We were told it was hilly, but you really don't listen to people when they tell you these things.
That said, it was hilly! We rolled relatively early after the morning dedication. Every morning, there was a dedication to one or two individuals who had suffered in some way with childhood cancer. The dedication by a young girl, cancer survivor, on day 2 really nailed home the point of how much cancer affects the family, and in turn how much that causes the person with cancer to feel guilty. The camps this ride supports not only helps the cancer sufferers, but also their family. They help families deal with the change that is necessary when one of their own is stricken with this brutal disease.
My legs were a little sore after the first day, but not too bad. Actually, my neck, back and chest were feeling pretty good and I was excited to get going.
Our route (or check this out) for the day entailed doing a 100km loop back to Bracebridge Golf Course for lunch, and then heading East to Camp Northlands for the night.
The first 100km loop was pretty painful. Lots of rollers... the whole day really. Up and down, up and down. The problem with rollers when riding in a big group is that I descend quicker than most (size matters! :0)) but I'd be hammering my brakes just to slow down enough to maintain pace with the group. Which made climbing up hills even worse - I couldn't maintain my momentum and really had to work to get up some of the hills.
Kelly's husband Paul met us with his parents and kids at the lunch stop. Lunch stops may sound like leisurely breaks at a sit down lunch, but they were really 10-15 minute stops where we tried to shovel food down our throats even though we often didn't feel like eating. It was nice to see Paul, it reminded us to smile! We'd been pretty grumpy all morning.
Camp Northlands is a kids camp that generously lets Tour for Kids use their facilities every year.
We stayed in camp cabins - 12 to a cabin. We had gotten caught in some rain an hour before arriving and were lucky enough to get in a cabin with a guy who had a shoe dryer! It was going all night to dry out our twelve pairs of shoes.
Here's a summary of elevations from Day 2 from my Garmin. The green lines were water breaks and lunch.
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