Cycling trip - Day 13

August 28th
Presqu'ille Park - Darlington

In the morning at the park P got a bungee cord (NLs = spin) in her face while trying to take down the washing line... fat lip. Not a great start, and we got going a little slower than normal, but weren't worried because it was supposed to be a 'short' day.

According to Sigmund we reached 1000km on a beautiful stretch of road, with the lake on our left, and fields and trees all around. Yup, there was definetly beautiful scenery while riding: orchards and the old, beautiful towns of Cobourg and Port Hope. In the first half of the day we rode through an area that reminded us of our honeymoon at Canvaschic and inspired us to dream about something similiar here.

We lost our patience on the wandering and wet ways of the Waterfront Trail on the Property of the Darlington Nuclear Power station. There was especially bad signage that made us frustrated and confused. It also started to rain. We cycled in the rain for the first time on our whole trip - boo! The path narrowed to a few inches at times and also crossed back and forth under sizzling electrical powerlines countless times. We were at a point in our journey where we no longer felt the need for "scenic" and just wanted to get to where we were going. However, the 'geniuses' that planned the Waterfront Trail through Darlington/Oshawa designed a looping, wandering recreational trail that we didn't appreciate. We had also gotten used to a much better trail between Brockville and Presqu'ille. We did 111km while we were expecting a short day of maybe 85km.

A pretty wet night at a beautiful camp site. Ready to go home? Almost.

Cycling Trip - Day 12

Aug. 27th Kingston to Presqu'ille

Today was a big day. Sigmund says 135kms! It was a great ride for most of the day. We enjoyed starting out on Unity Rd (we should let the Ontario Cycling Atlas people know it's new) and the Loyalist Parkway alongside lake Ontario and through Prince Edward County. A special part of the day was a ferry crossing at Glenora. We had perfect timing to catch the ferry and have lunch at the other side.

There were not many hills, good views of the lake and pretty old towns like Bloomfield. We picked up some groceries at the Sobey's in Picton (everyone seemed to be out on the road!) only to come across an A&P and a No Frills (both cheaper supermarkets) further down the road.

We met a cyclist chick who was riding from Sandbanks Provincial Park to Trenton on a road bike. We caught up to her - it was the first time we met a cyclist going in the same direction. We're now at Presqu'ille Provincial Park. The super long driveway pissed us off a little. We thought the camp store was the camp office... it wasn't. There was another 3km from the front gate to the actual campground. But by this point S's bum hurt so much that he just wanted to stop. (Did we mention that we took a wrong turn...?)

Usually the riding day ends with some kind of ice cream. Nothing today so we get 2 tomorrow. We're writing this on the beach now with a million mosquitoes buzzing around. P still finds it hard to get used to the idea that they don't carry malaria).

There are no camp grounds in the Toronto area so either we go beyond -then we'll be almost home- or we need to ask family members for a lift. We need to make a plan for the future. The sunset tonight is quite pink - can we see Toronto in the distance??

Cycling Trip - Day 11

Aug. 26th
Brockville to Kingston KOA

This was supposed to be a short day. Sigmund says we did 99km. Brockville to the outskirts of Kingston was fantastic. The ride across Kingston to the KOA was a form of physical and psychological torture... oy! It was much further than we thought it was, and extra long because we were planning to go back into town. But let's start at the very beginning...

The 1000 Islands Parkway (Hwy #2) was beautiful, with a paved fietspad beside the road, beside the St. Lawrence River. We were able to enjoy conversations with each other without shouting over traffic or fearing for our safety. We enjoyed meeting a fellow cyclist who had a lot of cross-Canada cycling experience. As we said good-bye his parting words were, "Hope you don't have any flats (tires)." Ten minutes later P's bike was turned upside down and we were fixing another puncture ;)

Further along... ahead on the path we saw a shadowy figure duck into the bushes right where we wanted to stop for a break. A few minutes later the cyclist emerged from a bathroom break and turned out to have the most interesting job - she examines road-kill. Her job is to ride the same 25 km every day 6mos/yr looking at and cataloguing the animals that are run over on this particular stretch of highway. The conservation authority is researching the different habitats in the area and how human activity impacts them. We will never see a dead animal on the road in the same way again.

Lunch in Gananoque that required a few lessons for P on how to pronounce it's name (pronunciation: gan-ah-knock-way).

