Sun, May 11 2008 - Queens Quay (Harbour Front) to Port Credit Ride (View Original Event Details)
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After meeting everyone and welcoming new members Jen, Paula & Sumanth to their first ever TOC event, we were off on our ride to Port Credit. Not long into the start of the ride, we found out that it was quite a busy morning out on the Waterfront Trail.
The first large group of people we had encountered were all the families who were participating in the Megan's Walk from Ontario Place to The Hospital for Sick Children. I did some additional research after the event and found that this is a charity walk whose aim is raise awareness about pediatric brain tumours and also to raise money for research into this devastating illness.
We continued on our ride but then later after riding through the Western Beaches, Mimico and Long Branch sections of the Waterfront trail, ran into another large group of folks. The 2008 Mississauga Marathon was also happening at this time and had blocked off a part of the trail that led to our meeting point in Port Credit. So after taking a slight detour on to Lakeshore Dr, we all able to meet up at Tall Oaks Park to have a quick picnic lunch as we watched the remaining marathon runners finish their run.
After finishing our lunch we said goodbye to our 3 Port Credit residents, Ben, Linda and Gerard and began our way back to Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. The return ride was quite a huge challenge for some if not most of us as we were going against some pretty strong winds. The original weather forecast was for east, northeast winds of up to 35 KPH but the reality along the water front was exactly 42 KPH gusting up to 55 KPH. So it took about half of us about twice as long to get back and we were all considerably tired, worn out and winded .... no pun intended ;-)
We all gathered up at Shoeless Joe's for some well-deserved food and refreshments where David, Jenn, Chuck and I fielded questions from our new TOC members before heading home. Everyone had a great time and we hope to see everyone again soon on another event.
Thank you to Wai Sing for taking some pictures for us during the ride and also to Chuck, Jenn and David for helping me out with the different cycle groups as everyone split up on their varying paces.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.