Hello,
It's a cold winter night in December and I just finished blogging about my Dad letting me order a new exercise bike for Christmas, when I realized I forgot to blog my last 4 bike rides.
So, here's the first missing ride, number 23, lol, aka, the bike ride from HELL, lol.
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| New back panniers |
The bike ride from hell started easily enough, in my yard, as I added my new panniers from Ebay. I loved that they had two water bottle holders built right in, so I could carry three bottles with me. It wasn't cold out but I put an extra sweater in the pannier, a book, and some bike tools. What I SHOULD have added was mosquito repellent, and a lot of it...
My asthma wasn't great that day and I had to walk up the first hill, pushing my bike ahead of me. I sat on that rock to catch my breath.
The sun was already starting to get low so I decided I would only try a bit of the trail. I haven't been on this section of the hub trail before and was eager to try it, but should have waited for a cooler day, and a day when my asthma wasn't so bad.
This part of the hub trail goes through Fort Creek Conservation area, and its' a pretty area, with lots of walking trails besides the paved trail. Lots of people take their dogs here. I used to walk here a lot when I was younger, on my way to high school when I went to Bawating in 12th grade. It wasn't really a short cut but it was prettier than taking the road.
I crossed over the creek and onto the trail.
There were steps leading up, which of course I didn't take, with my bike. I stayed on the paved trail.
The bridge was lovely but rickety; fun to ride over!
There were a few people walking their dogs along the trail, and the leaves were starting to turn colors.
There was another big hill (not pictured) that I had to push my bike up. I had to stop to catch my breath and was SWARMED by mosquitoes, hundreds of mosquitoes. Maybe thousands. I rode for another few kilometers and came to another, steeper hill. I couldn't do it. As soon as I stopped to push, the mosquitoes swarmed me. I was wearing a light green shirt and couldn't see green when I looked down; only writhing insects. It was horrible, so I looked for a way off the trail.
I saw this open area and decided to follow it. You can't tell from the photo but it was a pretty steep downward slope. I had to walk the bike because the ground part way down was loose gravel and I was skidding everywhere and almost fell. So the mosquitoes got to feast again.
When I finally got to the street, I had a choice; turn left or right. I chose left. Bad move.
Turning left took me down a lovely street with pretty houses on one side, and trees on the other. It was beautiful but I was exhausted, itchy, tired, and not breathing well. I just wanted to get home.
The sun was setting and it was cooling off a bit, thankfully, but I was still so exhausted I was considering knocking on someone's door and asking if I could use their phone to call my Dad to pick me up. I really need to get a cell phone.
I pressed on without begging for help, and came to the end of the road. It was a dead end.
With train tracks and trees and nothing else. I had to turn around and go back.
So I went back and discovered if I would have turned right earlier, I would have been pretty close to People's Road, which was then only a 20 minute ride home, and downhill to boot!
I flew down the hill, made the turn at the bottom, and then coasted down this road (above) without pedaling too much, thank God.
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| My bike at Tim Horton's |
I was only a few blocks from home when I (almost) passed this Tim Horton's. I decided I deserved a pumpkin spice latte and a muffin.
I made it home, had a bath, and applied calamine lotion to my many mosquito bites. I will not be doing the Fort Creek portion of the hub trail until after I lose a significant amount of weight, and even then I'll make sure I go on a good asthma day...with plenty of Deep Woods Off.
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