Row, row, row your boat...

We woke up today to an excellent feast of a breakfast prepared by Mr. and Mrs. Vilks. They made us pancakes with raisin bread, frozen yogurt, plums, bananas, and yogurt. To get back to the highway, instead of backtracking a good 30+ km, we went out to the Pinawa Rowing Club and took out some touring doubles and rowed across the Winnipeg River instead of having to backtrack and ride all around it. Nicole R had never rowed before, so the three of us were teaching her. I had a bit of fun yelling at her :).

The row was beautiful. Probably my favourite place that I’ve ever rowed. It was a river that seemed like a lake with little islands and trees all around. Nicole R & I were in one double and Mr. Vilks and Nicole B were in another, while Kirk was in a single. Kirk had to leave early to go to work, so he only joined us for about 15 minutes. We made it across to find Mrs. Vilks there with our stuff and she made us a lunch. We put our stuff on our bikes and hit the road. Going along the 307, I had never seen so many horse flies in my life. They were swarming around us even as we cycled. At least in Saskatchewan, the mosquitoes only hit when we stopped. But miraculously, we escaped with only a couple of bites. Maybe they just liked our company. I don’t blame them. We made it to the Ontario border and camped out just behind the Info Centre for the night.

Fun facts, stats and lessons learned

Distance travelled today: 99.19 km + 4km row

Total distance travelled: 4026.1 km

Starting point: Pinawa, at Kirk’s place

Our Route: We rowed across Winnipeg river until Otter Falls, and tok the Manitoba Highway 307 to the La Vérendrye Trail (Highway 44) until it met up with Highway 1 (Trans-Canada), which quickly turned into Highway 17 past the border. Highways 307 and 44 had small lanes and no shoulder with a bunch of cracks & potholes, but since there was little traffic, we were able to avoid the big ones. The Trans Canada had a good shoulder, and the road became excellently paved just at the Ontario border.

Ending point: Info Centre just past the Ontario border

• We couldn’t avoid seeing deer. They were everywhere.
• It’s amazing how much faster you go with nicely paved roads. The roads in Ontario are (so far) better than in Manitoba, and just crossing the border gave us a boost of about 2-3 km/hr.