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This is a re-post from Jeff's site at Classic UJM.
Well, with it being a long weekend, and lots of us Canucks celebrating the real Thanksgiving, Saturday was just too much of a beautiful day to waste working on the old house. I'd been planning on heading up a little further north this summer to see some of the fall colour. Toured up through my old stomping grounds, and then a little further.
It was 12 degrees C by about 10:30am on Saturday. My buddy Dave showed up on his Maxim 750 that he got this spring. His first year back on a bike since his CB360 high school days. He's a natural, and caught back on rather fast. I tried to get a few other folks interested, but without much notice, most other people were already committed elsewhere or afraid of the cold.
Since the day before was a cold, rainy Friday, things were still damp, and the ground was cold. Pavement was just starting to warm in the sun, so we had to watch the traction in the shaded areas. Dave locked up his back tire a few times.
First on the list was a tour through Guelph out to Belfountain. Belfountain is a quaint little tourist town that happens to be on one end of The Forks of the Credit road. It's a fairly windy and hilly road that follows the Credit river. Weekdays are fine, but weekends it's a zoo. Touristy types come up from the city to get some "country culture" and see the fall colours. I knew it would be like that already, but figured I'd show Dave a half decently windy road. We got there, began down the winding, hilly road to find a) slow tourist traffic, and b) the local HEAT around every corner. It was disappointing to be stuck behind gawkers that acted as if the edge of the world was just beyond the precipice of that next hill. Braking to about 10km/h, and then realizing that the world continues on as normal on the other side. Yes, annoying. Probably a good thing we couldn't get going a decent clip on that road though. It was mostly in the shade, still soaking wet, and had slick-as-snot-on-a-doorknob wet leaves everywhere.
Next we headed up Hwy 10 north to Caledon village, turned right on Charlston out to Airport Rd., and north through Mono Mills. We were headed for Hockley Valley road. It's a 70km/h road that a lot of bikers take for a little bit of higher speed twisties. But you gotta watch out for stupid hikers everywhere! It was nice and dry, and there were a few other bikers out there too. Some guy on what looked like a V-strom was in front of me doing the speed limit. He pulled over to the right side as if to let me pass, but I've known the HEAT to sit on this road too. Especially on a long weekend. We went until I figured out I'd missed my turn onto the 3rd line of Mono Township. We ended up just going into Orangeville for some lunch and a gas-up. We both had at least half a tank, but didn't want to take a chance heading too far north.
After lunch we went back down Hockley Valley road and turned north up 3rd line. It's a gravel road, but goes through some nice valleys with twisties. It was a little damp yet from all the rain, but Mono township has nice gravel. There was a lot of nice views on this road, and one Llama that Dave was sure was afraid of him. I don't know why, but for some reason it ran when he went by. A little later along, we came upon a relatively steep downhill section, the kind you need to be careful of on gravel on a bike. Some vehicles were stopped (actually, they were stuck) in the oncoming lane, which ended up being a couple of 4 wheelers, the first of which was pulling a tandem axle trailer with a freaking EXCAVATOR on it!!!!! There just wasn't enough traction in the rather massive 4 wheeler to pull this load up the hill. The bewildered looks on the drivers faces told me that they'd likely have an IQ of about 3 between them, and were likely drunk when the thought up this "good" idea. I was slowing down already when I saw them. But it gets better. There was a school bus coming from up behind them doing about Mach 11 1/2. Safety first? The bus driver was probably related to one or both of these operators because he swerved out and ran me and Dave off into the soft (sand) shoulder as he went around idiots 1 and 2 and their stuck rig. My front wheel started to slide to the right and I felt the bike tipping to the left. Instinct took over, I kicked my left foot down and straightened up the big GS, and a crisis was avoided. I just shook my head as we went by. Further up the road we could see the marks from the load pushing the 4 wheeler down the hills, and the spin marks as they went up. I wonder at what point they finally discovered it was a bad idea. We took this as far north as Highway 89.
We headed up 89 back to Airport road and went north once more. There was one more road that I absolutely wanted to take, 20th sideroad of Mulmer Township which turns into River Rd. It winds it's way from Terra Nova through Kilgorie and ends up in Horning's Mills. It's 50-70km/h and full of nice twisties and little hills and valleys. A great bike road if I ever saw one! Hardly and traffic to slow us down, and only a few corners with gravel and sand. Easy to see as you come through the corners. On our first pass we kind of took it easy as neither of us had been on this road before. We stopped at the intersection in Horning's Mills and found that my GPS batteries were finally dead. I had planned on going up a little further north, through Dunedin and Glen Huron, and probably check out Creemore (where they make beer) and then head back. It was already starting to get later, and colder. We decided to do River Rd. again! The way back I pushed a little harder, and Dave followed right behind. It was great fun!
From here we pretty much took highway back home, stopping at my parent's place for coffee and to warm up a little. The rest of the ride home was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to be out for one last hurrah before the weather gets real cold and nasty. All in all, we were on the bikes for about 6 1/2 hours and almost 300km. We didn't do a whole lot of distance compared to most people, but a lot of it was on slower limit roads.
Dave and I got home and immediately started planning the next trip. If the weather isn't too horrible next weekend, we may tour up to Haliburton and back. It's about 8 hours of straight riding, and 600km. Could be fun! Anyone interested in coming along, let me know!
