Finally made it up to Lake Simcoe. (123 Kilometers!!!).

The morning started cool and with rain, but it cleared and just before 9 I took to the road. It was cold just 7 degrees and quite windy from the NNW which was good and bad. Good because the roads were dry but bad because I had to deal with cross winds and head on winds for most of the ride and today I went fully loaded front and rear trunk bags.

I headed east on the St Johns Sideroad then on Vivian Rd to McCowan Rd were I headed north . I like to take McCowen instead of the faster Warden Ave. because it’s very scenic, some nice high view points , lots of farms ( today the smell of manure being spread on the fields which brings back fond memories of my childhood) and it's lightly traveled with some good climbing at the beginning. The cross winds had affected me a bit till then but I was dealing with it and the head winds weren’t to bad at the beginning of my northward trip but then once the climbing was done it hit me, 26 km wind with gust of 37 km and it was like climbing a big hill all the way north !!!! . I got to Old Homestead Rd after what seemed like an eternity and turned west and no real improvement all the way to Keswick ,

 there finally a bit of a reprieve as I picked up Lake Dr N. and skirted the lake all the way to Kennedy Rd. It’s a most pleasant ride along the lake , 40 km zone and posted for pedestrians , cyclist and cars to share the road, pretty cottages and of course the water. Today there were very little of anything on the road as oppose to summer time when the place is packed with cottagers and day trippers.

I stopped at the little store at the end of Kennedy Rd and had my usual lunch of sausage and a sweet , took some pictures and then headed back to Warden for the trip south , that part was fun !!!! flying along being pushed by the wind but unfortunately it didn’t last long as I had to head west at Queensville Rd and the cross winds were brutal all the way to the Marsh .

Anyways I finally made it home at 3.12 after zigzagging through the Marsh. A very slow trip!!!, 5 hours, 39 minutes in the saddle, that’s what worries me about this bike my average speed is slow and time gets ahead of me and doesn’t leave much room for stopping and enjoying the trip. Now today the wind was a factor but still it was a slow ride, one of my slowest by far, the good thing is that I was fit enough for it and could have gone longer, so the training is working. I’ll be riding again tomorrow to see how I recover from a long ride and that will also tell me a lot about what stage I am at in my training.

So at the end of the day I was very pleased to have made it up to the lake , it’s one of my favorite trips , it’s one of those soul soothing trips that leaves you with a good feeling once you get home. And today as a bonus I spent some time watching Bufflehead ducks offshore while they were diving for food . Thankfully there still is quite a bit of wildlife up here in spite of the increase in the human population