On our final day, Barry wanted to get some tiles close to where we were staying, that Cindy and I had from a previous trip. Cindy and I wanted to do a ride around Lake Belwood, so we split up for the day. Cindy and I drove part of the way to the lake because the gravel roads and hills in the area are really taxing.
The ride I planned was 18 km of gravel, 12 km of paved roads, and 300 m of climbing.
We parked on a quiet gravel road and began riding. The weather was beautiful.
Lake Belwood is a reservoir on the Grand River. It was created by the erection of the Shand Dam in 1942, for flood control, and hydroelectricity generation. The Elora Cataract Rail Trail crosses the dam.
We came across a road closure, that would have increased the amount of gravel we would have to ride on, so we scouted it and determined that we could get by.
The road was nice and smooth on both sides of the closure.
However, it wasn’t long before we ended up on many kilometres of newly gravelled roads that were the roughest roads we have been on the entire week, and we encountered the most hills that we’ve encountered the entire week, as well. Prior to today, we had generally been able to ride in a bare track in the gravel where car tires had flung the gravel out of the way, but 6 km of the route today appeared to have had gravel added within the last few days, and there was no bare track upon which we could ride to reduce the roughness.
There were some lovely pastoral scenes.
And more rough gravel roads, and more hills.
It’s often hard to convey a hill in a photograph, but it was not difficult on today’s ride.
At one point due how loose and rough the gravel was, and the steepness of the climb, we had to get off and walk.We were very happy that the ride was only 30 km.
On our way back, we stopped in Hillsburgh to see Cindy‘s sister’s artwork on the side of the arena.
We had lunch when we returned and then packed the car. I dropped Barry back in Georgetown on my way to Brampton. Cindy’s husband drove up to join her for a couple more days until her sister returned.
Michael made me a lovely meal for my return home.
It was another wonderful and relaxing trip that gave us an opportunity to further explore the area and enjoy Cindy’s sister‘s beautiful home and pets. I’m so grateful for these opportunities.
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