Oh, and just in case you guys want to see some of what southern Ontario has to offer, check out my little ride video. Friday night during the rain and after the carb sync on the GS, I made a little mount for my miniDV camera. The first version was a little too wobbly as you can see, but I've fixed it since then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrlbdRz_YiA
Well, with it being a long weekend, and lots of us Canucks celebrating the real Thanksgiving, Saturday was just too much of a beautiful day to waste working on the old house. I'd been planning on heading up a little further north this summer to see some of the fall colour. Toured up through my old stomping grounds, and then a little further.
It was 12 degrees C by about 10:30am on Saturday. My buddy Dave showed up on his Maxim 750 that he got this spring. His first year back on a bike since his CB360 high school days. He's a natural, and caught back on rather fast. I tried to get a few other folks interested, but without much notice, most other people were already committed elsewhere or afraid of the cold.
Since the day before was a cold, rainy Friday, things were still damp, and the ground was cold. Pavement was just starting to warm in the sun, so we had to watch the traction in the shaded areas. Dave locked up his back tire a few times.
First on the list was a tour through Guelph out to Belfountain. Belfountain is a quaint little tourist town that happens to be on one end of The Forks of the Credit road. It's a fairly windy and hilly road that follows the Credit river. Weekdays are fine, but weekends it's a zoo. Touristy types come up from the city to get some "country culture" and see the fall colours. I knew it would be like that already, but figured I'd show Dave a half decently windy road. We got there, began down the winding, hilly road to find a) slow tourist traffic, and b) the local HEAT around every corner. It was disappointing to be stuck behind gawkers that acted as if the edge of the world was just beyond the precipice of that next hill. Braking to about 10km/h, and then realizing that the world continues on as normal on the other side. Yes, annoying. Probably a good thing we couldn't get going a decent clip on that road though. It was mostly in the shade, still soaking wet, and had slick-as-snot-on-a-doorknob wet leaves everywhere.
Next we headed up Hwy 10 north to Caledon village, turned right on Charlston out to Airport Rd., and north through Mono Mills. We were headed for Hockley Valley road. It's a 70km/h road that a lot of bikers take for a little bit of higher speed twisties. But you gotta watch out for stupid hikers everywhere! It was nice and dry, and there were a few other bikers out there too. Some guy on what looked like a V-strom was in front of me doing the speed limit. He pulled over to the right side as if to let me pass, but I've known the HEAT to sit on this road too. Especially on a long weekend. We went until I figured out I'd missed my turn onto the 3rd line of Mono Township. We ended up just going into Orangeville for some lunch and a gas-up. We both had at least half a tank, but didn't want to take a chance heading too far north.
After lunch we went back down Hockley Valley road and turned north up 3rd line. It's a gravel road, but goes through some nice valleys with twisties. It was a little damp yet from all the rain, but Mono township has nice gravel. There was a lot of nice views on this road, and one Llama that Dave was sure was afraid of him. I don't know why, but for some reason it ran when he went by. A little later along, we came upon a relatively steep downhill section, the kind you need to be careful of on gravel on a bike. Some vehicles were stopped (actually, they were stuck) in the oncoming lane, which ended up being a couple of 4 wheelers, the first of which was pulling a tandem axle trailer with a freaking EXCAVATOR on it!!!!! There just wasn't enough traction in the rather massive 4 wheeler to pull this load up the hill. The bewildered looks on the drivers faces told me that they'd likely have an IQ of about 3 between them, and were likely drunk when the thought up this "good" idea. I was slowing down already when I saw them. But it gets better. There was a school bus coming from up behind them doing about Mach 11 1/2. Safety first? The bus driver was probably related to one or both of these operators because he swerved out and ran me and Dave off into the soft (sand) shoulder as he went around idiots 1 and 2 and their stuck rig. My front wheel started to slide to the right and I felt the bike tipping to the left. Instinct took over, I kicked my left foot down and straightened up the big GS, and a crisis was avoided. I just shook my head as we went by. Further up the road we could see the marks from the load pushing the 4 wheeler down the hills, and the spin marks as they went up. I wonder at what point they finally discovered it was a bad idea. We took this as far north as Highway 89.
We headed up 89 back to Airport road and went north once more. There was one more road that I absolutely wanted to take, 20th sideroad of Mulmer Township which turns into River Rd. It winds it's way from Terra Nova through Kilgorie and ends up in Horning's Mills. It's 50-70km/h and full of nice twisties and little hills and valleys. A great bike road if I ever saw one! Hardly and traffic to slow us down, and only a few corners with gravel and sand. Easy to see as you come through the corners. On our first pass we kind of took it easy as neither of us had been on this road before. We stopped at the intersection in Horning's Mills and found that my GPS batteries were finally dead. I had planned on going up a little further north, through Dunedin and Glen Huron, and probably check out Creemore (where they make beer) and then head back. It was already starting to get later, and colder. We decided to do River Rd. again! The way back I pushed a little harder, and Dave followed right behind. It was great fun!
From here we pretty much took highway back home, stopping at my parent's place for coffee and to warm up a little. The rest of the ride home was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to be out for one last hurrah before the weather gets real cold and nasty. All in all, we were on the bikes for about 6 1/2 hours and almost 300km. We didn't do a whole lot of distance compared to most people, but a lot of it was on slower limit roads.
Dave and I got home and immediately started planning the next trip. If the weather isn't too horrible next weekend, we may tour up to Haliburton and back. It's about 8 hours of straight riding, and 600km. Could be fun! Anyone interested in coming along, let me know!
Oh, and just in case you guys want to see some of what southern Ontario has to offer, check out my little ride video. Friday night during the rain and after the carb sync on the GS, I made a little mount for my miniDV camera. The first version was a little too wobbly as you can see, but I've fixed it since then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrlbdRz_YiA