On riding too far

Saturday morning the people who built the lift in the garage finally turned the keys over at 8am. Lesley had the car at the time, she was visiting friends and did not get home until around 11 that night. After I got the keys I went to Velotique's advanced bike repair class and then as promised rode out to Maple to help a friend move. (Distance to Maple: 39.5km.) The sky looked threatening for most of the ride but besides a very light shower for about 2 minutes on 16'th between Bathurst and Dufferin things were actually pretty good.

After helping load a 14 foot U-haul with big things I left for Brampton. We agreed that if my friend does the light stuff on his own he should get to his new place about the same time I got there. It turns out that:

1. There are two really steep river valleys just West of Weston Road, riding down into the valley is a blast but climbing out after is a different story. By the time I got out of the second valley I was pretty well tired out. Except that then I still had about 20km of steady riding, with a head wind.
   
2. The U-haul truck was a POS, the battery died on the driveway in Maple, my friend only got his boost after I made camp on the front steps of his new home.
   Total Distance from the lake to Brampton by way of Maple: 75km.
   

Below is the route I took. (The North most blue blob is my friend's old place in Maple.)

It started raining as we unpacked, I decided to wait out the rain, which was such a long wait I would have been riding in the dark had I tried to ride home. My friend drove me, with the bike in the back of the truck. Every pothole the truck took scared me. To me it is shameful to drive, to drive a bike is something I frankly cannot believe I am admitting in a public place!

Sunday I went for a group ride. Here are some images of me, courtesy of Dan Yang of the Beaches Cycle Club.

Can you see me? I'm just to the right of centre, my back is turned to the camera. This picture was taken at about 6am, roughly 25km from home at the "starting point" of the ride. No I did not drive there, I rode out, which meant, of course, that I left the house just before 5 to meet up with other people who were riding to the starting point.

I swear I don't look good when I wear sun glasses, at least I should take them off when there's going to be a picture! (In case you haven't figured it out, I am wearing a Beaches Cycle Club jersey... just like everyone else! - I'm on the far right in this picture.)

Alright in the annals of goofy face shots this has to get a special mention. But at least its a full face shot.

The first three images were before we "started". At that point my GPS was either just a little more or less than 25km. This image, I'm further back, in the centre, was taken in Oakville as we returned. By this point my GPS said 108km. The other guys stopped for a while for coffee, I did not want to for a couple reasons. I had to get home by 11 and it was already 9:30, also I knew if I stopped for more than a couple minutes, I would not be able to move again. Later on, when I was just East of Leslie street, after the GPS said 151km I called Lesley to ask her to do something, I stopped for maybe 3 minutes, after that I could hardly move. Its now been 48 hours since that ride and my muscles are still a little stiff.

Total distance: 154km.

A confession: I looked at Rattle Snake point (an evil hill that is Appleby Line North bound just North of Derry Road) and dismounted. My knees were already in pain and I knew there was just no way I could do that climb that day. Below is the route we took, to the best of my memory. I am pretty confident of most of that route, except the part from Appleby and Campbelville to Trafalgar and Lakeshore that one stretch was a haze.