropped me so fast it wasn't even funny.

After getting dropped, i was day dreaming of her massive legs and then i felt this hard bump from my back tire. Son of a bitch, my first puncture of the trip. I pulled over and it took me about 15 mins to take everything off my bike, fix the tire and put everything back.

 

The roads from brandon to porche le prarrie are horrible. For some 10 km stretches there are no ridable shoulders, so you actually have to ride in the car lane which is extremley dangerous, good thing it was a sunday with medium traffic or it could have been a lot worse. 

Just before i arrived in porche le prarrie i met this japanese man, Sokichi Takashita, aged 61, who was walking from vancouver to newyork and back to vancouver. This guy was insane i couldn't ever imagine doing that. I tried talking to japanese to him but it was just a disaster, i think i actually said dasvendanya or something so i just kinda stopped talking and signed his flag and wished him well. Here is a link more about him i found:

http://www.sprucegroveexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2609160

I watched the thunderstorms at the hotel in regina the night before, and thought no way would i be leaving the next day. For some reason, when im at hotels i leave at 11, lying in bed as long as possible before i have to start doing my bike checks before i head out.

Heading out for regina was pretty unsettling, there was a tornado warning that day and ive never been a tornado before nor do i want to ever be in one. There was wind as usual, ive grown quite a hating for any head or side variety. Im trying my hardest to not get to angry and pissed about things i can't control, i just have to accept it and deal with it the best i can.

Arrived at Indian head quite early it was around 68 km from regina. there was a storm ahead and i thought it would probably be best to camp there for the night. I biked around the community to see if i could free camp anywhere but nobody would let me sleep on there lawn. So i biked 2 km to the KOA campground and payed 25 bucks to sleep the night. They had wireless internet so i could check my email and such from my tent, it was quite neat. Some of the RV's there had satellite dishes on them, it was quite amazing.

I did notice one thing, my compression sack that was suppose to be waterproof definitley is not. If you've ever slept in a soaking wet sleeping bag, you would know that its not something that is enjoyable or recommended, and it adds a ton of weight to it. I like to sleep in my underwear so lets just say it was not a good night for me.

Left pretty early in the morning, and my plan was to head out to white wood. I got pretty tired and decided to stay in broadview for the night. I went up to the sweet dreams motel, and asked the owner where the campground was. He said that i could stay for free since i was a cyclist! Sweet, i felt bad and gave him 30 bucks for his genrosity. It was definitley a sweet dream i slept the second i got in and was asleep for about 12 hours.

Once again, i had to drag my lazy ass out of bed the next morning. I was hoping to break into manitoba today, but i left around noon this time so it was looking doubtfull. I find i don't mind biking at 9 am - 12 pm. But once 1- 4 hits my productivity and mental focus just takes a nose dive. I like biking at 6 and later but thats when i like to be in a town and try to find a place to sleep before bad weather hits.

I made it into mosoomin and started looking for a place to camp. Found a pretty sweet spot right off main street by the train tracks by some trees that hid me from the houses across the street.

There is however a down side about camping beside train tracks. Around 3 - 4 am in the morning, I thought there was an earthquake outside when two trains came blasting through. At every crossing, trains blow there horns to warn people, and believe me they are fracking loud as hell. I was sleeping probably about 20 feet from the crossing, so i got a got a good blasting of horn.

Other than the really loud, and early wake up call, i actually got a pretty good sleep, my sleeping bag is still a little moist but not as bad as the night before.

I sent about 5 pounds of gear home at the post office and was just about to leave town when i ran into another tourer named keith. This guy was a beast, he biked 180 - 200 km a day like it was no big deal. He showed me some routes around ontario, ill have to decide a little closer which route i want to take, there is a a route that is extremley hilly or a route thats flatter but the towns are way farther apart and risk starving to death or being stranded and being in a  world of shit if i have any mechanical problems.

We parted ways, interestingly he was biking across canada to see a band in vancouver, i hope its worth it for him.
 
I put down 20 km pretty easily for some reason and then i saw the weird shaped sign, i was in MANITOBA!!

Standing by the manitoba sign gave me a sense of pride,accomphment and renewed hope for me.  I was so close to giving up from moose jaw to regina and if i did, then i would not have experienced being happy and proud. Biking takes a certain level of physical strength but 90% is a mental mind game. I ask myself every day why im even doing this, if i told you the thought of quitting never crossed my mind, i would be lying. Staying mentally motivated is tough for me and could be my downfall.

I made it into Virden today where it is pouring rain, the electricity is actually cutting out so im saving every couple minutes here. I should hit brandon tommorow and probably will stay there or just east of there. In winnipeg, i got couple offers to stay with some people so more things to celebrate about.

I woke up feeling amazing today at around 8 am. I layed in bed till around 10 and checked out from the hotel at 11.

I went for some lunch at timmys, and then started out on the highway. My legs felt like bricks starting out probably from all the cycling i have done over the last week. The weather was alright in moose jaw with a slight breeze, but when i went out onto the highway it was a different story. 

I headed out to regina which is only around 84 km, the plan was to do the 84 km quickly and then do another 20 km to the next town. Apparently a thunderstorm went through moosejaw the night before, but i was fast asleep to even notice it. Today i noticed it, a huge evil cloud greeted me today with massive headwind and cross wind. The entire way from moose jaw to regina is uphill, except for one small downhill that lasts about 10 seconds. I pushed to the limit today for 7 hours, i ate 11 granola bars, 2 tim horton sandwiches and drank about 3 liters of water to cycle 84 km. I made it into regina today, mentally and physically exhausted. I was at a pretty low point today trying to mentally motivate myself to keep going. I wanted to crawl on the side of the road and curl into a ball.

