Tour Day 34 Anger Solves Nothing July 28 2010

Today started at 3 am with another Olivier scream. Through my earplugs I jolted to attention and opened my tent up. I heard flurry of activity around our picnic table so I scrambled to find my headlamp. When I managed to get it on I see a family of raccoons feasting on all of my food. I would say our food but it was only mine. The fruit left in the open in Olivier’s helmet was untouched. There food bang was untouched. My top box was picked clean, my bag in the vestibule (empty space in front of my tent) that was closed was opened by muddy paws and my bread had been taken, possibly the strangest was the fact my bag containing all of my cooking supplies and the rest of my food was missing. This had me flustered to say the least. This is a 20-pound bag that just up and left.

I got my other light to try to scare away the raccoons while I stand in my underwear looking very intimidating. I was so tempted to use my bear spray because I was so frustrated hat my bag was missing. I panicked and asked for help from Charles and Olivier. There we all are in our night attire hunting for a bag, and peeing on our campsite so that they do not come back. Nothing came of our search but Charles gave me some optimistic words “we find it tomorrow morning”.

The rest of the night was rough. I was in and out of sleep because I always was hearing sounds that I prompted me to become more alert. As well my tent was pitched on a slope so I was sleeping on the side of my tent.

If you are looking for a storybook morning search you are not going to find it here. The morning search did not turn up anything. I hunted high and low. Searched the lake banks and the foxholes with no success. The campsite next to us looked equally as torn up so that gave me a little piece of mind.

The ride today sucked for the most part. My legs felt like garbage from the rough nights sleep. My muscles had no energy from the spicy burrito last night. And my mind was distracted by the bag. The only thing getting me down the road were my friends ahead of me. It is a feeling that kept bubbling inside of me because I was battling with my miss-weighted bike all day. I would relax and it would slip and slip everywhere. I would get out of the saddle and the bike would loose its mind. When you change something so large when you have ridden with it for close to 5000k before it is a little rough.

We dodged into Quebec to ride some isolated roads. When I say isolated I mean that half of them were not paved. This is also where we made a few wrong turns that cost us about 6km. I found it funny that the first 3 people in Quebec we talked to did not speak a lick of French.

Lunch was next. Here is where Charles planted the thought that the bag may have been stolen not taken by the racoons. At first I thought nothing of it because I was so convinced it was the racoons. I mean I saw them with my own eyes. But throughout the day I kept obsessing over these words. I then realized that there was no drag marks on ground which means it was picked up, which then means it was stolen. This frustration with nature now became anger for human nature. At first I was mad at myself. Why would someone do this to me? How does karma work if this happens to me? It better be taking points that I can redeem at a later date. That then changed to anger at this person. You are a lowlife. You do not own that stuff. You do not realize that that bag is 1/6th of my life. You have cost a charity as well as me valuable time on the road that could be used to promote a better life for people who deserve it and need it.

From this point my day improved. We saw the parliament buildings, which were a lot larger then I though they would be. As well we get the fortune of spending our last night together with family. I sit here nice and cozy in the condo of Charles sister Liz and her boyfriend Jacque. I sit here after a nice supper wathcing the end of the tour de france with Olivier. It is a prefect way to end our fantastic trip as a unit.

So again I must thank all of the Gauthier family for welcoming me into their lives. I know I did not speak the language, but it was still a privilege to spend time with you.

In regards to the missing bag. I have come to the decision to continue. It will be an expensive unexpected replacement, but I will only be here once on my bike and I intend to see the Maritimes and complete Canada in its entirety.
Trip Distance: 134km
Ride Time: 6:20hr
Avg. Speed: 21.12
Total Distance: 4958km
Total Ride Time: 229hr
Destination Ottawa, Ontario