5th day, Friday, Sept. 8: GMA to Washago and Orillia
The run-in to Washago from GMA is an easy 15-20 kms along the Cooper’s Falls road, which passes through the old village of the same name, its onetime bustle long diminished:
I met Bob and one of his cycling buddies, Nynka, at Washago’s coffee shop, and we rode together across the River Severn (the outlet from L Couchiching) to Bob’s house in the farmland west of Orillia. Nynka is planning to purchase a light touring bike equipped with a Rohloff (a Thorn reference point would be a Mercury with drop bars) to carry her across Canada in 2018 on a supported tour with two friends. I described my own wholly positive experience with my Raven-mit-Rohloff. Much talk ensued of chains and belt drives, gear ratios, chain rings, and wider tires, and of the benefits of cycling for the minds and bodies of people d’un certain âge. Nynka expects to order her bike from True North Cycles, a custom shop near Guelph, a couple of hours’ drive SW of Orillia.
Bob also told me about the custom road, touring and randonneuring bikes built by Mariposa Bicycles of Toronto. Mariposa built a bike for Clara Hughes, the Canadian Olympian, for her cross-Canada ride in 2016. The ride and the bike were vehicles for her public education and advocacy on mental health. Their bikes are beautiful (and expensive) examples of our simple machines. Happily, I can admire these bikes without feeling any urge to buy one. I’m not in the market for a derailleur touring bike, especially one with gearing that’s some way higher than my Raven’s. Been there, done that, doesn’t work for me.
Bob is a few years older than I am, and a strong and experienced cyclist. We are both emigrants from the UK, I in the mid-50s, he in the mid-60s; he from the North of England, I from the South. I spent a delightful afternoon with Bob, pottering around Orillia, scanning the problems and follies of our epoch, collecting supper from an exemplary take-home Italian restaurant (Bob knew the proprietors) and food for my onward journey from a very good bakery. On a crisp and sunny Saturday morning, I thanked him and his wife Allison for their generous hospitality, and for Bob’s advice on the best route to Barrie, where I would pick up the commuter train to Toronto.
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 460 km (286 miles)
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