Lisa Stokes

Manitoulin Cycling Odyssey – Travel day

David, Dayle, Wayne and I are cycling on Manitoulin Island this year. We did some tentative planning in August but decided, given the pandemic, to wait until the travel week to book the trip.

Sunday, we got together on a now ubiquitous Zoom call, and decided the trip was a go. Unfortunately, the two cottages we had identified had been booked and the Chi-Cheemaun Ferry, from Tobermory to South Baymouth, with capacity limited to due Covid19, was fully booked for Saturday morning.

Fortunately, we were able to find another cottage in Spring Bay and we drove the long way to the bridge to Little Current – 200km longer to drive, but about the same amount of time.

When I started packing Friday night I realized that all our suitcases are in Hamilton and Waterloo, used by my sons to move back to university a few weeks ago. I like to use one large wheeled suitcase rather than a lot of small bags. I’ve been mocked for this ever since I took a huge pink suitcase to Ottawa on our bike trip four years ago. So, this year, lots of small bags. I, on the other hand, only brought one bike. Wayne wanted options. I’d be lying if I said I had never considered this.

David and Dayle picked me up at 9am and we drove to Wayne’s place. He drove himself as he might have business up north at the end of our vacation.

We stopped for lunch near Parry Sound. There are very few cases of Covid19 up here, but everyone was wearing masks, nevertheless. Our next stop was in Espanola for gas and Tim’s, and then a stop at Willisville Outlook, in the LaCloche Mountains, for a 4km round trip hike to view the mountains and Killarney Park. The peak is 391m and the climb was very rocky.

Shortly after crossing the swing bridge at Little Current we stopped at a roadside fish and chip shop for dinner and ate at picnic tables outdoors, pandemic style, before continuing onto our cottage, Quintana’s Guesthouse, in Spring Bay.

After spending all day in the car, I jumped on my bike to ride it from the car to the cottage, across the grass, after David got it off the bike rack. As I neared the cottage I hit a hole in the grass, came to a sudden stop and fell to the left onto my outstretched hand. Ouch! No one had witnessed my humiliation so I got up and carried on. It was hurting a lot, but I thought (hoped) it might improve in a few minutes.

I went back to the car and carried all my other things, in my right hand, into the cottage. I unpacked my cooler and started icing my wrist. Half an hour later, or so, when the others also sat down, they noticed the ice pack and I had to admit, to myself as well as to them, that I had hurt my wrist and didn’t know if it was sprained or broken.

Dayle is one of the most prepared people I know, packing for all eventualities in a space efficient manner. She was able to provide me with a wrist brace that made it possible for me to unpack and put myself to bed.

Buffalo Getaway – Day 4

We awoke, dressed, packed, checked out, and drove to Wegman’s for breakfast. While yesterday’s hotel breakfast was good and relaxing, it just wasn’t worth three times the amount it cost at the grocery store coffee counter. Having said that, though, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Hotel Henry and enjoyed our dinners. I would definitely recommend a stay.

Our only stop for the day was the Martin House, one of the finest examples of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright’s (FLW), one of America’s finest architects.

Wright designed the interconnected Martin House, pergola, conservatory and carriage house, the Barton House and the gardener’s cottage. The site is important because it is the only FLW site with homes designed for the working class, the middle class and the wealthy.

We started in the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion (Visitor’s Centre) designed by Toshiko Mori (former Chair of Architecture, Harvard), and built in 2009. It is a glass pavillion designed to be unobtrusive on the property and offer great views (and reflections) of the house and grounds. It in inspired from design elements from Wright’s work.

As an aside from the topic of architecture, I include two pictures, taken one after the other, of the Visitor’s Centre. I used a polarizer on my camera lens. Polarizers are used primarily to reduce glare, but can be used to increase reflections in the case of the second image. The third image is the inside of the Visitor’s Centre.

Wright was known for his obsessive attention to detail. He not only designed the house, but also the window glass, lights and furniture. In the case of the Martin House, he also chose the art (Japanese wood block prints) and directed exactly where it was to be hung.

While the house was being built Wright decided to visit Japan. This was before plane travel and he was away for two and half months. Martin was not happy about this and wrote to Wright to protest, however, Wright went anyway. He brought back thousands of Japanese wood blocks and used the prints in his clients’ homes, including in the Martin House.

His most famous window design, known as the Tree of Life, was designed for the Martin House.

We were shown a slideshow about Darwin Martin.

