Barb and John are hosting tomorrow’s ride. See their invitation below and plan to ride!
John and I will host the ride on Tuesday August 17th starting at 10:00 a.m. As the Friday (Aug. 13) ride was rained-threatened out we will pick up the ride that Brian Hedney suggested using the Grafton East (31,36,50K) route but starting at Wicklow Beach. https://www.ontariotrails.on.ca/index.php?url=trails/view/wicklow—waterfront-trail. Lots of parking, a stony beach if you’d like an apres-ride dip and picnic area. King Road has been resurfaced and is a lovely little road to ride now. Please leave your comments (yea or nay and fun to ‘follow’). As there is almost always some threat of rain, we’ll watch and post a comment early.
Friday’s ride will start at 5:00 and finish at the Grafton arena, located on the north side of C.R. 2 in the village of Grafton. The route will be Grafton East (31, 36 and 51 km). There is ample parking and grassy acreage for a typical Freewheeler picnic.
Marshall will be leading this Tuesday’s ride and he invites you to join him at Orono Park at 10:00 for a fun 56 K (shorter 45 K also available) relatively flat ride through the Bowmanville and Newcastle area. The mixture of roads and bike paths includes the new path that goes under the 401 connecting Bowmanville safely to the Waterfront Trail.
Don’t forget your comfy chair, favourite beverage and yummy lunch for our picnic social in the park.
Just a thought, we’ll be passing through the Port of Newcastle, maybe allowing us a chance to have a sidewalk visit with Mel or better yet with Orono being so close, wouldn’t be great if Mel and Mich could join us at our picnic social.
A note from your Tuesday Ride Coordinators:
Sue has completed her Tuesday ride coordinating duties with this Tuesday’s ride and has now handed the baton on to Marshall. Loads of fun rides and socials, (both Tuesdays and Fridays) still ahead of us. Check out the club calendar, grab some of dates and let your second half coordinators (Tuesday Marshall and Friday Katherine) what dates you want.
Randy and Anita are hosting this Friday’s ride starting at 5:00 pm from their place. They will come up with some routes to please everyone’s tastes and will have maps available.
Backyard social will follow.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate! Looking forward to seeing you there.
Paul is our host for this Tuesday’s ride starting from Lindsay and travelling South past the Buddhist Temple near Bethany.
Here are instructions to the starting point:
Drive north on Hwy.#35. Continue north past Hwy.#7 into Lindsay. The road becomes Lindsay St. South (#15). Go past Kent St. and over the bridge (canal) and turn right on King St. Go one block and you will see a small park on your left. Park on the street.
Download and print the map that shows the 50-kilometre route.
Jen and Tj are hosting Friday’s ride starting at 5 from their home in Cobourg. Route will be a surprise, but they will be sure to have maps available.
What’s not a surprise is that we’ll be celebrating Jen’s birthday. Rumour has it there will be cake involved. So even if you don’t ride, who doesn’t love cake? Join us! And bring your picnic setup.
Paul is our host for this Tuesday’s ride starting from Lindsay and travelling South past the Buddhist Temple near Bethany.
Here are instructions to the starting point:
Drive north on Hwy.#35. Continue north past Hwy.#7 into Lindsay. The road becomes Lindsay St. South (#15). Go past Kent St. and over the bridge (canal) and turn right on King St. Go one block and you will see a small park on your left. Park on the street.
Download and print the map that shows the 50-kilometre route.
Pete and Ruth are hosting Friday’s ride, starting from the Port Hope Town Hall parking lot at 5:00 pm.
We’ll follow the Racetrack Ramble route, which is 46 km but can be shortened at a couple spots along the way. We’ll aim to double check the route for gravel sections and either adapt it or propose an alternative route.
A picnic will follow – either bring your own or consider supporting a local business!
Brian is your host for Tuesday’s ride from Presqu’ile Park. He wants to make sure you read this and reserve your spot soon! See his detailed email invitation and instructions for making a day use reservation below.
The Ride: Next Tuesday’s ride will start at the picnic area in Presqu’ile Provincial Park, and it will follow the Presqu’ile Promise route listed under Brighton on the website. Since we are starting inside the park, rather than at Gosport, the rides are a couple of kilometres shorter than listed (54 and 38 km). You should know, however, that the long route is considerably hillier than the short route as the former takes in the dreaded Telephone Road!
How to Get There: After entering the park, follow the Day Use Area signs for 5 km. After 4 km you will arrive at the Lake Ontario shoreline, but keep going for a further 1 km until you see the picnic shelter on your left. Look to the right and you should see my car beside the lake. I plan to be there by 9 AM at the latest, and will likely have my picnic breakfast there!
You Need to Make a Day-Use Reservation! The good news is that you do not have to pay the usual $21 fee to use a provincial park for daytime use Mondays to Thursdays this year; the bad news is that you do need to make a reservation as they are limiting numbers due to Covid.
There needs to be one reservation per vehicle, and here’s what you need to do:
No more than five days ahead of time (so not before Friday), go to www.ontarioparks.com.
Click on Reservations (top menu bar), then on Reserve Online.
If you have an Ontario parks Web account, click on Sign In (top menu bar) and enter your credentials. This will save you time at checkout.
Click on Create Reservation and then on Day Use. Select the Park (Presqu’ile, obviously) and the Date (July 20th).
From the map, click on Daily Vehicle Permit, and then click on July 20thagain. Click on Reserve.
Check the two “Please Read and Acknowledge” boxes and then click the green Confirm Reservation Details button that should appear.
The Shopping Cart should then appear with an amount of $0.
Click the green Proceed to Checkout button and then on the green Confirm Acknowledgements button on the subsequent screen.
Finally, click on the Confirm Booking button and your reservation number will appear! It is not a bad idea to “Print Confirmation Letter” (which you leave on your dashboard) as you can then bypass the gatehouse if it is busy. Don’t worry if you turn up without your confirmation number as they will have a list of the day’s reservations at the gatehouse.
N.B.: If you do not already have an Ontario parks account, you will need to enter your name at some stage, but I am not sure where that is!)
Although this sounds complicated, it really isn’t. I think you will find the Website to be very intuitive.
I urge you to make a reservation even if you are not certain that you will be attending the ride. There is no charge to make it, and you will not be sent to jail if you do not turn up! If it is a nice day you should consider joining us for the “apres events” even if you are not riding as this is such a nice location. Take in the boardwalk, take a stroll along the beach, birdwatch, read a book …..whatever! We typically finish riding sometime between 12 NOON and 1:00 PM.
This is a repeat of the Friday ride 2 weeks ago that was cancelled due to rain.
Brian is our host for this Friday’s ride. His invitation is below. Let’s cross our fingers for good weather!
This Friday’s ride will start at the Sylvan Glen Conservation Area at the “new normal” time of 5 PM. The route will be Beautiful Bewdley – the map actually starts at the Port Hope Town Hall, but we will pick it up at Sylvan Glen. On the return leg we may, or may not, take in the Town Hall as there will be lots of other options!
Come prepared for an apres-ride swim and picnic. Do you like this old picture of Sylvan Glen? Although Sylvan Glen will likely be quite busy at 5 PM, it usually quietens down in the evening.
Ganaraska Freewheelers Cycling Club 