In lieu of a Friday ride this week there will be a special ride on Saturday June 1st^st. We are planning a Doors Open Northumberland ride in which we will visit some of the 28 available locations. Although there are venues located throughout our county, we are only visiting a few that are located in Cobourg, Grafton and (for the longer route) Castleton. Since this is a 2-day event, you may wish to visit some of the others (particularly those in Port Hope) at your leisure on Sunday. Details of this exciting event can be found here.

Logistics for Saturday June 1st

• Meet at the home of Diane McCormick in Cobourg. Di’s address can be found in the member section of our Website. There is ample free parking on her street.
• The ride will start promptly at 10:00 AM.
• There will be a pot-luck lunch at Di’s, but not starting until 3:00 PM. You should, therefore, consider bringing some snacks, or $$ to purchase some. The new café at the Grafton Inn has excellent coffee and munchies!
• A small lock for your precious bike is recommended.

The Rides

There will be two rides – a short 33km and a longer 62 km ride!

• The short ride essentially goes from Cobourg to Grafton and back and is 33 km in length. Di will be in charge of this group.
• After visiting one or two venues in Cobourg, the long ride heads off along C.R.2 to Grafton, where we will linger for about one hour. There are a number of interesting Open Doors locations in the village and, of course, there is the café at the Grafton Inn. We then head to Castleton via Shelter Valley Road, Pipeline Road and Old Shelter Valley Road. The return to Cobourg is by means of C.R.22, Broomfield Rd., Eddystone Rd., Boomerang Rd., Clouston Rd., Grills Rd., The Scots Line, Hoskin Rd., Danforth Rd., Brookfield Rd., and C.R.2. It is 62 km in length.
• Please print, and bring with you to the ride, a copy of the linked Doors Open 62 km route map. Brian H. has offered his services as a Tour Guide for the long ride group.

The Venues

The short ride group will likely visit more venues than the long ride group. The venues we could visit are as follows.

• (Cobourg) Sifton-Cook Heritage Centre
• (Cobourg) Golden Rail Pub at Legion Village
• (Grafton) Barnum House
• (Grafton) St. George’s Anglican Church
• (Grafton) The Canning Factory
• (Grafton) The Weslevan Methodist Meeting House
• (Castleton – long ride only) The Mill at Piper Creek
• Also in Grafton, across from the Grafton Inn, is Art Salad (an outdoor art show and sale). (Note: Ruth and Pete participated in it last year and thought it was a great event.)

There is obviously a lot going on in Grafton (including a café visit) so the long ride folks may wish to read up ahead of time in order to maximize the one hour that they will have there. The “express train to Castleton” will not wait in the Grafton Station for more than 60 minutes!

Be sure to join us on Saturday for a bit of local history!