Somebody posted on Dropmachine recently asking everybody about their most epic rides of 2009. I thought about it and responded with my four corners ride. Then I thought about my mindstate going into it, and realized that it had been planned and mapped the night before, allowing me to wake up mentally prepared to tackle it.
Last night I was pondering all of this while mapping out my ultimate bluffs ride, which I realized steepness and ice would make a complete impossibility in current weather conditions. So I turned my attention to another pet project; a predominantly off-road route to Joyride 150. I had been thinking about hydro-cuts and maybe even frozen aqueduct type stuff but thick grass and snow just didn't seem that appealing. Then it dawned on me. I'll take the rail-trail!
First though I would have to get dressed. After much pondering it ended up being: 2 long sleeve base layers up top (one thin, one thick with a built-in ninja mask type collar) Cycle Solutions team wind-tex jacket, and below bib-tights, full leg warmers, 29er team bibs, tall thick-ass wool socks over cycling socks, and booties over Shimano mtb shoes with custom foam meat tray insulated insoles. Cycling toque with warm headband up top. Moderately useful Northwave face mask. In Chrome bag: lock, tools, helmet, thin-ish warm-ish gloves, Gore jacket, and a jersey. The jersey and helmet were for if I chose to ride at Joyride once I got there, which in hindsight was ludicrously ambitious.
It is also worth noting I had some pretty warm gloves on, and also handlebar booties that most people seem more amused than intrigued by at the shop. This was my first time really using them and they worked really well. I switched to my thinner gloves after about 10 minutes of riding, which is realistically what allowed me to take any pictures at all! (note I was riding into a stiff wind at about -10c)
I started my journey off-road on a rail line that has probably been abandoned for near a century. It runs under the hydro lines of Taylor Creek park and eventually traces the subway line out to warden and joins with a more recently abandoned line. I picked it up around Dawes road and followed it (with a small break) past Birchmount until it hooked into an active GO train line. From here I could follow the line up to within meters of Joyride.
As I started up the rail-trail, which has a lot more rails and ties and no trespassing signs than your average rail-trail, I did so with the knowledge that Go trains do not run on Sunday, and that there was still a slim chance that a CN freight train could still be shunting on the weekend. And even barring a full-on train coming through, I could still be accosted by CN police, or random hobos, or gun-toting gang members, or slip and crack my helmetless but toasty-warm head on the track. So, suffice it to say, I made goddam sure I had my wits about me for the entire journey, and anybody who had not already considered all of the aforementioned events as possibilities should probably not try riding an active line.
Well, I had carefully weighed all of the aforementioned events' probabilities and figured the extreme cold and long weekend would probably afford relatively safe passage. So I started heading north at Kennedy station. I had a pretty stiff headwind, and was continuously riding over bumpy gravel, so it was a bit of a slog. My face was frozen, my moderately useful face mask had been made wet by my breath and froze after 30 mins as expected, and I worked my way through the ninja mask collar in the same fashion. As I was approaching Steeles I felt the cold stiffening my jaw. But I carried on!
But only for about another 10 minutes. The snow and wind seemed to be picking up and my feet were protesting so I made my way back to a Timmies on Steeles for a coffee and bagel and artificially heated environment, and also got intimate with their hand dryer and the wall trying to warm up my collar.
The way back down was pretty uneventful, same route with a tailwind so much faster and easier. At this point I really did not care that I didn't make it to Joyride as I was quite enjoying retracing my steps with an inch of fresh snow on top of them, especially once I wasn't riding on gravel and railway ties anymore. My total saddle time ended up around 3 hours, which is none too quick for any ride under 50km, but I stood up against inclement conditions for the first time in 2010 and I hope to make that a habit. 1000km January? Who knows?
map
2 comments:
neat
Riding in the cold isn't always fun.
Like the look of the Paradox. Got to come by the shop to have a look at it soon.
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