Monday August 10, 2015

The weather leaving Schreiber was bright sunshine, albeit a little chilly.

However, when we turned the corner and began the climb to Terrace Bay the fog rolled in and we had to stop and put our lights on.

The fog was so thick as we came into Terrace Bay we almost missed the lighthouse.

The other reason we almost missed it was because it wasn’t on the coastal side of the road, it was on the north side of the road as a tourist attraction.

We stopped and climbed to the top of the lighthouse and peered through the fog but couldn’t see the coastline of Lake Superior.

The fog eventually cleared up and we were able to enjoy the ride. Rolling hills with a few steep climbs just to keep it interesting. We spotted our first bear since B.C. The bear was sitting on some rocks above the road. Ralf and I both shouted at the same time bear and it ran off into the woods.

That made me a little nervous about camping tonight. There is a ‘municipal’ campsite in Marathon where we had planned on pitching the tent.

When we went down the hill to Marathon we stopped at the Twisted Sister café for lunch. After talking to the owner about our ride and the fact that we had spotted a bear, she told us that Marathon was having a problem with bears. They had shot four in the previous week in the Town. Definitely not camping tonight. She had a little rant about Southern Ontario and politicians not caring about the north. \”They should reinstate the spring bear hunt, but those southerners don’t know what it is like to live up here\”.

There was a motel, the Harbour Inn, across the street from the café and the owner of the café said that was the best motel in Town and she wouldn’t stay at the other one, because she heard it had bed bugs!

The Harbour Inn cost $125 per night, too much for our budget. We headed down to the Zero-100 Motel, a very tired looking place. I asked if I could look at the room before checking in, no problem. The room was clean and the bed-sheets were clean and ironed. No bed-bugs to be seen or even evidence of them. The room was still expensive but better than sharing my tent with a bear.