Then, we began our tour in the Barton House, the first building built on a corner of the property. I am going to liberally plagiarize from my blog post about my visit to the Martin House in 2015.

Darwin Martin had a difficult childhood, with the death of his mother when he was six, and left home at age twelve and managed to obtain a job selling soap in New York City. He moved to Buffalo a year later and was hired by the Larkin Company as an office clerk and eventually rose to become Corporate Secretary. In 1902 he needed to find an architect to build a new administrative building for Larkin. His brother, living in Chicago at the time, recommended Frank Lloyd Wright, an architect he used on his own home, the William E. Martin house in Oak Park.

Martin had become quite wealthy by this time, so in addition to hiring Wright to build the Larkin building (which no longer stands), he also asked Wright to design and build a home for him. Wright found five lots on a corner in a Victorian neighbourhood which he encouraged Martin to purchase rather than the downtown property Martin had proposed. Martin commissioned Wright to build a home for his sister, Delta Barton, on one corner of the property to audition the architect. It is clearly a Frank Lloyd Wright home, but the details pale in comparison to the main, 15000 square foot home that Martin commissioned for himself. The Barton House was completed in 1903 on schedule and Martin was impressed enough to hire Wright despite the fact that it came in three times over budget ($12K vs $4K).

Next we moved on to the Martin House. The size and the details were overwhelming. It was amazing to see in person the genius which I had only seen in books or on the internet in the past. Martin designed every aspect, from floor plan, to windows, lights, and furniture. In order to have perfectly level eaves-troughs, Wright designed an eaves-trough in an eaves-trough with the inner one sloped to drain properly. The mortar between the bricks was indented an inch parallel to the long side of the brick, but flush on the short side to accentuate the long low feel of the house and its connection to the earth. The house used curtain wall construction, with the structural support coming from huge brick piers which were used to disguise duct work, separated large rooms into functional areas and contained built in shelving. This allowed for “ribbons” of windows which were unusual at the time. This is one of the best documented of Wright’s homes as the architect and client communicated by letter on all the details, often daily. Wright also had a professional photographer capture the home when it was finished. Wright’s famous “Tree of Life” window design is used extensively throughout the house. Each window has 300-400 pieces of glass and was handmade. The building measures 180 feet from the front door to the back of the conservatory. Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed inside the houses unless one books a longer, more expensive, photography tour.

Standing at the front door, one can see down the entire length of the house, pergola and conservatory to a statue of Nike of Samothrace, chosen for the visual impact.

The family moved into the house in 1907. In 1926, Martin hired Wright to build a summer home, Graycliff, south of Buffalo. Graycliff is only open Friday through Sunday this time of year so we were not able to visit it.

Next we moved on to the gardener’s cottage, built in 1909, which had even fewer details than the Barton House, and is a stucco finish on a wood frame, but is a home I could happily retire to. It has an addition on the back which had beautiful Wright-inspired doors.

Martin was financially devastated by the depression and died of a brain hemorrhage in 1935. His wife, Isabelle, was unable to sell the house and abandoned it in 1937. Then began the “Period of Abandonment” which lasted 17 years.

Architect Sebastian J. Tauriello purchased the Martin House in 1954 (it had reverted to the city for back taxes in 1946). The pergola, conservatory and carriage house were demolished and an apartment building was built. The money this earned was used to rescue the main house. In 1967, it was purchased by the State University of New York at Buffalo, for use as its president’s residence.

In 1992, the Martin House Restoration Corporation (MHRC) was established. $42M US has been spent restoring the house to its 1907 “Year of Significance”, rebuilding the pergola, conservatory and carriage house, acquiring the Barton house and gardener’s cottage and building the visitors’ centre. Only about half of the complex’s almost 400 windows survived the “Period of Abandonment”. As funds become available the windows are being re-made and cost $35K each and take a month to make.

Frederick Law Olmstead, probably the best American landscape architect, designed a series of parks and parkways for Buffalo which became America’ first planned municipal park system. One of the features of his parkways was that they curve away out of sight. This is the view from the Martin property.

The parks were spread out around the city and connected by the parkways. All of the city’s major cultural institutions are located in his parks or along his parkways. Unfortunately, one of the parkways was removed for a sunken highway and broke the connection between the parks. Additionally, an expressway was built through the largest park splitting it in half and introducing noise and pollution.

The Martin House renovation has cost $52M so far and is substantially complete. The original cost of the house was $175K (Martin had expected it to cost $40K).

