Cool! I love your blog spot, Tri Girl. The snow looks so beautiful. I have been in South Florida for 4 years now, and don't think I can do the snow and cold anymore.
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Cool! I love your blog spot, Tri Girl. The snow looks so beautiful. I have been in South Florida for 4 years now, and don't think I can do the snow and cold anymore.
I have cycled the whole Underground RR route and it is awesome!! You will love the section you are planning to do! The bike trail is 55 miles from Milford to the North...and just beautiful riding. Have fun!! The lady that Donna322 was talking about (70 yr. old who rode cross country alone) was on the trip with me on the Underground RR in 2008!
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/2...groundRailroad
Biketouringrook, it is recommended if you do southern Ontario portion of the Underground Railroad, to do it in summer or before November.Quote:
Originally Posted by Biketouringrook
I am familiar with this area..one of my closest friends..lives in the same town as the historic site for "Uncle Tom's cabin", the home of Josiah Henson. It is in the town of Dresden, Ontario. Which Harriet Stowe based her book on. Yes, the site gets busloads of visitors annually from all over Canada and U.S. It is really a piece of Canadian black history that is incredible.
I have visited/toured and stayed with my friend several times over the last 2 decades. Most recently, last summer. :)
SHe and I went to some other Afro-Canadian museums related to the whole area and Underground Railroad. About 30 kms. away from Dresden or less, is North America's oldest /first schoolhouse for children of freed black slaves. (early 1800's) It is now a historic site. We were given a tour by the site curator who is a great-great grandson of a pioneer black schoolteacher in the area.
My friend, who is high school teacher ,and I were impressed by the museum's sophisticated curriculum they have devised to teach kids in the region, on life as a Afro-Canadian child during that era --the kids actually take upon the role of a black child of a long-gone class featured in an archival class photo, and the present-day schoolkid is requested to research life about of that child. A real lesson that integrates history, geography, sociology, etc. The children spend several days based out of the historic school site so they can get immersed.
There are 2 different museums on Underground RR in that area in addition to the Josiah Henson's site.
http://www.uncletomscabin.org/
http://buxtonmuseum.com/
http://ckblackhistoricalsociety.org/
The area tends to be flat for cycling. :) And it is Central-Eastern Canada's tomato region..lots of tomatoes are grown in the region.
Oh, wow.....I am just so overly excited! Thanks for the wealth of information. I would rather do the last portion of the "Underground Railroad" during the summer season. Are the summers in that particular area dry? Here in South Florida summer is the start of hurricane season, and I am so deathly afraid of "thunder and lightning." I'd rather deal with the cold, than to deal with the thunder and lightning.
That area of southern Ontario rarely experiences hurricanes. The summers in that area (like any TE forum member from the Toronto area can tell you....which is over 300 kms. northeast of Dresden) can be humid with temp. 80-90 degrees F., particularily in July and August. Area can get thunder and rain.
Dresden sits in an agricultural, flattish area. (but it's not like the prairies). I did mention briefly about this area with photos at TE last year: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=33843
I have not yet bike toured in Dresden, but used to live, work and bike in Toronto area for 14 yrs. We did several different self-supported bike trips involving camping elsewhere in southern Ontario.
One of the links I gave above, refers to the Black Mecca --it was a small town of blacks at that time, that became literary-arts oriented with a high level of literacy among the blacks.
President Abraham Lincoln sent one of his officials to visit this community in Ontario, to see what lessons/insight could be gained for some blacks after the Civil War. As I mentioned in the older link here, Fredrick Douglass, a prominent black activist of that era, dropped by this area and was impressed / amazed.
Biketouringrook-...I only live a 1/2 hour away from Dresden and Uncle Tom's Cabin. In fact, I was the gardener for that property for several years when it was part of the St. Clair Parks Commission.
If I can be of any assistance to you for information about this area beforehand or help you in any way when you get here, please feel free to shoot me a PM!
