Chilly June and Mildmay

Kitchener, ON to Mildmay, ON

June 1, 2015

By: Mark

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Kitchener, ON to Mildmay, ON

Day One is officially in the books … and now it’s officially in the blog. Things are off to a bit of a slow start thus far. Not from the riding perspective, but from the blogging perspective – my daily updates are already a day behind. A trend I will endeavour to end – starting now.

Ready to roll.

All things considered my first day of riding was a success – especially considering I really didn’t know what my route would be. I had a destination – a Warm Showers host in Mildmay – and I figured the route would just work itself out along the way. It did.

Not being a morning person I suspected my goal of being on the road by 7:00 was unlikely at best. In reality, there was no chance of that happening. When 8:00 came and went I got a bit more focused and by 8:30 my bike was loaded up and I was on the road. Only 4,500 km to Vancouver.

Considering the miserable weather we had on Sunday I was more than a little relieved to wake to clear skies. Warmer temperatures would’ve been nice, but I believe someone once said, you can’t always get what you want. In the grand scheme of things I really just wanted to get on the road again so, from that perspective, things got off to a desirable start.

As for my route, well … part of the issue was that Google Maps wanted to send me one way, while my GPS wanted me to go a completely different way. I ended up compromising on the route – I followed Google on my way out of Kitchener and then followed the GPS the rest of the way. Of course, I wasn’t thrilled when I ran into construction on my way toward Conestogo – construction that saw traffic reduced to one direction … and that direction was not in my favour. I’m not one for cycling on sidewalks but I made an exception in this case as a big detour this early in the ride seemed like a bit of a cruel joke. And I wasn’t laughing.

Lunch #1.

So, with the detour successfully ignored, I was on my way again and I zigzagged my way to Drayton. For those unfamiliar with the area, Drayton is about 50 km from Kitchener and halfway to my destination. I had planned to stop at a certain sub shop for lunch but, unlike my last trip, there was not an abundance of said sub shops to be found. Not only was there not an abundance, there were none-at-all. Fortunately, there was a sub-like shop in the convenience store in Drayton and I was able to fuel up.

Did I mention I haven’t been on a bike in over three weeks? And did I mention I haven’t been on anything resembling a long ride since the end of March? Note to self: That’s not very bright when embarking on a 4,500 km ride. I’m not going to lie. When I got off my bike in Drayton my legs were sore. My legs have NEVER been sore after biking. However, I applied the “No pain, no gain” principle and was back on the road by noon. My legs weren’t particularly happy but I figured they’d get over it. They did. Sort of.

A little over three hours later, I turned onto my final road of the day … which of course was the hilliest. There were only three hills between me and my Warm Showers hosts. But as Sharilyn (my host) warned me, their house is at the top of the biggest hill. Sigh.

I’m no expert on gardens,
but this looks impressive.

Fifteen minutes later, I was turning into Sharilyn and Brian’s driveway where Sharilyn was working on her garden. And it’s not your average garden. Sharilyn and Brian are working towards having a self-sufficient farm complete with chickens, pigs, goats (still to come), and the aforementioned garden. And they’re well on their way. I’m not going to lie, it’s a very impressive place.

I won’t go into all the details but it was definitely another great Warm Showers experience. It was a great evening of talking travel, movies, farming, hunting, and even Monty Python. The evening went by so fast that by the time we called it a night there was really no chance of me writing the day’s update. And obviously I didn’t.