Many of my friends were surprised that we would choose Buffalo for our wedding anniversary trip, however, if you are interested in architecture, as I am, it is a city full of treasures and well worth the visit.

Buffalo Getaway – Day 3

I woke up late, for me, at 815, opened the curtains and was greeted with the type of weather I expect in Buffalo in December.

We decided to eat at the hotel coffee shop. it cost three times the amount of our breakfast at Wegman’s yesterday. After placing our order I wandered through the bar in search of a cozy place to have breakfast.

I had avocado toast for the first time (I eat avocados every day in salad, but have never had it on toast!) and felt like an honorary millennial rather than the Gen X (just barely) than I am. We found a cozy nook and took our time.

On the way back to our room I noticed this view from the old psychiatric hospital, renovated into Hotel Henry, toward the current hospital.

It was only -5 Celsius, but felt much colder, as the wind was very strong. Good thing I put the snowbrush in the car before we came.

Our first stop was Saint Joseph Cathedral. Because of it’s proximity to other buildings I wasn’t able to get a picture of the whole thing even with my wide angle lens.

We then walked to Lafayette Hotel. It was built in the French Renaissance style and was once considered one of the best hotels in the country. In the lobby they had a mailbox that allowed people to post mail on any floor and be collected on the main floor. Apparently , these elevators don’t work.

We then looked at the old post office building, but only from the outside, as it is now a community college, and requires one to go through airport style security to get in.

Then we went to the Ellicott Square building. It was built in one year and opened in 1896. The details in this building are incredible. It was once considered the best office building in the city. It’s 10 stories high, built around a central enclosed courtyard. It was also built in the French Renaissance style. The open air courtyard above the glass enclosed one allowed there to be windows in the inside offices as well as the outside ones. There was a food fair in the courtyard and we decided it was the perfect place and time to have lunch. One of the things I liked about this building is that the stairs were beautiful and as prominently placed as the elevators.

After lunch we looked at the Erie County library. It was massive and well used with many departments, and provided many modern services such as computer rooms, Makerspace, media rooms, etc. The plaza outside had melters in the ground which melt the snow as it falls so does not require shoveling. It worked very well.

We then walked along Main Street again, but it was far too windy so we decided to head back to the hotel for coffee.

On our way back we saw this delightful billboard promoting Buffalo’s Favorite Gift. Dinner and car washes. What a combination!

With latté and giant salted chocolate chip cookie in hand, we returned to the nook where we had breakfast.

My favourite time of day to do landscape and architectural photography is twilight so we headed out for a walk despite the cold and wind. And it was cold and windy. My fingers were painfully cold on the hand I use to operate the camera and set up the tripod by the time we returned.

This next pictures show sections of the original hospital that is the same shape as the original, but constructed from brick rather than stone. They have not been renovated. I don’t know if there are plans to do so.

The next two pictures show the new psychiatric hospital and old. I know which one I would rather stay in.

On this Google map I have circled the renovated part of the old hospital in red and the new hospital in blue.

We decided to stay in and eat at the hotel restaurant again. The food has been delicious and it means we didn’t have to bundle up to walk or drive anywhere.

Buffalo Getaway- Day 2

We turned off our alarms and got up when we woke up. We drove over to the local Wegmans where we had breakfast and picked up a few items for snacks for the next couple days. Then we drove downtown and parked in the City Hall parking lot.

Our plan for the day was to visit the Anglican cathedral, walk around downtown Buffalo and go for a free tour of City Hall at noon, followed by lunch.

This picture is taken from the top of the parking garage and shows City Hall on the left, and a courthouse next to it. The large red building is the Statler Hotel and the monument is to William McKinley, the US president who was assassinated in Buffalo.

Buffalo has grid overlaid by a radial system of streets which was laid out in 1804 by the Elliott brothers who were inspired by Washington DC.

One of my prevailing memories from childhood and early adulthood was how often fires were reported in Buffalo and the surrounding area. We saw several of these standalone fire alarms as we walked around.

Buffalo’s population peaked about 1950 at 580k. It is now about 260k. In the early 1920s there was an expectation that Buffalo would grow to 1 million people. The picture below shows the old City Hall which was deemed to be too small so money was put aside and a new one was built from 1931 to 1933. The old one became County Hall. The new one cost just under $7M.

Many streets have bikes lanes, but I have seen only a handful of cyclists, mostly on the sidewalks. That might be because of the time of year and also because of the poor quality of the infrastructure. Paint is not infrastructure.