We will skip the details about the poor road conditions and ignorant drivers in Kingston. However, we would like to sing the praises of the KOA Kampground bathrooms - where they have different coloured sponges at every sink, music, flip-down seats in each shower and a bottle of our shampoo now. Also a total lack of mosquitoes made us wonder how this McDonald's of campgrounds managed to make camping life so unnatural.

The evening was a fantastic time spent with the Melles family. They are friends of the Jellema's from days in Uganda and had been looking forward to meeting S. It was a blast! A fantastic dinner (anything but pasta!) and lively conversation. Time spent playing in the tree house with the kids and a very comfortable lift back to our tent. We hope for more chances to cross paths with them in the future.

Cycling Trip - Day 10

August 25th
Ottawa to Brockville

We did it! All the way from Ottawa to Brockville. We forgot to check Sigmund, but total was close to 130km. There were a number of factors in our favour: several days of rest, good roads, last weeks' experiences of riding, good sleep and good food. All this made it possible to ride all the way even with a late start.

We left Ottawa Municipal campsite at 10am, had a 1/2 hr stop for groceries at Loblaws. Riding across Ottawa seemed really long, not particularly urban, and quick at the same time. By lunchtime at 1pm we had cycled 60km and reached Kemptville, which started the day in a good way. The next break we had was in Merrickville, a very pretty town and a bit like Dundas. However, we were concerned about a lack of campsites beyond there. A very helpful Parks Canada staff person helped us find an info book and we decided to head on for Brockville. Apparently, you can camp at any lock on the Rideau canal for very cheap!

It was the first day we rode in long-sleeve jerseys. The day was mostly overcast and it created some great afternoon light. We saw some beautiful houses along the way. It was good to get back to cycling. However, we got chased and rather scared (P) by a cheeky dog, and there were more either barking and/or on the loose.

It was a real treat to come through the centre of Brockville which had some great old homes and mansions. We have set up camp at St. Lawrence Park on the banks of grand St. Lawrence river. Dinner was tortellini and veggie burgers, chocolate peanuts and juice. And it was very good. In the evening we were still pretty energetic and went to get an ice cream at a nearby gas station.

We did find ourselves wondering what happened today to the clothes we wore to the show last night. Hmmm?

Cycling Trip - Day 9

August 24th
Ottawa: showtime

A pretty early start to get to St. Andrew's Presbyterian church for 10am. We decided to go there because they advertised an Iona service, and our thoughts travelled back to a year ago. However, the weather was gloomy. The church service kinda was too. The sermon inspired neither of us (it was crap) but S didn't walk out. We seriously wondered if he'd pulled out the wrong sermon by mistake as he started with, "Nearly 50 years ago, at the start of this century..." Huh? There was no eucharist or gospel reading and lots of pessimism about the youth of today. A member of the congregation did a nice job singing 'The Beatitudes" and our own singing wasn't bad either. We didn't linger for social time, but seemed like a nice community.

Then the sun had come out and we went to a walk-in medical clinic to deal with the poison ivy. It made the Hamilton health scene seem idyllic. S was the pawn in a power-struggle between the doctor and receptionist, which took much longer than we would have liked.

We had lunch at Zack's with a mega-milkshake then raced to Gray's tour bus hop-on point to get to Rideau Hall. Funny moment when P was reading in the folder about the thousands of trees, some of which were planted by foreign dignitaries. We look over to the nearest tree that turns out to be planted by Koningin Beatrix (of the Netherlands)!

We took turns for our make-overs changing in the bathroom of a restaurant. P wore a yellow dress, white shoes with flowers & had a beautiful hair-do. S wore a tie, shirt, belt, pants & cool shoes. We walked across the street to the National Arts Centre and sat in the Governor General's box seats, complete with a picture of Queen Elizabeth II at the entry door.

The show Wicked was Oz-some! Great time, great costumes, sets and lighting, great music, great seats, great anniversary! Of course everyone thought we were foreign dignitaries being hosted by the Governor General. Or at least we had fun acting that way.

We changed back into our normal clothes and caught a bus back to our bikes, and rode back to the campsite. But first we creatively deposited our outfits. P's hanging in a tree & S's lying on a sidewalk all done up. We were back "home" by midnight.

What a day! Thanks Ottawa!

