Day 9- Lake Superior Circle Tour: Terrace Bay to Marathon
Day 9
The problem with sleeping on a white sand beach is that you get white sand on everything. This problem is only amplified when it has rained torrentially the night before. We had camped at the picturesque Terrace Bay Beach on the shore of Lake Superior.
As we shook the sand out of all our gear, we sustained a life-threatening number of mosquito bites (as usual). After packing up all our gear, we rode up the huge hill to get back up to the Trans-Canada Highway. Ian then had to bike back down the huge hill to look for the rearview mirror that attached to his glasses. He dug through all the sand near our campsite and still didn’t find his mirror.
Day 9 of our Lake Superior Circle Tour took us from Terrace Bay to Marathon, Ontario.
After Terrace Bay, the Trans-Canada has less traffic and the forest becomes wilder.
Back in Terrace Bay, we headed to a restaurant called Drifters for breakfast. Riding on the Trans-Canada Highway had really been getting us down, and since Terrace Bay would be the nicest town we would encounter until Sault Ste. Marie, we treated ourselves by getting breakfast before getting started for the day.
Breakfast from the restaurant, Drifters, in Terrace Bay Ontario.
It’s nice to start the day with a warm breakfast while bike touring.
Outside the window, we could see our bikes and the Terrace Bay Lighthouse.
Well it turned out that the food at Drifters was about as mediocre as bike touring on the Trans-Canada Highway. Terrace Bay (and most of the cities to come in Canada) were under a boil water order, so they told us they couldn’t serve us water with breakfast. We found it unusual that a restaurant wouldn’t have the equipment needed to boil water, and we were kind of concerned about the safety of the coffee that we were drinking, but fortunately us cyclists have tough stomachs.
Our favorite aspect of Drifters was listening to the old women at the table next to us. Because we were catching up on the town gossip before hitting the road, we got a later start on the morning of Day 9 of our Lake Superior Circle Tour. We were fine with it though because we only had 50 miles planned. It’s so weird to get to the point on a long-distance bike tour, where 50 miles no longer seems like a significant distance.
Navigating through Ontario while biking around Lake Superior is super easy.
We used these reflective buttons on our gear to make ourselves more visible.
Ian sewed this custom frame pack for carrying his year, because his bike had no bosses for attaching a rack.
At this point of the Lake Superior Circle Tour, navigating our bike route is incredibly easy. Just keep the lake on your right, and bike east on Highway 17. It’s literally the only option. You would have to be crazy to get lost on this stretch of the tour around Lake Superior.
From Terrace Bay to Marathon, it’s a series of five or six 2000-foot climbs. We stopped at a viewpoint at the top of one of the major hills. We laid all our wet gear in the grass to dry. (Drying wet gear can significantly lighten your load.)
Biking from Terrace Bay to Marathon is a series of major climbs, don’t expect it to level out.
I would have never gotten through the Trans-Canada Highway without my bluetooth speaker from Outdoor Tech.
The viewpoint was rocky. This area is the heart of the exposed Canadian Shield. It is some of the oldest exposed bedrock in the world. After a while, a colorful freight train started snaking through the cliffs and woods of the shore below us.
We watched this freight train snake around this headland while eating lunch.
We dried our gear on the rocks at this overlook.
We continued down the Trans-Canada Highway. It was more of the same intermittent shoulders, and many places where we were too close for comfort with the cars and trucks. However, overall there is less traffic here, because from Terrace Bay to the east, you enter some of the most remote, wilderness portions of the Lake Superior Circle Tour. From Terrace Bay to Marathon, there are really no towns or even settlements.
Since Nipigon I had been riding with a pool noodle attached to my bike rack to keep cars at a safe one-meter distance. Along our ride, Ian found half a pool noodle that must of blown out of someone’s truck. He stabbed a branch through it and attached his to his rear saddle bag for a frugal bike touring hack that saved a total of $0.98.
Ian found this pool noodle in the ditch in Canada. He attached it to his saddle bag to keep cars from passing too close.
Neys Provincial Park is a popular stop for many on this segment of the Lake Superior Circle Tour, though we didn’t have the time to stop. In the park there are many trails and options to explore the rocky shore along this northern section of Lake Superior.
Inukshuks that were built on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway in Ontario.
Although the gravel shoulder is wide, the paved shoulder is usually this narrow or even narrower. This pool noodle helps keep trucks at a safe distance.
On this stretch of the ride you are rarely close to the shore, so we only got glimpses of the shimmering lake from the tops of hills. It was a warm day, so we would usually get overheated on the climbs, but as soon as we started to descend toward the lake, we would get a strong wind off the lake that would immediately cool us down.
This area of the road was so remote that we began to run out of water by the end of the day. Typically we would fill our water bottles at gas stations or public facilities to avoid having to treat water, but these options were not available. It was hot and we had drank more water than usual.
The towns are few and far between on the Trans-Canada Highway, so you need to be prepared to treat water from streams.
Ian climbing back up the rip rap from getting water in Mink Creek below.
Having resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t make it to Marathon without treating water, and not wanting to drink stagnant waters from a small inland lake, Ian clambered down to a quick moving stream running below Highway 17. We had to treat the water on the side of the road, so we just awkwardly sat on the guardrail waiting for our two-part Aquamira solution to turn yellow-green enough to be ready to use.
