7/17/09: Off route for the remainder of Ontario; Collingwood, Ontario to Norland, Ontario; 94 miles.
Great night of sleep with the Georgian Bay waves lapping the limestone shoreline. Got up at 7am and humped getting the gear put away. Then Ryan and I bestowed to Jerry some of the dead weight we’ve been hauling around for the past 2 months. I got rid of some cloths, med kit, and the broken wheel, and we ditched our cooking gear due to the Subway card we’ve discovered so long ago. You may think that this Subway thing is really goofy, but honestly, it really keeps us fueled very well for the next day’s ride, and from a nutritional standpoint, it really covers the bases of all the food groups…..at a very economical cost (Man are we plugging the hell out of this place. Jared watch out!).
Plus, now that we’re down in southern Ontario, where there’s much more in the way of populations and cities and towns, and such is the same for the remainder of the trip into the Maritimes, we can buy our coffee, snacks and buy our dinners, usually a Subway, and not have to be concerned with long stretches of riding with no towns or no amenities. So the cook gear is just dead weight at this point.
Jerry loaded up and wanted to take a few more shots of us as you was leaving for Toronto, and then back to Kent. We had decided to ride on a local bike and hike trail that goes from Owen Sound all the way to Collingwood, this so we’d not have to deal with traffic on Rt 26 first thing in the morning. Now we had decided to change the rest of our route through Ontario. Originally I had us going south, down along the west shore of Lake Simcoe, but we decided to not give up the latitude we already have, and to not deal with the potential of Toronto traffic as you go around the south shore of Simcoe. So new gameplan had us going east on Rt 26 along the Georgian Bay to Wasaga Beach, and then east on Rt 92 and Rt 19 to Elmvale, Moonstone, and up to the junction with Rt 12 east into Orillia.
Then we had looked at either going east from Orillia toward Ottowa, or go south along the east shore of Simcoe to junction with Rt 7 east. I like the northern route, but it looked like a lot of zigging and zagging, whereas the Rt 7 route involved going south to go northeast, but with a pretty straight-line effort. We finally decided on going with the original route plan once we get to Rt 7 east.
The bike trail portion of the ride was really nice, and I hated to see it end in the first half hour of riding. Jerry did some video and some pics, and then I assume he went south on Rt 26, back to Toronto. We met a fellow riding on the bike trail, and had asked him his opinion of doing the northern route to Ottowa, or the Rt 7 route. He offered up that Rt 7 was pretty busy, but that he did not know anything about the northern route. He did turn us on to a nice little local route along the bay that was perfect, freshly paved road up to Wasaga Bay. So we took his advise and did the jibs and jags to get to this airport road. We missed a road, then stopped for more directions and were set on the right path by an elderly man cutting his lawn. He got us dialed in, and we were good to go the rest of the way to Orillia.
Once we got east, out of Wasaga Bay and into the farmlands on Rt 92 and 19, it was just stellar riding. Again, it felt as though we were riding in Geauga or Media countines what with all the wide open farmland and the rolling topography. Traffic was at a minimum, and the day was just fantastic with a blue sky and cotton ball clouds sailing up over the horizon. Occasionally we would go through an area filled with evergreens and the pungent smell of the pine would permeate the air. We had a few rolling climbs, but never anything that was outside of big ring territory. We’d pass farm after farm where the giant hay bundles (actually big rolls) were spread out across the fields for miles and miles. Cool old churches, neat farm houses, wonderful topography. And we were doing all of this wth just the minimum of gear on our bikes. Boy I’m going to bum when we put those bloody yaks back on and get back to reality.
It’s funny to think of the ebb and flow of riding……..stellar day on Manitoulin; horrible day on Bruce Peninsula; great days along the Georgian Bay yesterday and today. Uh oh, what’s in store for us tomorrow? But hey, hat’s cross country riding for you! Every day is a different adventure and a different mindset. You just never know.
By 3:45 hours into the ride we had gotten to Orillia with a 16 mph average. We stopped in the city for our usual coke and candy bar thing to get us through the final 2+ hours of riding. While there I went into a Mr. Sub to get some water and met a construction fellow coming out. I asked him if he was familier with the area, and he replied, “Lived here all my life. I know this area very well.” So here was the guy who may be able to settle the northern route/southern route issue pronto. So I went through the scenario with him, and he was unequivocal in his answer, saying that not only was the northern route shorter to Ottawa, but it was also more scenic and had nowhere near as much traffic as the Rt 7 route. Said that 7 had a ton of truck traffic. And what sealed the deal was the fact that this guy road a bike, and was familiar with the roads from a cyclist’s standpoint.
Ok, so we’re sold on the route. An he even took our map and circled all the towns that we had to go through in this zigging and zagging pattern northeast to Ottawa. Then he drew me a map of how to utilize the local bike and hike trail to get out of town and not deal with all the intercity traffic. Our issue though was that we had told Ryan’s folks that we’d meet them at Beaverton on Lake Simcoe, as we had originally planned to do the Rt 7 southerly route. So Ryan phoned their cell asap and left a message of the new itinerary. And off we went, hopeful that they’d get the message and zip up to the new designated meeting place – Uphill, Ontario – on Rt 45 east outside of Orillia.
We descended down through Orillia, and across the Narrows bridge on Rt 12, and then got on the bike and hike, avoiding the remainder of downtown Orillia. Then we picked up Rt 45 and it was back to the rural countryside and the farmlands. We did start to pick up more in the way of Canadian Shield again, what with the large outcrops of rocks and the big rock cuts for the roads. It was a very nice mix. We had a decent cross tailwind, and the weather was just perfect, so getting in a good century today was not even a problem. So we kept plugging away at the ride to Uphill.
And wouldn’t you know it………we get to Uphill and it consists of two houses. There’s no gas station, no grocery, no nothing. Ride on! Next stop Norwood. And Ryan figured that his folks would see the same and just continue on to Norwood. That was confirmed when they passed us about half way to Norwood, honked the horn and waved. We met them at a little convience store and we asked about camping possibilities in the area.We were directed up the road about a mile to an RV/camping area.
Get there and the folks are really cool, as they charged us half price for the site. Then as we’re about to set tents up the owner comes over to us and told us we could all sleep in the big camper, this because the forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow. We were blown away at the hospitality. She hooked up the gas and water and now we’re styling out in a big 30-some foot 5th wheel. No tents, no set up, no tear down, no potential for a rain soaked night. I’m sitting here at the front kitchen table doing the blog and we’re getting ready to go out and eat at this ……….BUFFET!!!!!
The new gameplan is to continue on this northeastern route to Ottawa, and to try to make it with 2 more 90+ mile rides. That would put us there Sunday afternoon if all goes right. Then we’ll relax and enjoy a rest day in Ottawa. Only snafu is if it rains all day tomorrow, and how cold it is if it’s raining, and how hard it could be raining. If it’s light rain and a tailwind – we’ll try the long ride. If it’s bad rain and a headwind then………don’t know. We’ll see……….Pete
No comments:
Post a Comment