Peterborough and the Kawarthas Cycling Odyssey -Day 1

David, Dayle, Cindy, Wayne and I have set off on an adventure to Peterborough and the Kawarthas. We found a house on Vrbo, backing on the Otonobee River, to rent for six nights. We find it a low stress way to do a cycling trip and explore an area in detail without having to haul all our stuff on our bikes with us. It also allows us to adjust our destination each day depending on our energy level and the weather.

Also, I hate travelling light, and driving to the start of the trip, and staying in one place, allows me to take more with me. I did get down to a medium suitcase, which includes my pillows which I always prefer to pillows in other places, a cooler full of food, and a bike gear bag. I’m really happy with the bike gear bag which Wayne recommended. It’s divided, has lots of little pockets, and mesh to air things out when you put them back in at the end of the day after riding.

Cindy dropped her stuff at my house last night and rode her bike up this morning. David and Dayle picked us up there. They can fit two bikes in the van and two bikes on the rack and pack our luggage around the bikes.

We had an uneventful drive and arrived at a parking lot near a trail access for the Peterborough to Lindsay section of a rail trail that runs from Uxbridge in the west, to east of Peterborough. We had originally planned to ride the Uxbridge to Lindsay section today, but couldn’t find a good place to park the car east of Uxbridge. From what I could see on Google Streetview, the trail surface looked a bit rough on that section, anyway.

Wayne drove separately as he started in Tottenham.

Here we are ready to ride.

The first road we passed under had some interesting street art.

We are very fortunate in Brampton to be so close to the Caledon Trailway which is one of the best rail trails I have ever been on in terms of how well kept the surfaces are. I’ve been on worst ones than the one today, but it certainly wasn’t up to the quality of the Caledon Trailway – 75 km felt more like 100.

The trees were close to the trail without a lot of vistas, but 12 km into the ride we came to Doube’s trestle which was quite spectacular, and will be even more so the trees start to change color. Trains crossed this area starting in 1883. The original bridge was a wooden trestle that was later rebuilt. Passenger services ceased in 1962 on this line, and freight services in 1978.

There were a couple of trestles that we rode under that don’t appear to go anywhere, anymore and seem to be in quite a state of disrepair.

This rail trail is part of the Trans Canada Trail. When I saw this inukshuk I learned my bike against it to take a picture, but then realized that it would be better from the other side, not in shadow. Unfortunately I didn’t realize, as I stepped back to take a picture, that I was stepping down into a ditch with long foliage, at least half a metre deep. I didn’t fall, but landed very hard, and sprained my ankle. It wasn’t too troublesome on the bike, but when I got off when we got back to the car I could barely put my weight on it. Over the evening with elevation and icing it’s gotten better, then worse again when I stop elevating and icing. I’m hoping it will be better in the morning. There isn’t much swelling or bruising, at this point, at least.

We passed over another smaller bridge with some pretty views.

In some places the trail was less than ideal with grass down the middle, and loose lime stone screenings.

This is the Trent Severn Canal coming into Lindsay where somebody has encouraged people to create a rock snake along the edge of the trail.

We had lunch at The Queen’s Bistro just a block off the trail.

Then we did a quick tour of Lindsay’s Main Street. They have a pretty town hall and have recently redone their main street with crosswalks and wider sidewalks. It always amazes me how much better preserved, and thriving many small Ontario downtowns are, compared to Brampton’s.

We stopped briefly at the Lindsay lock and saw the lock keepers manually opening the lock for a small boat to pass through.

The locks connect Lake Scugog and the Kawarthas. The lock in Lindsay was first built in 1844.

At many of the roads they had signs showing the name of the road, the crossing ahead, the crossing behind, and the distances.

The house we are staying in is immaculate. David and Dayle, Cindy, and Wayne, kindly carried my stuff in and let me sit down and elevate my foot.

Wayne picked up food from a local restaurant called Marty Moos. The ribs were excellent.

It might rain tomorrow, but the forecast is nowhere near as bad as it was a couple days ago. We’ll decide what to do in the morning based on the weather and, for me, based on how my ankle feels.


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