At the end of the day, we had to bike about 5k out of our way on Peninsula Road to get into Marathon, but it was well worth it for the free campsite on the beach. Once we got into Marathon, we got ice cream and iced coffee at a café called Rumours since it had been such a hot day. We also bought about a dozen day old muffins that felt like they lasted for nearly the rest of our tour. We were eating much more at this point in the tour and we were constantly looking for new things to add to our camp food diet.
Lawren Harris painted much of this area, and you will see his art recreated through out this part of the Lake Superior Circle Tour.
It was a very hot day, so iced coffee was just what we wanted when we arrived in Marathon.
Feeling the judgement from some Canadian dogs outside the LCBO in Marathon, Ontario.
Being a distance off the Trans-Canada Highway, Marathon isn’t geared toward tourism in the way that Terrace Bay is. It feels like a town where people live and work rather than a place to visit. But Marathon has a wonderful secret that most people miss out on.
To get down to the Pebble Beach you have to descend a steep 50-foot bank.
We had to run an errand to run while in town—constructing a new helmet mirror for Ian. Fortunately, as a town of over 3,000 residents, Marathon is a perfect place to get supplies, and there are a variety of stores. We went to the Canadian Tire where Ian got an extendable mirror like the ones that mechanics use. He taped/zip tied this mirror to his helmet. It looked ridiculous, but it allowed him to see behind him while biking. Zip ties are one of the most helpful things you can carry in your toolkit while bike touring.
Thanks to our STASHERS insulated bike bags, we could end our day with a gold one.
The solitude of Pebble Beach was a relief after biking on the Trans-Canada Highway all day.
Before heading to our campsite for the night, we picked up some beers at the LCBO that we could enjoy at the beach. Our free campsite in Marathon was at Pebble Beach. We were surprised when we arrived at the beach, because it was at the bottom of a 50-foot extremely steep bank. We locked our bikes up at the top, and found a spot that we could scramble down the bank.
These granite stones have been rounded by thousands of years of wave action.
Pebble Beach is kind of misnomer, the beach in Marathon is really more of a cobble beach. The rounded granite rocks are fist-sized or larger, in a multitude of pinks, whites, and grays. The sounds of the rocks rattling and rolling in the waves is almost chilling.
Pebble Beach in Marathon, Ontario is probably my favorite beach on Lake Superior.
It is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to.
“Lake Huron rolls. Superior sings.” -Gordon Lightfoot
Sitting on a new beach each night was one of the reasons we biked around Lake Superior.
Walking along the shore of Pebble Beach is difficult because of the size and shape of the rocks. It reminded me of School House Beach on Washington Island in Lake Michigan or the cobble beach at Yaquina Head in Oregon.
Tom’s are great camp shoes for bike touring, because they fold down very small and let your feet breathe.
The driftwood logs on the beach may have traveled thousands of miles to arrive on this beach.
Marathon, Ontario might not seem like much, but it’s a must stop destination if you’re doing the Lake Superior Circle Tour.
Pebble Beach, Marathon is listed on FreeCampsites.net, but it would be impossible to pitch your tent on the rocks of the beach. Instead we headed down a small trail to the west at the top of the bank. This trail will lead you to a small clearing in the woods. This spot is out of view of the parking area and the beach below. People had obviously camped there before because there was a blackened fire ring.
We were rarely this lucky with finding free campsites around Lake Superior.
The free campsite is in a clearing is in the woods at the top of Pebble Beach. It’s to the west of the parking lot.
We had the beach to ourselves for almost the entire evening. The solitude felt amazing after biking on the busy Trans-Canada Highway all day. The sunset was immense and gradual, a drowsy fading of pastels. After the sun had sunk below the horizon, we listened to the rhythmic noises of the rocks rolling in the surf as we fell asleep.
The sunset at Pebble Beach was a smoky blend of pastels.
As the rocks roll in the surf at Pebble Beach, they make unique musical sounds.
See our full route for Day 9 on Strava!
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AEROTECH DESIGNS, ART, BEACHES, BEER, Bike Mirrors, BIKE ROUTES, BIKE SAFETY, BIKE TOUR PLANNING, BIKE TOURING, BIKING, BlueTooth Speakers, Camping Gear, CANADA, CHEAP EATS, Cobble Beaches, CYCLING GEAR, FRAME PACKS, FREE CAMPING, FRUGAL TRAVEL, GEOLOGY, GREAT LAKES, HIGHWAY 17, LAKE SUPERIOR, LAKE SUPERIOR CIRCLE TOUR, LIGHTHOUSES, Marathon, NORTH SHORE, ONTARIO, Pebble beaches, Photography, Provincial Parks, PUBLIC LAND, Reflective Gear, STASHERS, Stealth camping, Sunsets, TENTS, TERRACE BAY, TERRACE BAY BEACH, TERRACE BAY LIGHTHOUSE, Trains, TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAY, TRAVEL, Water, WILDERNESS
Have you done the Lake Superior Circle Tour? Did you discover Pebble Beach in Marathon, Ontario?