One of my memories from my trip four years ago was how empty Buffalo feels. That hasn’t changed. From mid morning to mid afternoon the wide streets were mostly empty. Most people didn’t wait for the walk signal to cross the road , and even when they got in the way of cars, most drivers were quite considerate. Possibly, congestion contributes to our feelings of frustration and flouting of the law in the GTA.

This is St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. Michael enjoys visiting cathedrals whenever he travels to a new city.

Quite the hinges!

I enjoyed reading this explanation of who is welcome, especially the last point under “If you are…”

This scale model of the church was made at 1/4 inch to the foot and was made in 1849 before the church was built and was used to inspire donations to build the cathedral which took 24 years.

We then walked north to Main Street where the LRT runs. It’s cross-section varies block by block: a transit plaza (LRT, walking and cycling only) , LRT right of way and separated car lanes, shared right of way – cars and LRT with parking and finally it enters a tunnel. I wrote about it and shared pictures four years ago here.

I hate it when cities give away naming rights on public goods.

Theses two beautiful buildings house a bank and the electric company. We walked a little further along the LRT route then we headed back south for our tour of City Hall.

Buffalo City Hall is the second largest in the US after Philadelphia.

We had to pass through airport style security to enter, but there was no lineup. Bruce the docent from the Buffalo Preservation Society was waiting to begin the free daily weekday noon tour.

The architect John Wade is considered one of the three greats of American architecture, along with Louis Sullivan, who designed the Guaranty building which we visited later in the day, and Frank Lloyd Wright who designed the Martin House, which we will visit on Thursday.

Bruce took quite a bit of time explaining that the building is Art Deco in style and telling us about the friezes and sculptures. We were the only people on the tour.

The frieze over the main entrance showed the Canada-US relationship and even then, apparently Canadians were known to wear plaid.

I was very impressed (having just replaced our kitchen floor which was 30 years old) to learn that the original tile floor is still in place. It is secured only with the metal pieces which holds it together like a puzzle – no cement. We also learned that the building has has geothermal heating.

We then saw the treasury room (the only place where no pictures were allowed), then the Mayor’s Office and the Council chambers.

We then took the elevator to the top and then climbed several flights of stairs to go out on the observation deck.

The large red building is the Statler Hotel and has over 2000 rooms, but has been abandoned except for the first few floors for decades.

Bruce explained that Buffalo has so many great old buildings because of its history as one of the premier cities in the country followed by its dramatic decline which meant that there was no demand to tear down old buildings and build modern ones in their place.

We noticed these homes, in the bottom centre of the picture, on our way in. They are abandoned. We asked Bruce about them. They were built in the 60s, but not well built, were very cold and windy because of the proximity to the water, and not needed with the population decline. There is a plan to tear them down and replace with large, expensive homes.

As we finished the tour I asked for a lunch recommendation. He sent us to the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. The food was excellent and the building interested. The ceiling fans were belt driven.

On our way there we passed this courthouse which must be one of the most brutal examples of Brutalist architecture I have ever seen.

After lunch we visited the Guaranty building, notable for being built in the Chicago Style – internal steel support and curtain wall construction. The curtain wall is made of terra cotta. The details in this building are incredible. Like so many buildings in Buffalo it suffered years of deterioration and bad renovations before being beautifully restored.

Here is a one of the terrible renovations and the restoration that followed.

I only walked 11000 steps, but my feet were tired. I am more used to being on my bike than walking and standing. We headed back to the hotel to relax and had dinner at 100 Acres again because we enjoyed it so much last night.

Buffalo Getaway – Day 1

Michael and I decided to take a getaway to Buffalo for our 32nd wedding anniversary which falls on the solstice. I was here four years ago with my eldest son to visit the Martin House. I blogged about it here and here.

Last time I stayed downtown at the Hyatt, but this time we are staying at Hotel Henry. I learned about it on twitter when a couple of the people I follow posted pictures of the beautiful hallway shown below.

From the website: “Widely considered to be one of Buffalo’s most important and beautiful buildings, construction on the 145-year-old Richardson Olmsted Campus began in 1872 and opened in 1880 as the state-of-the-art Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. Hotel Henry is the first phase and 1/3 of the redevelopment of the Richardson Olmsted Campus.”

We crossed at the Rainbow Bridge, but there were no rainbows today. There was no line at all to enter the US.

