ride for africycle day nine (part two)

bronte creek provincial park, oakville to uxbridge

110 km (part two)

after lunch we headed out with the uxbridge bike club boys to a rendezvous somewhere in the middle of nowhere at which point we were to meet up with a group who had done a shorter "out-and-back" from uxbridge. you see, there were a whole series of fundraising rides attached to this day that left from uxbridge. you could choose a 100 km round-trip like the boys accompanying us did, a fifty km round trip like the crew we were to meet up with in the middle of nowhere did, or some shorter ones.

the group spread out as the hills and the heat took their toll.

i find that the real challenge with rolling countryside is that it's hard to set up a good pace, you grind up the side of a hill, race down the other side, do some flat stuff at a good clip and then slow down to nothing up the side of another hill and so on.

on a hot day those races down the other side are like the best gift, so no big complaints here!

when we arrived in uxbridge we had accumulated a fair number of riders and so we made our way to the park in the centre of town where we were going to be spending the evening.

surprisingly and amazingly an event had been planned that included live bands and barbequed food and the most wickedly good smoothies made right there with all sorts of fresh fruit! it was almost surreal. many of the riders had arranged to meet girlfriends or mums and dads or even children

so there was lots of hugging and congratulations.

it seemed strange to be with so many people and so we went off and set up our tents and we were part way through that when we heard that the local swimming pool was willing to let us use their showers if we could get up there, showered and outta there in half an hour.

the team grabbed towels changes of clothes and soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste etc. and biked quickly through the edge of town over to the big community swimming pool building. good showers. then biked back to be welcomed by the most vicious and bloodthirsty swarms of mosquitoes i've encountered in years outside of algonquin park. man they were hungry! i actually decided to use some deet based product even though i know that stuff'll shut your kidneys down as quickly as it'll scare off the bugs. it was worth it because it allowed me to join in a cut-throat game of monopoly!!!

cut-throat and monopoly would not normally be seen in the same sentence

but you have to see how some of these people play!!

lying in my tent i felt both happy and sad to be going home and ending my trip tomorrow.

ride for africycle day nine (part one)

bronte creek provincial park, oakville to uxbridge

110 km (part one)

the morning broke relatively cool and sunny.

breakfast.

a fragile time in the lives of many people.

how to get fourteen people to take care of that most critical and vulnerable phase of the day?

it was a miracle that took place each and every day of the ride.

a miracle that most miraculously always included coffee.

a few of the more truthful and inwardly confident riders admitted that this had been one of their main pre-ride anxieties. not the weather, the distance, the people. nope, would there be coffee!

here's michael carefully assembling the food to break his fast.

after observing that michael the hungry beast has moved on,

john paul steps over and assembles his morning meal.

here's part of the team huffing back their breakfast in the cozy confines of their camp chairs

under a gorgeous beginning of the day sky.

the raccoon that had showed up last night was still at work and reappeared to the left of the

orange bike just moments after i took this picture.

somehow, miraculously, everyday this and so much else was achieved.

like most things, this was a team effort. somehow people got things done. food bins were brought out. dishes and cutlery appeared, and eventually when the frenzy was over, snacks for the ride appeared, and then the whole was tidied up and put away. different people chipped in each day to help make this, and everything else happen.

you know this is how things should be in all parts of our lives,

but to actually be a part of something like that - well it's special!

a member of the oakville rotary club arrived at our campsite to escort us safely and quickly out of oakville and through the circuitous route that gets us north of toronto.

i'm sorry i can't tell you his name but he really was a super nice guy and a strong cyclist!

i'm pretty sure that he is a member of the oakville cycling club so here's the link to their page.

the route he took us on was safe and gorgeous, and while longer than what we had planned

it was definitely the better route.

we travelled through beautiful countryside and eventually met up with the rolling hills that characterize much of the land that sits north of the toronto conurbation.

speaking of good people.

here's an over-the-shoulder shot of bike buddy jolianne.

jolianne is one of those very quiet people who do amazing things.

jolianne completed the tour d'afrique.

never heard of it?

well, it's a 12,000 km ride from cairo to capetown.

no typo - 12,000 kilometres.

think about that.

almost 12 times what we were cycling!!!

if you're interested in the incredible details of the tour d'afrique

then you need to nip over here and have a look and learn about this gruelling and incredible journey!

our rotary guide left us at belfountain to heaps of gratitude from the team.

on we went through the hills and valleys.

bike buddy ben and i spent quite a bit of this day up front

racing along at a good clip and gabbing.

here's a shot of ben at speed going uphill.

with nice open roads, beautiful scenery, and the prospect of

a special lunch and a special dinner at the end of the day, speed was easy to find!

lunch was sent out to the park we stopped in.

i'm pretty sure that it was provided by the rotary club

and consisted of subs and cookies. wow!

then some of the boys from the uxbridge cycling club arrived to guide us the last fifty km or so into uxbridge.

these were really nice guys who at first took us out at a slower pace than we were used to.

not to worry, eventually the pace picked up and so did the hills!

long rolling hills and some of the heat - dry heat, but heat all the same - returned

and the combination made for some hard cycling.

going down the other side of the hills - well there was lots of yelling and high speed!

ride for africycle day eight (part three)

niagara falls, ontario to bronte creek provincial park, oakville

120 km (part three)

a big part of cycling for me is that it brings me closer to the world i live in.

this in turn allows me to more fully appreciate the big and the small of what and who i share this space with.

the evening at bronte creek was especially beautiful.

clouds filled the sky and melded with all sorts of light to create some amazing scenes.

here is some of what we saw.

here's the google map for getting from niagara falls to bronte creek.

you'll notice that it begins in the united states.

that's because (if you recall) we changed our plans a day or so ago

and made our way into canada a day early.