Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Winnipeg and Selkirk

Day 5 – Tuesday August 10, 2010 – Winnipeg and Selkirk

Time: Not much

Kilometres: 82.7

Weather:

Winnipeg: Sunny, humid, and warm; 28C at 10:20 AM

Selkirk: Hazy, hot, and humid; 42C at 2:10 PM

I got off to a late start as I had a luggage problem to solve – which I did thanks to the Velcro strap Diane gave me last week. Originally this was going to be used to hold my tank bag (which is scratching my paint) to the luggage on the back seat; however, I found the motorcycle cover fit on the back seat so I didn’t use the Velcro. I packed Velcro at the last minute for in case of emergency strapping. Yup, this was the emergency. All I did was stabilize the load from the top with strap.

I took the new luggage configuration for a test-run up to Selkirk, which is about 40 km north of Winnipeg. Actually, Lower Fort Garry was on my “must see” list. I hit the road at just before 11 AM after grabbing a quick bite to eat at Tim Hortons.

I went through downtown Winnipeg again and then headed north. Once out of the city there was a bit of road construction, but it didn’t really slow me down. I arrived at Lower Fort Garry at 11:50, which I thought was the perfect time as most people would be having lunch. (I have developed a habit of eating while others are doing things, and doing things while others are eating. There is hardly any waiting and not many people.)

As I had my big luggage with me, I took advantage of it my stowing my helmet and jacket it in. I was boiling hot and my motorbike stand bit into the newly-paved parking lot. I pulled out my handy little kickstand snowshoe so my bike tip over while I was off having fun.

Before leaving Toronto, I’d polled apart an old backpack and salvaged the shoulder straps. I created a quick release system and added it to the tank bag, which was perfect for today. I carried all my essentials and extra water. It worked flawlessly.

Lower Fort Garry is a rather small limestone fort, which was built in the 1870s. The governor of the fort oversaw all the Hudson Bay trading from here west to the Pacific. Upper Fort Garry is now under the concrete and glass structures of downtown Winnipeg. Apparently, only an old arch remains of the fort.

Lower Fort Garry is on the banks of the Red River. Before going into the fort I went down the river’s edge and found that it is not red, but brown. Between the out-buildings around the fort and the river was an old York river boat. Today it is used for demonstration purposes – how they built and maintained the boats that carried goods back and forth from the fort to York Factory on Hudson’s Bay. (Here’s a pic of the boat.)

There were two highlights of the fort for me. First was the blacksmith’s shop. (That’s the wooden building in the middle of the pictures, with the fort in the background.) The young smith noticed my motorcycle pants, and as was his only visitor, he started talking about bikes. After about five minutes a groups of people wandered into shop and the smith began pumping on the huge bellows. The embers of the forge erupted into flame and the smith picked up a long poker-like piece of blackened metal. He heated up the metal, turned to the anvil and began pounding. He must have been really hot. He was working up a sweat from the pounding plus he had the hot forge directly behind him. After pounding for a while, he dipped in water and then in it went into the fire and then back to anvil for more pounding. He tempered the metal several times until he finally pounded off the top and then flattened the top. His hard work and sweat paid off as he held up a 5 centimetre nail for all to see.

After the group left, he gave me the nail as a souvenir. He said that he messed up the end, but I was really happy with it. That is going to be a keeper for me.

Next, I went into the fort and talked with many of costumed interpreters. All were really friendly and full of interesting information. They were eager to answer questions, and because it wasn’t crowed, they took extra time with me to just chit-chat about history.

The second highlight was meeting the woman who played the part of the governor’s wife. She could see how into everything I was. We talked about heating (there are 15 stoves in the one house), what women did to relax (they will quickly lose their eyesight due to poor lighting and intricate sewing).

I was really intrigued with the dining room. The cutlery holder was like nothing I’d ever seen before (but neither of the picture turned out). I asked if I could cross into the roped off area and she soon gave me a short history of some of the pieces. The oldest is a wooden tea chest (I immediately thought of Margo), which goes back to the mid-1700s. She was such an interesting and fun person to talk with. Just as I was about to leave she paid me the nicest compliment. “It’s really nice to meet someone who really appreciates the history and is not here to just pass through.”

On the way out of the fort I saw a few Red River carts, which were known for there ear-splitting squealing. (Here’s a pic of three carts.)

In all, I was in the fort for just over two hours. When I returned to my bike, I was starting to dehydrate. I couldn’t believe how thirsty I was. Thankfully, I had water with me. I looked at the thermometer on the bike, which read a whopping 42 C. I’m sure some of the heat was reflecting back from the black pavement.

As I headed south with the highway wind cooling me down, I decided to get my earring taken care of. The good folk over at Urban Graffiti quickly fixed the problem and even gave me an extra ball “just in case.”

From the there I headed back to the hotel for a much needed dip in the pool and early dinner. While everyone is having dinner, I’ll go for another swim and then plan out my adventures for tomorrow.