Thunder Bay, Canada - Polarsteps

We had a truly charmed day out of Nipigon. Where we expected to be dodging traffic, there was a nice, wide, newly paved road shoulder that held for, I think, a good 100+km. The weather was perfect, and getting into some of the long, steep climbs meant big, amazing views of the lake that consistently looks more like an ocean. Many of these days by Lake Superior will mean the same amount of climbing as cycling days in the mountains; adding on the bad roads, bugs, and remoteness means this is generally considered the hardest stretch of the country. We ended near Rossport, at a rest stop full of other campers on the edge of the lake, essentially an unofficial free campground where we had a picnic table, a little nook to tuck our tent into, and a little beach access to do a cold, refreshing, soak-all-the-sweat-off float at the end of the day. We were behind a van, and were setting up when Kini recognized the dog lying outside of it; it turned out we were right next to Eponine, who we'd met at Dogtooth Lake, hundreds of kilometres ago near Kenora. She's been on the road with her two dogs, living and working remotely out of her van, and had headed west since we'd met her, gotten turned around by the heat, and come back to Lake Superior; we're in a cool pocket of the country, actually getting a chill at night and waking up to cold mornings, in the midst of extreme heat everywhere else. -Sara