Cycling trip - Day 8

Aug. 23rd
Weekend in Ottawa

We headed into Ottawa on Saturday morning with a mission: get funky/dressy clothes for going to the show on Sunday night. Seeing as we had pretty grand seats we needed something appropriate to wear, and we had nothing except for dirty camping clothes. After walking down a road that we thought may have some second-hand stores without luck, we stopped into the library to gather more info. We were pointed in the right direction, made a list of possible shops and found ourselves enjoying the boutiques and shops of Elgin St.

S had heard of St. John the Evangelist, Anglican Church and wanted to take a look and... voila! A used clothing community shop that was only open on Saturdays in the church basement! We both took our time browsing in there and P needed to use the changing room at least 4 times. Content with a complete evening attire for both of us we walked out with a full plastic bag of clothes, accessories and shoes (total $32.).

By this time we were in desperate need of a second cup of coffee - Bridgehead Coffee to the rescue. One of the best cups of coffee ever!

Next on the agenda was lunch (S was getting grumpy without food). We walked further down Elgin St. to check out the beautiful restaurants and colourfully(!) dressed people preparing for the Gay Pride Parade. We finally settled on a place called the Lieutenants Pump where they started by apologizing that they were only serving brunch until 2:30pm. That turned out to satisfy us quite nicely! We enjoyed a big, fancy and fruity lunch.

Then off to the National Art Gallery, but a funny thing happened on the way... P says, "Hey, that guy looks like Mayor Fred (the mayor of Hamilton)."
(Flashback to the previous evening in the Byward Market) P says, "There's a guy over there who looks like Mayor Fred." S replies, "is it him?" P says, "NO, it doesn't look like him that much."
(Back to Saturday) P says, "But that actually is Mayor Fred!" Pointing to a casually dressed elected official sitting outside a parking garage smoking a cigar. "It IS Mayor Fred! Hi Mayor Fred."
And that's when the Mayor of Hamilton, Fred Eisenberger (fries-n-burger is an easy way to remember his name) hopped up, cigar in hand, and began to chat with us about cycling holidays, great Canadian cities and asked us to drop him a line when we got back to Hamilton.

Finally arrived at the National Art Gallery - it was huge!! Saw some modern photography that wasn't at all impressive. Enjoyed some landscapes by the Group of Seven and a fascinating exploration of the 1930's through different forms of Art. Perhaps too much to take in in one day, and we wished for more time before it closed and felt a little rushed. P did get to see a real VanGogh and a Dali.

Sat outside the Gallery, watching many wedding couples being photographed, when S looked at P's leg and said, "That is poison ivy!" The unmistakable line of tiny dots were on her leg. S has a long and painful history with the evil rash. So we began a new mission: find a walk-in clinic and get a prescription. Problem: there were no such clinics open on Saturday evening and it just wasn't worth waiting in an emergency room.

Somewhat miserable and indecisive about food we headed back towards the campsite. Once there the plan was formed to wash everything we had... leaving us nothing to wear except swimming costumes and long underwear (we looked like a German gymnastics team). Eventually had dinner, a campfire, and roasted marshmallows.

Sigmund napped all day.

Cycling Trip - Day 7

August 22nd
Exploring Ottawa

Day off!! Whoo-hoo! We headed towards the city and found a spot to park our bikes at Our Lady of Fatima's church. By this time we'd found a bank for cash and bus tickets too. We rode bus number 18 into town, bought some hop-on hop-off tour tickets and found a place to enjoy a coffee. Then went for a ride on the bus, crossed the provincial border into Gatineau, Quebec and got off at the third stop: the Museum of Civilisation. We spent hours and hours there (too much to read really) and enjoyed lunch inbetween overlooking the river and Ottawa city. Especially enjoyed the life-sized display of the regions of Canada.

We caught the last tourbus of the day (phew it came!) that took us all over the place. The entertaining and chatty tourchick was the same one in the morning and the afternoon. She remembered us and Stephen didn't win the prize but did count the sets of Provincial flags. Once we got back into the central city we managed to get tickets nr 1 & 3 for the musical Wicked in the Governor General's (Comissaris van de Koningin) box at the theatre. Happy anniversary to us! :)

We headed for the Byward Market which has an immense choice of restaurants for an OK dinner at an Irish Pub and then found some internet access to contact the home-front. Afterwards we were still very full and lay back on the grass of Parliament Hill to enjoy a light and sound show called Canada: the spirit of a nation. Riding back to the campground was dark and slightly bizarre.