You can tell you’ve entered the US by the way they hang their traffic lights. I only see them like this at home during construction.

I generally think of Canada as a more progressive country than the US, but shortly after crossing into the US we encountered a bike lane. It turned into a multi-use path running along the river, that, I believe went all the way into Buffalo.

We have a lovely room with a ceiling that is probably 18-20 feet high.

It was raining heavily, so after settling in, we explored the extensive building.

There are many places to sit – rooms and nooks.

There is art displayed throughout the hotel.

This is the restaurant where we had dinner, at the hotel, in the hallways on the second floor, called 100 Acres. The name pays homage to the original acreage once reserved for agrarian use on the Richardson Olmsted Campus,

We ordered from the Prix Fixe menu. The portions were small, but sufficient, and the flavours were excellent.

We went for a post-prandial walk. I took my DSLR and tripod. I haven’t used it for ages, as for daily use, I use my cell phone, and on my bike trips, I use a point and shoot.

This is a small part of the un-refurbished section.

Greg’s Ride – Day 2

We breakfasted at Tim’s then went back to our AirBnB before heading the 300m to the start of the ride. Dayle found a fabulous house in a perfect location. This is my second year riding Greg’s Ride. I blogged about it last year, here.

We arrived at the Legion Hall just after 9 o’clock so that we could catch up with old friends before the ride. Here I am with Jamie Stuckless, executive director of Share the Road, and Dayle.

BikeBrampton folks with Eleanor McMahon and Justin Jones.

As one would expect, there were lots of bikes.

Before the ride we had speeches from Jamie, Eleanor, Thomas Carrique – the OPP Commisioner and Kerry Schmidt, of the Highway Safety Division.

Wayne decided to ride the 80km route. David and Dayle and I rode the 40km route. It was a hot humid day and a hilly ride. We were very happy that we chose the shorter route.

That’s what we have to ride up!

Snack break at 13km after the first long climb of 10km.

It was a challenging, rolling, but beautiful route.

Our road route was crossed many times by rail trails. I would like to spend some time exploring these in the future.

An actual railway.

I love roads with a tree canopy, especially when it’s 30 degrees!

Second rest stop. I cannot fully express what wonderful women Jamie and Eleanor are. They always make us feel so valued and appreciated for our cycling advocacy in our communities and for supporting Share the Road.

I spotted this bike on a front lawn and had to stop for a picture.

I am a slower descender then David and Dayle. On a lovely descent on Valley Road and York Road, at a corner with a stop sign, I turned to tell the cyclist behind me that he could go ahead when it suddenly occurred to me that that cyclist was sweeping the ride. I asked him if he was the sweeper and his answer was in the affirmative. He wasn’t allowed to go ahead of me. Here we are the last three people in on the 40 km ride with the sweeper.

I was very hot and sweaty at the end of the ride, but because our Airbnb was so close, I rode my bike back, and had a shower, before returning to the Legion Hall for lunch.

Wayne arrived back from his 80km Ride very relieved to be done.

After things finished up at the ride and the follow up event, the others went back to shower, and I went to downtown Dundas for a coffee. It was very windy, which we had noticed on our descent back into Dundas.

I had a good coffee and very good cookie at Detour, although it was even pricier than Starbucks across the street.

I spotted this mural on the side of a building downtown.

I was surprised to find that I hadn’t completed this year’s ride much faster than I did last year’s, even though last year I was on a heavier upright bike, and still recovering from crashing my bike in the spring. I guess I was still tired from yesterday’s ride from Brampton to Hamilton. I did go a little further this year, as you can see from the short out and back line at the bottom of the map. David and I and at least five other riders missed the sign leading us to the first rest stop and went further uphill than we needed to.

I was so pleased to be able to participate in this important fundraising event for Share the Road and to see many friends once again.

To Hamilton for Greg’s Ride – Day 1

Today we rode our bikes to Hamilton for the 14th Annual Greg’s Ride. David and Dayle, Wayne and I are staying two nights in Dundas, where the ride begins. Barry rode with us to Burlington then back to Brampton.

From their website: “In 2006, OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart was killed while cycling on Tremaine Road in Milton. After Greg’s death, his wife Eleanor McMahon founded the Share the Road Cycling Coalition in his memory to advocate for safer roads for all Ontarians. At Greg’s Ride: Ontario’s Ride for Safer Cycling, we ride in Greg’s Memory, celebrating how far cycling has come in over 10 years and striving to making Ontario the safest place in Canada to ride a bike. ”

It was a perfect day for a ride, unusually warm, but not too much so, for the equinox. We had some head and cross winds, but they weren’t really noticeable.

