A moderate-range ride today down to the Winona Peach Festival. I had seen this on my way to and from the Niagara area and I was really curious as to what it was all about. Visions of mounds of succulent, ripe, juicy, golden-yellow fruit abounded in my head. Well, what else does a hungry, thirsty, hot rider think of? Hrmph! Anyways, last month, SL said that she’d come along and we’d arrange to go when the date of the festival came up.

Unfortunately, SL had something else occur last night so she couldn’t make it. The bad part was that she didn’t get a chance to tell me (she had come home very late) until almost our start time of 8 am. If I was going to go by myself, I would have left much, much earlier. So, headed down to Winona. The day was gorgeous, it’s one of those superlative biking days with a bit of wind, slightly cool and sun sun sun. Well, if it was cloudy with no wind it would have been better but, what the hey.

I made decent time as I pushed against the wind and arrived down in Winona around 12:30. Wow! Lots of cars on the roads approaching the festival. The road I took had a lineup of perhaps 2 kms long and I certainly don’t think there was much parking space left at that time. If anyone is thinking of going by car, you’d better get there early!

The festival itself is more of a country fair. I wasn’t too sure what I had expected, I just know that I was hoping for the land of juicy fruits. The place was mobbed by families checking out the midway, the small number of food booths, the large number of bric-a-brac vendors and corporate sponsors. I guess what I had really hoped for was something akin to a real farmers’ fair and market where food and fruit is paramount. On the way back, I was trying to figure out whether or not it’s worth making a long-range ride to the St. Jacob’s Market in Kitchener/Waterloo? The unfortunate part about riding there and back is that I can’t really bring anythng fragile back which means you have to eat the goodies on the spot and there’s only so many goodies you can cram down your gullet before it becomes problematic to ride.

So, would I go again to the Winona Peach Festival? Only if I pass by it by sheer coincidence.

And, on the way back near Queen’s Quay, this blond zipped past me while the light was still red but no biggie deal. I soon caught up when she was in the long line of other cyclists and I decided to just tear through them which I then proceeded to do. The light ahead was turning red and everyone pushed for it but I barreled through just as it turned! One other guy and the blonde made it through the intersection after me with the light on red. They proceeded to catch up but I kept the speed on and made them work for it for another three blocks. This while I was at the 160 kms mark and with half-filled panniers! If you pass me while I am stopped at a red, you’d better be able to keep ahead! Ha!

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Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet is one of those books that make you look at what seems to be a relatively innocuous everyday item and go hrmmm. Not in a good way! Ms. Off shows how the cultivation and production of chocolate has a not-so sweet side that involves corruption, greed, poverty, murder, and, for all intents and purposes, child slavery. This is a world that is far removed from the sanitized coolness of supermarkets and fancy gold-leaf lettering. Even people who are intent on doing the right thing by purchasing what are called “Fair Trade” chocolate products may not know how far those policies have been implemented or how practical they really are in the real world.

I don’t know what I should do now? I mean, do I continue to purchase chocolate items despite knowing their background? Do I purchase Fair Trade products? Or do I not purchase anything at all placing chocolate on the list of banned items that I won’t touch that include salmon, lobster and other seafoods? The latter policy is something that would hurt the farmers more than anything else so I probably won’t go that route. Hrmmm…

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Some of you may wonder about what I variously call my long-range or deep-penetration rides. The latter term’s provenance is known only to a select few and always gets a laugh out of SL. Yesterday’s ride sort of falls into the category and was partly due to SL. The TBN had a trip to a place on Lake Erie called Rock Point Provincial Park. Due to a variety of reasons, I could not/did not want to go but SL did. So, I figured that maybe I would surprise her by showing up although more than likely they’d all be out riding. Well, here is how that ride went:

4:19 am

4:19 am?! Holy @#$%! Normally, I wake up a bit earlier so this was a bit of a shocker. Should have set my alarm. Grrr…did all the usual stuff that you do in the morning. Although I doubt that your breakfast would consist of a can of sardines, a package of crackers or saltines from Mr. Christie, and some Rooibos tea. I was eating sardines because I had read in Bicycling Magazine that it might be good for long rides. I have noticed that I seem to be able to keep going a bit longer when I eat a breakfast high in protein than one with more complex carbohydrates. Of course, I’d pay for it later if I was wrong! Ha!

What did I pack? What didn’t I? Just kidding. I had a couple of Nalgene bottles that were half-filled with frozen water that I intended to fill with water from a stop on the Hamilton Beach Trail, more water in my regular bottles, two tire levers, an inner tube, a small pump, a Kryptonite cable lock, anti-bacterial soap, sunscreen, and a pair of sunglasses. There are probably a couple of other things but they’re minor and escape me for the moment.

