Hillsburgh- Day 3

The day dawned, bright and sunny again, but cool, with the promise of a beautiful day for riding. Cindy’s sister arrived back before we left the house and I was able to meet her, and we visited for a while. She took the dogs to work, so we didn’t need to walk them this morning. She invited us to go out for dinner, and have our husbands drive up together from Brampton to meet us in Erin for dinner, which we accepted.

The ride I planned for the day was about 50 km long with more than 30 km of it on gravel roads.

As we passed the farm on the right, the dog came running down the driveway barking at us, but I wasn’t overly concerned as he looked quite gray and elderly. He didn’t leave the property initially, but when we stopped briefly, so I could give Cindy my phone to take a picture of me riding, for a change of scene from the usual pictures I take of her, he came out onto the road to continue to bark at us, and tell us to move on. Fortunately, he didn’t approach us closely, and was all bark, and no bite.

It’s always great to tap local knowledge, and Cindy’s sister had recommended a place we could stop in Belwood Lake for lunch. It was a bit early when we got to Bellwood and we weren’t very hungry yet, so when we saw this cute coffee shop in a trailer, we decided to stop for coffee and cookies instead of lunch.

The owner of the Bunny Café was lovely, and we chatted with her for quite a while while we had our coffee and cookies. The cookies were sold by the half dozen, so what would could we do but buy half a dozen of them? We each ate one with our coffee, and took the rest to sustain us on the rest of the ride. We also had some nuts and fruit with us. I would recommend to anybody travelling on the trailway that it would be worth leaving the trail and riding a couple hundred metres north to the café on the west side. The owner indicated that she will continue to operate through the fall and winter.

Apparently, these rabbits are juvenile, and will become significantly larger. I was surprised how big they already are compared to the rabbits that I see in the valley near my house.

My bike has over 30,000 km on it and has been due for the whole drive train – shifters, crank gears, cassette, chain, front and rear, derailleurs – and clicking head tube, all need to be replaced. The cost of the parts alone is more than many people spend on a bike, so I’ve been continuing to ride it, and try to keep it as well tuned up as possible, while I consider a new bike. Being more careful, when I’m shifting, by slightly hesitating, on the pedals, as I shift, has also helped to prolong the parts that are wearing out.

I have been having more trouble than usual with my gears when I’m in the small chain rings, for the last couple days. The chain keeps threatening to come off to the inside where it can get jammed between the crank gears and the frame. I unwisely rode across the bumpy grass to get to the café, and the chain came off, quite catastrophically, not only jamming in between the frame and the gears, but also rotating 90°, making it extra challenging to extricate it.

It seemed like it was completely jammed, and we might have to use my CAA Bike Assist, when Cindy struck the pedal forcefully, and the chain rotated bike 90° to the correct orientation. With a few minutes more fiddling, we were able to get it back on the chainrings. Unfortunately, after that, none of the gears would work when I was in the small chainring. I discovered that on the hill to climb up from Bellwood Lake, and had to walk most of the hill.

We decided to continue our ride anyway, knowing that I could always walk, if the hills were too steep.

The Cataract to Elora Trailway crossed the road we were on, just south of the lake. We rode the entire trailway end to end a couple years ago.

It was a beautifully calm day with perfect temperatures. We passed many beautiful farms, and most of the roads weren’t overly challenging with respect to the amount of gravel.

We stopped here to eat more of the cookies, and some of the fruit and nuts

As we approached this final large hill in the distance, I thought, “I’m going to have to walk”. The gravel was loose on it, as well as it being steep. However, I rode in one of the tire tracks and put everything into it, and managed to make it to the top. About halfway up Cindy called out “Car back “, and I said, “They’ll have to wait “. Because I kept going in the car track I was able to make it to the top, however, Cindy pulled to the side where there was more gravel, to let the cars go, lost her traction and had to walk. So we each walked one hill today.

Once again, we finished the day in the hot tub, which was very soothing for our gravel shaken bodies.

We had a good dinner at The Busholme Pub in Erin.

We transferred Cindy’s bike and bags, and headed back for Brampton, another wonderful adventure coming to an end.