9/21/12 Montreal River Harbour, ON to Sault Ste. Marie, MI USA

Our final day, there's light at the end of the tunnel.  The rain did stop, we had our final breakfast of bagels that we got back in Minnesota, finish off the peanut butter, freeze dried granola, freeze dried scrambled eggs, oatmeal, hot chocolate and an orange.  We've been carrying all this food for 24 days and finally used some of it the last few days.  We packed a couple of sandwiches each, used up the Gorp, took just what we need for the day, packed up the Bobs which we left at the office and headed out.  After climbing the first hill, most of the day was "flat" as we went around Pancake Bay then Batchawana Bay.  Getting closer to the Soo there's more "resorts", small communities and restaurants.  There's one rest stop on this day at a tourist trap about half way.    By the time we left there it was starting to rain.  It rained on and off most of the afternoon.  Throughout all of Canada probably the most common road sign is moose danger at night.  Approaching the "mile hill" there's a big moose sign.  We didn't see any the whole trip but I'm sure they're out at night.  We made it up the big hill, slow but sure.  If I had my Bob I may have had to walk part of it.  There is one part that is pretty steep.  Getting to the international bridge is easy, just follow the signs.  Once on the bridge I wanted to shift my front derailleur and wouldn't you know it, it wouldn't shift.  I had to laugh because our very first quarter mile out 24 days ago Tom's wouldn't shift.  I wasn't worried because I could still ride over the bridge or walk if necessary.  We were at US Customs at 3pm and there wasn't much of a line.  We waited just like the cars, good thing it wasn't raining now.  The customs officer didn't know how to code bikes so he had to call,  It's funny, here we are with the bare minimum and took longer than a car to get cleared.  The toll for a bike is $1.50/bike.  We rode to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up the car.  Now the long haul of the day... drive back 80 miles to get the trailers, going through customs two more times and then to home.  At 8pm we left the US Customs again and headed south on I-75, had dinner in Mackinaw City at the Keyhole Bar and Grill then home.

What a great trip.  Lots of memories and good thing I have a selective memory, forget the bad situations and remember the good times.