New Loop Today: Trans-Canada Trail>Parkway>Rotary Greenway Trail>Trans-Canada Trail.
19 km
Silver Bean Café - 2 Americanos & share a piece of Pear Coffee Cake @ outdoor table where we can see our bikes.
(Our brand new bike locks seized up in the rain.)
Chatting with man at next table. He’s biked all over the world with his wife. 35,000 km. She passed away half a year ago. He joins us at our table and we learn how to avoid land mines in Laos. And, “You are from Cobourg. Do you know Robert White?” “Why, yes we do.”
Another man overhears our conversation and shows us his $12,000. red bike parked up against the fence. I ask him about bike locks. He says, “If they want to steal it, they will steal it.”
Comforting.
Wednesday Farmers’ Market. One Empanada each. Mmmmm… Chorizo & potato. In a paper bag to eat on a bench somewhere.
First part of loop is through the downtown streets.
Usual access: roadblock. Construction.
Next block: roadblock. Construction. Huge pile of gravel in the middle of the street.
Finally, access the Jackson Trail at Murray Street and decide to stop at the first bench and eat our empanadas.
First bench. Another bench 10 metres away. Homeless man there. Our bench: dozens of plastic syringes and unsafe litter around the bench. Good empanada.
Young woman shouting to young man, “Don’t follow me!!!!”
Good signage. Parkway Trail
We walk our bikes up the steep gravel hill.
Dads pushing babies in strollers.
Parkland. Dry, dry grass.
Wrought iron benches here and there along the trail. In memory of…..
Big, puffy white clouds in a clear blue sky.
Peterborough Zoo ahead. The parking lot is full. “Where is the trail?” Take a stab at it and it’s right. (Left really)
Rotary Greenway Trail, just south of Trent University. Gentleman in wheelchair says “good morning” as he muscularly whizzes by. Really, pretty well everyone says, “Good morning.”
Later, same gentleman passes us going uphill. Is he training for the Olympics?
Hunter Street. “Let’s have sausage on a bun!” I stay with bikes and Ted enters. Comes back empty-handed. Their cook “moved on”. Happens a lot lately.
Favourite part of Rotary Greenway Trail. Tree-covered. Charming back yards. Floral scents.
East City. Streets empty. “Perfect time of day for biking on the street.”
Lift Lock 20: “Let’s sit on a picnic table.” Tourist boat with pretend paddle wheel is in the lock. Lots of happy passengers slightly older than we are. 6 cruisers & 2 Sea Doos are waiting to go south. Lock worker is going back to Queens at end of the week. Going to be a don. Wondering whether he should shave his moustache? Studying Health Sciences.
Back to Beavermead.
Looks like it might rain.
Thursday
Ted's been sleeping in to somewhere around 9 a.m. Maybe his second iron infusion has started to make a difference. Could be the first time in his life sleeping that late. It moves biking to the heat of the day. Today, we biked over to the Silver Bean Café for brunch. Then, we headed west on the Trans-Canada trail, hoping to go to the trestle bridge that is west of Peterborough. Never made it. Too hot.
There are portions, lots of them, in the first 5 km that are wonderfully shaded.
Then, it opens up to sunshine. We bailed on the trip and decided to look up a garden which I have been following on the Ontario Native Plant Gardening FB group.
We went off trail and biked down some residential streets to Armour St. There it is. Looks like a weedy mess to some, but I am guessing that the local birds, bees and butterflies think that it is heaven.
As we were going to that garden, Ted noticed that we passed a lemonade stand. I think our bikes need to have a bumper sticker that says, "This Bike Stops at Lemonade Stands". We turned around and stopped at the stand. Three little kids. $2/cup. They told us about the fun they make for themselves in their neighbourhood. In the winter, they gather snow from their neighbours' places and make a huge snow slide in front of their home. The boyfriend carries pails of water to an abandoned lot around the corner and makes an ice rink. Can you picture that? What lovely neighbours they must be. Beautiful people.
When we told them that we'd come to see their neighbour's garden, they insisted we turn the corner and go down Rogers St. to see the native plant garden there. Oh my! It can be done.
19 km. Not much of a trip, but still so interesting.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat,
known suffering,
known struggle, known loss,
and have found their way out of the depths.
These persons have an appreciation,
a sensitivity,
and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion,
gentleness,
and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.
”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
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