May 25 - Carthew Bay 200

It was an easy drive south from the Cottage to Alliston.  I left at 4am and got there at 7am.  The ride was due to start at 8.

I'd opted to drive in my "civilian" clothes, so the first order of business was taking my biking clothes bag into the washroom (we are in Canada) at Tim Horton's and getting changed.  That done and back out to the car, I saw that there was a vehicle just ahead of me with a bike, which turned out to be Fred.  Not long afterwards Stan and then Liz arrived and everyone was getting organized.  Arthur was the last but still with plenty of time.

We rode out at 8 a.m. and finished together at 6:26 p.m.  In between we were mostly together except that I stopped briefly just before the Carthew Bay Control to add air to my front tire and Arthur who dropped back a couple of times between Controls to attend to telephone calls.  I replaced that tube at Carthew Bay, never finding the source of the leak.

It really is a pretty ride through farmland, Barrie, small towns and views of Lake Simcoe.  Judging from the stubble in the fields, crops are behind this year but that may be just my perception.

It was a beautiful day, albeit cool.  Approaching Alliston early in the morning as I drove down, the temperature hovered just above 0C.  It quickly warmed up once the sun came out but never got much above 10C, the wind making it seem colder.  

There was a very strong wind mostly from the North in the morning, with a little East mixed in and then NorthWest at the end of the day.  The northbound section from Alliston was straight into the teeth of that wind, but we were fresh.  West from Barrie to Carthew Bay and then East to Barrie again, the wind had a mostly neutral effect although we were did ride a little faster heading west.  By the time we were heading East to Big Bay Point, however, we could tell that the wind had shifted, not boding well for the long ride West later in the day.  South to Bradford with the wind at our backs, we sailed along.   We regrouped at Bradford and headed out together, intending to do some drafting, but that proved to be quite difficult.  With the quarter headwind we took up too much of the road.

The rollers coming back to Alliston were a welcome respite from the wind.   We finished up tired and happy, another great day on the bike.

I went into Sobeys and picked up a small sandwich and some V8.  Calling Kim, I let her know my ETA and headed to their house.  David had worked at the store that day and was having a snooze.  He got up and we ate together.  Kim had made small vegie pizzas, for want of a better name, pizzas with a top crust made from flour tortillas.  They were great with corn and a quinoa and rice mixture that Sandy has to buy from Costco.

I headed to bed shortly after 9pm, needing to catch up a little before the next day's adventure ...

Onward !