We started off strong on paved roads from Grandpa’s house, Richmond Hill, pushing over many hills through the countryside for awhile. Each hill was exhausting with the weight of our gear, but we had a lot of energy. We passed so many professional bikers, all looking curious as they passed in the other direction. No one seemed to be headed our way, no one passed us the entire way to Emily Lake.
Soon we reached the trail and it was straight and flat, a nice relief from the hills. We talked and observed the beautiful aroma of spring blossoms that lined our path on both sides. I couldn’t get enough of the delicious fresh floral scent.
After the blossoming trees and grassy hills, we reached marshlands which stretched out for a mile at times, on either side of the trail, no farmland or civilization in sight. We biked on through these marshlands for about 20km. We crossed over little wooden bridges where the still clear blue water passed under the trail.
We saw tons of wildlife. I kept thinking if we had not been biking through so fast we would have spotted a moose. Funny looking birds, perhaps pheasants or quails, with their fat bodies and long skinny necks, crossed our paths in groups of three or four, and escaped over the hills. Gold Finches, and right florescent orange-and-black birds flitted between trees as we flew by, carrying twigs and grass to their nests. (which I discovered later are called Orioles – they are so pretty!). Turtles soaking up the sun would slip into the still water as we passed.
The trail in the last part of our day became very sandy gravel, slowing us down considerably, our speed dropping to only ten clicks (versus the average of about fifteen we had been going). We trudged through and finally came to country road again. Dad was starting to slow, so we took it easy after we stopped in Lindsay to fill our empty bottles. We were still 15 to 20km from our destination, and hungry. We had to find a restaurant soon or risk making our dinner in the dark, with very little energy.
We dragged ourselves the last stretch and finally crossed a bridge over Emily Lake. We were so relieved to see a diner on the other side! We had some beer (high in calories, it became a staple of our trip) and just stuffed ourselves. We biked with full bellies down the road to our campsite to hit the sack. Proud of us, feeling more confident already (though I woke up the next day with the most excruciating back pain EVER!) I fell asleep instantly.
(comment by mom) beautiful descriptions katie. and beautiful photos of the countryside. its going to be interesting reading all these details of the trip that we hadnt heard yet…like the orioles.