Dougmt

Inoplanetyanin,

Did you stop by the Glacier Highland gas station??? We are across from the amtrak station/book store just outside of West Glacier.
If so I was the handsome fella behind the counter
You guys and gals need to stop in for lunch/breakfast/supper on me when you come through here!!!
Doug

Inoplanetyanin

Dougmt, I did stop at one store across from the station, world is small, isn't it?
So, you live there or just work for the summer?

Wohooo, I am in Winnipeg, what a big city

100 miles today, two hours under rain just amazing biking day, the wind blew right in the back. It would push me at 3.6 mph, if I stop pedaling.

Today's pictures

This clouds passed me in two hours with rain.

Nature is so beautiful after the rain, isn't it?

This sure is Canada, as this sure is hockey. Kids practicing in a big sports arena, here in Winnipeg.

Does anyone know what is the name of this berries? They do taste good... I got some in a plastic bag as there were tons of them.

Sunset. Yesterday, before entering the town called Carberry. They have big potato plant that makes fries for fast food restaurants, and a lot of potato fields around.

This kids were going from Toronto to Victoria, BC. The guy on the picture is the driver and the owner of this 50 something school bus. He picked up many hitchhikers that were going along Trans Canada. Bus uses propane as a fuel, kids make some simple jewelry, sell it in towns and that way pay for the gas. They have been on the road for more than a week now, not hurrying anywhere, really. Canadians having fun in their country.

Inoplanetyanin

Most tourists take pictures of signs, maybe because they want to prove they were there... This was also another excuse for me to stop after long pedaling without anything but wheat fields around.

gonesh9

Wow, you're on such a remarkable journey... thanks for keeping us updated. I am impressed with the picure quality, and the quality of the different environments you are finding yourself in!!

Dougmt

I manage the store here. I'm a montana native... but full time RV now, so I spend about 6 months here every year.
Didn't see many riders this year.. the dang fires kept everyone away, understandably. But the rains have come and the sky is no crystal clear.
Thanks for posting your journey....
Doug

khuon

I used to live in Grand Forks, ND which isn't too far south of Winnipeg. Only problem I ever had with Winnepeg was I always seemed to be visiting there on Sundays and everything was closed.

As you've discovered by now, the land you're riding through is relatively flat and with luck you'll have the wind at your back. The bad news is that there's really no terrain to break the wind so if it's not pushing you from behind then it can be really annoying. Where's your next big stop? I wish you safe travels.

Inoplanetyanin

Khuon, yeah, that's exactly how I see it here. The land is as flat as a table, and the wind was so helpful yesterday, that I sometimes would find myself running in the highest gear at 25 mph for 20 minutes. One time, with especially strong tail wind, I reached 29.5 mph, and it was on flat surface! Cars were slowly driving by, with curiously looking drivers.

I've been to Grand Forks. There is a big University there, ehh? It's so big that from farest Aviation building complex to walk back to the center of campus, it took me something like 30 minutes.
Cool thing about Winnipeg I found out is that, it's 10th most populated Canadian City and one of most isolated, with having another 100 000 people city away by 5.5 hours drive. The population here is around 650 000. 3 times bigger that Regina, which byitself wasn't small at all.
Thanks.
As far as stop, I don't know now, my current maps only cover as far east as Manitoba. I heard it's about 90 miles to Ontario border... So, whatever it will bring. Ottawa is something I wait to see also, but the Great Lakes byitself should be very gorgeous.

roadfix

Mr. Ino.... Speaking of tailwinds, now don't you wish you had a large sail on your bike like you talked about on your thread about 3 months back? That 100 miler the other day would have taken you only 2 hours....Hehehehe...

George!

khuon

That's why I was there. I went to UND and majored in aviation (among other things... double-major). Yes, it's a far walk from the CAS (I think they call them SAS now) buildings and Ryan Hall where the simulators are to the quad but I always biked around the back way by the river and railroad tracks which was a really nice ride and the trafic was much lower. I could make it from one end of campus to another in under 10 minutes easily. On the other hand, the furthest buildings of all were the ones for flight ops located at GFK. UND has quite a facility there too and occupies about half the buildings including 5 big hangars. They even have their own tower.