As for food, I had a Nature Valley bar as emergency food, a candy, six Fig Newtons, and two peanut butter sandwiches on white bread. Hrmmm…a bit light there.

6:30 am

Yes, I had dawdled but, with the light out, I would not need to bring along my JetLites Starfire light so I shave a few ounces off of my load.

6:36 am

@#$%! My Cateye LD-100’s batteries had given out. I knew that they were about to go but never suspected that rechargeable NiMH would just suddenly fail. I had originally suspected mechanical problems with the light since it had been acting up last year but this time it was simply dead batteries. Went back upstairs to change them out.

I noticed that a lot of people were up and about for an early Saturday this time around. There was a triathlon being held on the Toronto islands and there were a whole bunch of women instructors (?) from Good Life Fitness heading to who knows where.

10:00 am

Around this time, I had just passed through Burlington and hit the Hamilton Beach Trail. Making decent time despite, and because of, a wind that keeps shifting on me. I had already made a pit stop at the old Longview (?) generating plant but you should never pass up an opportunity of a pit stop on trips like this. I had also earlier stopped at the eastern border of Oakville to eat a couple of Fig Newtons. Now, it was to eat a peanut butter sandwich and contemple the next stage.

My route this time around was to cross over the QEW using the Centennial Parkway and head sort of straight south. I had looked over the route from Google but had neglected to print it out. Hey, it can’t be that difficult right? Note to self, always print out a map of where you’re going if you have never been to an area!

So, off along the Hamilton Beach Trail and, then, south to the Parkway. Along the way, there is this campground right on the beach and, as I was passing the entrance, I saw that they had put up a really life-life statue of a young-looking deer. Or so I thought until it moved. Wow! Less than a hundred feet to my left was a young buck! He was gorgeous and he was just looking at me. I fumbled for my camera-phone to take a pic but he got spooked by oncoming cars and took off. I’ve never really seen a buck before and certainly not any deer that was that bold to stand on top of a knoll like that in broad daylight.

Centennial Pkwy was pretty busy but you just have to push on through. I started looking for what I thought was RR20 but didn’t realize that I was already on Highway (?) 20. Due to this mistake and the misunderstanding of a pedestrian I had asked, I started east along Highway 8. I was not too sure about the designations of either Highway or RR so that didn’t help. I subsequently asked someone else who told me that I was going the wrong way and I had to make a wide loop to get back to Centennial Pkwy which was Highway 20.

Looking south along the Pkwy, I could see a gradual sloping hill with a lot of cars lined up on it. The person who had re-directed me said that she had seen a lot of other cyclists pushing their bikes up and I figured that I would probably do the same. So, up I went. The line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see and there was no traffic coming along from the south so it was a sure sign that there’d been an accident. On and on I rode passing everyone else. It wasn’t a bad push up, you just have to shift down a bit and take your time. It probably helped that there was no traffic zooming by throwing you off. I suspect that this is probably one of the more popular routes to the Lake Erie area. Note to self, always check out the map first to find a more quiet and safer route!

At the very crest of the pass, I saw crews cleaning up the aftermath of the accident. Pretty cool just riding by myself through the area.

I stopped in at a gas station to confirm my way to Dunnville and they said to go straight on and then take a left at Highway 3. So, I kept going but a couple of kilometers later saw the turn-off for RR20! Yay! Now, things were beginning to make a bit of sense. By this time, it was already around 11 am so I was cutting it a bit close. I had told myself earlier that I would turn around at 12 or 100 kms, whichever came first. No more heroics this time around.

Noon

Still on the road and heading along RR20 looking for Westbrook Rd. I was supposed to take a right on this in order to head south once again. Time was running out and I was also getting pretty close to 100 klicks.

12:36? pm

Turnaround time! I had broken through the 100 klick mark and was in deepest farmland and golf courses. Seems as if there are quite a few golf courses around the area. No wineries, though, unlike on the other side of the Niagara Escarpment. I guess the growing conditions are too dry up here and you can see that everything’s a bit parched. So, eat a couple of Fig Newtons and then turn around.

I had also passed the border between Hamilton and Niagara and I have to say that road conditions had improved markedly on the Niagara side with a nice paved shoulder that is good enough to handle two bikes across. On the Hamilton side, you’d be lucky to find a smooth patch every few meters or so.

1:15 pm

Passing this sign that says something to the effect that there is a 6% grade for the next two kms when heading down the Centennial Pkwy. Wow! No, I did not ride my brakes all the way down but I did not dare glance down at the speedometer except for that one time when I noted that I was going at 48 kms. And that was at one of the slower moments!

