quick observations

I just finished a 200km hike over 7 days, here are some of my observations from that.  Most of it was on (the Bruce) trails, but every day there ended up being 3-4km of walking alongside a road.

• hiking makes for sore feet, especially 75-80 h of it
• 5 cars honked/ cheered me on
• One of those was a convertible Lambo and the driver through in a few engine revs
• Zero cars tried hitting me/ were threatening
• I saw one trail runner and he was cheerful and chatty
• 3 triathletes refused to acknowledge me (2 running one on bike)
• all groups of cyclists said hello (I kinda thought it would have been the opposite)
• from the distant top of the escarpment, all weekend long I could hear the endless noise polluting drone of lawn mowers.
• There are Countless beautiful waterfalls in Ontario

I had to hitch hike to a friends, and it was 4 cars before I got a ride (thanks Tom and Noah)

It took me 5h to bike back from there to my car in St. Catherines.

• 2 cars come within inches of hitting me
• One 18 wheeler which forced me onto the gravel
• 2 other cars which ignored my right of way in an intersection and drove at me forcing me to brake.
• 90 minutes were on very quiet side roads
• so once every 42 minutes a driver toyed with my life, ain’t southern Ontario
• though some roads were busy,

7 day hike = 5h bike = 1h45 drive.

• Though that’s somewhat skewed, because I carried a 40-50 lb pack on the hike
• I was able to cover the same distance in a day riding and did not need a pack.
• The return drive was 1h45 min
• Hiking food was mainly couscous, almonds, oatmeal = $45
• ride food was bananas & snickers $4.50
• 1/3 tank of gas $15

Verdict,

Driving is expensive, and makes you want to mow down fun loving cyclists.

Adam, our thoughts are with your family

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/cyclist-found-dead-in-ditch-in-hit-and-run/article1576917/

Ontario legislation has the option to allow cyclists to have better road rights and protection.  Send your local MPP a note telling him that you vote, ride a bike and value your safety.

http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/2010/05/ontarios-threefoot-passing-law-needs-your-support.html

there are several republican US states which have passed these laws, and they work.  If they can pass them we can too, but as cyclists we need to be the squeaky chain and put up a fuss for our safety.

2 Comments

Leave a Comment

Username (required) :
Email (required) :
Web Site :
Comment :