I remember back to my college days how the dating scene was a bit... dry. It seemed that all the girls from NoDak were already attached. A bunch of us tended to go "hunting" up north at UManitoba located in Winnipeg. Okay.. so it really wasn't as crass as I just made that out to be. Another benefit of course was that there much more to do up there and the drinking age was lower which by the time I had transferred to UND didn't effect me much but was relevant to some of my friends.

By, the way, you might be proud to know (or well... maybe you don't care) that you're following along the right-of-way of Canada's major telecom fibre route.

Inoplanetyanin

Hi Everybody. It's been long time since I last posted. Lots of things have been happening lately.
For the past 10 days I am traveling with Gilles, a canadian guy who is also cycling - from Calgary to Halifax, which is his home. He is very cool and the journey is a lot different now.

In Thunder Bay, Ontario, we hooked up with one girl who I met in California. We spent 2 days in her house and 3 more people, including her, joined us on the trip. They are also good cyclists and decided to go around Lake Superior.

At this moment, it is raining and is pretty cold, so me and Gilles are trying to decide what to do best.

The other 4 cyclists are way ahead of us, as they didn't waste any time yesterday.

I have dozens of new PICTURES, which most aren't named , yet, unfortunately.
Here are some recent ones:
_____________________

A brave deer kept eating his grass while I was stepping closer and closer to him to take a picture

Phil - from England. Going to Vancouver from Halifax. Well equipped, nice guy and strong cyclist. Talked on the way to Kenora for about 20 minutes.

Cloudy day in Manitoba

Sorry, I am not sure whether this is an Elk or a Moose. This kind of animals live here in Ontario.

Near the black bear statue. Apologies, I haven't had a chance to rotate the picture, yet.

Bike junk yard.

Strange walk, at the Ontario entrance sign.

Real deserted island

Notice the date at the bottom of the picture

Strawberry - macro.

I don't know what happened to this birds

Myself

khuon

This is excellent! I'm glad you now have company on your trip. Meeting new people is always a great thrill!

roadfix

Mikail......hey, good to know you're still out there! I'm having trouble accessing your photos.....your host seems to be out for the time being......I'll check again later.
Meanwhile, your postings as well as others are inspiring me to think about micro-mini tours I can take locally here in SoCal for starters. I am seriously looking at various trailers available out there. I pretty much have everything else, as far as camping gear is concerned. I might even convert an old MTB with great LX groupo to a tourer...... just a thought....

George!

Inoplanetyanin

Hi all.

George, I don't know what kind of weather it is in California right now, but here in Sault Ste. Marie, it was snowing today... you know, 35 F (2C) with wet snow/rain... We don't know how to continue in this weather, maybe we will catch a ride in a pickup somewhere where it's warmer.

Anyway, here are few more pictures:
_______________________________

Mushroom

Four more people joined us in Thunder Bay for a ride around lake Superior. We lost them few days ago and don't know whether they turned back or still on the road. It was very cold and rainy lately...

On the pier of one of the little rivers in the evening. That night we got a great luck sleeping in church's basement with lots of free ice cream.

One of the views of Lake Superior.

Blurry, but nice picture, shows actual motion.

Wild apples after the rain.

Canadian motive

Sunshine through the clouds. Old Woman Bay - Lake Superior

roadfix

Mikail........cool photos as usual. That's nice to hear you've been hooking up with other tourers heading in the same direction. I'm sure that'll break up the monotony of travelling solo. Hope you've got some warm clothing. Weather here in SoCal has been just superb. How is your bike holding up with all that gear? As I stated in my last post, I'm in the process of building a road/trail tourer. I found a suitable frame on Ebay the other day. I pretty much have everything else laying around my garage to put this thing together. Later...

Inoplanetyanin

Hi George. One guy that went with us, had a heavy loaded bob trailer attached to his mountain bike. I don't know what he did, but the trailer bent the eyeleads on the bike frame...

