Thursday, September 3, 2009

Day 59 Craigleith Provincial Park to Barrie, ON Wednesday September 2, 2009



Day 59 Craigleith Provincial Park to Barrie, ON
Wednesday September 2, 2009
49 Miles
2801 total miles

Instead of taking a complete rest day in one place, I decided to take 2 easier riding days with some leisure time mixed in. I rode the easy grade along the Georgian Trail to Collingwood where I had a little maintenance done on my bike at Little Ed's bike shop. From there I rode to Wasaga Beach, Ontario's Gold Coast, where I spent a couple of hours on the beach at what is claimed to be the world's longest fresh-water beach at 14km long. This is a very touristed area, with lots of summer cottages as well as day visitors-- about a 2 hour drive from Toronto. I enjoyed the time on the beach and avoided visiting any of the tourist trap shops, then rode my way out of town in the direction of Barrie, or at least so I thought! I took route 92 out of Wasaga Beach, but missed my turn-off so ended up probably 20 km off of my planned route which delayed me in arriving at my destination, warm showers host, William Sulivan's home. After cleaning up, William, who is a cooking instructor for the Canadian military, suggested we go out to dinner and we spent some time looking around in downtown Barrie for something suitable. We ended up at Manhattan's which served up a very respectable pasta dish, although the total ticket was a little pricey. I saw a little more of Barrie this morning as I retraced some of the previous night's steps down to the waterfront of Lake Simcoe and Kempenfelt Bay. The people of Barrie have a beautiful town with parks, marinas , sculptures and bike paths all along the waterfront. William told me the night before that many people who live here commute the hour + into Toronto every day and enjoy living here due to it's lower congestion and amenities, such as the lake. If I were a Canadian, Barrie would be on my list of places worth living!

1 comment:

  1. Salut Lee,
    Est-ce que tu viens à Montréal? Si tu as besoin d'un bon lit, un repas délicieux et une baignade dans notre piscine chauffée, tu es le bienvenue! Call us! We will be at Howard Pond for the labor day weekend. The blog is very interesting.... but my walks and swimmig is enough for me!

    Daphne

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