Nipigon, Canada - Polarsteps

We stayed the first half of the day at our spot by Wolf River; the bikes needed a lot of love that there hadn't been time for in Thunder Bay (new chains, a new cassette for me, new brake pads, some bottom bracket work... we're hitting the 4000km point where every part that has a limited lifespan is starting to wear out from the distance and the strain of carrying all our gear. We're now a bit past the distance we covered on our first bike trip down the coast and across the desert, where our bikes were creaking and limping their way over the finish line in Flagstaff). We did a short ride to Nipigon, where we'd gotten word that due to some construction on the premises, tenting was currently free at the Nipigon Marina. The town was small and sweet, and the marina was a beautiful, quiet place. We finished the day swimming in the Nipigon River, an offshoot of Lake Superior. We woke up to rain, stayed in the tent a while and then had coffee and breakfast under the marina's covered picnic shelter, completely packed up our bikes to go, and realized on the way out that we were also experiencing some 4000km wear; the day off in Thunder Bay biking around and fixing the bikes hadn't really been a day off. So we decided to take a day off; we rested and read and wrote, got some soda (Kini) and beers (me) from town, stayed by the water, and eventually set up camp again in the same spot as the night before. We met "Mr. Nipigon" (self-dubbed), who had lived in the town every day since he was born 70-some-odd years ago. He was really attached to the idea that we should go on a multi-hour hike by the river and gave us a lengthy set of directions for it. We listened, sat, drank our beverages, and didn't hike anywhere. -Sara