July 30, 2015
Riding the roller coaster: Day 58 - Emily Provincial Park to Rednersville (Prince Edward County)
Kirsten came around the corner, saw another steep hill in front of us, came to a stop and muttered "Shit".
I was slumped over my handlebars with a river of sweat running down my nose, pooling on my iPhone. I had expressed a similar sentiment a few moments earlier.
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It was around noon and we had been cycling in the heat for three hours and had only made 45 km's. We decided on a route south towards Lake Ontario and then east along the lake to Prince Edward County, our destination for the day. It looked like a good route on the map, but we didn't have a topo map. Once again we were on very quiet country roads, virtually no traffic after the first 5 km's after we got south of the Trans Canada highway.
The route was pretty straight forward, country roads, no traffic, very pretty pastoral countryside with fields and farms dotted amoungst the rolling hills. Sounds perfect until you add in easy bake (steam) oven temperature and sun, and the rolling hills that were endless, and steep.
When you're biking in the mountains and look to see where you are going and see a pass, you know what's in front of you. You get your head in the right place and get on with it and pretty soon (maybe two hours) you're done with it. Today, we would look ahead on the horizon and see where we were going, Lake Ontario, below us, but not seeing the corrugated cardboard landscape of short and steep hills in between.
Whether we went south or east there were short steep hills. The Garmin was registering 8-12% grades, and 37 c temperatures. The hills were too short to get a good continuous downhill run but long and steep enough to slow us right down. Add in the heat & humidity and we were getting drained and demoralized. This was turning out to be one of the tougher days of cycling we've had on the trip.
We finally got out of the hills and into the flatter country at Grafton. It was now 2 pm and we had 75 km behind us. We were both pretty drained and needed some lunch. Our original plan was to find a shady spot and make our standard humus, avocado and cucumber wraps. Good and nutritious.
However, Grafton had a very quaint looking 19th century Inn with a nice looking dining room. Air conditioned too. This seemed like a much better prospect. We were both hungry and needed to eat and drink something cold. We had enough energy to do this but probably not enough to make our own lunch and eat it too! Sounds lame but we were tired physically and mentally.
We dragged ourselves into the restaurant, white linens, pastel coloured walls, fresh flowers on the table. Nice.
We were probably quite the sight for the staff and other patrons. Sweaty, salt crusted and probably smelling like a ripe camembert. A quick trip to the bathroom and we got ourselves cleaned up a bit and we were soon downing a litre of ice water and digging into a really good cold gazpacho soup. Followed this with an equally good grilled veg panni (me) and flank steak & carmalized onion in focaccia ( Kirsten). Good food and drink into us and 45 minutes in a cool and quiet room we were rejuvenated. There was also a good wind from the west and we were going to be heading east. The rest of the day was looking good.
Back on the bikes and heading east on county road 2 towards "The County". Prince Edward County has become a wine region in addition to an vacation and retirement region (much different than the apple growing region it was when I lived here almost 50 years ago).
This genteel transition to a trendy area means there are trendy genteel types who like to ride their bikes from winery to Cafe. As a result we were pleasenty faced with real paved shoulders designated as a bike route, interlaced with real separate bike paths from time to time.
Fifty five kilometres of this and the complexion of the day changed completely. Brighton was soon behind us and we're were approaching a swing bridge over a canal that would take us into "The County" proper. This was also the start of the Trent Severn waterway system that we had been riding along for the last few days, and the bridge was even put into action just as we crossed over it!
Ten km's left to go along roads with names like "Old Orchard Road" and we were pulling into Ann Marie and Ricks drive. Sweaty hugs, cold water, cleansing lager and a warm shower. Life is good!
Another trip to the best stocked beer fridge I've seen in a while (well done Ann Marie) and were sitting on the dock by the bay, washing away the stress of the day. Just like old times in Saigon.
Song of the day:
What else, Sitting by the Dock of the Bay by Otis Reading.....
"Sittin' in the morning sun,
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes"
And that's what we'll be doing on Friday!
Historical moment of the day:
The Brighton Swing Bridge .... Right near the start of the Trent Severn canal system. Also personally historic for me as crossing this bridge brought me back into Prince Edward county where I lived, and started school, 49 years ago.
Special mention to Millbrook Ontario, home of Serna Ryder. Maybe not that historical now, but it will be in the future!
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Today's ride: 129 km (80 miles)
Total: 5,465 km (3,394 miles)
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