Plans, what plans?
Procrastinating about my plans for this past long-weekend, I found myself unable to find a car to rent on the Saturday. It had been my intention to drive to Prince Edward County after work Saturday, do the BBCo. long weekend century ride on Sunday, mountain-bike on the Monday then hang-out at the beach Tuesday before returning home. Rather, because I had hesitated and lost, I took the GO Train to Oshawa Sunday morning then road the 170 kilometres to Bloomfield.
Though I’d done the ride several times from various starting points, I’d never actually started from the Oshawa GO Station. Rather than taking the Hwy. 2 route all the way to Brighton[45kms from Bloomfield] as I might normally do, I opted to follow my friend Peter’s advice when asking for a route suggestions: ” Just ride and enjoy whatever experience may arise.” The Waterfront Trail is would be. And enjoy I would!
The Waterfront Trail is a multi-use trail[mostly paved, but certainly not all paved, as I found out] that stretches nearly 800 kilometres from Niagara-on-the-Lake to the Ontario/Quebec border. I’d heard people say it was very well signed and a great alternative to the Hwy 2 route, which can be a bit monotonous.
For the next several hours, I meandered my way along paved roads and pathways, along gravel roads and even a bit of [not technical] single-track. I rode through suburban residential neighbourhoods and pretty little towns. I rode through commercial and industrial areas I never knew existed. I rode through farm-land, past sewage treatment facilities and next to nuclear energy plants. I rode past a radio-active material disposal site and several picturesque marinas.
Being such a beautiful day, the roads were full of fellow cyclists. At one point I was given water by Kathy; it was her day to drive the support van for the 9 other cyclists from New Hampshire touring around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Another moment, I was watching a criterium race blast past me.
As I left Port Hope, I fell for the misleading Waterfront Trail Signs which, rather than taking me east, took me south to the water’s edge and a dead-end. Asking a local surfer if he knew the area well, he replied “you looking for the Waterfront Trail?” Seems I was not the only cyclist to be mislead. He directed me to a short-cut trail which would take me back up to Hwy 2, now south of Hwy 401 and for the next several miles, part of the Waterfront Trail. I don’t really know what made him think that my narrow-tired Cervelo carbon-fibre race bike would be appropriate on that trail, but off I went. The hard-pack narrow single-track trail was fine. It was the rocky climb up, over and down the other side of a set of train-tracks that was tricky, especially with my road shoes/cleats. After nearly falling down the side of the tracks, I then found myself deep in the jungle. Well, I know it’s not really the jungle, but those reeds and shrubs and grasses were pretty darn tall and getting through was no easy task. Eventually I did find myself in the back of the GM dealership as I was directed and then on Hwy 2. I was back on the road.
Starting from Oshawa at 9:15am, it was about 25degrees Celsius. Within two hours, it was 34degrees, the humidity was oppressive and I was sweating buckets! Finally, with about 90 mins left to ride, it finally began to rain. It was glorious! The rain, the 10 degree drop in temperature, the change in colours and smells; the world was transformed and I was rejuvenated. I turned the pedals a little bit harder, my smile a little bit broader.
Arriving at the Bloomfield Bicycle Co. seven hours and 170kms later in the rain, I had truly profited from things not going as hoped. In fact, because of the rain, there was to be no mountain-biking on Monday as I’d originally planned. Sometimes, that’s exactly what we need; a change of plans to allow us to really enjoy life. So the next time you make plans and they get all screwed up for some reason, be thankful. And if you allow yourself, you just might have a grand adventure better than anything you could ever have planned for.
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| Darlington Nuclear Facility |
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| Boats; so that’s what Vanilla Ice is doing these days |
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| Canadian radioactive waste storage protocol; a tarp and a few old tires. Yup, I feel so safe. |
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| Welcome to the Jungle |
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| Tom Jehlicka Memorial Criterium |
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| The rain, glorious rain |
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