the route may be the same, but the ride never is…
I ride the Ontario Highlands often. Mostly every day during riding season. And I never tire of doing so because, while the routes I take may be similar (or even carbon copies of each other) from one day to the next, each ride is a unique experience in and of itself.
Take today, May 22, 2024, for example.
From Almonte, where I live, I had intended to ride to Calabogie, up Centennial Lake Road Griffith, on to Denbigh, Palmer Rapids, Barry’s Bay, Wilno, Quadeville via Letterkenny road, Opeango Road to near Dacre, Renfrew to Burnstown and then home one way or another. This is a loop I’ve done half a dozen times both clockwise and anticlockwise.
The forecast called for sunny and warm with no chance of showers until well after I got back.
Things changed, as they often do, en route.
It all went according to plan until Griffith where I marked an odometer milestone (70 K) with Blue. I bought Blue in the fall of September 2022 when she had 56,000 kms (and change) under her belt and I started riding her in August 2023. Since then, we’ve ridden a little over 14,ooo kms together.
The sky was clear when we left Griffith. Fifteen kilometres later it was black as night. Good thing I had my rain gear with me. I took shelter in Denbigh and waited for the storm to pass, which it did in about fifteen minutes during which I got eaten alive by black flies. Arggghhhh!
Steam rose from the asphalt for about eight kilometres out of Denbigh and then the road was dry. The thundershower had really been only a shower – and a localized one at that. Several kilometres later, I came upon a bridge under construction. The four or five minutes I waited at the temporary signal light felt like an eternity (damn those swarming black flies!). I rode on through Schutt and Palmer Rapids.
When I learned from a fellow diner in Barry’s Bay that a serious storm was in the offing (he showed me on the radar) I decided to forego Letterkenney and hightail it home via the 60 through Golden Lake, Eganville and Renfrew. Again, familiar stomping grounds.
The skies looked threatening as I rolled up my drive, but in the end it didn’t rain – at least not here.
Can’t wait to ride this loop again for the totally different experience it will offer up the next time around <3
© 2024 Susan Macaulay. I invite you to share my poetry and posts widely, but please do not reprint, reblog or copy and paste them in their entirety without my permission. Thank you.