Back in Hamilton, I noticed a Fast Eddie’s restaurant right by the side of the road. It’s supposed to be pretty famous but no idea how good the food is. What’s great for some may be pretty awful for others. I’ll have to check it out some other day.

The rest of the ride went pretty well because there was a decent wind from the west pushing me home. It did turn once in a while but, overall, I love that wind. The food held out pretty well until I hit the Mr. Christie plant near the Humber Bay Butterfly Habitat. I like to eat Mr. Christie products at this point because it just seems so apropo. I walked in the door at 5:41 pm and was not totally whacked. In fact, I felt pretty good throughout the ride. I did flag near the end but those sardines seem to have really done the trick this time around. I am going to try sardines again for my next long-ranger which will probably be next week.

I am disappointed that I didn’t manage to get to Rock Point Provincial Park but that’s a goal for another day. I find that I do much better on such rides when I have a strong, definite goal in mind. One of my best friends says that I am a machine when I cycle and I think that that’s really helped by focusing on something.

Oh right…distance was 193.76 kms at an average speed of 17.5 km which was brought down because it includes all of the times when I was off taking breaks. 193 barely qualifies as “long-range” in my book but I thought that some of you might be interested in this ride.

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The mindless idiots over at TAS have done it again. I came across a seagull with a broken wing this morning walking around on the Martin Goodman Trail and I figured that I could call TAS after 8 am and they would come and catch it. It turns out that they will not pick up the bird unless it’s immobile or walking slow enough for them to catch. In other words, they deem it “healthy” if it is able to walk.

Let’s see here, in my worldview, a healthy bird should be able to fly whereas an unhealthy bird is one that is unable to fly. With TAS, if it still moves it’s good to go. All I can say is, it’s a good thing that they’re not in charge of our health services.

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It’s nice to have a friend who’s willing to be hip-deep in grass and prickly bushes. Yep! Yesterday evening, SL and I went down to the park area where I had last seen that raccoon from earlier in the week. I had gone back early on Thursday morning and did what I thought was a pretty good search of the immediate area but found no sign of it. Not really happy about that and felt that I should have done a better job even earlier on the morning of the incident.

So, SL volunteered to go but could only make it yesterday evening. We brought along her dog, Hammy, in case he had some hitherto-undiscovered hunting skills. It turned out that Hammy did but it was only for barbecue. SL and I went through the same field and went further off with no luck. I brought along a monopod and a flashlight to see if they would help. We saw a lot of animal trails, litter, bugs and such but nothing from an injured animal. I called it off when it started becoming dark and the mozzies were buzzing. Either it’s dead and eaten or it’s dragged itself off really far to die to or it’s somewhere recuperating. Of course, I ‘m hoping for the latter.

It also turns out that the park area is a gay cruising area. SL first picked up on this when she noticed a lot of cars along the roadway who were being driven by single men. Of course, they may not be cruising but, really, it’s Saturday night and you’re a male driving in a relatively-deserted park area by yourself. Hrmmm…

Anyways, fingers crossed for the little bandit. Fire and hot irons for his attacker!

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Was out on my usual pre-dawn training ride when, just past the Lakeshore (?) GO station, I saw a young racoon crossing the street. In the other direction came a small pickup truck and I could see that there was a disaster in the making. What really got me mad was that I could hear the pickup’s engine revving up and then the racoon was hit with it rolling over. I could see that it was still moving a bit and I couldn’t bear to let it be run over by other incoming traffic.

So, I turned around and blocked traffic to see how it was. It was pretty injured with what looked like a crushed foreleg and was bleeding but it moved in a desperate, scrabbling motion towards the edge of the road. I couldn’t figure out how to move it or capture it with what I had. In the end, it was able to move enough to get off of the road and into heavy grass cover. I went back later to see if I could find it but there was no sign of it. I think that it may have a chance of surviving its injuries since the area does seem to be ideal raccoon habitat.

There are some people in this world who deserve a knee-capping and that pickup driver is certainly one of them.

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I’m beginning to look forward to books by Karen Traviss! In this edition, we get back to what is happening with Boba Fett as leader of the Mandalorians as a side-thread and we see further into Jacen Solo’s descent to the Dark Side. As part of that descent, he has to “sacrifice” someone and I guess that the powers-that-be have decided to eliminate another c-list actor in the Star Wars’ universe. Definitely not who you’d have expected it to be.

For a long time, I was not too keen on reading Star Wars’ novels but I am definitely looking forward to future instalments in this series.

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