Our athletic hosts, Aisha and Aaron, decided to accompany us out of
town as we left Collingwood this morning. Hopping onto their leisure bikes
(both A and A are fairly hardcore – they have racing bikes, mountain bikes,
beater bikes, and cruising bikes), they led us along a meandering abandoned
railbed to the heart of Stayner (affectionally known as the Stayn), where we
bid each other a tearful adieu, and carried on towards the Big Smoke.
We opted
to stick to back roads wherever possible as we approached Toronto’s bustling
sprawl, and this proved a wise decision. The ride was a low-key affair through
farmland and country estates. The low point of the day occurred when I realized
that my helmet light had been left behind in a picnic ditch a dozen kilometers
behind us. Caroline still mocks me for the wholly genuine look of despair that
came over me when the discovery occurred. I tell her she shouldn’t make “light”
of the situation. Those headlamps aren’t cheap, you know.
Our destination today was a nature conservation area in Palgrave, about
40 km from Etobicoke. Aaron had warned us that a 24-hour mountain bike relay
race was taking place in the park today, and so we should expect a bit of
commotion. He was right. We were told by the attendant at the front gate that
there were no camping spots due to the influx of mountain bikers. After giving us (and our bikes) another look,
and hearing that we had come all the way across the country, he told us that we
could, theoretically, set up our tent somewhere in the throng of cyclists and
blend right in (but we didn’t hear that from HIM, wink wink).
So in we went,
found some sympathetic racers who gave us a spot next to their napping quarters
and repair stations, and set up our tent for the evening. They thought we were
ridiculous for biking across the country. We thought they were ridiculous for
biking around a 34km wooded trail over and over and over and over from noon on
a Saturday to noon the next Sunday. Our
tent was right next to the track, and so throughout the night, we would wake up
to the sound the 24-hour relay racers zooming by, which made our recurring
bike-related dreams all the more realistic.
Stats:
Av. Spd.: 16.5km/h
Mx. Spd.: 50.0km/h
Definition of “picnic ditch”: A ditch in which one picnics (not to be
confused with a picnic witch – a witch who haunts one’s picnics).
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