Of course, one of the attractions of a Provincial park like Killbear is its wildlife. On entry to the park, we were greeted with the sign indicating a bear was active in the park, and after checking with the ranger, it turned out that there were actually multiple bears roaming the sites. The Visitor Center tracks confirmed wildlife sightings and during the week we were there, the tracking board included: Black Bears (multiple sightings), Deer, Pileated Woodpecker, Great Horned Owl, Porcupine and others.

Our personal sightings included a mother deer and two fawns that stopped traffic to leisurely stroll across the road while we were returning from an ice run, a large deer that wandered through our camp site, raccoons (including one that spent a considerable amount of time keeping my buddies and I company, rooting through empties while we sat around the fire at around 2am one morning) and a huge brown bird that we suspect was the owl. In addition, we heard loons and owls most nights. I never actually spotted a bear, but one of our neighbors did. The second night we were there, I woke around 4am to the sound of deep growling and snuffling around the trailer. The sound of exploration went on for the better part of an hour and I’m ninety percent sure it was a bear -it was far too deep and throaty a sound to be a raccoon, but I didn’t want to draw it’s attention by opening a window and I couldn’t find any tracks or proof the next morning.

We were careful to burn off the grill thoroughly each night and all foodstuffs and the cooler went into the truck and were covered with a blanket each night. Mind you, after reading what happened in Denver last week, nothing is entirely bear proof. I kept a nautical horn near our bunk, just in case (since we didn’t want to spook them too badly, we told the kids it was to wake them up in case they slept in). We didn’t see any snakes, despite the “Brake for Snakes” road signs, but we did talk to a camper across the road from one of our sites whose brother had been bitten by a rattler while camping at the park last year, resulting in an unplanned three day stay at the Parry Sound hospital.

Dearest hive mind,

My girlfriend and myself plan to go on a bicycle trip without a particular destination. The first direction will be somewhere in south Florida in order to escape the cold. After (and if) we'll arrive we will decide on our next course of action.
Our plan to cover 30-60 miles a day. Carrying the bare essentials in order to curb our weight.

Issues:

- Winter. We plan to leave after our lease is up in the end of October. Meaning that we are going to be out there in the midst of the cold. Florida hopefully will provide some warmth but till we get there its going to be chilly.

- Money. We think we might save about 750$ each, and we assume our biggest cost is going to be food. The money will drain fairly quickly and we are looking for some creative on-the-road-money-making ideas.

*** Some ideas we bounced around are:

-Posting/Looking for gigs on Craigslist. As general labor, landscape services, whatever we can get. It might work but I think that the smaller towns don't have their own Craigslist section, or have insufficient interest and demand.

-Day labor centers. Could also work but again, a lot of the smaller towns lack any type of day labor centers.
Standing with a sign with something like "Strong back, hard labor, no handouts". The police might harass us. Anyone tried that?

-Places to stay. We will try to reduce any shelter costs to minimum. We do not plan using motels frequently.

- Camping in random forests, camping sites, state parks and such.

- Wwoofing. We are both very interested in organic farming and would love to check out and work in some farms.

- Couch surfing. On a limited capacity. We don't really want to exploit this system for free lodging but want to hand select a few interesting folks to host us.





So, dear folks,

Any comments or nuggets of wisdom regarding the issues above?

What kind of gear would you take with you? Sleeping bags, small tent, versatile stove, warm clothes, bicycle fixing tools, food. What else?

Any words of caution? Did you try it and gave up after a week? Things you would do differently? Success and failure stories?

Any forums, books about the subject, online resources?

Thank you in advance and have a fantastic day!