Closing the Loop

I guess I owe the four faithful followers of this blog an apology, the final posting for this trip, has been delayed for several weeks. My bad, but annoying things, like having to work for a living, have taken up too much of my time. The few hours left to me I have had to choose between writing blogs about biking and actually biking, I presume I can be forgiven for choosing the latter. Nonetheless I feel compelled to close the loop on writing about the trip around Lake Huron, just as I felt compelled to properly close the loop around the lake. I am one of those guys that sometimes struggle to finish a job, but who insist upon doing so anyway, it’s a blessing and a curse.    

It is strange but there is a difference between the way the Americans make use of the lake and the way the Canadians do. It’s like the Canadian attitude is ‘this is the land of lakes, so no need to treat this one special’, maybe so. Lakeshore Road turns out to be a bit of a misnomer as it keeps a frustrating discrete distance from the lake. It’s a great road to ride, but I want to see a bit more of Lake Huron. Eventually I turn off and do a loop on Outer Road, as far as I know this has nothing to do with taking folks out of closets, I don’t actually see the Lake, but get rather close. As compensation I get to see a few other rather delightful wetlands. The loop takes me back to Lakeshore road, which is also County road 21. I follow it northwards, sadly only catching a glimpse of the lake on very rare occasions. Still I am riding well, comfortable with man and machine as one. After a time I realize that man is getting hungry and machine needs some gas.

Nice little wetland

I spot the inevitable Tim Horton’s and stop. Which brings me to a short Chautauqua – my love/hate relationship with this Canadian institution. The great thing about Tim Horton’s coffee shops is predictability, the crappy thing about Tim Horton’s coffee shops is predictability. In any given town or even tiny village in Canada you will find a Tim Horton’s…almost guaranteed, where you will get a 90% acceptable coffee or espresso and something to eat that is reasonably healthy and 90 % tasty (you can also get unhealthy, like donuts or honey crullers, but that is your choice) and everything is incredibly cheap. The washrooms are usually clean and service is quick.  Now in America where Tim’s does not reign supreme you are stuck with pot luck or Starbucks, and Starbucks, whilst great, is expensive and mainly confined to bigger towns and cities. If you stop at a café or diner you may get a decent cup of coffee, but chances are you won’t. Mac Donald’s has attempted to fill that gap in the market, but not terribly successfully, and I am not fond of the food there. So if you are travelling and 90% quality with 100% predictability and quick in and out, Tim Horton’s is the greatest thing. The downside is the loss of the small business and variety. Certainty versus interesting. In a way it is a metaphor for the North American way. If a recipe is found that works, repeat it over and over until the whole damn world looks the same – new ideas struggle to get an airing because there is business risk in deviating from the recipe. By the way Hollywood is another prime example, that’s why we get Rocky VIII, and why it is so hard for new talent to ‘make it’ and why once an actor has ‘made it’ they become gods amongst us.    

The 90% ok double espresso and grilled cheese sandwich fills the hole and I head north ignoring the speed limit with the rest of the traffic. Through Southampton, which doesn’t remind me of the English city in Hampshire, and split off from the 21 and take the Bruce County Road 13. I’m in an Indian reservation, the Saugeen Nation, but there is little that makes this apparent apart from a few smoke shops and a sign or two that say so. There are lots of properties between the road and the river, I speculate if these are weekend cottages belonging to wealthy regular Ontarians or if these are the homes of Saugeen people, I am guessing the former.

Sauble beach, I have been told is really great, the best beach in Ontario. At first glance it seems to live up to its reputation, if you measure this by the number of people milling about, it sure is busy. I notice, ominously, that all the motels I pass have ‘no vacancy’ signs up, there is a storm brewing and I am tired. I’m about to head towards Owen Sound to see if I have more luck there when I see a motel with ‘vacancies’ and what is more it’s got cabins that look similar to the cabin I stayed at in Caseville. With hopes raised, I enter the motel reception, which doubles as a purveyor of souvenirs most ghastly. There was a faint, nasty smell about the place… I should have fled, but as I said I was tired and had set my heart on seeing Sauble beach. Yes there was a vacancy, but only a family cottage, two bedrooms, and it would cost me $125 for the night. Shit that’s a lot, but as I said, I was tired. It turns out to be identical to the Caseville cottage (I guess there was a factory once upon a time that manufactured these for motels) except that this one is very run down, very grubby and there is no air conditioner at all.    

Sauble Beach

I decide to shower then head down to the beach area for dinner. Showering is less than pleasant as the shower cubicle is so rickety that I feel in danger of the thing collapsing on me. Water runs freely onto the ancient linoleum floor and the smell of rotting timber and bacteria permeates the bathroom.  Oh yes, and they don’t supply towels or soap, I had the foresight to pack the latter and dry myself with a T-shirt. I am not an economist (who would want to admit to being a dismal scientist since 2008 anyway), but I took two economics courses way back in my first youth, so I know that price is a poor indicator of value. It is about supply and demand, and right now the power is in the hands of the supply side, but it is odd that by far the worst place I have stayed in on this trip is the most expensive, nearly DOUBLE the price of the best.

Just the sort of place I would choose to add permanent decorative marks to my person 

Sauble Beach, on closer inspection, is not in the same league as St. Ignace or even Caseville, but I suppose it is catering for a much younger set than me. It reminds me a little of Durban Beach of my youth, lots of little shops selling plastic crap and beach wear. For Canadians, think Clifton Street Niagara Falls, too tacky for my taste. I decide to try the Red Road Café and Grill for dinner, it’s a little away from the main activities and right on the beach, but it turns out they are full as they have closed the verandah due to a gale force wind that is now blowing.  I walk back along the beach and get to see actual breakers crashing on the beach. In the end I just get a pizza and take it back to my smelly, expensive cabin to eat, I make it there moments before the sky opens and a thunderstorm of note gets going. At least it cuts the humidity down to bearable levels.

Actual breakers

Your point is? You serve ice-cream from a window.

Plastic crap and beach wear for sale

In the morning I eat the last slice of pizza, cold and congealed, but still a great (albeit unhealthy) breakfast and then walk down to the lake shore for a last gaze out over the water. I know that I may catch a brief glimpse of the lake when I go through Owen Sound, but this is my official farewell. I dry the saddle with the T-shirt, put on the rain suit as it’s now cool and threatening to rain some more, and head out. Sauble Beach disappointed on many levels, but I am sad to be riding with the lake behind me.

Shades of Durban beach circa 1970

I cross County Road 10 at Hepworth and close the loop, once around Lake Huron. The trip is done and I want to be home for lunch, but there will be more, and I’ll keep writing about them. 

More or less the route  about 1850 Km.