Signmund had the day off.

Cycling trip - Day 6

August 21st
Silver Lake - Ottawa!

100km EXACTLY.
We had a rough start. P's back tire was flat. Not sure when or how it happened but it was a surprise this morning. Fortunately we were packing quickly and there was time to fix it although the mosquitoes were irritating and we were both a little anxious about the day ahead. The route to Ottawa would be a long day and none of the routes seemed ideal.

It started with a rough ride down the shoulder of Highway nr. 7 - not fun. Then we got on the rail trail (again) but found it more difficult than yesterday - not fun either. Whilst looking for road signs P got yapped at by a dog and she tried to kick it in the head. Totally frustrated, we decided to leave the trail and get back onto the shoulder of Highway nr. 7 at a strange deserted location - formerly a fire station? Also saw a dead porcupine and an alive groundhog. Finally we got into Perth which seemed to take forever.

After Perth the route was great: no hills, good tarmac, slight tail-wind. We were speed demons! We surprised ourselves by getting to Stittsville by 2pm. Sat there and talked to Vic, a friendly cyclist with a similar tan to ours (dark brown thighs, snowy white above the shorts-line).

We found the campground in Ottawa easily although the route through town was pretty bumpy. We were also just slightly disappointed that we never came across a "Welcome to Ottawa" sign. Got here at 3.30pm. Enjoyed lots of food and making plans to be tourists over the next few days.

We're currently tending a high maintenance fire and writing in the dark. We've had a great shower and a great day. Looking forward to a great sleep.

Hamilton - Ottawa total = 567km

Cycling trip - Day 5

Aug. 20th
Cozy Cove (Trudeau Park) to Silver Lake

The day started with some sweet sleep and we awoke to the sounds of crows and woodpeckers. We had a good campfire last night with hot chocolate and marshmallows (and a combination of sugared peanuts and soft! chocolate raisins). The showers of Trudeau Park were public pool style showers that were the size of a ballroom all to ourselves.

We did decide to take the 'rail trail' because it was the Trans-Canada Trail and S had been led to believe that it was entirely wheelchair accessible - it definitely was not! The quality of the trail varied from good to crap. The good part was almost like tarmac; the crap parts were sharp, chunky, loose granite. The condition of the rest of the trail was somewhere in between the two extremes. It was very beautiful too with lots of water and marshes.

"Hey would you see beavers in this kind of area," asks P.
S replies, "If you're really patient."

Less than a minute later.

"What's that?" asks P.
Answer, "That, that's a beaver dam."
And it went right across the trail and soaked our shoes.

Strange encounter: At one point a truck started honking at us and a local guy drove up behind us onto the rail trail offering the use of his private beach and cabin. Maybe it was just weird because he was the first person we'd seen in hours.

We've re-named Sharbot Lake 'Sore-butt Lake' but we're pleased that their hardware store did have a new bulb for P's Mac torch. We REALLY didn't like Highway #7 - 3 trucks tried to drive us off the side of the road, so we rode on the gravel shoulder for several kms. Compared to the rail trail it was pretty good. Upon arrival at Silver Lake P enjoyed fries and mayo, S had cotton candy & cherry cheesecake flavoured ice cream.

We're very pleased to make use of Provincial Park facilities (come visit with us here). The tent is up, the food pack rope* is up the tree, our clothes have been washed and we hope to be in Ottawa tomorrow.

According to Sigmund we did 81 km in 5hrs 10min.

* with bears and raccoons in the area we had to keep all food and scented items out of our tent... however everyone else just puts this stuff in their car trunk (boot). So instead we hung our stuff in the saddlebags from a tree.

Cycling Trip - Day 4

August 19th
Birdsall - Trudeau Park (Tweed)

Pretty strange cycling day. It all started with P's steering wheel. We tried to raise its angle but could only make it looser with the tools that we had. A friendly chap who noticed our predicament gave us another Allen key. Everything was fixed, we were on our way at 10.10am. The result of the steering wheel adjustment is less numbness in P's hand :)

Today we felt far from home. Our lunch stop was a gravel road after many grueling hills which included the first we walked to the top of because of the combination of steep gradient and loose gravel. Then there was a desert-like rocky landscape and a crappy trail. Off-road motorbikes turned onto it just before us - we could have known that was not a good sign.