As far as my bike, yeah, the bottom bracket is going out. I actually took it apart a coupple of weeks ago and saw that one of the races on a spindle (axle) is not smooth, which doesn't allow me to adjust it properly, so it makes a clunking noise with every turn of the pedals...

Well, time to move on from Sault Ste. Marie...
All the best.
____________________________

Views around Lake Superior

Gilles and James (blue). James a canadian that lived in France for 20 years, arrived back coupple of weeks ago and on his bike tour from Montreal to Vancouver. After that, in two months, he plans to ride down to Central and Southern America. His hybrid bike is next to my green Schwinn. The riding position is straight up, I don't know how he handles all those winds. James is 49, very fun person to talk to.

Gilles riding with his canadian flag up. His route is from Calgary to Halifax. He is very strong cyclist, on a nice Bianchi racing bike with all the new shimano compnents. Gilles was making 220+ kms a day. He was racing and came fifth among 50 cyclists.

Me - riding...

Odometr. Picture was taken a while ago. It should have a little over 3000 miles right now.

Best regards.
Mikhail (Inoplanetyanin)

Gordon P

You sure have traveled a long way since Winnipeg! How is the weather and the autumn colours in northern Ontario?

Regards,
Gordon

Istanbul_Tea

Fantastic thread!!

My wife and I hope to post as much as possible during our tour of the States, Mexico and Canada.

Keep up the great work & fun!!

NuTz4BiKeZ

Hey Mikhail
Awesome pics as usual.
Don't let the bottom bracket problem get you down, It's all part of the challenge.
If it was easy it would hardly be worth doing... I love that you're doin it on a bike that many of the snobs around here would write off as not suitable for what you're doing.
You are an encouragement to all of us retro-grouch types

chewa

Mikhail,

I've really been enjoying your journal. Keep it up.

How long do you think your trip will last?

Safe travels

John

Inoplanetyanin

Hi all. Thanks for nice words.

Gordon, the weather was really different last two and a half weeks. In northern Ontario it was snowing and raining every day with temperatures around zero (33-38F).

Bike is FINE, even Gilles, person who values latest , highest , pricest components, said he was surprized by the performance of my Schwinn .

Well, I am in Dunnville, Ontario right now, it's about 30 miles ( two hour ride to Niagara Falls I ended up going South with Gilles and visited his family... Hope to take some pictures of the falls now.

The trip is almost over, there is only about 700 kilometers left to NY and I have to move on with other stuff. As every one says, this is not the end, it's a beginning of further trips.

Good luck everyone, and thanks again.

roadfix

Hey Mikhail........

Nice to hear you're almost there! What do you plan on doing once you reach NY? And you are coming back to LA, are you not?

George

Inoplanetyanin

Hi all.

George, thank you for asking, well, my major plan is to fly out of NY either straight to Moscow, or visit friends in Netherlands first, but that's only if I get a visa... Then eventually I come back to LA, to continue in school...


Here is a NICE video clip straight from the bike, it's on hwy 20, near town of Avon, in New York State...

Enjoy!

https://www.angelfire.com/linux/mikha...he_bicycle.mpg

roadfix

Mikhail......Great....you finally made it to NY. So what is to become of your car you left in L.A.?

George

Inoplanetyanin

Hello everybody!

Well, my trip is officially over. I am in Brooklyn... 3600 actual miles registered on the odometer, couple of hundreds more realistically.

The trip went good from all perspectives, I have a feeling of life long satisfaction. I matured and learned a lot during this 3 months, as well as met few people who became real friends.

A big, organized website/book, with 500+ pictures is coming sometime in near future, when I will have time.

George, the car is nicely parked in LA, in protected parking lot with a permit, and I have a friend who is looking over it...

Thank you personally for giving so many positive, encouraging messages on this thred.

I met a nice person here and after this, we are going to go look at statue of liberty.

If anyone has any particular questions, I will always be glad to answer.
See you all on other forums discussions.
All the best.

roadfix

Mikhail... Congratulations on your successful tour! Glad you made it safely. Keep in touch.

George