Monday, March 19, 2007

Time To Hit The Trails!


Bike riding has always been one of my favourite pastimes. It gives me the opportunity to clear my head, lower my blood pressure and escape from everyone for a few hours. We all need our time of isolation.

Now that the spring and summer months are almost upon us, my mountain bike is ready and my body is raring to go. All I need to do now is to reset my odometer back to 0000.00 in order to track how many kilometres I cover in the next eight or more months.

There is one problem however… Every spring as I plan to reset my odometer, I have to refer to the manual in order to figure out how to do it. You would think that by now, I would have been able to do that off by heart but I cannot. Not only that, one would think that since I have to refer to the manual on a yearly basis, I would keep that manual in a place that I could refer to it when needed but do I do that??? Oh no…. I have to be disorganized and thereby have to look for it every year. I have yet to find it this year. Surprise! Surprise!

So... My bike is ready and once I find the odometer manual, that will be ready as well.

In Ontario, we have what we call “rail trails.” These trails were once inhabited by railway tracks that snaked throughout Ontario but since air and road transportation are much cheaper and efficient than rail; many of these rails have been abandoned and later turned over to communities to be converted into trails for walking, hiking, biking and horse riding.

The particular trail that I ride on is a twenty kilometre trail that runs along a large river and cuts through a number of wooded areas. Over the years and on occasion, I have had the opportunity to ride with a friend of mine who finds the rides down these trails just as rewarding. Most of the time, I simply ride by myself.

So… The time has come and the weather is just about here and once everything falls into place, I will be in my element. Now all I have to do is locate that darned manual!

8 comments:

Becky Wolfe said...

Yippee! My fave time of year is beginning here as well. Just itching to lace up my hiking boots.

We have a couple 'rail trails' in the Okanagan also. Perfect for biking & easy hiking. I'm not much of a biker though but I like zipping around my yard on my bike.

Hope you find your manual so you can go-go-go!!! I feel your excitement!

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Canada's such a great place for cycling. I wish I was there. Have fun.

Marie-Hélène Raletz said...

Just write down the current figure, and make a substraction :)

Jazz said...

Yay! I'm not the only one who loses stuff I refer to regularly... My theory is that I actually do put it in the right place, but it runs off and hides just to annoy me.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Janice Thomson said...

I miss biking dreadfully...think of me wherever you go will ya! I'm not allowed at the moment til they get the old BP under tabs...and take pics too please LOL

Cheryl said...

We have the same kind of trails here, which is great. And I know what you mean about needing those manuals.

CS said...

We have a rails to trails program here, too. There's a great one ust over the state line in Virginia called the Virginia Creeper Trail that I've taken my bike to a couple of times. I wish I could go more often.

CS said...

We have a rails to trails program here, too. There's a great one ust over the state line in Virginia called the Virginia Creeper Trail that I've taken my bike to a couple of times. I wish I could go more often.