Sunday July 19 A lake in Ontario

Rode back towards Bereston Lake first thing to fill up water bottles. The place is still after yesterday's madness. Rode to West Hawk Lake was also very quiet. Yesterday afternoon as much as 5 minutes would go by between seeing cars and this morning even fewer cars. Stopped a number of times to check out the picnic areas and trail heads. Sat at the gas stn at West Hawk drinking a coffee and people watching. This end of the park is like where I camped - cottages, boats, side by side trailers, and busy people going nowhere while I watch them with a silly grin on my face. It's not the first place I've done that. Got on to the real Hwy 1 and it's noisy. Stopped at the Manitoba Welcome Centre - I was leaving so no need to be there except I was looking for a "Welcome to" sign. Noticed one after I saw Ontario's which was at the start of a construction zone - perfect for Ontario. Then stopped at the Ontario Welcome Centre and guess who showed up - the SF couple. We chatted for a while, exchanged addresses at last and took some photo's at the real welcome to Ontario sign. The HWY here is typical Ont. more like a freeway, lots of tacky tourist stuff and cottages, marinas etc but very few campgrounds. I have ducked off the highway, near a section that was probably just abandoned in the last year. I rode along the old section of Hwy and pitched my tent beside the lake. The water is kinda swampy so I'm not trusting it for swimming. Bugs are out but not too bad. Temperatures are up but still quite comfortable. I have decided to take the short route to Thunder Bay. I will probably wear the MP3 player for the next 3 days to block out the traffic drone. Spent lots of time on the road today but with stops etc only 7 hrs in the saddle.

OD 3114.7 km, 7:02:48, 137.66 km, 19.5 ave 48.6 max