Perth and Back, Day 3

August 3

We got up in good time, had our breakfast, and went back to the room to pack up. We had decided, with consultation from Richard, to go home entirely on roads, and avoid the rail trail. We were a little worried about the leaving of Perth, going out on Route 6 (the Christie Lake Road), which might be busy and didn’t have a good shoulder.

But, in the end, we felt that was the best route, so headed out. And the traffic cooperated so that we felt safe after all. Lots of time on this road, then onto Althorpe Road (which it turns into) for another few kilometres. So far it was pretty level, and the going was okay. We were feeling pretty good about it. After a while, we turned onto Hannah Road, which seemed to us to be a better and shorter route to the cottage. We even stopped for a lunch which we had bought at the Perth Metro the previous day. We sat on a log at Camp Opemikon (which seemed to be deserted).

Then on along Hanna road to Bolingbroke Road. And here is where we made a mistake. We (I, really) had not looked carefully enough at the map, and Bolingbroke Road actually was what became of Hanna Road. I turned onto the road going in another direction. After taking this over hill and dale for about five kilometres, we came to the rail trail crossing, and we realized we were on the wrong part of the road. So back again to the junction, and we had wiped out our distance advantage.

However, that got us to Crow Lake Road, and the part the Richard had warned us was hilly and under construction. The good news was that the construction was finished. The bad news was that Richard was correct about the hills.

But we did those final, tough, ten kilometres, and finally turned off onto Alf Patterson Road with a great relief. The final kilometre or so into the cottage was, after all the previous, pretty nice. And the cottage was as we had left it. A good meal (complete with bubbly), some reading, and to bed. We were off home the next morning. Today’s trip was 54 km.