It was the Brampton Quilters’ Guild quilt show this weekend. Trystan and I helped with set-up on Friday afternoon. I am the photographer for the Guild and I photograph every quilt in the show. I captured about a quarter of them on Friday.
On Saturday afternoon, I returned, with Owen for my shift on mini-quilt raffle sales. Owen had a look around, bought some raffle tickets and bought a snack in the tea room. Lara and Ryan came a little later, to do the same, and took Owen home with them. After my shift I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing the photography. As usual it was a wonderful show and for the first time ever I won a mini-quilt.
On Sunday, I volunteered for take-down so I could go on a long bike ride first
Last Sunday I tried to ride up the Escarpment on Mountainview Road and failed. I had only done it once before in the middle of September last year. Last Wednesday, I tried again, stopping to rest, but not walking my bike, and got a little further, but turned back before getting to the top.
Today I made it. I had to stop and rest several times, my average speed was only 14kph, but I did it. This is look back down the second hill. It’s a killer. It’s long and gets steeper as you get closer to the top.
This is the view from the top of the third hill. It’s a great ride down, around a bend and back up again.
Another long hill, looking back south from the top. I’ve now lost track of which one this is.
I think this was the second last hill going north, looking back south from the top again.
This is the last big hill, looking south from the top. As you can see from this series, each time you go up, you give a little back, before going up again. It takes 7 km to get to the top.
Here I am at Highway 9, my turnaround point.
On the way back, the momentum from going downhill carries me almost effortlessly to the top of the next hill in some cases. In others, I still have to pedal madly up the top half.
When I got back to Caledon East, I rode over to Airport Road for lunch at Subway and then back home for a total ride of 61km.
I will be doing this ride a couple more times before Spin the Lake which has a lot more climbing and is longer. I hope to be ready for the 96km route, but might have to settle for the 50 depending on how my training goes between now and May 23.
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I haven’t cycled in your region yet. We went west in a slightly different direction. I lived in Toronto for over 25 yrs.
Enjoy spring!
Caledon is a lovely place to ride. Mostly rural and drivers are quite respectful and usually give me the lane. Climbing the Escarpment is challenging for me, but I am sure, nothing compared to the climbs you encounter in the Vancouver area.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
My sister is a physician at the hospital in the Caledon region. Just make you don’t have to visit her: she is an emergency medicine doctor.
Last year I started riding with lights, set in flashing mode in the daytime. I have noticed that drivers now give me a lot more room. I think that if you give them more time to see you they are more likely to be able to have enough time to decide to do the right thing, and change lanes to pass, rather than squeezing by within the lane.
I have no intention of ending up in the ER!
I ended up in ER in Vancouver hospital after another cyclist speeded/ploughed into me on a bike path on New Year’s Day.
I hope it wasn’t serious. Last summer for the first time in my memory I fell off my bike. I took a corner too fast when the ground was wet and there was a deposit of gravel. My back tire skidded out and I flew over the handlebars. Fortunately, I landed flat, distributing the force. Along with the visor on my bicycle helmet, that saved me from anything more than a few scrapes.
Later in the season I learned to ride using clipless pedals. I had five further falls, the first of which injured my knee in a way that took a couple months to recover. The rest were minor. I haven’t had a fall since and hope to continue that way.