7/16/09: Segment 55; http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment55.html Owen Sound, Ontario to Collingwood, Ontario; 31 miles.
After the nighter that Jerry and I had, I was in no way going to hit the road early today. We hit the hay late, and then got up at about 3am to chase away some raccoons who were rustling around the camp. I thought they may have been a beer, but upon investigation, I heard the tell-tale “coon purring” and saw the eys with my headlamp. So that little episode cost us a good 30 min. Jerry and I were chasing the things away for about 10 min.
But, I did get up at the first chirp of brids and go down to the laundry room and get my workout weeks sent, and try to do some skype – no go on the skype. And then the plan: easy recovery day to Wasaga Beach to lend some help to some very tired legs, and to give Jerry a chance to shoot some pictures of us on the road. And we are totally dead on schedule, so doing an easy 50 today was a piece of cake – with no gear to boot.
We got it going by about 10:30am, and cruised nice and easy out of the KOA in Owen Sound, down some rural country roads, and then east on Rt 26. Wow, my legs were completely shredded from the ride on Wed. And Ryan was in that mode to. So easy does it on the pedals today. As soon as we got on 26 Jerry was out on the road shooting, and he picked the tops of some of these nice long, gradual climbs. These were climbs that are all very comfortable in the big ring with no yaks. Put the yak on and I’m sure they would have been middle ringers. So Jerry would shoot some video, move on down the line, shoot some photos and then move on down the line. And then we come to the top of this climb, and below us, far, far below us, is this amazing panorama of the Georgian Bay, just spreading out in a north-south direction as far as the eye can see. It’s a sea of blue. And Jerry and I are just in awe of the vista.
We descended down to the town of Meaford, in a descent that must have taken 10-15 minutes, and were treated to a wonderful bayside community. The three of us decided to go one more town east to get some lunch. So we did a very quick 10 miles down the road to the town of Thornbury, where I asked a local where a nice little bayside café or restaurant would be. He told me about a little place that made killer fish and chips. Done. Down we went for about 4 blocks, took a left towards the bay, and there it was. They had halibut & chips, cod & chips, and haddock and chips. We opted for the haddock and chips…………PERFECT!! This was a totally cool little place where all the locals were coming in for take out lunch. So we just hung out for about 45 min at a picnic table and munched on our fish and chips.
Then we went to the marina/beach area for Jerry to shoot some more photos of Ryan and I. Beautiful sail boats down along the breakwall, and Ryan and I climbed aboard some big boulders along the bay for the shoot. And then it happened………..THUMP…….. Ryan’s cycling cleat slipped on the granite and he went down…….on his knee cap. My man Shleprock had become Sliprock (I stole this line from Neil later in the afternoon). His knee blew up like a balloon. And I was pretty worried that he may have cracked his patella. Jerry rushed off to buy some ice while Ryan waded in the bay’s cool waters to stop the swelling. Once Jerry got back we iced the hell out of it for a good 40 min.
The true test came when we all kind of decided to have him try to ride out of the parking area on it to see if the down pressure was going to be a killer or not. And he did ok, so we continued to go east on Rt 26 to finish the ride. Neil and Cheryl had gotten us a campsite right on the water just a bit further east of Thornbury, so our 50-mile ride was only going to be 31 miles, which was good for Ryan due to the knee cap. Well, we made it to Craigleith Provincial Park in just around 30 min, and Ryan’s knee seemed to be on the sore, but ok side.
The campground was right on the Georgian Bay, and the waters of the bay are crystal clear. It was a very nice camping area……..and beach area, as the beach was horizontally bedded limestone that kind of dropped off in stair steps out into the water. Very nice. We hurriedly put up tents and then pretty much raced to the cold waters of the bay. I was stoked to get in and enjoy those cool waters. So we all went out across the rock shelves and into the waist-deep water for the dip. The water felt just wonderful, cool, but very doable and nowhere near as cold as Superior. I got in for a bit and then went out onto the flat rock shelf of the beach to just lay out and enjoy the warm July sun. Probably nodded off for a 30 hr or so as I lay there. Jerry shot a few more pics of us with full gear
After a bit we all headed to the Boston Pizza for a nice dinner together and some refreshments, and as usual Ryan and I just ate everything in sight, and all of the other three’s leftovers. And to add insult to injury we went to the nearest Dairy Queen for ice cream. And the funny thing was that not just Ryan and I got the desert, but Jerry, Neil and Cheryl also go some. We’re turning everyone into full-time munchers! We finished off the evening with some wine and beer back at the campsite. Ryan was dead to the world as soon as he got back, and Cheryl was not too far behind. That left Neil, Jerry and I to talk about UFO’s, space time, religion and a host of other interesting topics. Neil hit it in about an hour, and then I finally dropped out at 11pm.
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