August 4, 2025
- mikepearsonsafety
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Thank you, Pamela, for suggesting Harvest Host! We have stayed at some really cool places, including Dutch Meats Farm about 45min outside of Ottawa. There is no cost to stay at Harvest Hosts, but you are encouraged to purchase from them. In this case we did – meat and eggs from the animals on their farm. The house was very old (late 1880’s I think). It was wonderful to go to sleep and wake up with the cows checking us out as we were set up in a field across a ditch from their field!
Once we were set up, we drove into Ottawa, with the goal of getting a picture of us in front of the parliament buildings. And we did just that. Reconstruction is still being done of the building, but it was still good to see it.
We also came across one of the transition areas for Ironman Canada Triathlon, which happened Aug 3rd. I’m glad we’re doing a sprint race, even if doing 18 of them is longer than doing an Ironman triathlon!
And thank you, Ester, for suggesting we visit Almonte! It was a quaint, old old town (first settled in 1818) built around the Mississippi River (not the big one in the US but a tributary of the Ottawa River) and the power generated from it to run textile manufacturing, mostly woollen mills. Lots of cool things to look at, learn about and buy! Yup, can’t go past a bookstore without going in….can’t go into a bookstore without buying a book…or two…or three (ok, one was Mike’s).
We got to Coteau-du-Lac Saturday afternoon and settled in. The place we’re staying at (St. Emmanuel Campsite) has only 7 campsites to use, with the rest of the place being long term / permanent RV’ers, with gardens, structures, fire pits, etc. And not much English. Our spot was right out front, so half the place has to go by us – lots of looks. A few folks ventured over at some point to ask about what we’re doing, including a man with his young son who dropped of a donation.
We went for a bike ride down to the race area and rode most of the bike course. The route takes us along the Soulanges Canal, built last 1880’s before the St. Lawrence canal was built. It’s about 23 km long, has 5 locks (not functional now, but the wood is all still there). All the ships going to the St. Lawrence would need to use this canal to get around rapids. Canadian history is pretty cool.
Considering the locks were about 150 years old, the wood was still in good enough shape to keep most of the water in/out!
Part of the bike course was on this trail
Race #12 was a good one, as has been the pattern. Another small community event, with lots of volunteers and people cheering others on. We’ve never swam in a canal as part of a race, so this was kind of cool. And biking beside the St. Lawrence River as pretty neat too! It was windy, so that made it even more enjoyable (not!) 😊
Riding along the St. Lawrence River, with rapids in the background
Anne-Marie, a volunteer helping organize the race, was thrilled to hear about why we were there, and passed on our story to the race announcer, who mentioned us to the group. Unfortunately it was all in French, with us only understanding the “Tri’ing to End ALS” and “Mike and Donna”! As I was waiting for my swim start, a young lady (Catherine) came up to me with tears in her eyes. Her mom died of ALS 15 years ago, when Catherine was only 10 years old. Fifteen years for her; 24 years for me…..time doesn’t make a difference – the loss still hurts.
