June 21st, Balmerton to Portage La Prairie, Manitoba - 358 miles

1. Gold Eagle Shaft Construction Site..................... 2.Gene with the Pikes all relatives and from St. Lawrence



3. Leaving Mackenzie Island ...................................4. Site of Last Spike at Feist Lake




5. Manitoba Border

The next morning was a beautiful sunny day and after a leisurely walk to the new Gold Eagle Mine shaft site we had a great breakfast and were then ferried by Steve to the mainland to pack our bikes and get underway by mid afternoon. The traffic was light and we made great time.

As we headed toward the Manitoba border, I was reflecting back on the journey through Northern Ontario. It is huge, with the mining and logging industries operating on a global scale. This area dominates world production of nickel and silver and gold is also a major player. There is a huge wilderness tourism industry and yet there are only 750,000 people, with only two cities, Sudbury and Thunder Bay having populations over 100,000.
We traveled 2300 kilometers to cross the breadth of Northern Ontario but had no feel for the true mass which is at least the size of seven Englands!

Kenora is a lovely town in the Lake of the Woods recreation area. I remember the town since it was the finish of the 150 mile bicycle race from Winnipeg to Kenora, that my father used to compete in during the 30’s. (The best he ever finished was 4th).

I always thought the prairies began at the Manitoba border, but although the terrain was fairly flat, we passed through continuous forest very similar to Northern Ontario until we were only 40 kilometers from Winnipeg. We stopped at Portage La Prairie at 8:30 and driving through 25 to 30 C temperatures under sunny skies. The cleanliness of Manitoba is unbelievable; we have not seen one piece of litter since we crossed the border!