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PICTURE
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DESCRIPTION
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Today Jen and I left Hamilton and rode our bikes out to
Valens
Conservation Area, mostly along the
Hamilton-Ancaster-Brantford-Paris-Cambridge rail trail. Here's my dad
checking the map for us before we left. A PDF map/brochure of the trail
can be found
here.
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Andrew and Agota say goodbye.
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I took this over-the-shoulder shot while riding down Fennell Ave. mainly
just as a timecheck so I would know what time we left at. 11:19am.
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Here's Jen at one of our map-checking stops. We were at the end of
Golflinks Rd. at Halson St. in Ancaster.
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Me at our Golflinks Rd. stop.
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Some of the most interesting road riding I've done this summer was the
little stretch though Sulpher Springs and Mineral Springs Roads in
Ancaster. These little twisty roads that snake up and down through the
forest are a blast! A few parts were really steep, but at least those
uphills were very short as we were heading mostly down the escarpment.
Here's Jen on Sulpher Springs Road.
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Taking a quick rest at the top of a steep hill in Mineral Springs Road,
I took this picture of Jen.
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And Jen took a pic of me at the same place. You can see that Mineral
Springs isn't paved, but it's a nicely hard-packed dirt-gravel road so
it was actually really great for riding (maybe not after it rains).
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There's a good reason this is called "Sulpher Springs". The water that
springs out of the ground here is full of sulpher. The smell is a dead
giveaway! You can also see the minerals crystalizing all over the sides
of the bowl, and along a pipe a few metres away.
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Another side of the Sulphur Springs fountain.
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...and another shot.
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A-ha! We made it to the rail trail. We missed the first part of it
that goes from Westdale through Dundas, but we caught it here at
Sulpher Springs Road. Smooth off-road riding for most of the day
from here on!
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Jen riding through one of the gates at the Old Highway 99 intersection.
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Back onto the trail at the Old Highway 99 intersection.
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The trail is mostly very flat, and the gravel is in perfect condition.
Not too soft like some other trails I've been on!
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The trail is surrounded by vegetation, providing a nice contrast to all
the urban riding we've done recently. Often, the trees were a fantastic
source of shade too, which we appreciated on this hot and sunny day.
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Here's Jen at another one of the crossings.
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Jen says I take too many pictures of her, so here's one of me infront of
one of the trail signs, just to prove I was on this trip too.
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One of the trail signs at a road intersection.
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A farm as viewed from the trail, probably somewhere around Jerseyville.
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Jen, and a cameo appearance from my knee. Yeah, I end up with too many
leg/foot pictures when taking pictures from my recumbent...
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My ear, and Jen too.
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A long straight stretch that disappears into the woods.
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Jen about to ride through a tunnel. I think this is Highway 403.
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Jen inside the tunnel.
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...and riding out from the tunnel.
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Stopping just outside Brantford to check maps and have a quick rest.
There were little information booths like this at various places along
the trail.
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Jen riding past the info booth.
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We stopped at Mohawk Park in Brantford to use their washrooms and get
more water. Here's Jen pointing at something in the park. We opted to
take the roads through Brantford, because it would give us a better
chance of finding lunch!
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We stopped at a pizza place on Colbourne St. in Brantford to pick up a
large pizza and some drinks. While I waited for the pizza, Jen went to
the Price Chopper next door to get some groceries for dinner and
breakfast. I strapped the pizza to my rack, and we rode to a high school
just up the road to eat at a picnic table. Thank you to the wonderful
lady who made the suggestion....we were about to just devour the pizza
right there in the stripmall parking lot!
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Jen walking her bike over to the picnic table.
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Mmmm...cheezy pizza!
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Me eating pizza...
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We were very hungry, and raced through this pizza like it was nothing.
The large was barely large enough!
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A CIBC building in downtown Brantford.
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Towards the northern edge of Brantford, we hopped back on the rail trail
to keep riding up to Paris and Cambridge. This section was interesting
because the rail trail snaked around on an elevated dyke. Jen spotted
this deer having lunch off the side of the trail, so we stopped to watch
it for a little while and take some pictures.
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A few hundred metres further down the trail I saw another, younger deer
just off the side of the trail. This one was quite lively. It hopped
around a few times while we watched it, and it was also busy swatting
bugs with its ears and tail.
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Its ears were very animated, like big satellite dishes tuning into
random alien freqencies.
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We stopped at this dam to have another quick rest and enjoy the view of
the Grand River. Quite a few canoes were coming by, and there's even
a convenient short portage.
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Jen at the dam.
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Grand River.
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Various people out fisihing in the river.
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Another picture of my feet and legs as we pedalled up another long
straightaway.
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Jen and her bike.
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Around Paris it seemed that the trail was mostly NOT a rail trail. It
zig-zagged quite a bit, and had many little hills. We were careful when
riding through this gate, because a group of wasps decided to make it
their home.
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A hilly, curvy section of the trail.
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A view of a bridge going over the Grand River in Paris.
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Paris.
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Jen looking down at Paris.
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The Murray Overlook, a few kilometres past Paris.
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Here's a series of panorama shots taken from the Murray Overlook.
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You can see that there used to be a bridge here.
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Me at the Murray Overlook.
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Woohoo! Jen celebrates reaching the end of the rail trail in Cambridge.
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We celebrated finishing the trail by buying Popsicles and Gatorade at
the gas station.
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For reference: This morning we left Hamilton at the right of the map,
and we are currently just outside of Cambridge where my finger is. We
followed the rail trail through Brantford to get here (it's the yellow
line). Next major stop is supposed to be Valens Conservation Area, east
of where my finger is.
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Good thing the short section of Highway 24 that we had to take has a
very nice, smooth bike lane. They seem to have done a good job of
connecting this trail to other cycling facilities.
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Jen in the bike lane on Highway 24.
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The only major technical difficulty this weekend: I broke my chain!!
As I accelerated from a stop at an intersection on Route 97 in Cambridge,
the chain snapped, and of course I couldn't pedal. This is actually the
second time I've done this. Anyway, no problem, right? Just remove a
pair of links and keep going. Well, I screwed up the chainline a bit the
first time I put it back together, and it was way more of a hassle
running the chain the second time. After some frustration and swearing,
I got it fixed and we were back on the road. :)
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What the??? A few kilometres before we reached Valens Conservation Area
along Route 97, we passed by a sign welcoming us back to Hamilton! Yup,
we had been pedalling all day long, and my odometer read 97km at this
point (yeah, 97km on Route 97), and we were back in the city we left this
morning! Anyway, this is just a symptom of the new Hamilton "megacity"
that was formed a few years ago. Before amalgamation, we would have seen
a Flamborough sign here. It's still amazing how they can consider this
to be part of Hamilton though...
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Woohoo...Valens Conservation Area, to the left.
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We arrived at Valens just after 8:00pm.
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Here's our campsite. Looks much better without a car clogging it up. :-)
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And now for today's statistics:
Maximum Speed: 50.6km/h
Distance this weekend:: 179.26km
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Average Speed: 19.0km/h
Distance: 105.06km
Time Spent Riding: 5:32:11
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| All photographs ©2005 Victor Gedris |
