Today was pouring rain with temperatures about 17C (so no bugs!) In spite of our 6:30am waking, we started late due to the rain and needing to do things in a way to keep tent and bedding dry. The rumble strip on highway 17 made staying on the shoulder difficult, so we were on the gravel shoulder for about 50Kms. After our Subway lunch in Pembrook the shoulders were wider and had only intermittent rumble strip sections - a much easier ride - we did really well on the hills - and got very, very wet. We stopped near Petawawa at a roadside emergency guns and ammo shop and were able to find bear spray (for security - we pick this up en route onthe trip as it is not allowed on the plane). In the early planning stages for the Ottawa to Regina trip section, we needed to tent a few nights due to long distances without services. So, B announced that we would "embrace" camping and about 1/3 of the nights were planned as camping nights. This also means eating at camp, and we decided after considering the options that we would not cook, which lessens the carrying weight of pots, pans, and stove and danger of carrying fuel in heat. So, today, we needed to stop and pick up pic-nic supplies for the next dinner/breakfast/lunch/dinner/breakfast. We ate dinner in a particularly heavy downpour in front of the Deep River grocery store. Some very nice people offered us places to stay and help with our bikes and one man asked if we are enrolled in the "Warm Showers" system as he was a host - we told them we had a campsite at Driftwood. We rode the final 30Kms to Driftwood Provincial Park, arriving just at sunset so finished putting up the tent with our headlights. We have a nifty system of putting up the fly first, then the ground sheet, then the tent in-between, to keep the tent dry. We had our thermoses of coffee and then loaded our bedding, clothing and electronics in the rain from our dry-bag panniers into the almost dry tent and put the panniers in a stack in the tent vestibule.
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