Pedal Whipped

A few mishaps along the way, but this past Saturday’s ride with the Friends for Life Bike Rally was great! We rode from Finch Station north out of the city to Aurora.

As we do before every ride, we started the morning with a stretch! As you can see below, some are more involved in the strecthing exercises than others.

Most of the rides at this point take us out of the city and through some great green areas; lots of trees and farms – a problem for some that can’t handle some of the smells.

From Aurora, we rode west across Wellington and down Dufferin for a few “rolling hills”. Wellington has a special place in my heart ever since last year’s training ride took us into this area and I was attacked by a bird – I must have rode close to its nest in the ground.

The weather held out for us until the last 15km of the ride when we met the rain . It made for a slippery ride back to Finch Station, a few riders fish tailing along the way, but no accidents or injuries to report.

Next weeks rides take us to Kleinburg on Saturday (81km) and back to Aurora (72km) for a repeat of this weeks ride.

A reminder that my fundraising for the ride is still running! If you haven’t had a chance to do so yet, kindly visit my fundraising page and make your pledge!

Completed yet another training ride with the Friends for Life Bike Rally! This one was 63km – correction from my last post that stated 68km – and unfortunately the weather wasn’t the greatest for us. No rain, but it was very, very cold! I, along with a number of others, was not dressed in the appropriate gear given the temperature, but made the best of it!

We rode out of Kennedy Station to the east and through the Rouge; some beautiful scenery along the way as usual! Riding through this area is still one of my favourite places to ride – next to the Caledon area rides.

To get out of the Rouge and back out onto the road we had to use a small footbridge and then carry the bikes up a set of stairs, but well worth it given what was waiting for us in Petticoat Park!

Petticoat Park runs along Lake Ontario and brought us into Pickering. As I mentioned, the weather wasn’t the greatest on the ride so the views weren’t as spectacular as they usually are, but still great to get a glimpse of what’s just within reach of the city limits. If you haven’t visited it’s worth the trip.

On the way back to Kennedy we rode through some beautiful green space across Taunton Road and again back through the Rouge. A few wrongs turns along the way that increased our distance by a few kilometres, but we got some more hill climbing in because of them – no complaints from me about that!

Next weeks rides: Finch Station to Aurora (74km) on Saturday and a repeat of this weekend’s ride (Kennedy to Pickering) on Sunday!

See you there!