A lift down to Bowmanville today provided me with the chance not only to be able to pick up a new bottling spigot at The Brewer’s Pantry in time to bottle the Saison that’s been percolating away through this heat wave, but also to ride back along the western section of the route to check current conditions...
Things of note:
1/ Regional #20 between Liberty St. N and Darlington-Manvers Townline is in the process of being widened to 4 lanes. In the long run this will benefit cyclists, making this busy section of the route less stressful, seeing as how mid-day, mid-week traffic along 20 now seems to include far more big trucks than was the case when last ridden. For the time being, however, it’s all been torn up and the existing asphalt has been ground off. Rideable with care, but blah.
2/ Due to the above, I was fed up with 20 by the time I reached D-M Townline and took the alternate route north and across Drum. D-M T is a nice little road, and Drum seems to have escaped the depredations of the gravel gremlins and is smooth packed dirt with only minor amounts of fine gravel. Highly recommended.
3/ F-150s continue to be a clear and present menace to all road users. Which begs the question, do jerks choose these trucks or does owning one of them turn a person into a jerk? I apologize to the non-jerk F-150 owners out there, all 4 of you, but your fellow truck owners are really crapping things up for the rest of us.
4/ I left the unofficial route at Hwy 115 and headed north up Glamorgan Rd to Fallis Line. Glamorgan (is it prounounced Gla-Morgan or Glamor-Gan? Inquiring minds want to know) is also a dirt road in excellent, recommended shape.
5/ Instead of the more traditional Tapley 1/4 Line/Syers Line route I stayed on Tapley all the way to the top and rode across Morton Line. Morton is unpaved for 1.25 km of climbing and this road HAS been butchered by the gremlins. Nasty. As much as this is a nicer route than the traditional one, I’m going to avoid it until next year. Lets hope a winter’s wear improves conditions.
6/ In keeping with the theme of doing non-standard things I then continued straight across Regional 10 on Morton out to Hwy. 7. While lovely, almost no one knows about this section of Morton since accessing it means riding a bit over 1 km on 7, which horrifies most people. To me, 7 seems no worse and indeed much better, than many other roads I've ridden.
Here’s today’s route:
1/ Regional #20 between Liberty St. N and Darlington-Manvers Townline is in the process of being widened to 4 lanes. In the long run this will benefit cyclists, making this busy section of the route less stressful, seeing as how mid-day, mid-week traffic along 20 now seems to include far more big trucks than was the case when last ridden. For the time being, however, it’s all been torn up and the existing asphalt has been ground off. Rideable with care, but blah.
2/ Due to the above, I was fed up with 20 by the time I reached D-M Townline and took the alternate route north and across Drum. D-M T is a nice little road, and Drum seems to have escaped the depredations of the gravel gremlins and is smooth packed dirt with only minor amounts of fine gravel. Highly recommended.
3/ F-150s continue to be a clear and present menace to all road users. Which begs the question, do jerks choose these trucks or does owning one of them turn a person into a jerk? I apologize to the non-jerk F-150 owners out there, all 4 of you, but your fellow truck owners are really crapping things up for the rest of us.
4/ I left the unofficial route at Hwy 115 and headed north up Glamorgan Rd to Fallis Line. Glamorgan (is it prounounced Gla-Morgan or Glamor-Gan? Inquiring minds want to know) is also a dirt road in excellent, recommended shape.
5/ Instead of the more traditional Tapley 1/4 Line/Syers Line route I stayed on Tapley all the way to the top and rode across Morton Line. Morton is unpaved for 1.25 km of climbing and this road HAS been butchered by the gremlins. Nasty. As much as this is a nicer route than the traditional one, I’m going to avoid it until next year. Lets hope a winter’s wear improves conditions.
6/ In keeping with the theme of doing non-standard things I then continued straight across Regional 10 on Morton out to Hwy. 7. While lovely, almost no one knows about this section of Morton since accessing it means riding a bit over 1 km on 7, which horrifies most people. To me, 7 seems no worse and indeed much better, than many other roads I've ridden.
Here’s today’s route: