Day 26 - Saturday June 26 - Sault Ste. Marie(-ish) to south of Espanola (214 km)

"Achilles Heel"
We slept in 'till 6am because of our late night last night, packed up, said goodbye to Laura (thanks again for everything!), and headed out to pick up where we'd left off biking pre-rest day. En route, we saw some buffalo! They were on a farm, but still - I can't believe we crossed the prairies and didn't see any only to find some outside of Sault Ste. Marie! It was a cold morning, so I started off with lots of layers, and my Achilles was still really tight despite the rest day, icing, elevation, stretching and rest. Unfortunately, looks like that tendon is my Achilles Heel this trip. I'm just hoping it doesn't get any worse! As the day wore on, the sun came out, making it much more pleasant for riding. Dad rode a total of 71 km today, keeping me company for half of that. He also helps to break the wind for me for a bit to give me a bit of a break, being careful to offer to "break THE wind" as opposed to "breaking wind" (oh, Dad). It's lots of fun to ride together. The highway got progressively busier as the day wore on; I guess the farther south we get the busier we can expect it to be. We turned off the Trans-Canada onto Hwy 16 to head south past Espanola. The area here is Beautiful - huge rock faces and waterfalls and giant hills with breathtaking views of sweeping valleys. Dad gave a hitchhiker a lift along the way (thanks for paying it forward pops!). About a kilometer leading up to the turn-off to our campsite (Bearskin Lodge) was a corridor carved out of rock on both sides, winding up a hill - incredible! Our campsite is great as well, and for the first time this trip it was warm enough to swim, so after pitching our tents we jumped in. WOW - does that ever feel good on the joints! The lake is made up of 2 long, skinny lakes, connected by a channel, and was actually quite warm (well... refreshing anyway!). After dinner we drove up to the lookout at the top of the hill (mountain?) From the way in to get cell reception to make a few calls, and Dad discovered that he could make sparks by banging rocks together (of a certain type). (How did he discover this? No idea - I was on the phone... but how cool is that?!). We're both pretty sleepy now, and will probably pass out in 2 seconds!
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