Sat, Apr 18 2009 - Spring Bike Ride by the Lake & Leslie Street Spit (about 26 kms) (View Original Event Details)
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Twelve of us went for a lovely bike ride by the lake on a beautiful Saturday morning!
With the weather being an unseasonably high of 21 degrees, many other people were out bicycling, inline skating, and enjoying the weather multi-use pathways by the lake. Interestingly enough, as the group prepared to leave Union subway station, the soon-to-be cyclists ran into another TOC group: Victor's group of hikers, who were "downtown water fountain hunting".
Once on the bike ride, on a humourous note, at one point, the Event Coordinator dropped back to make sure that the cyclists at the back of the group were doing OK, and encouraged the rest of the group to keep riding straight ahead along the pathway. The Event Coordinator noticed that two people appeared to veer away from the straight path as directed; instead they looped off to the far right. Concerned, the Event Coordinator ask the rest of the group to wait, and then tore off at top speed to try to catch the wayward cyclists, frantically calling and waving and to bring them back to the correct path. Curiously, the two cyclists looked back, but continued biking the wrong way! When the Event Coordinator caught up with the two "lost" cyclists, she finally got a good look at them, and realized that they were not actually part of the Toronto Outdoor Club group! A good laugh was had by all, when the coordinator returned to the rest of the group a few minutes later.
The group continued on, without incident, and caught some beautiful views of the city near the end of the Leslie Street Spit. A few birds were heard in the urban wildlife environment of Tommy Thompson Park.
As the group came into the Ashbridges Bay Park, seeking use of the public bathrooms, the group was surprised to note that the bathrooms were "closed for the season". But, a bathroom break was much needed by some before the then-scheduled lunch break! The group came to consensus to keep riding a bit farther, to a café on the Beaches boardwalk. After arriving at the café, the group realized it would be very hard to have 12 people tromp in and out to use the bathroom without at least buying a cup of coffee... so everyone locked up their bikes, and came have coffee on the patio. And, as soon as everyone sat down and got settled, it started raining!
The group therefore decided to move inside, have lunch at the café, take a longer break, and continue biking once the rain stopped. After a nice leisurely lunch, the continued back (with no more rain), rode back through Clarke Beach Park and ended up back at Union Station. With the extra biking, the total distance ended up being just over 30 kilometres.
One person with a bike computer noted that the average speed was moderate: between 14-18 kilometres per hour. After the bike ride, some were so enchanted by the bike computer (that clocked both speed and distance), that some dropped by Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy one for themselves.
In all, it was a very fun start to the biking season... with lots of laughter!
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.