Coco & Golonghardman Season Kickoff Longride

On May 2nd Tobin and Rick set off for a wee ride to Peterborough (Tobin) and Midland (Rick). This ride was inspired by baby Noah's christening on the Sat and supposedly Tobin wanted to show up in style so he suggested it. I loved the idea since i have driven the route we would take dozens of times and have daydreamed of riding it, with the many hills and rolling terrain. The road to Bancroft is 240km then 113km to Peterborough and 215km to Midland.

This is the seat post rack and pannier we both used for the ride. We needed just enough room for an overnighter and this little gimmick fit the purpose nicely. It still added 15lbs to Ricks bike!

A 6:30 am start from Tobins, weather looks great, maybe we'll miss that rain they called for.

The Luskville escarpment lined our route as we headed towards Shawville.

Tobin's excited. We had a pretty decent tailwind all the way to Shawville from Chelsea for about 70km that we took full advantage of, cruising at speeds of up to 45kms/hour and clucking away like old hens. We paid when we had to turn back in the opposite direction to make Renfrew. This included 13kms on the 17, where Tobin added the additional challenge of eating an apple.

Can you see the tailwind?

Shortly after we left Renfrew , Jenn caught up to us on her way to her moms where Rick would be arriving the next day. Rick kept Riley busy while Tobin shows off his smile.

In Griffith , Tobin quickly noticed the "Pizza" sign and suggested we order one. While waiting for pizza i downed a whole bag of beef jerky. When i got my pizza this scenario took place. The wind caught the pizza box and whipped it out of my hand, we watched as my delicious carbs spiraled through the air, then bounced one piece upside down and all stayed in the box! Damn good pizza!

This is the "Shoe Tree" just outside of Bancroft. These people are bored.

We did get some little bit of the rain that was called for, it just sprinkled us lightly and was of no real concern. Ann had actually called while we were at Timmys in renfrew to tell us there was a downpour where she was just outside of Peterborough, not far from Bancroft when speaking of storm fronts, so we got lucky.

On day one we made Bancroft in 8hrs 30min saddle time with an 28.8km average over 240km and a total time on the road of 11hrs.

We stayed at the Best Western in Bancroft. Decent room, neither of us could eat all our dinner, and we decided to forego the shuffle board game until next time.

Rise and shine. Day 2 was a 5am wake up.

We all know the value of sports lubricant! Rick use's Chamois Butter.

For any of you kids reading this who "don't know about sports lubricant", it goes on the skin where friction occurs,that causes rashes and painful irritation. This is where Rick puts his.

The stuff is a must.

It also comes in handy when you make sweet love with your riding partners.

Alas but just after 13km of riding together on day 2 the riding partners head off on there own adventures riddled with starvation, gluttony, and headwinds.

Rick said:

This was the view after Tobin and I parted. It was a beautiful , serene setting.

Doing the rest of the ride alone was alright, i didn't have to worry about keeping pace with another rider so that was no concern, but i did have a moment of loneliness for awhile until i got down to business .

After about 30km i had that "when the hell is the pace going to pick up!" feeling and so started to fuel up. The pace picked up and i started picking off towns, Kinmount was the big milestone at 80km from Bancroft, then Norland, Uphill , Sebright, next stop Orillia!

The weather started to act up at about 40km from Orillia with some spitting. At Sebright, about 26km out of Orillia, it started to rain in earnest but it was warm and i didn't want to stop, so i continued through to the Tims on the far side of town and got well soaked. I put on the trusty goretex Jenn got me at Tims and headed out for the final 40km to Port, a pleasant surprise because i had it as about 60km for some reason.

Just as i reached the final hill just off the highway , about 2 or 3 kms from Jenn at her moms house, this is what i saw.

I let out a hoot and a holler , "You missed me you bastard! I'm here! Fug you!"

And then it rained that torrential sheet rain like it does in high winds. I loved it, an awesome finish to an awesome ride.

So day 2 for me was 215km, 8hrs in the saddle, 9hrs on the road.

Total ride time, 16hrs 30mins in the saddle, 455kms covered with an 27.5km average. Booya!

Great idea Tobin! We're looking at options for the next epic ride.

Rick said:

This handy little syringe from Progold stashed nicely in my repair kit. I sure needed it, look at my chain! Progold is great stuff it just cleaned the chain right up.

Rick/Tobin