Avoiding Bears on Bikes

John and I are now in Wawa, Ontario. We just finished two days of about 185 km each. Fortunately tomorrow will only be around 90 km. It's supposed to be a lot less mountainous from here on, thank Allah... I mean God... I mean flying spaghetti monster... I mean John Stamos... I don't know what I mean.

Today wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday in regards to terrain. There were hills but they weren't colossal jerks. It also helped that I slept like a baby last night. Usually it's really tough to sleep in a tent without any luxuries like pillows and blankets, but I was dead tired, and I improvised a much better excuse for a pillow. Previous nights I'd just sleep on my somewhat scratchy, thick sweater. Last night I encased it in a soft cotton tshirt and it was worlds better. Worlds!

When we were about 50 km from Wawa, a man pulled up next to me as I cycled along and told me that about ten clicks up (everybody here says clicks instead of kilometers. Why is that? How did it originate?) two baby bears were hit by a truck. He informed us that the mother bear was still wandering along the road confused. He told us to be extremely careful or to head back a few kilometers to the roadside motel in order to, you know, not die. He said that black bears can reach speeds up to 35 km/hr and that they don't stop until whatever they're chasing is dead. This bear must have been pissed too. We foolishly ignored his warnings and and proceeded onward anyways and assumed it would be fine.

Sure enough, about 10 km ahead we did indeed see mama bear pacing back and forth across the road about 200m ahead of us. We immediately stopped and spent about ten minutes trying to flag down trucks and cars that could drive us just past this bear so that we could resume our cycling. Sure enough, nobody stopped. One passing trucker even pointed ahead seemingly to inform us of the bear on the road. Thanks for the tip sir, we totally hadn't noticed the freaking bear.

Eventually it appeared as if the bear had retreated to the forest - at least temporarily. We decided to book it, not knowing how long it would be before it would return. We zoomed by at top speeds, dinging our bells and making lots of noise. We didn't look back, but I had the distinct feeling that it was chasing us! It was probably foaming at the mouth! It was probably angry and hungry and wanting to avenge its cub's death! Unfortunately, we made it without a scratch. I say unfortunately because how cool would a bear wound be? It would be Senor Cardgage Mortgage cool (edit: approximately 2 readeta got that reference).

Now were in Wawa. Were staying at a very nice motel called the Wawa Motor Inn. The owner gave us a great deal and charged us only $60 when the regular price is $91 plus tax. Our room is all cabin like and wooden too which is awesome and feels very Canadian. Can't wait to see my family and possibly Tamawa next week in Ottawa. I say Tamawa because I saw a Tamawa Road earlier today and it reminded me of how Elmer Fudd might say her name (Tamara).