Wow, what a tiny world! You might actually know my good friend. She's lived there for past few decades. I am sOOOOO curious...now. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by footloose
Whatever you do footloose, please, please support more efforts on cycling infrastructure there..ie. bike paths, bike lanes. The area does have potential. I realize those agricultural vehicles pose a challenge....
And I wish I could have bought a ton of butternut squash from your area. So cheap and fresh. It's expensive in Toronto, Vancouver, etc.
All my riding is done on the secondary, rural roads in this area. It mostly is pretty flat with some pretty mild hills in places. I throw my bike on the rack and drive to places that have hills just for the variety. There is not a lot in the way of "trails" or "lanes" but traffic is pretty light and I've never had any problems. It is pleasant riding with tidy farms and pastures to look at and a lot of crop land.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by shootingstar
I'll MAIL you oodles of squash! haha It's sold by the wagonfull at the ends of farm driveways all over the county in the fall! I wish I could figure out how to post photos on this site...I have photos of the cutest farm done up with squash and pumpkin people all over the yard. And another of a "pumpkin people" zydeco band that is just hilarious!
Footloose, thank you very much for the offer. I'm sure as I near that time I will have many, many questions and will surely contact you.
Okay guys, I take off in 4 more days. Here's a picture of my new set up. I will provide details upon my return. Happy cycle touring to you all!
So it looks like little yellow duckie is going along for the adventure ride too! :)
I wish you a most memorable and safe journey. Remember to drop by any public library in North America to check into TE forums here about your ride.
We are here to learn, advise and cheer you on, Biketouringrook!
I can't wait to hear ALL about your journey!!! Please update as often as you can. I'll be living vicariously through your adventure (so have a little extra adventure for me, too, please). ;)
Safe travels, happy miles, and blessings on your trip!
Have a wonderful and safe trip. I look forward to hearing about your trip! Stop and smell the roses!
Oh God!!!!!This is so hard! The waether is very nice, but the wind and the hills are not so kind. Yesterday was my worse cycling day ever. I don't consider myself to be a weak person, but yesterday I PUSHED my bike up some of the most impossible hills. I have never seen hills so steep. The first two days were a blissful ride of 100 miles of bike trails. I had to find an emergency hotel because I went two miles out of the way to a campsite that was not a campsite. I was so tired. Today I have renewed energy and will continue on. I am told by the hoterl desk clerk to expect some of the same hills as yesterday.
Along other lines, the people that I have are so very nice and enjoyable to talk with. I have my people from all parts of life. I only have 11 more days to go. Oh boy! will write more later when I find another computer.
There's no shame in walking if the hills are too hard. I see you are from South Florida...no matter how strong you are, if you can't practice riding hills, they will be difficult. Put it in a low gear and enjoy the scenery as it slowly passes by.
Excellent Biketouringrook! Let us know your mileage in your next message to us --include the distance that you walked with bike up the hill. It still requires physical effort just to push the bike with weight upward.
So you will be done in 11 days? Thought you were planning to go up to the Canada-U.S. border.
Maybe you're superwoman. :D Or at least, you'll feel like it soon!
What's wrong with walking a few hills, I'd like to know? Really, you and your bike made it up and over the problem hills under your own steam - you just chose a more, um, convienent method. (At least that's what I told myself on tour)
You could also think of it as cross-training. :)
Keep it up, m'girl. All forward motion is good. Take pictures, and don't forget to blog.
Glad you're having a lot of fun. There's NO shame in walking a hill- or crawling a hill- or stop and take a nap halfway up because you're so dead tired. :p
I'm so thrilled that you're having fun!!! Can't wait to hear from you again.
Thank you all so much! I was somewhat discouraged on that last message.
But now, this is it......I moving to Ohio! I love this place. I can hardly believe how nice and approachable the people are, even the teenagers. I am now on my back back. I didn't make it to Erie, PA. I stopped at Oberlin. I stayed one full day in Oberlin for picture taking, rest, and other stuff. On the morning of my leaving Oberlin to head for PA, the weather was really cold and it began raining little dropplets of ice (hail?). It kind of scared me and thought I should no head there.
