A paved road in Manitoba

15th July: Carman to St. Malo

Odometer: 100 km, Start: 8.45am, Finish: 2.45pm, Avg: 24.0 km/h,
Weather: Sunny then clouded over, Temp: 15-25°C
Mosquito Bites: 73, Hills walked: 0
Road Conditions: #3 (15km). <1m paved shoulder + 2m gravel shoulder (good), moderate traffic. (I rode the gravel). #23, 1m paved shoulder for 20km! Gravel shoulder after that. Light traffic, good road surface. Services at Morris (62km). Ascent: 100m/80m.

Manitoba rocked for about an hour today. I found a road with a paved shoulder. It was smooth and it was bliss…

Manitoba road with a paved shoulder!

Before that I had to ensure the #3 south from Carman. This was a busy road with a lot of big rigs. It had a <1m small paved shoulder and a large gravel shoulder. With the traffic it would’ve been suicidal to stay on the pavement. Luckily the gravel shoulder was pretty good for a change. Progress was slower riding the gravel but I didn’t have that far to go, so I just tuned out the noise in my left ear and finished it inside an hour.

Crop rows and wispy cloud

When I turned onto the #23 I was shocked to be presented with a paved shoulder. “This’ll end in a few hundred metres”, I said to myself. (Often the roads around here have short paved shoulder stretches through towns and at junctions). It carried on to my surprise. I saw a sign soon after that read “Pavement Test Site”. Glad to see Manitoba’s at least testing the concept of paved shoulders…

Part of an "experiment"

Apart from that excitement, today passed rapidly and uneventfully. The roads were very flat and featureless again and yesterday’s strong wind, although a little abated, was still helpful. I made it to another small French speaking town and stopped slightly short distance, not being that sure there was much further on down the road.

That's more like it...

Tomorrow, if all’s well, I should cross the 49th Parallel and that can only mean one thing…

Violet flower at the roadside