Some days are just better forgotten. We were so excited to be back on a trail and reconnected with the Trail itself.
We should have heeded the flags being whipped up by a southerly wind before dawn. Or the red skies at sunrise.
No major disasters (unless you count nowhere to eat dinner), but the day deteriorated from hope to uncomfortable determination to grumpy fed-up-ed-ness thanks to
- An ugly gusty headwind of up to 45km/h
- A horrible corrugated grass-gravel mix trail surface for most of 50km we gave it to improve
- No wildlife – all hiding from the wind – except the snakes (Bron couldn’t avoid the tail end of one hiding in the long grass on the trail, but managed to miss a second)
- No place for lunch/coffee
- No open spot for dinner
- A laundromat that ate all our coins.
It was a day of grain elevators and not much else for 98km along the Rossburn Trail (an old railway line). The last 12 km did try to make up for the rest with a decent surface, great bird life around the many lakes, and trees to shelter us from the wind.
With everywhere in Sandy Lake either closed or closed down, we resorted to sitting surrounded by VLTs (pokies/ video gaming machines) at the Sandy Lake Hotel for a drink. It’s quite the dive complete with crooked plastic tables, chairs and cups and the worst GnT ever, so after one drink we opted for a six-pack and microwave pasta from the Co-Op in our room for dinner.
Tomorrow we try again.
Today’s distance: 98km on Treaty 2 land
Today’s climb: 513m (headwind made it feel like 5,013m)
Total distance: 3,718km
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Red skies in the morning, something about ”warning”? 
Fortunately most towns have a Co-op convenience store and they have coffee. Sort of. 
All towns have grain elevators 
Its not a gate. Detour for us . 
We tried riding across this then thought better of it 
“Beverage room” 
Home for the night 
Dinner hmmm
Trans Canada Epic 