Lakes and Locks

We were up in Kingston on the weekend visiting some friends. I didn't want to miss the good weather on Saturday, so I took the Isaac along.

After having some family time in the morning and lunching on ribs, wings and nachos, I was ready to head for a ride. Our friends live just off Perth Rd, which in on the Rideau Lakes Tour (RLT) route, some of you may be familiar with the road. I got myself organized and headed out on the road with my Ipod for company. Yes, I ride with music when I am alone... Here is a trick for you kids out there, if you can hear your wheels turning with your Ipod on, the volume is Ok, if you can't, its probably too loud.

I headed North on Perth rd towards Westport, there was a nice tail wind blowing, riding over 35kmh was effortless, in fact there were sections where I could hold over 40kmh for more than 2kms at a time. I knew I would have to pay for that freebie on the way back. The traffic was very light and the pavement very smooth for the most part (nothing like the Cantley/Wakefield loop full of holes). For those of you who have done the RLT, you know the Perth rd section is very picturesque, lots of beautiful scenery but some strange sights too. Like the "hillbilly" trailer home which looks like a wrecking yard, I would have taken a picture but they were out on in the front yard BBQ possum, I think. There is also another house with five 1980 something Camaros on the front lawn and other unique sights, like this house...

Looks even more strange in real life... what's with the watch-tower?

And, as I said, there are some beautiful views of the Rideau Lakes, too many of them to name.

One of the many lakes you come across

I made it to my pit stop point in Newboro in just over an hour and stopped for a snack. Not bad, 40kms in 1hr7mins - thanks to a great tail wind!

Crossing the Rideau Canal at Newboro

My mid-ride snack...

Cinnamon bun with delicious cream cheese icing, mmm.....

If you were paying attention, I had veered East. My plan was to go south west instead of having to face the headwind dead-on. I headed towards hwy 15, headed south for 4kms then went south-west through Chaffey's locks (as you know the Rideau Canal goes from Ottawa to Kingston, there are a lot of locks along the way) .

From Chaffey's locks, I connected to Opinicon road which would eventually spit me back out onto Perth Rd. Opinicon Rd is a secondary road; it is paved but not with very smooth asphalt (think of Perth rd as hockey ice and Opinicon, curling ice - you got to be Canadian to understand this!) but the Isaac's carbon frame absorbs the bumps very nicely. Nevertheless, there were no serious ruts nor potholes on Opinicon. It is a very twisty turny road, with lots of short climbs and downhills. I had some stiff cross winds to contend with which slowed things down quite a bit but that section was actually a lot of fun! I would sometimes sprint up the hills just to mix things up a bit. I'd love to ride that road again on a calm day. I met this dude in the middle of the road on a downhill...

Mr. Porcupine made me hit the brakes hard on a downhill...

I love tractors, so I had to stop and take this pic - vintage Ford and a Massey
(Can you tell which is which without enlarging the photo?)

It was nice to ride something different from the usual routes we tend to do and the roads in the Kingston and Rideau Lakes area are so much nices than what we have here.

My total distance was 84 kms according to my computer, google maps says 80kms, close enough I guess. The second half of the trip took me almost twice as long as the first although I did lolgygag a bit chasing animals and tractors. But the biggest factor was the wind. Total ride time was 3 hours. Here is a map of my ride route.