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What a beautiful weekend -- so unlike last month's weather!

Friday night, Paul and I went out for my first bit of cycling in 2008. An hour an a half into our planned 45-min ride, we were ready to drop -- apparently I just don't know how to stop once I get going. All told, I did about 28K, and Paul did 33K.

Afterwards he introduced me to his Wii, his Mii of me, and Wii bowled for a while until SWMNBN arrived to collect us for some food & drink at the Fossil.

Saturday I took the dogs around our trail-lake-ravine-woods-Guildwood-Gardens loop, ending with a brief splash through the duck pond at the park entrance. Finished up some outstanding work for Rainbow Cinemas and had dinner w/ SWMNBN & her parents at a new Chinese buffet joint.

Today I went hiking with the boys across the beach & up the ravine that runs though Grey Abbey Park. Patch, in typical Patch fashion, decided that hiking up a ravine wasn't enough activity & took off when I dropped his leash to climb over a downed tree. I finally caught up to him just below the fence bordering the Rohm & Haas property, and we all climbed down together.

Later, after running some errands by bike, I decided to cycle down to the waterfront west of Galloway Road and along the trail there. The lake being still quite full this early in the season, I got a little wet portaging from where the trail ends to where it picks up again below the ravine @ Bellamy Rd, but it was worth it to get to a quiet place, to enjoy this beautiful day.

Total weekend cycling distance: 50K.

Coming inside

For Xmas my fiancé and her family pitched in to get me and her a pair of Tacx cycletrainers so we can both continue to cycle through the winter.

Managed to do my first 30min ride yesterday (20min on level 3, 10 min on level 2), despite the confused and worried looks from the dogs.

Deerhurst 36K

Deerhurst Resort, deep in Muskoka country and just outside Huntville, is beautiful. (Un)fortunately, it's also very, very hilly terrain, and the past two days were very, very wet.

The night before tackling the big ride I headed north out of the Deerhurst compound and got lost in the night. I wanted to try out my new Rayovac headlamp, and while it struggled valiantly, so did the wind and rain. Even with ample light visibility was terrible.

Instead of being out for an hour or so as I'd planned, the wind picked up and start throwing rain at me sideways, so I came back drenched after about 25-30 mins and only 6K. The kicker was that the last two songs I heard (at random) on my w810i were:

Standing in the rain [...]
Raindrops runnin' through my veins

Standing In The Rain

- and -

Rolling along with the waves,
A thousand miles away
Holding you close in the rain...

The Navy Song

Depressing. Anyway, Tuesday morning was bright and almost rain-free. Still windy and chilly, but once I got going that was hardly a concern. Here's the route:

Deerhust to Huntsville Loop

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The scenery is awesome, but it's overshadowed by the amount of effort required to bike the loop. Definitely something I want to do again, but in warmer and drier weather.

83K to go...

125K to go

Managed to get out and do 40K on Saturday, thanks to Paul's encouragement. Hoping for at least another 125K before the season's over, so I can see my odometer roll over 2000K. Not bad for a 3 year old bike.

Swimming upstream

After being briefly distracted by some salmon trying to swim upstream, we decided to stray from the beaten track today to follow the river and look for more.

Salmon getting ready to make a run upriver
-- click for more

We found some more offroad trails in the Morningside / Col. Danforth park system, and right around where the trail forded the river, we found a couple who'd just managed to catch one of the unlucky salmon on their trek north.

After the park we headed to Pickering via the usual route, then north to Finch and over to the Algoma Forest, which I learned afterwards is a bike-free zone. Headed for home in the grey, intermittent drizzle, finishing at about 45km for the day.

Guildwood to Pickering return

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Berlin to Copenhagen on Push Bikes

Stumbled upon a link to this blog, and I'm thinking I need to try something like this some day. Two weeks on a bike sounds like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Berlin to Copenhagen on Push Bikes Actually, I am planning to try The Ride to Conquer Cancer on June 20 - 22, 2008, from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Anyone intested in joining a team or donating to a worthwhile cause?

Blogged with Flock

On Walkabout

As a break from cycling, went for a 7km walk with Paul and the dogs down the Doris McCarthy Ravine/Trail, across the beach path under the bluffs, up at Galloway and over to my inlaws' place for turkey-day-leftovers lunch.

Hike, Walk or Cycle: Ravine Dr to Galloway Rd

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Then, to further break in my new Hydration Belt, I went for a 4.5km jog/walk up to Mr. Sub for dinner.