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07-13-09, 02:39 PM
Lake Ontario Lap 1000k Brevet
The good -- the weather -- sunny and warm, the scenery -- views of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River from the roads and from the Thousand Islands Bridge, wonderful rolling hills terrain.
The bad -- the weather -- a strong headwind from East to West (not the prevailing wind direction) along the south side of the lake where it was, naturally, flat and we were exposed; the Thousand Islands Bridge -- the pedestrian walkway so narrow that you must tilt the bike so that your pedals clear the steelwork while you bump your hip on the other side, too narrow to ride.
The ugly -- the weather -- thunderstorms on the third day as a cold front moved in -- pouring rain on a dirt road; clouds of tiny flies at dusk east of Kingston that coated all exposed areas of skin like dust.
It was a tough ride, tougher, in my opinion, than the Shenandoah 1200 that I did in June. That's for a few reasons --
1) while the ride is relatively flat (just under 16,000 feet of climbing), there is likely always wind on this route. Personally I'll take hills over wind any day. On our trip, we literally had a headwind the entire way. It changed with us.
2) this is much more of a self-supported ride than the 1200. There were no drop bags for the two overnight stays. Carrying that extra weight is not as much of an issue on a flat ride, other than the wind resistance from the bulky pack.
3) some of the roads were rough, making for high rolling resistance.
All that being said, now that it's almost been 48 hours since I completed this ride, I'm feeling better about it and more recovered. It took much less time to recover from the 1200. Would I do it again ? -- right afterwards I would have said "no", now I'm waffling, in a couple of days I'll probably say "yes".
The first day's ride was from Erin Mills (west of Toronto) to Ontario NY (east of Rochester). Five of us stayed at Peter Dusel's, the local RBA. Two went on to Oswego NY, another 50-60 miles. There were some wonderful views of the lake from the Niagara escarpment south of Hamilton and we crossed at the Rainbow Bridge and through U.S. Customs without too long a wait. East of Niagara Falls, however, we had to dig into a strong headwind that sapped our energy and left all of us drained for the ensuing days.
Anticipating more East wind, I got an early start on the second day, leaving Peter's at 3am. The ride from Ontario NY to Oswego NY -- rolling hills, clear sky, almost-full moon -- was wonderful. Peaceful with no traffic, too early for wind, it was one of the nicest parts of the ride. Getting to the Thousand Islands Bridge around 3pm, it took 1.5 hours to walk across both bridges and get through Canadian customs. Queued up with the vehicular traffic, I had to wait my turn. Heading west through Kingston, the planned night stop was at Millhaven. I got to Millhaven too early, however, and the Glamora Ferry, not too far past Millhaven, has its first running at 6:15 a.m. I did not want to stop for 8 hours, so I continued on to the ferry and stopped in Picton.
I hit the road at 5am on Saturday, enjoyed the views of the lake and the countryside, rode through a couple of thunderstorms etc. etc. arriving back in Erin Mills at 11:14 p.m. for a total time of 65:14. A few of us have exchanged emails since then and the two who stayed overnight in Oswego made it in about 2 hours before me; the last riders in at 3am or so after me; we had one DNF.
Would I recommend the ride to others ? -- yes, it's something that is worth experiencing.
The good -- the weather -- sunny and warm, the scenery -- views of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River from the roads and from the Thousand Islands Bridge, wonderful rolling hills terrain.
The bad -- the weather -- a strong headwind from East to West (not the prevailing wind direction) along the south side of the lake where it was, naturally, flat and we were exposed; the Thousand Islands Bridge -- the pedestrian walkway so narrow that you must tilt the bike so that your pedals clear the steelwork while you bump your hip on the other side, too narrow to ride.
The ugly -- the weather -- thunderstorms on the third day as a cold front moved in -- pouring rain on a dirt road; clouds of tiny flies at dusk east of Kingston that coated all exposed areas of skin like dust.
It was a tough ride, tougher, in my opinion, than the Shenandoah 1200 that I did in June. That's for a few reasons --
1) while the ride is relatively flat (just under 16,000 feet of climbing), there is likely always wind on this route. Personally I'll take hills over wind any day. On our trip, we literally had a headwind the entire way. It changed with us.
2) this is much more of a self-supported ride than the 1200. There were no drop bags for the two overnight stays. Carrying that extra weight is not as much of an issue on a flat ride, other than the wind resistance from the bulky pack.
3) some of the roads were rough, making for high rolling resistance.
All that being said, now that it's almost been 48 hours since I completed this ride, I'm feeling better about it and more recovered. It took much less time to recover from the 1200. Would I do it again ? -- right afterwards I would have said "no", now I'm waffling, in a couple of days I'll probably say "yes".
The first day's ride was from Erin Mills (west of Toronto) to Ontario NY (east of Rochester). Five of us stayed at Peter Dusel's, the local RBA. Two went on to Oswego NY, another 50-60 miles. There were some wonderful views of the lake from the Niagara escarpment south of Hamilton and we crossed at the Rainbow Bridge and through U.S. Customs without too long a wait. East of Niagara Falls, however, we had to dig into a strong headwind that sapped our energy and left all of us drained for the ensuing days.
Anticipating more East wind, I got an early start on the second day, leaving Peter's at 3am. The ride from Ontario NY to Oswego NY -- rolling hills, clear sky, almost-full moon -- was wonderful. Peaceful with no traffic, too early for wind, it was one of the nicest parts of the ride. Getting to the Thousand Islands Bridge around 3pm, it took 1.5 hours to walk across both bridges and get through Canadian customs. Queued up with the vehicular traffic, I had to wait my turn. Heading west through Kingston, the planned night stop was at Millhaven. I got to Millhaven too early, however, and the Glamora Ferry, not too far past Millhaven, has its first running at 6:15 a.m. I did not want to stop for 8 hours, so I continued on to the ferry and stopped in Picton.
I hit the road at 5am on Saturday, enjoyed the views of the lake and the countryside, rode through a couple of thunderstorms etc. etc. arriving back in Erin Mills at 11:14 p.m. for a total time of 65:14. A few of us have exchanged emails since then and the two who stayed overnight in Oswego made it in about 2 hours before me; the last riders in at 3am or so after me; we had one DNF.
Would I recommend the ride to others ? -- yes, it's something that is worth experiencing.