 The road leading in to regina was interesting and pretty dangerous for cyclists. Its basically deerfoot in calgary, so imagine a cyclist riding on deerfoot and you can see what i had to deal with today. Heading in to regina was really nice though, however there is a tornado warning for regina and its pouring rain right now, so im not sure if i can even leave tommorw, i also heard there was a oil explosion in gull lake today, i was there yesterday. I think i am brining destruction wherever i go.

 I was in Medicine hat looking to buy some food later in the day when disaster struck. I was on the road pulling into a driveway and my tire didn't go to well with the pavement leading into the driveway catapulting me over my handlebars. I landed on my elbow and hip, when i hit i heard a loud thud, i thought i broke my hip when i crashed and burned. The only thing that saved my bike was my panniers acting like air bags. My loaf of bread and canned foods didn't fare to well, but thankfully my bike was saved.

I stayed the night in medicine hat at a super 8, i had trouble walking and i needed to sleep on a matress to hopefully heal up. I left the next day hoping to make it into saskatewan and it was pouring rain. Not only was it pouring rain, it was freezing cold. Halfway through the day, i couldn't feel my fingers in my left hand or my toes. I saw a portapotee on the side of the road and stayed in there for about an hour to get sensation back.

I kept pushing for the border since i knew it was so close from medicine hat. I thought i missed it for awhile but when i looked up i saw what i have been dreaming about all da, my first border crossing.

After the exciting border crossing, i countinued cycling. I thought that I would make it into maple creek and camp or the night. When i got to maple creek, i noticed that it took 10 km to bike down to the town, so i countinued pushing and went about 5 km further until all hell broke loose....

A massive storm blew in and it started pouring like when the mayan calender ends. Thankfully there was an information center nearby and i asked if i could camp the night there. It was so windy that night and it never stopped raining for a second the entire night (see video blog), i got 0 hours of sleep and was hoping my tent didn't blow away.

The next morning, it was still raining but the wind wasn't as ferocious, packing a tent in wind is quite interesting to say the least. I was so exhausted and tired i only biked 80km's to Tompkins, but i noticed only 1 or 2 cars passed me the entire day which was strange.  I was eating at the caffe and overheard that maple creek was totally flooded and evacuated. They closed the transcanada highway with 2 feet of water on it. They closed it just where i passed when i went to camp at the information center, literally couple km's and i would have been stuck and would have to take a massive detour.

I stayed at woodys tavern in tompkins. The room was really cheap at $20 and i was really happy. It seemed like the entire town was there since it was a friday night. I guess i stuck out like a sore thumb and they were all really friendly to me. I made the mistake of telling them i was a stampeder fan however but they still all bought me free beers. I went to bed early and i woke up to this.....

I left the next day and really wanted to lay some kilometerage down. The rain was still there but it started to fade and it defintley wasn't as cold. I think i put down about 120 km and went through swift current and camped behind an abandoned church in herbert. I slept horribile mabey getting an hour of sleep, i kept thinking that some zombie or ghost would come and i would see him through my tent. The mosquitoes were horrible there, i never want to set foot in that town again in my life.

I woke up around 5am and decided i wanted to get the hell of there and never look back. I left at around 6:30 and did 20 km  to morse where i waited for a cafe to open. I met some other bike tourers and the first thing they said to me was your carring lots of stuff. They were credit car toures ( basically they don't camp, only stay in hotels) so they only had like a bag for clothes and one of them had a bike generator on her bike. They were really cool though, they were Rene and Linda, this is there second time touring and they gave me some awesome advice, mainily not pack so much crap.

Today was quite windy but i was determined to hit moose jaw tonight. With only 2 hours of sleep i pushed to put down 120 km today and was completley exhausted when i arrived in town. Tommorow im thinking i might take it easy and just head to regina or a town just east of there.

Its only few days before I start my journey across Canada and im pretty excited and scared at the same time. I just graduated on Monday and would like to thank all my friends and family for the support that i have been getting about my graduation and for the start of my trip.

Its going to be a steep learning curve, I haven't trained as much as I would like so the first couple weeks is going to be pretty rough. The two biggest concern for me is finding places to sleep through alberta and saskatewan, its all farmland and almost impossible to camp anywhere on the side of the road. The other is i have a really hard time sleeping in tents, so thats going to be a learning process as well.

I hope you follow me through my journey, i'll see you in another lifetime!

The last 2 days have been pretty much me driving around the city picking up parts and then returning them. I was getting really frustrated with pure cycle for not having my racks and fenders. I had to call them 3 times and i also went into the store to talk to them. They kept saying someone would call me but no one ever did. So yesterday i decided to go out and find the items myself, i went to bowcycle and found a pair of fenders and rack that would work. Just when i was about to install them, pure cycle calls me and says my items have arrived and they would install them. Great. Brought my bike to pure cycle for them to install them.

Today i returned the items from bow cycle and picked up some front panniers from MEC. They look pretty sweet and my grand total is at around $1700. I pretty have all the items i need, the only thing i might want to get is a spare chain and chain grease. I have hockey tonight, but tommorow ill be loading my panniers up with some gear and give er a spin.

On sunday, i headed out to kelowna for some camping with friends. It was a pretty long drive, around 7 hours so it was pretty tiring. When i got there i headed out for a quick 22 km bike ride. Elison lake was really nice, especially since the sun was just about to set. My right knee really hurt on climbs which is probably from all the soccer and hockey that i have been playing.

I got to try my new tent as well, it setup really quickly but i kinda wished i got a bigger tent. I slept horrible the first night, my friends was snoring the entire night and i think i slept for about 1 hour which really sucked.

I woke up and headed out for another bike ride, this time i went into the city of vernon. My pace was incredibly slow with the massive head wind and the pain in my knee. The scenery was nice but it was extremley hilly and really took it out of me.