Sudbury Ontario to Combermere Ontario

We celebrate a holiday in Canada called Victoria Day, which is a Monday later in May. It is also called May 24th weekend, but isn’t often on the 24th. In any case, a group of people we used to rally with years ago, spearheaded by the three Fry brothers, have been gathering at Stevenson Lodge in Combermere Ontario. Combermere is a village south of Barry’s Bay just east of Algonquin Park. People come from far and wide for this. The Fry’s, John and Bev, Rob and Kirsti and Dave and their friends are from the Toronto area, Eric Avon and family comes from Quebec, Marc Souliere from Ottawa and Rob and Jan Hooks come all the way from the Cleveland area.

This year Heather, Kim and Mike took the Friday off so that they would be able to arrive from Cambridge in daylight. Sandy opted to take the van from Sudbury to carry all the amenities she is used to for the housekeeping cabin we stay in. I took the bike, sometimes leading and more often following. We took Highway 69 down to south of Parry Sound and then cut east on Highway 141 through Rosseau and over to Highway 11. This is one of my favourite roads, especially the stretch from Rosseau to Ullswater. Then we went north on 11 and caught Highway 60 at Huntsville. Going east, 60 goes thorugh Algonquin Park. Unfortunately, the road was closed inside the park while O.P.P. investigated a fatal motorcycle accident. A group of eastbound cruiser bikes crested a blind hill and met a deer. In the ensuing melee, four bikes were wrecked and one rider and the deer died. A second rider was airlifted to hospital. The closure held us up for about an hour and then traffic was slow the rest of the day.

At the lodge, a number of people had already arrived so we said our hellos and then headed for Cabin 26 to stow the gear. I received a cell phone call from Heather, which surprised me since we have never had cell service down here before. They arrived soon after we did. After everyone had unpacked, we headed back to the main lodge to visit. There was time spent admiring Rob’s new BMW sports car. The Lott brothers arrived and immediately washed down their GL1800’s. I avoided this since I had only wiped the bugs off the windshield and this behaviour of theirs would only make me look bad.

After a feed of chili and hot dogs, everyone in our group was tired so we returned to the cabin about 9:30 and everybody was in bed shortly after.