Monday 6/10/13
I left the Knights Inn in bracebridge with farely dry boots ( i had stuffed them with newspaper three times over the course of the night) and started to make my way north towards sudbury. I stopped at a gas station to fill up and two car loads of good looking girls pull up and pile out. As I'm filling up one approaches me and asks me where I'm headed. I tell her "alaska", we chat for a sec and they head inside. I finish filling up and go in to pay. The place is a little convience store / with a diner on the side. I go around and buy some rice, hot sauce and canned seafood for dinner. I go up to the register to pay, fumble a quarter and it rolls to the door of the diner. I turn and reach to pick it up and hear: "sir, sir? would you like to join us for breakfast?" I'm thinking your fuckin' right I would but instead say "sure, I'd love to, give me a minute"
I sit down and am instantly beraged with a bunch of questions, where ? why, how old am I? etc. We order and eat and a big party at "the kee" come up. Not one to miss a party, and with their encouragement i decide to forgo the days travels in favor of a "country" themed rager. As we get our bills and get ready to leave it becomes apparent these kind women have paid for my breakfast. I begin to wonder if I died back in the beaver pond and have gone to heaven.
Here is a photo of us after breakfast:
We exchanged numbers and parted ways with plans to meet at this "kee" place in bala. I headed for bala, in Bala I found a sweet spot along the railroad tracks to put up my tent. It was stumbling distance from the kee. I went into town in search of wifi and went into a little grill called Bee Jays Grill right on main street. The owner operators name is Marita, also an ex-farmer she told me about how she had run a 50 acre vineyard. I tried some Karatha Ice cream that is made locally and it was phenomenal. Marita also hooked it up with a huge burger and some dank fries and tried to refuse payment. We negotiated and i got her up to 5 bucks. Then she let me use her wifi for the following four hours.
Finally the time had come to go the key. Doors opened at 10. There are few things that bother me about Canada. My biggest pet peeve is the lack of alcohol they put in drinks. They measure everything into these tiny little shots then put them in. I think 1 regular drink in the states is equivalent to three mixed drinks in Canada. Here is the one and only picture I got from the kee:
I just want to note I didn't see a single pair or carharts or chippewas the entire night....
We are now into 6/11/13:
The kee closed at 2 and I was lucky enough to be invited to an afterparty at the "barnyard" a house rented by a bunch of dudes working at one of the local resorts. There more drinkin' ensued and before we knew it the sun was coming up and it was time to hit the hay. We got up the next morning, I got breakfast with team LTD ( Team living the dream) thanked them for their hospitality and hit the road.
Somewhere along some dirt road just south of Magnetawan, Ontario I felt my back wheel get all squirly at first I ignored it thinking it was the loose gravel but finally i pulled over because i was worried I had a flat. Good thing I did because I'd completely blown out the left rear wheel bearing.
Images here:
I called Todd at Mission Cycle and Zack at Freedom Cycle, both jumped right on it for me. Its nice having backup. Todd had a guy up in Sudbury while not a KTM dealer could get me some bearings the next day. Meanwhile a couple pulled up in their pickup, Doug and Julia. They offered me a ride to Magnetawan and when we couldn't load the bike manually they went home and grabbed a ramp. We didn't have any tie downs so here are some pics of me "riding the bike " in the back of their truck.
They gave me a ride to a local mechanics. I ended up needing to get tow from triple A up to Sudbury. The tow truck driver, who I am shamefully forgetting the name of was a super cool dude. Heres some pictures of the bike on truck. It hardly fit.
I locked the bike to fence outside Mid City Motorsports and searched out a place to put my tent. There was rocky knoll behind the building behind it that was somewhat suitable and there is where I set up camp:
That sea food lid is not trash in my food. I realized that I'd forgotten cutlery and and had to improvise a spoon. Shout out to the honey badger to left me a nice little note in my cooking stuff.
6/12/13
I got up packed up my shit and headed down to Mid City Power sports. I was greeted by Brydon, who I believe is the owner. Brydon was awesome my entire time there, he even took wheel over to a friends shop to get it balanced. I installed the wheel bearings, fixed a my rear break lite and switched the direction of the front tire. Hopefully this will prolong its life. Brydon, was in a nasty dirtbike accident with one of his buddies when they where just fooling around at a sand pit and broke on of his vertebrae. I'm not sure if he was wearing body armor at the time but its definitely a wake up call. Shit can happen. Again, I'm forgetting the name of the mechanic that lent me a bunch of tools at Brydons shop but he was infinitely helpful and I want to make sure it gets noted. Mid City Motorsports rocks, and now come to think of it, everybody I've met on this trip has been awesome.
Anyway I hit the road and... Buffalo!
Made it to Sault Saint Claire rather uneventfully and Pitched tent. That's where I'm at now. Here is today's route.
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