We were very excited to check out the brand new cross ride on Kennedy Road, south of Steeles, which will help Etobicoke Creek Trail users get across safely to the extension that goes under the 410/407 and Tomken Road. I have written about that section of the trail here. The pictures in that post were taken before the trail was paved. It is paved now and lovely to ride.

We took our first break at Starbucks in Port Credit, a place popular with road cyclists. We saw an astonishing number of road cyclists on Lakeshore Road between Stavebank where we joined it and Appleby Line where we left it.

I do enjoy the Mordor-like quality of oil refineries. This one is in south Mississauga.

I planned our route on Ride with GPS and was pleasantly surprised to find it knew about this road closure in Oakville and routed us around it.

We left Lakeshore Road at Appleby Line to go to the Centennial Trail, a lovely trail that runs through Oakville to the Burlington border.

The trail has excellent road crossings, with curb depressions, and wayfaring signs at every road.

North Shore Boulevard is a lovely tree-lined, rolling, residential street in Burlington. There is a park at about the halfway point that has great views across Burlington Bay to the industrial part of Hamilton

This tree lined street is near the botanical gardens in Hamilton.

This bridge took us across the Desjardins shipping channel and runs above the 403 and rail tracks. There is a set of stairs on the left hand side just past the large concrete pillar in this image that takes you down to the waterfront trail.

This is a jersey wall separated bi-directional cycle track on King Street over the 403 in Hamilton.

Here we are entering Dundas.

This is the AirBnB where we are staying. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but is quite lovely on the inside. I’m happy to be staying in one place for two nights.

We decided to walk to dinner at The Thirsty Cactus and found one of the Share the Ride route signs.

Dundas is part of Hamilton, but feels like a little town of its own. There are lots of nice shops and restaurants. It is much bigger than Brampton’s downtown at Four Corners.

Look who we found at The Thirst Cactus! Five more BikeBrampton people!

Wayne and I needed more food after dinner so he availed himself of the local ice cream shop and I got chocolate bars and a milkshake at Shoppers Drug Mart. What’s the point in cycling 90 km if you can’t eat everything you want?

We have stored the bikes safely inside and are winding down for the night.

Bike to Meaford – Stats

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Bike to Meaford – Day 4 – Stayner to Brampton

Once again we had to ride to a restaurant for breakfast. Most mornings our planned leave time turned out to be aspirational rather than accurately adhered to, however, this was our longest day for cycling so we pulled out all the stops and got on the road as planned.

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It’s not often that within a short distance of leaving our accommodation we see a sign for Brampton. We didn’t actually take this route, which would have been a single straight line all the way down Route 42 and Airport Road, even though it was 16km shorter than the route we followed, as it would have been more than double the climbing.

I had prepared two routes for our final day: shorter with lots of climbing, and longer with less climbing. We had discussed it several times and decided to decide on the final evening. Patti was always leaning toward the longer route, David and Dayle toward the shorter one, and I was undecided. At dinner last night no one had changed their position so we let Patti decide and she chose the longer, flatter route. Then I said, “You can picture the hills on Airport Road north of Highway 9, right?”, while gesturing repeated steep climbs and descents. David then interjected with his recollection of the road and explained to Dayle who exclaimed, “Oh, Hell, no” as she finally visualized what we would have been riding. Laughs all around and satisfaction with Patti’s decision ensued.

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It was a lovely misty morning, dry, with the promise of heat and the garbage bags were tucked safely away in the panniers. We had breakfast at Coffee Culture.

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There was a pretty little park in Stayner formed by some odd street angles and adjacent to the rail trail on which we travelled from Collingwood to just north of Stayner. There was a map in town showing that it extends to Creemore, but we took the road.

Barry decided to meet us to share the road on our final day. We joked as we packed up at the B&B that he would probably be saving a table for us at Coffee Culture when we arrived. He set out in the dark and made it to within 10km of Stayner before meeting us. And he was very fortunate to climb a lovely hill (circled in blue on the elevation profile below, along with his route to and from and Stayner circled in blue at the top) to find us at the crest before turning back south! He managed to reach his goal of doing a 200km one day ride.

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This lovely scene required a stop to capture.

