Solo ride, starting at the Hockley General Store. As I said in my previous rider diary, a great starting point for a ride, although today being Good Friday, it was closed early, so I couldn’t have a little treat upon my return. Today I wanted to see if I could create a nice route that included Belfountain as a mid point. Belfountain has a nice little coffee shop called “The Shed” which is a popular spot cyclists that like to ride in that area – road cyclists and weekend motor cyclists alike. My intention was to actually stop there myself for a little treat, but by the time I got there, I still had a full water bottle and I wasn’t really all that tired, so I just rode right through. It was only about 40km at that point.
It was windy – predominantly easterly with an angle to the south, so call it east-south-east. It was also cool. I suspect the wind chill brought it down to about the freezing mark but I was dressed for it. So, I rode a square route and felt the headwind primarily on the last leg from Orangeville back to Hockley, but because I was riding the Hockley Valley road, I was probably sheltered from the worst of it.
This wasn’t a bad route, but it could be improved. As you can see from the map, I had to ride through Caledon, which, while not busy, is not all that attractive. I’d also like to make the route longer than 100km. Gore Road going south had a bit more traffic than I like for a country ride. So, I’m going to try it again another time with the following changes:
1. South on Concession Road 4 instead of Concession Road 3 from 5 Sideroad north of Hwy 9.
2. South on Humber Station Road instead of Gore Road south of Hwy 9.
3. West on Castlederg Sideroad until one concession west of Airport Road, and then north on Tobrum Road up to Old Baseline Road which is a must going west because it has traffic lights crossing Hwy 10. It’s also nicely paved and today with the easterly wind, it was a nice stretch of heads down fast riding in the aerobars.
I don’t think I’d change anything once getting through Belfountain. I was able to get to Hockley Valley Road without experiencing much of Orangeville.
I’m looking forward to Version 2.0.