June 23, 2010.
Although the boys have met so many lovely, kind and generous people along the way, there’s always a bad apple that spoils the bushel…I received this latest letter in an envelope
that had been ripped open. Seems someone at Canada Post helped themselves to the mini disk inside. So there are no new pictures to share. 🙁 Such a petty theft, but also very
personal. The thief has probably callously erased all the pictures by now, never stopping to think that they may have been important to someone.
Ah well…Dirk sends his horse-scented diary entries to me…
After a long ride, we are getting past Wawa. We looked after the horses and lit a very small fire. It’s a bit risky because there is a fire ban. We also had to put up our tarp as there was a bit of rain. The bugs are still yummy. We took off early in the morning to enter the Pukaskwa National Park http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/on/pukaskwa/index.aspx
We had counted on taking 3 days to get through the park but it was a hungry 3 days as we only had a few cooked beans to eat. We caught a couple of fish which was a welcome
treat. I have to say that northern Ontario is at least 3 weeks behind with the nature, nothing is really growing yet. We are all (horses and riders) very tired, so I am having to force myself to write something. If I leave it for a few days then it is hard to remember everything. We continue the trip to Marathon then Terrace Bay, Nipigon, Loon and Thunder Bay.
I have to say the nights are damn cold. For two days in a row we ate stinging nettles. When they are boiled in water, the sting goes away.
Near Kenora now. Thank God we are almost out of Ontario. The next day we made it to Granite Lake, our last stop in Ontario. Paul and I agree that Ontario is a beautiful province but we would not recommend to travel through it the way we have. It is indescribably difficult for both men and horse. We are looking forward to hitting Manitoba. We don’t care so much about the cold nights anymore, we are just glad to have put one province behind us. Happily we caught a few speckled trout and had a feast…with beans of course!
Next day, we are up very early in order to put a lot of miles in. We are facing a long ride through a wooded area and have been warned about the deerflies. We were anxious to
see farmland again. We made it past Prawda and Dawson Trail. It started to rain, but we kept going until late in the evening with horseflies and deerflies following us all the way. All of us were wet, tired and that night we riders fell asleep hungry under our tarp. The horses though, ate like maniacs! We took of early the next morning to make it to La Broquerie then west past Steinbach. That week we had so much rain…especially at night along with thunder and lightening. It was a wet disaster!
Just before St. Claude, we were on a dirt road when a man stopped us to chat. He was quite amazed at what we are doing. He looked a little like a biker, but he was in fact the Mayor of St. Claude. He told us about a rodeo in town, so of course we had to go. Lots of horses and cowboys…go figure! Our horses were quite excited by all of the activity.
As it happened, we needed a ferrier and this was the perfect place to find one. We were put in contact with a Mennonite man, Abe Friesen who does ferrier work. We put up our camp on his farm and the horses in a fenced in area. Due to it being the weekend we couldn’t get the exact type of shoes that we wanted, but Roo really needed shoes so Abe put them on for us. Chevy was good for another week. We’ll find another ferrier along the way. Thanks so much to Abe Friesen and his wife for their hospitality and support.
We keep going on through Holland, Wawanesa past Souris and straight west towards Saskatchewan.
It’ll probably not be possible to live off the land 100% in the Prairie Provinces so we’ll be counting on the friendly people that we meet along the way for some help in the food department. So far, people have been unbelievable! Just letting the horses graze on their farms or behind their homes has been a great help. People stop us on the side of the road to ask if we need anything. We had one woman stop us in the middle of the road to see if we would like sandwiches. She was ready to run home and make them for us. We thanked her, but said no as we had to make time. We have been offered fresh eggs which we gladly took and hard-boiled. There are not so much green plants around here to forage. Probably like this until Alberta.
So far we have not slept in a bed or been into a store for groceries. We may have to hit up a store for dried beans soon as we are running low. We’ve been through 5 kilos of beans so far. I can’t wait to finish up and have a home cooked meal from my Elli! We still have a few miles ahead, but I dream of it.
The next story will be of travels through Saskatchewan.
So long for now.
I see that Dirk is near Weyburn, Saskatchewan…click here for map link