On Routes and Plans

I was going to go into an angry tirade against the Toronto International Film Festival. I was going to rant about how disorganized and frankly at $20/ticket over priced the whole experience is, it is a movie after all, not live theatre. But I will not recount my recent tale of woe trying to obtain tickets. I have a hate/hate relationship with the celluloid industry. The movie shoots in Toronto often take up all the on street parking sports near my parents home, obstruct roads/paths and often force me to squeeze my bike between their over sized trucks/pylons and the street car tracks not 15cm away. I realise much as I love to hate the movie industry nobody likes to read my rantings, so I am going to stop bitching and move on to things that make me happy.

Sunday, that is tomorrow, is a Sunday ride with the BCC. I am trying to commit the route to memory, that is probably the most difficult part of these rides, sure some hill climbs are pretty tough, but remembering the exact route, that takes real effort. I guess I better get it committed to memory though I volunteered to, how did Dan put it, "Mike Cole has opted to be a Ride Helper for Sunday's Ride". Dan is in Montreal, busy looking at 2009 model year bikes... I wish I worked in a bike store, when I go to Montreal it's to add a new Fast Ethernet Interface to a Cisco 3845 or something like that.

Lesley and I had thought of going hiking today but the weather has been really foul, so we slept in then took Kalubi to the groomer to get a hair cut. When we get the big guy back maybe I can take an image of him (its not a photograph, that involves celluloid and acids and such) and post it here. I think Lesley opted for the 'Lion Cut.'

Anyway I am still dreaming up changes to the Lake Simcoe and return ride. I am eyeing a few modifications to the return trip to make things a little nicer and longer. First come right down Warden (as per the original plan) but at Stouffville Road hang a left and go right across Stouffville (becomes Main Street) and then turn right at 10'th Line, then take 10'th south (becomes Reesor Rd.) A couple reasons for this change:

1. There is a nice coffee shop in Stouffville just before 10'th line so we can get more water, coffee, whatever before the last section of the ride.
2. Racing down Reesor is about the damned greatest experience for a speed freak like me that I can think of. There are parts of Reesor where I start cranking it and look down at my GPS and can hardly believe how fast I am going, and with so little effort too!

Anyway once we reach Finch we have to go around the zoo (Old Finch Ave East to Meadowvale then South) then we have some options for which I really would like some feedback before I settle on the final route:

1. Roller insanity: AKA West on Ellesmere to Scarborough Golf Club Road. Ellesmere has two huge rollers with traffic lights at the bottom of each valley, every damned time I get to those bloody lights they are red. So when I say Roller insanity what I really should be calling it, is pain in the legs hill climb evilness. (Preceded by a monster ride the brake feast.) Oh yeah, there is a lot of traffic on Ellesmere, this is probably the busiest of the four routes.
2. Valley feast: AKA West on Old Kingston then Kingston Road. Old Kingston drops just west of Meadowvale into Colonel Danforth Park, then just as you finish the roll out from the drop, you have to climb the hill out of the valley. Then merge up with Kingston Road and the hills become a slightly more manageable steady climb to around Brimely.
3. Cheating: AKA use Kingston road that bridges over Colonel Danforth Park.
4. The Long and Winding Road: AKA find a way around Kingston Rd (probably take Sheppard East to Port Union and then go South) and get onto Guildwood Parkway and ride that to Kingston Road. This is probably the lightest route for car traffic, with some lovely hill climbs and it is also the longest route.

In all cases we end up on Kingston Road, eventually, which we take due south west - Kingston becomes Eastern Ave at Queen Street - until we reach Leslie Street, then a left and a quick right and we are back where we started the day. (Actually just past Midland we take Danforth Ave. a short distance, to bypass the section of Kingston Rd that is in desperate need of resurfacing.)

Other items I need feedback on: time, since the weather report for the 20'th is a high of about 22 degrees I am thinking, we can probably put off the start time to 6:30 and meet the Elgin Mills crowd at 8:00, get a little more sleep and ride when it is a little warmer? Or do we want to contend with fewer cars?

Please post your thoughts below, I would like to settle on the final route when I get home from Duluth. Hey in exactly one week I will be done with the North Shore Inline Marathon, seems like only yesterday I was registering for it, damn time flies when you ride a bike!