Tomorrow. Tomorrow I cross the border and spend my first night, of what should be 8, in Canada. Tomorrow I begin my first real stretch of bike touring out of country (considering my trip to Vancouver was really just a quick pop over the border and back). I've been seeing signs with distances to the border all day, watching it get ever closer. I'm nervous, honestly. But I'm the sort of person who has nerves about everything before I do it the first time. It never stops me from doing it anyways.
It was a good day today. I slept terribly. I awoke many times in the night. I was well awake at dawn, but I refused to move from my bag out into the cold for nearly two hours. It warmed up reasonably quickly today, but that early morning was very chilly right next to the lake. I managed to cut my numb finger, right at the cuticle, on my front chainring, as I slipped while undoing my lock. It bled a surprising amount, especially for the total lack of pain (aided by my hands being numb. I joked that it was a blood offering to my bike, and that I was bound for a good day with my sacrifice made already in the morning.
Then there was the mystery of the opened peanut butter pouch. I put all my bags in the bear box last night. A pouch of peanut butter I'd had in my belt bag got tossed on top of my food pannier, rather than into it. I opened the bear box this morning to discover that it was open and bits of peanut butter were all over. At first I thought it must be a small mammal, but then quickly realized that was impossible, the bear box being properly sealed against anything like that. Then I thought insects. But that made no sense either. No peanut butter was actually consumed, bits of the top of the pouch and some peanut butter was scattered on things, but nothing else touched, no bugs or anything visible. And thus by Holmesian deduction, ruling out the impossible, I was left with what seemed improbable, but must be true, that some temperature/pressure changes had made the bag explode open on its own. I've never heard of anything like it, but it's the only explanation that fits the facts. It was odd, but no real harm done. ...Save that several of my bags now smell faintly of peanut butter, right as I'm entering bear country. Oh how tragically funny it would be if that gets me eaten by a bear.
After rolling out of the camp site, I went back to the visitor center, restocked on water, charged my phone, and took vengeance on that vending machine by feeding it back its nickels and dimes to get a candy bar (...not much for vengeance, but I got rid of them at least). I didn't get on the road until almost 10.
But that was fine; I needed the time out this morning. And there was less to see today as it turned out anyway. Though not to say that what there was wasn't well worth it. There was an impressive waterfall that ran under the highway, with walkway down to get a better view. I totally hopped the guard rail and went climbing about where I wasn't supposed to in order to get a closer look. There were also some neat views from Temperance River State Park. And the town of Grand Marais is neat too, full of character and quirky and quaint little businesses. At the outskirts it had one of the funniest mom and pop styled mini golf courses I've ever seen, complete with cages with turkies and chickens. And since Alex recommended it as the place everyone goes there in Grand Marais (though it seemed there were a lot of eateries of all kinds, including what claimed to be "The World's Best Donuts"), I went to Sven and Olie's pizza place and splurged on a pizza. I've lost a little weight, so I figured eating a whole, greasy pizza might help. ...I couldn't finish it though. I need to eat constantly, but I still have a relatively small stomach, so I can only handle so much at a time. I asked for a to go box...and was given a full size pizza box. Thankfully, I have some masterful, albeit messy looking, box folding skills, and I managed to fit it into my pannier while not getting grease all over everything. That pizza is now in the refrigerator here.
And where is here? The Hungry Hippie Hostel, recommended by someone on Couch surfing when they declined my request because they have family visiting. It's a cool spot, again, with a lot of character, and only a couple miles off the highway...though more work than I'd initially realized to get here. I kept noticing on Google Maps that I had a lot of climbing to do to get to my destination for the night...but I wasn't really doing much all day. Which of course led to the obvious realization that all that climbing was at the day's end on my way in from the coast to get here. And damn...what a climb it turned out to be, with most of it on gravel at that. I used my lowest gear on the 920 for the first time ever, and was glad to have it. I'm honestly nervous about going back down in the morning (though by the time this is posted, I realize I'll already have done it). I tightened my brakes up a bit to be ready.
But this place is neat, even with the lack of wifi and signal. Jeremy and his wife, the people who run the place, were trying to figure out what to do with their big farm property, whether to grow crops or raise horses or what (he does have some pigs), when he struck on the novel idea to turn the barn into a hostel. He's done some backpacking and long distance hiking, and that along with noticing (as I have) that camping is crazy expensive around here, influenced his decision to make the Hungry Hippie Hostel. He has his degree in construction management and his primary job is working construction at the Grand Portage Casino (which I'll be sure to see, from the outside at least, tomorrow), and it's obvious in the design of this place that he knows his stuff. I groaned on the inside and was afraid for my wallet again when he told me that the bunks (and their rate of $25/night) weren't available yet, despite being advertised on the website. But Jeremy is a really nice, understanding fellow just getting his business started and he cut me a deal of $35 for a private room instead of the usual $55. He even let me do laundry free when it's normally an extra paid service, telling me he had a soft spot for folks living on the road. And that all seemed more than fair to me. I may be spending more lately than I usually try to, but I feel a lot better about the $35 I spent for tonight than the $23 I spent last night. I think sometimes I need to loosen up with my traveling finances a little. It's a cool experience to be here. And in the years to come when this place becomes a smashing success as I think it will, I get to boast that I was their first ever bike tourist. That's well worth it in itself.
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