Hastings and Campbelford were pretty towns that we came through today. On the other hand: Springbrook - butt ugly! Had to stop counting cows because it became a safety hazard because of the bad tarmac and trucks driving so fast we were sucked into their slipstream. We did not empirically research this but we expect that there is a correlation between the large size of the truck, the little space it leaves for cyclists, the noise of its engine and the tininess of the manhood of the driver.

Sigmund says 88km in 5hrs.

Coldest day so far, but both of us got sunburnt (we did not bring the effective suncream). We are now staying at a creepy "resort" - an excellent setting for a horror movie. It's a huge mansion that looks like it was abondoned. It claims it's a campsite too and we're camping but we're the only ones and there's no taps or wastebins outside. Amazing sun set whilst sitting on a bench, on an outcrop overlooking the lake. For dinner we went for a double package of pasta today plus lots of snacking!

Because of our experiences on the bad trail we need to re-think the next stages of the route.

Cycling Trip - Day 3

Aug. 18th
Port Perry to Rice Lake (Birdsall Beach)

A day of farts & feet, laundry & lightning.

Riding was hilly but very doable. Had no problem finding a fantastic grocery story in Millbrook. We highly recommend it and enjoyed our picnic lunch on their stoop, which included peeing behind their bushes. We made 1 major detour after lunch when other cyclists made it clear that we were heading straight into Peterborough (Even though it wasn't on our route we were glad to have crossed the Otanabee River at Wallace bridge because it was so impressive). Saw a whole gaggle of blue jays* and cow statues**, etc. and a stupid police car (who apperantly doesn't know that that law requires him to provide cyclists with 1 metre).

We got to our campsite just in time... the thunder had been rolling around in the sky to our left for about the last 2hrs of riding. Had all our stuff packed on to a picnic table with the tarp over top and held down by bungee cords, just as the rain started to pour! So the evening at Birdsall Beach Resort has been wet. It has rained since we arrived 5 hrs ago, and we're slowly managing to get things done. Now the tent still needs to be set up. Cooked dinner on the office/store porch which went well. Friendly staff let us stay inside while the power was out and it even hailed! We are now in the Kawarthas***! and we're writing this in a laundry room with an incredibly loud pump.

Sigmund says that we've done a total of 305.5 km - 101.05 today in 4hr & 45 min.

*blue jays are a beautifully coloured bird, part of the crow family, but also a great baseball team in Toronto who will again make the playoffs someday.
**"Counting Cows" is a game we play where each person gets points for cows on their side of the road, but cow signs and statues are worth extra points!
***a mysterious and fantastical land that P loves to hear about on the radio weather reports

Cycling trip - Day 2

August 17th
Terra Cotta - Port Perry

Wow! We rode a lot today. Set out around 9am. Great trail towards Palgrave, but because it was so good we almost missed our turn off. Met several friendly cyclists along the way: 1) before we got on the trail; 2) in Kettleby - she offered us water and cookies. Kettleby is well worth a visit with very cute buildings with historical name boards on almost every house. E.g. Here lived John Whitby, Well Digger 1842.

Had a great glass of lemonade from some entrepeneurial kids alongside the road in Lloydtown - 25cents each. It got quite hot around noon but clouds and a light breeze cooled things off later. Our lunch spot was a weed and insect infested rock cropping on the outskirts of Snowball (a place we had to stop in memory of S's cat - RIP). We didn't see the "inskirts" (were there any?) but the donut shop looked like the place to be.

From Snowball to Ballantrae went very quickly: easy hills, good roads, very cool scenery at Musselman Lake. Some great skies and foreign landscapes. We felt surprisingly fit. S had a swollen knee that went away with an extra-strength Advil (pain killer).

According to Sigmund we rode 116km in roughly 6 hrs (but made a lot of stops to find a campsite that made our day much longer). Now staying at the San Man Motel (P: "it looks just like the ones in the movies"), boycotting Goreski's Campsite because it was not well advertised and another 13km there may well have killed us. Plus we get to watch the olympics.

Memorable moment: crazy lady running onto the path in front of our bikes to find out where we got our red panniers.