Okay! So today I biked to Oshawa, and then at the end of the day I biked down to the Whitby Go Station, took the train to Danforth, and biked home from there. Basically a two hour adventure, which is the fastest I've made it home so far.
Thinking I would call this segment "All Winds Are Headwinds" I'll complain about how the wind was hammering out of the northeast this morning (so I was grinding my way right into it for 2 1/2 hours). However I did make it up my big climb of the ride, which I have to say is a little bit worse than the Scarborough Bluffs climb that most of us downtown cyclists do for hill training. I don't know why I didn't make it last Wednesday, maybe the carb loading last night really helped.
And then I thought I'd call this post "My Life is a 10cm wide strip of Highway 7." I don't know if other cyclists experience this, but as transports were blowing by me this morning, I noticed that first a gust of wind would push me towards the gravel, and then a following wind suck pulls you towards the truck. So your life depends on how well you can surf these two winds and stay on your little 10 cm strip between the white line and the gravel shoulder.
The ride from Durham College to Whitby Go Station? It was okay.. a bit dicey at the bottom of Garden Road coming towards Dundas where I fell into gravel at high speed and my handlebars shifted a bit.
I still haven't seen anybody on a bike in Oshawa or Whitby. Don't people out there bike? Do they know something I don't know?
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5 comments:
I just got home from watching "An Inconvenient Truth" at the independent theatre in Halifax -- much of it made me think of you and your new blog. Among the other things I thought were: Tomasini will hate me that I just bought a car, but maybe he'll forgive me because I still walk to work (5k each way); also thought I must tell Tomasini about the renewable energy conference I attended last month in Yarmouth -- I saw Nova Scotia's first wind farm in Pubnico, even stood inside a windmill, which supplies power directly to NS Power and energy to approximately 13000 NS homes; the other thing I thought was MY NEW CAR meets the EU standard for fuel economy! Yay Toyota! Send me an email -- we should talk soon!
Just wanted to commiserate on the truck suck.. I don't ride old Kings hwys very often but when I do yes I hate the transport trucks - not only the gust of wind but the fact they are much less likely than a car to move over and leave lots of space when passing. And I agree on the lack of cyclists in Oshawa - the one time I rode there "for fun" I did not see any cyclists or really pedestrians for that matter, and found the drivers somewhat disrespectful of vehicular cycling. I guess the locals need to keep the main employer in business by driving everywhere :)
Hats off to you! When I first lived in Toronto, I was dating a guy in Port Credit (Mississauga), and many times tried to find a good way to bike from the Danforth to his place. So many obstacles!!! Now it would be a little bit easier, with the development of the Lakeshore around the Humber, but then it was awful, and I remember many times trying to find alternate routes and realizing I was trapped in deadends because of a rail line or a highway. Car drivers like one or two direct, dull routes, but cyclists enjoy meandering. Good luck on your 10 cm!!
Chris,
I recommend not telling Mom the transport stories, because it freaked me out so it will definitely freak her out. Bike safe!
Hey spiral. Well the route I'm taking is the safest one I could find. Highway 7 is actually safer than Taunton Road. Maybe if I knew Pickering/Ajax/whitby/Oshawa better I could find a safe(ish) southerly route, but so far this is the best one I have.
The route is described in full in my very first post (and a picture of my bike is there as well!)
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