I awoke feeling the worst of my cold is behind me, packed my last few things and my husband drove me to David and Dayle’s house. Wayne was already there. We loaded the last few things, took a picture and headed out. The morning was bright, clear and cool. A perfect day to ride.
It didn’t take long to get to Dundas for the start of the ride. There was no traffic. Once we got there we unpacked all of the things from around David and Dayle’s bikes so that we could get them out and they could remount the front wheels. Wayne’s and mine were on the rack.
It took less than a minute to get to Shawn and Ed’s Brewing Company which was hosting the ride. We had lots of time to register, pin on our numbers, and visit friends, old and new. I met Tom Flood and his young son who were riding the 8km route. Tom and I follow each other on Twitter so it was great to meet in person.
We were asked to write our emergency contact name and number in the back of our number tags before pinning them to out shirts. A bit morbid, but useful in an emergency.
Rani, Peter and Tracy soon arrived and we grabbed a group shot.
Shortly thereafter Nelson arrived having already cycled 20km or so from where he was staying. He left his heavy panniers behind for the day.
We had a few speeches from Mike Schreiner (Green Party Leader and Guelph MPP), Eleanor McMahon (started Share the Road and Greg’s Ride to protect cyclists – her husband Greg was killed on a training ride), Kerry Schmidt (OPP spokesman) and Fred Eisenberger (mayor of Hamilton) and then we were off promptly at 10.
The route was up out of Dundas, past McMaster and onto the mountain through Ancaster. I wasn’t sure how I would fare as it’s the most climbing I have done by a significant amount since my crash, and I was on my upright bike, but I was able to make it to the top with few people passing me.
As David, Dayle, Wayne and I pulled into the rest stop, Rani, Nelson, Tracy and Peter were leaving. They did 77km to our 37km.
The middle part of the ride was lovely, quiet country roads with some rolling hills.
We passed rail trail entrances quite a few times. I’m not sure whether the road was winding, or whether the rail trails were winding, or whether there was more than one rail trail, or a bit of each of the preceding. I’ll have to study the map later and go back another day to explore some of the rail trails.
At the second rest stop we had a great visit with Eleanor.
The final part of the ride down Valley Road on fresh new tarmac was exhilarating. Upon our return to the brewery, after checking in (again, well organized) we were given a beer ticket and directed to a buffet of thin crust pizzas and salads. Delicious.
Everyone felt fresh enough to ride the 20km to the hotel so we picked a number and Dayle lost, so got to drive the van. I must admit that halfway through the ride to the hotel I was beginning to think I should have both volunteered to drive the van back. We passed Hamilton’s new pride crosswalk up McMaster and used the Cannon bidirectional cycle track.
I was quite happy to see the hotel for an hour later.
The hotel was very busy and it took a while to check in and for the rooms to be ready. We cleaned up and then went to the Pita House, as recommended by someone Wayne knows, for dinner. Good food, large portions.
Rani and Wayne then decided they hadn’t had enough cycling and headed to the Lake and back for another 14km during which time I wrote this blog.
It was a great route today taking in lots of places I hadn’t seen before. A good start to the week.
Greg’s Ride:• Moving Time – 2:14:57
• Elapsed Time – 4:02:20
• Distance – 38.3km
• Elevation Gain – 393m
• Average Speed – 17kmh
• Maximum Speed – 45.4kph
• Calories Burned – 1245
Ride to Hotel: • Moving Time – 1:16:27
• Elapsed Time – 1:29:34
• Distance – 20.3
• Elevation Gain – 44m
• Average Speed – 16kph
• Maximum Speed – 40.7
• Calories Burned – 590
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