Worst Travel Experience

On a solo bicycle trip, I was riding around Lake Superior from east to west. At Sault Ste. Marie, I got into heavy tourist traffic and rain. I passed by a lake, and learned later that a few minutes after I passed, a woman had driven into the lake, an drowned with her children. At the youth hostel, I was in a cabin of pot smokers, until the stench of a skunk wafted in a window, and they ducked into their sleeping bags. (The skunk smelled better.) The next day, my 20th birthday, I headed to Wawa, Ontario. I intended to buy groceries along the way, but a couple small towns on the map where I planned to shop were only gas stations, and no food.

So I kept riding. As I pushed up and down some of the steepest hills I'd ever seen, I was growing tired and very hungry. A semi-truck forced me off the road and I about crashed.

At day's end, in the dark, I was starting to hallucinate, thinking at one point I was seeing a bear come out of the forest. I would pull off the side of the road and doze, standing up. Finally, after 140 miles I found the next youth hostel. But going down the steep gravel road in the dark, I became disoriented and crashed my heavily-laden bike.

I laid low for the next day, as it rained. Then I headed out again, but a few miles from White River, a pedal broke off. I had never heard of such a problem. Nobody had a pedal to fit a Schwinn, so I caught a late night bus to Thunder Bay. I bought a pedal, changed my plans to ride across Canada, and headed south into the United States, cutting short my trip, and finding a job in Minneapolis.

Phil

 

 

{ Previous Letter | This Week's Index }

{ Main Letters Page }