Wow, it's been so long!

Hi Guys,
OMG, I have been AWOL for quite some time.  I blame my bike, lol.  As soon as the snow melted I hopped on and so far have not stopped riding.

I'm having an amazing summer and get out whenever I can, weather permitting.  We've had a crazy hot summer...global warming is real when we have a heatwave in Northern Ontario, Canada!  We had an entire week of temps higher than 100 F, which we are totally not used to.  Some nights it was even hot at night.

I was having to wait until after 7 or 8 pm to ride my bike, which meant short rides as it gets dark at 9:30 PM here.

Thankfully we're back to our normal weather now, and yesterday I was able to leave the house earlier than usual. I spent the entire day on my bike and it was wonderful.

Here are some photos; I hope you'll like them.

This is an abandoned building near the bike trail.  I think it is cool looking.

 This portion of the hub trail is so pretty; it follows the river and I love seeing the blue sky over blue water.

I stopped and had a nice break on this bench.  The wind gusts were up to 40 km/hour so it got super windy, but it was a nice relief from the heat.  I was so hot my clothes were soaking wet and I drank my entire bottle of water and had to buy more. The wind was lovely and dried me off, lol.

The trail runs behind the Bushplane Museum, and it's fun to see the tiny water and bush planes. Some are still in use and it's amazing to watch them take off and land in the river.

On the way home I popped in to see the wildlife on Whitefish Island.  There were several beavers, ducks, geese, loons, squirrels, chipmunks, and redwinged blackbirds here.  The chipmunks were angry because I didn't bring seeds for them.  One tried to climb my bike, lol.

I stayed to watch the sun set and enjoyed watching the clouds and sky change colours.

 My favorite time of day is just before sunset, when the sun casts golden shadows over the treetops.

 Here's my bike on the walkway over the beaver pond.  I sat there for at least half an hour, watching beavers eat.  They float on top of the water and remain almost motionless, except for their little paws stuffing food into their mouths, lol.  It's so funny.

This shot, below is my favorite.  Geese on the pond under cotton candy clouds, which are reflected in the water.

 The geese swam over to see if perhaps I had some food for them.  I felt bad that I didn't, lol.

 I stayed until dark, although it's hard to tell in the photo below. My camera lightens everything up quite a bit.

I ordered a new camera, an inexpensive offbrand GoPro type of deal, and can't wait until it comes in.  I'm planning another bike camping trip for August, but in the meantime, I am thinking of riding out to the beach tomorrow, just for the day.  It will be almost 20 km one way, so a 40 km bike ride round trip.  I'll have to wake up early so I can ride in the morning, spend the afternoon at the beach, and ride home in the evening, before it gets dark.  Yesterday's ride was 25 km and exhausted me, but it was super hot.  Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, so we'll see.

Thanks for popping in. I hope you're having a nice summer too!

32 km bike ride along the Hub Trail

Yesterday I did an almost 32 km bike ride, and it was difficult because half of it was extremely hilly, but I made it.

The hub trail, SSM

I lost the trail for a bit but found it again.  Most of this ride is on bike paths, but some spots are on road, on either bike paths on the road or wide paved shoulders.  Only a few blocks on the actual trail were on roads without paved shoulders, but those portions were in quiet neighbourhoods.  I have to ride through neighbourhood streets to get to the trail, and to get off the trail too.

Hill at entrance to trail

 The above photo was taken from the top of the first hill.  It's kind of hard to see the street way down at the bottom of the hill, with the tiny cars, but that is where I came from, and it was quite a steep hill. I made it to the top but it made my entire body shaky for over an hour after. I have no idea what caused that shaky feeling.

Fort Creek

 This is the main creek that this conservation area is named after: Fort Creek.  There are also loads of smaller creeks that feed into this one.

This is the first of many bridges I had to cross, some quite high.

 There are several bridges throughout this portion of the trail; some quite high up, with pretty views.

 I had to walk up this hill.  This photo was taken at the top, to show the pretty wildflowers and rock wall.  The rock wall was a great place to sit and rest.  It was super hot and humid out.

From the bridge

View from bridge

 The bridge views were very pretty.  It's hard to tell, but that is actually a wide and really tall trees, below.

 The sides of this bridge were about one inch taller than me, so about 5'5" tall.

 These trail signs are everywhere on the dedicated trail, but nowhere to be found on the streets, where they are really needed to mark the trail.  Notice the bear warning sign.  I was worried bears would smell my pepperoni and cheese supper, lol.  I had it wrapped securely in a thick cooler bag.

 Prouse Motors built this nice shelter/rest area for bike riders/walkers, just before Highway 17 West.  I stopped and enjoyed the shade.

 I made a pit stop for G2 and also bought some pork rinds, but didn't eat them.

