Sun, Oct 7 2007 - Spectacular Fall Colours--Annual Thanksgiving Bike Ride on the Georgian Trail (75 km) (View Original Event Details)
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Susan, Chris, Julian and I had an excellent ride on the Georgian Trial on Sunday. But the day was not without its challenges and unexpected occurrences.
Upon arriving at the trail-head at about 10:15 a.m., we decided to use my fancy orange air-pump to add a little air to some of our tires. Unfortunately, while trying to add air to Chris' front tire, the tube nozzle was damaged, and so we had to change his front tire tube (luckily, he did have a spare), before we started the ride.
Due to some difficulties with figuring out how to use the bright orange pump (difficulties that Jim O, for fear of embarrassment, will not here elaborate upon), it took the better part of an hour to get Chris' bike up and running. However, once we were all on our bikes and riding toward Meaford, we were going at a pretty good clip. Even Julian, who is known for his absolutely grueling hikes, was moving at a fair clip, though he was somewhat handicapped by the fact that he was riding on a borrowed mountain bike with knobby tires.
Susan was a most impressive cyclist; she had the appearance of someone who could ride forever, and at a good pace. She has a wealth of experience from her cycling excursions across the country, and Jim O is sure to plan some new cycling events in the new year based upon some input from her.
Chris was trying out a flashy new bike, and did quite well for himself. He seemed to become more and more comfortable on the bike as the ride progressed. Julian, our indefatigable hiker, was seen huffing and puffing. To be fair, his bike was not very helpful to him on this type of trail. All of the additional friction created by the huge tires, not to mention the inadequate number of gears, required Julian essentially to work twice as hard as the rest of us. And he did work hard, demonstrating excellent conditioning on his part. (Jim O expects a full report on Julian's performance on his Monday hike. If Julian is not his usual fast, tireless self on the hiking trail on Thanksgiving Monday, Jim O is the one to blame or thank, depending upon your perspective.)
We lunched in Meaford along the water, and finished up with some ice-cream before our return journey to Collingwood. As Jim was resting on his back after devouring a cupful of delicious chocolate ice cream, a bird flying above decided to drop "a present from heaven" upon his lap. Jim O was not pleased, but he was grateful that the said present had not fallen on his upturned face!!
We all made it back to the trail-head in good time, though Jim O's front tire sustained a flat within a few hundred meters of the cars. Upon our return to Toronto, we went to Chalker's, where we eagerly had some supper.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.