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Day 59

We woke up this morning and kept pressing snooze. Our original intent was to wake up at 5. We actually got out of bed around 6:40. When we were leaving the hotel, we bumped into Robert Tailleur again. We were glad we did because he never came by last night, and we didn't know where he was staying and didn't want to disturb him last night! He took our pictures, and we got a group shot, then exchanged email addresses and we gave him our blog address. We are really glad we went to eat at Husky's last night! Meeting Mr. Tailleur was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! We hit the road and had pretty good wind! It was a really nice day, and the scenery was beautiful! Just like Agnes said, every time you cycle up a hill you're met with amazing scenery! It's almost like it doesn't belong in Canada, but rather somewhere south or tropical. Lake Superior's water is such a surreal, lighter blue (lighter than the royal blue of most of the lakes in Ontario). It was such a great day to cycle! Initially, we lucked out as well because it seemed that at every uphill there was a tail wind! The winds only seemed to change going downhill. That didn't last the entire day, unfortunately. All along, people have been warning us about the hills in northern Ontario. In Manitoba, people said the hills will start once you cross the border. Then people started saying it's pretty flat until Thunder Bay, and then the hillls just hit you. Then it got pushed back to after Nipigon, then just before Rossport. Let me clarify. There are decent rolling hills coming into Ontario, then the closer you get to Thunder Bay, the more it levels out. Then it's really decent all the way until just before Rossport. The two hills just before Rossport, contrary to what everyone says, really aren't that bad! Maybe it's another “Malahat” where, because we were so intensely warned, it didn't seem bad at all. Or, maybe the winds helped a lot, who knows. Either way, we definitely expected worse! We made our first stop at Rossport. Several different sources said it's a really cute town, and highly recommended seeing it. It has a lot of history as an old fishing town. We made the detour into town and had lunch. We sat on the dock and ate our bars (we found out our bagels were mouldy and there wasn't anywhere to buy new ones in Rossport). There was a local waiting at the dock for gas, and while he waited for the marina to open, he talked to us while we were eating. He was very friendly and told us a bit about the town. He also told us an alternate way out so we didn't have to climb the hill we just came down (a flat way that met up with the highway!). As we were leaving town, we saw him again by a beach. We stopped off and got our feet wet in the gorgeous bay area of lake Superior. The water was really warm at first, then when it got a touch deeper and further from the shore, it was freezing! We didn't stay there too long before we took off again. Our second stop of the day was at Asomething Canyon, It was really pretty. Not quite as stunning as the Ouimet Canyon, but still really nice! We then continued all the way until Nays. It was an old POW camp for Germans. It is also a place where Lauren Harris came to paint. We opted to camp at the provincial park so we could have lake access. We spent some time on the beach, which was really nice! Then we went to bed! We didn't see the nurse we met yesterday, which is too bad. She said she was aiming for here as well. Maybe she stayed in the other campground in the area, or who knows. I hope she's enjoying herself more now that the winds changed a bit!!