Just after the turn, we encountered a photographer with a DSLR with a huge telephoto lens, who pointed out a bald eagle nest and eagles to us. My picture is extremely zoomed in, with a point and shoot camera, so not very good, but gives an idea of the size of the bird. Shortly thereafter we encounter two snow geese flying cross wise over us. They were beautiful and enormous, but too fast to capture.

We are ready to go after lunch in Alliston.

We are still smiling at Tim’s in Tottenham where we got on the the Caledon Trailway.

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We took one final group shot, back in Brampton, before separating to head to our respective homes.

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Patti came back to my house where her husband picked her up for a well deserved rest. She did an amazing job on her first multi-day trip.

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At the end of my fourth multi-day cycling trip I reflect on what an amazing way it is to travel and am incredibly thankful to share the road with friends old and new.

Bike to Meaford – Day 3 – Blue Mountain to Meaford to Stayner

The day started cool and overcast, but there was no rain falling, or in the forecast. These units with a full kitchen, two queen beds – one in a loft, and two bathrooms, were quite reasonable for a group of four.

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The Thai restaurant where we ate last night was on the same property and a very short walk from our unit, but there was nowhere to eat breakfast so we packed up and biked to Blue Mountain Village. The whole village was nicely decorated for autumn. There were few people about.

We had a feast for breakfast to fuel our ride.

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Unfortunately, as we finished breakfast it had started to rain. Fortunately, we still had our garbage bags from Day 2 and pulled them out again. There were quite a few stores where we could have purchased rain gear, but the garbage bags had protected us well from rain and wind on Day 2, so we stuck with them.

Dayle’s feet were very cold on Day 2 so she took the opportunity to go shopping for wool socks, something she had failed to pack.

As Patti and I sheltered from the rain under the overhang in front of Columbia, I noticed that the forecast showed a high of 21 degrees and no precipitation. Here is Patti gesturing to the TV screen shown in the following picture. It didn’t show up the the picture with Patti due to reflections.

Shopping done, we backtracked past our accommodation to a lovely road descent that took us to Craigleith on the shore of Georgian Bay.

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Most of the day was spent on well marked rail trails with an excellent surface of stone dust and aggregate. It was tiring though. as even though it is flat, or gradually climbing or descending, there is more rolling resistance on the trail, than on the road.

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There was wayfaring signs at every crossing. Most of the roads that we crossed were quite quiet and there were long distances on the trail between roads.

We spent quite a bit of time at Thornbury at the fish ladder near the ruins of an old mill. We saw large fish in the river, but didn’t actually see any fish climbing.

Stretch break.

Seen in the backyard of a house from the trail.

The rain has stopped and it has started to warm up. Dayle strips off her rain gear to reveal her beautiful new socks. I laughed when I first saw them as I thought they read “WTF Snow”, so even though they actually read “Let it snow”, they will forever be “WTF Snow” socks to me.

The original plan for the day was to have coffee in Meaford (at 25km) and lunch back at Blue Mountain Village (50km), but we were so slow due to using the rail trail and being tourists that we ended up having lunch and coffee in Meaford at McDonalds. Here we are under a lovely forest canopy, just south of Meaford heading back south.

We didn’t see much of Collingwood today, other than busy highway 26, as it was getting quite late and we wanted to get to our accommodation in Stayner. Even in small towns the drivers behave badly with one driver almost clipping my panniers and a passenger in another vehicle yelling, “Share the road” followed by expletives. We were happy to get back on the trail south of Collingwood.

This lovely fellow greeted us as we arrived at our accommodation. It was a farm with horses, miniature horses, goats and chickens, many of them rescues. The owner took us around and talked about the animals before showing us to our rooms. She told us the story of Norman, a 27 year old miniature horse, who is a “felon”. He escaped from the farm and made his way to Tim Horton’s in town, about 2km away. The police were called and used their belts to put around him and lead him back home.

When we left for dinner, the border collie did his best to round us up and keep us on the property, running back and forth in front of our bikes to try to get us to turn back toward the farmhouse. It was quite the adorable performance.

The place had a Paris theme and was very eclectically decorated. The owner was lovely. Unfortunately, the mattresses left something to be desired.

Someone rented the library for a wedding last weekend.

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There was an indoor pool and hot tub in which Dayle and I relaxed after dinner at a bar called Friends. The food was good and the service friendly. It was a long day. We didn’t head out for dinner until after 7pm.

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The bathroom was quite unique.

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The outside looked like a little French village square.

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