 I took this photo of my bike near the new hospital as I couldn't believe I made it there, lol.

 The photo above shows the bike shop where I bought my bike.  They have a picnic/camping area for people to use.  I stopped to get a trail map, and met a couple who are cycling from the Sault to Southern Ontario!  OMG; what an amazing trip that would be, but scary.  The TransCanada highway would suck for bike riding.

 This is the intersection for Highway 17 East., leaving town.  I may do this section one day soon if I decide to do another bike camping trip after my first test trip to Pointe Des Chenes.  It will be a longer trip, 3 or 4 nights instead of 1, if I work up the courage to ride on the highway.

 A nice shady section of the trail.

 Topsail Island at Belleview Park.

 Sunset at Belleview Park.

 Darkness falls on the boardwalk, near the mall.  The trail is nicely lit up, and I have bike lights and reflectors so I was quite safe.

 This is the intersection near the underpass.

This last pic shows how dark it was when I got home. That's my house, with the bright light shining.

It was a great ride and I had lots of fun, despite the rough start with all of the hills.  I'm very surprised I was able to make it up so many of them.

Bike Ride 13, almost 13 kilometers, on a very Sad Day

My best friend's dad, Louie, died early this morning.  I heard about it when my friend emailed me at 10 AM.  She was in San Francisco, getting her daughter settled in her new dorm, but she had to cut her stay short and head back to get here in time for the funeral, which is supposed to be on Monday.  It's a 4 day drive so hopefully she'll make it home safely, and in time. I'm so glad her husband and dog are with her for the drive so she won't be alone.

Louie was a wonderful man, funny, big hearted, and he almost always had a smile on his face.  Then he got cancer, twice in two years, and the second bout was too much for his body to fight.  He's not suffering any more, and for that we are grateful, but it still seems so shocking that he is gone.

My heart goes out to Laurie and her Mom and brothers.  I can't even imagine, don't want to imagine, losing my Dad. Laurie had a chance to say goodbye, thank God.  She came to see him before they left for California, and he was awake and alert and they spoke.  Shortly after she left, he slipped into a coma, from the morphine, I think.

I felt icky all day, tired and lethargic and unable to move or do much, but then evening came and I had a deep desire to get on my bike and pedal along the waterfront.  So I drove to the mall, parked, hopped on my bike, and took off on a lovely long ride.  I started riding at 7:45 and finished my ride at 10:25...so close to 3 hours. I stopped a LOT to take photos, but only stopped to rest on benches twice, and didn't sit for long. Once was to cool down, and once to eat a granola bar.

Here are some photos I took this evening.

My route tonight

Above, you can see the route I took, there and back.  It's the longest I've ridden so far.

sculpture

The first set of photos were taken at the Waterfront, along the hub trail that runs along side the boardwalk.

boardwalk

Bondar pavillion

Norgoma

Norgoma and my bike

Near Bushplane Museum

The trail goes down past the City Hall, Art Gallery, and Library, and then goes back to Bay St near the Old Stone House.

Old stone house.

Bush Plane

The path follows Bay St. until the turn for the Bushplane Museum, and then it follows the waterfront again.

Weird freighter

Behind old hospitals.

It goes along behind the old hospital,s and then comes out on Queen.  I followed the bike path, now on the street, until the intersection near my old house, Pine and Queen Streets.

My old house, second from corner.

My old house is the second from the corner.  I turned right onto Pine and followed it down to the Marina.

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The Marina was lovely at sunset.

I love watching the geese take wing.

The sun set, and the moon rose; almost a full moon.  It was beautiful.

I followed the path from the marina to Belleview Park.  Mac, Ben, and I used to walk here almost every night when we lived at the old place. We did this for years.

Belleview Park

Then I cycled through Belleview Park, past the duck pond and around the grave of the guy who used to live there.

Pond at Belleview Park

Bridge over Pond

Sunset over International Bridge

It was starting to get dark but I decided to bike around Topsail Island, the leash free zone.  I used to take Annie and Sandy and Mac, and Benji here, until Mac became too upset around other dogs.

Topsail Island

It got quite dark on Topsail Island once the sun set because there are no lights on the Island.

I quickly rode back to the Marina.

This cute little Chipmunk was sitting on the fence at the top of the hill on Pine, just before Queen.

I rode back down Queen and hopped back onto the bike path at the turn to the old hospitals.

Then I followed the path back behind the old hospitals to the bushplane museum.  The Yankcanuck looks like a ghost ship at night.

The fountain near the art gallery was all lit up again, and so was the bridge, in the background.

Time I got back to truck.

I was very tired when I got back to the truck and could barely lift my bike up to put it inside.  It just barely fits in my blazer.  I was very happy to come home, wash up, change, and settle into my recliner with a big Mr. Freeze.