Whitby 2023 – Day 4

The weather today was similar to yesterday, mostly overcast, and a very comfortable temperature for riding, not much wind, and very little chance of rain. I downloaded today’s ride, from the Durham Region Cycling page and it is a loop of Oshawa and Courtice. I altered the route to turn it into a loop starting where we were staying in Whitby, and to pick up a few tiles in Whitby that I was missing. I also identified a place to stop for lunch, before we left in the morning, which was at the halfway point.

The first few kilometres were through residential areas, and then onto the hydro corridor. We did have a busy section getting over the 401 and riding on the service road just south of the 401 until we got to the Joseph Kolodzie Oshawa Creek bike path. It is a well designed and signed route, that goes under roads and leads to the Waterfront Trail.

Immediately, after getting on the trail, we saw a couple salmon in the creek, and then started spotting many fishermen as we so cycled along. At one point we stopped and Cindy spoke to one, and we learned that the salmon are currently running.

This was one of the moments when the sun came out fully and lit up this beautiful scene with the tree starting to change to autumn colors.

There is an excellent bike repair station, which looks like it would be difficult to vandalize, at Lakeview Park.

Last year when Cindy and I rode through this park it was pouring rain and we took refuge in this bus shelter to have a snack.

There were many beautiful large trees shading the paths at Lakeview.

Last year there was a new park being built just east of Lakeview named for Ed Broadbent, who represented Oshawa from 1968 to 1989. It’s completed now and has a Garden of Human Rights to recognize Mr Broadbent’s “Dedication and extensive work as a champion and advocate for human rights”. The park has an amphitheater, stage and seating, green spaces, and formal gardens. Apparently the Waterfront Trail now it runs through the park and connects to the Oshawa creek bike path, and Lakeview Park, but we are following the old route, and didn’t investigate it. We will have to go back again.

There is a beautiful field of rudbeckia on the eastern side of the park.

We saw a few Bird e-bikes, as well as the scooters, in Oshawa.

There is a very large marsh, south of the Waterfront Trail between the trail and Lake Ontario at this point. Second Marsh is the largest marsh between the Niagara Peninsula and Presqu’ile.

The Waterfront Trail followed a lightly travelled road for a while, and then turned down this road in poor repair which soon turned to gravel.

The route we were following sent us down this overgrown path which we thought could not be correct.

So we tried going through this trellis but soon realized it wasn’t correct either.

We retraced our route a couple hundred metres and found the sign for Darlington Provincial Park, and a path in better repair.

We cycled along an asphalt road within the park for a while, and then were pointed up this poor quality path to continue following the Waterfront Trail. It was challenging, and came out several hundred metres later at the road we had just left. I suppose some people enjoy the challenge, but I find it stressful when I’m riding clipped in and my road bike tires are spinning, and fishtailing in loose sand, or too deep limestone screenings.

We left the Waterfront Trail and started heading north through Courtice. Another cyclist joined us for a few kilometers, but then carried on when we stopped for a quick snack. It was a rural road, but the traffic was very heavy. We were happy to turn off it onto a quieter, more pastoral road.

A few kilometres later, we reached the lunch spot, a restaurant, with a large menu, and a patio, at exactly the half way point. There were lots of interesting things to choose from on the menu. Dayle chose the California burger and was shocked at the height of it when it arrived.

We were travelling on Trulls Road which wasn’t overly busy and had bike lanes in the urban areas, and paved shoulders otherwise. I like that Durham Region is adding this “ No Stopping in Bike Lanes“ sign on their “Reserved for Bikes” sign post.

We had a few big climbs after lunch, this was the top of the worst one.

Here we are riding over the 407. There’s still a lot of farmland around the 407 in Durham region. Every time I look at how empty the 407 is, it reinforces for me, that we know how to reduce congestion: by charging by the kilometre to use the road, and that it’s unnecessary to build new roads, like Highway 413, rich, if it is free to use, will induce more people to drive, and cause more urban sprawl.

Fortunately, the route was planned to turn left here, and we weren’t impacted by the road closure, as we were a couple days ago.

We crossed the Oshawa Creek again, much further north, on an Active Transportation bridge parallel to a Taunton Road West. Someone has thrown a bike down there.

There was a nice path along the eastern side of the Oshawa Executive Airport. It reminded me of the Etobicoke Creek Trail adjacent to Pearson International.

We rode another section of the hydro corridor in Whitby today, passing this house, with balconies decked out like a bar.

When we got back to the house, we had tea and cookies, and then packed, loaded the van, and tidied up.

Oakley generally chose to be near Cindy except when Oakley had no option, but when it came time to drive, she jumped into the driver’s seat with David.

She wasn’t thrilled about being relegated to the middle row with Cindy. The traffic was bad again on the 401 so we took the 407 home.

I took three versions of the group as we finished the trip. Two were not sharp, and in the sharp one my eyes are closed. So I’m posting a rare picture of me with my eyes closed.

It was a lovely little break and we are very grateful to Cindy’s sister for providing us with the opportunity to ride in the east end.


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