To Perth and Back

August 1

Our canoe trip this year turned out to be a bike trip. Joel and I felt that, since I have had back pain from spinal stenosis, my lifting/carrying was seriously affected, and I could not be relied on to do the kind of work we both need for canoe camping. And since I can bike without much pain, we felt that a bike trip would work.

Richard was good enough to allow us to use his cottage as a base. We had looked at the K-P trail that goes along the side of highway 38, from Kingston to Sharbot Lake, as a possibility. But it would have involved a trip of about 80 km, and we both felt that was too ambitious for us. We decided on another trail—the Tay Valley trail, which goes from Sharbot Lake to Perth. We would bike from the cottage, go north from Crow Lake via Cross Road, and pick up the trail east of Sharbot Lake. Sounds simple, eh? We were all set: a day’s bike to Perth, a day in Perth, and a day to return.

Of course, it didn’t work out as planned. 

We got a good start though. Up by 8, and ready to go by 9:30. Biked out to Crow Lake Road, only to remember that we had left our water bottles back at the cabin. And it was going to be a hot day. So we turned around, and went the 1.6 km back to the cabin, got the water bottles and headed off again. This time for sure!

Our first trial was getting out of the town of Crow Lake, via Cross Road. It is a hard climb up to the rail tracks on a dirt road. I walked the bike up part of it. But this was an omen. Lots of up and down to follow for the ten Kms to Armstrong Road. The on that to Mill Road and up to the Tay Valley trail. We were given a very active accompaniment by the local deer fly delegation, only too happy to take advantage of our inability to swat them. There were a few words spoken about the overall situation: heat, bugs, hills. But we suffered through, stopping more times than usual for a breather (particularly Bob).

Eventually, we found the Tay Valley trail that we were looking for. It was identified for us by a group of motorcyclists who were coming along the trail! We had known that the trail was a snowmobile trail in the wintertime, as well as a trail for ATVs and such in the summer. We met a number of people in their ATVs, and they were very polite and got out of our way. And the terrain was mostly quite pretty, going through rock cuts, and by lakes and bogs. And the sky was clear. We stopped for a brief lunch on some rocks by the snide of the trail, before pushing on. Unfortunately it was also hot, and the bugs were bad. Plus the trail bed was better suited to ATVs than to bikes. So it was not a pleasant ride, and long. In fact, the last five kilometres was alongside Highway 7, and ended in the rough gravel at the side of railway tracks. We couldn’t ride the bikes but had to walk them the last fifty meters or so. From there it was on road—mercifully smooth and mostly downhill—all the way to Perth. We were sore and tired, but oh, so glad to get to the hotel. We had done 53 km of pretty tough country. And out aging bodies felt it.

They had kindly given us access to an unused room for our bikes. We checked in and went upstairs to our room. While Joel had a shower, I lay down on the bed and promptly fell asleep for and hour. Joel also slept for a while, when I got up and had a shower. We then went down for a delightful supper al fresco in the fine weather. Bed was calling and I was asleep by 9:30; slept soundly through the night.