Oberlin is so, so beautiful and peaceful. I love that place! no one is in a rush.
oh, oh, oh...let me tell ya....I got lost so many times. After I made my peace with the "hill gods" there was always someone around the corner to help me out. Boy, do I have some funny stories. I ran across one guy three times in my getting lost. He thought is was so funny. He gave me directions, and I still went the wrong way. So he decided to guide me through by driving ahead and parking his truck where I should turn (didn't I tell y'all these people were nice). Another guy passed me, went to his home, came back to find me and gave me some electrolite drink packages.
Now, here I am back at the hotel where I first took refuge fromi all of my discouragement from getting lost and overwhelmed by those darn hills. This time it is not my poor navigational skills that brought me here. I was actually 10 miles from my soon to be campsite, when I stopped at a dairy bar to get something to eat. While standing there a woman approached me and we talked about cycle touring and what I was doing. She said her husband is into cycle touring and is headed for the second time on some Smokey Mountain cycle tour. She then said "I hope your not planning to camp at Kokosing campground?" Of course I was...her next words were "they are no longer open." Just my luck! There were not hotels, motels, or other campgrounds close around, so I had to go back to a place that I remember (Comfort Inn) a distance of 12 miles away.
I love cycling in the cold. You may have a constant runny nose, but your water will stay cold, and you won't overheat. Last night was really cold. The RV'ers were worried about me. One guy offered me a small heater (Now where I am gonna put a heater in a tent). I put my tent up, set every thing inside, took a shower, ate something, climb into my nice 15 degree sleeping back and after about 30 minutes, I began to worry. It seemed that my feet were getting colder. I said to myself "okay rookie, this is some serious cold, this is not that Florida stuff, you don't want to freeze here and you don't have a car." I reached in my bag, pulled out my shoe covers for cold ridding and placed them on my feet. NOthing was happening. So I took my cycling tights placed my feet inside of the tights and after about 20 minutes I began to warm up. After about an hour it got kinda hot in the sleeping bag, but I remained.
Gosh, I love this stuff! If the slaves actually traveled this rounted they have every ounce of my respect. I was having a difficult time traveling 400 miles one way on bike, when they walked over 3000 miles. Those cars will spoil you.....
Well, this is it for now, I look so forward to picking up the bike trail again.
I forgot this part......I'm at just a little over 400 miles, 17,150 calories burned, and about 100 miles of bike pushing hills. I think today I pushed up 5 hills. I don't think my legs work anymore....Also I have some chaffing, in spite of my chamois cream use. But it does not bother me, because I seem to do more walking than ridding.
As in the movie "Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything!"
Yay- glad to read a more upbeat tone in your post. :)
Some days are good, some not so much, huh? Sounds like you're really enjoying yourself and all the crazy adventures you're having. I've never been to Oberlin, OH- sounds like someplace I may have to visit some day.
Have fun, enjoy yourself, and check back in often. :D
And mind-boggling that the slaves were travelling under cover, the whole distance to freedom. Their meals on the run, couldn't have been ...as much as ours..at Burger King, etc. :oQuote:
Originally Posted by Biketouringrook
I found that the hardest part when we went bike touring on our own, was backtracking with load on my bike if we got lost. AND after reaching motel or campsite, for some areas, cycling another 10 kms. or so, for dinner/groceries...after cycling 80-100 kms. with weight during the day.
So you haven't encountered any car drivers who will tell you: "Oh, it's just half hr. around the bend ahead". Yea, right..half an hr. by car. It ends up 1.5-2 hrs. by bike. :rolleyes:
How many photos have you taken so far?? :D Isn't it so lovely to encounter a chain hotel at times. It nearly seems like a mansion after a long, loaded bike ride.
Hip, hip, hooray! I did it! I'm back in Milford relaxing in a nice hotel room. I may be tired, I may be sweaty, I may be a bit salty and I may be smelly, but rest assured, "I did it!" Everything went so perfectly, just like child birth. Hum.......I just may do this again............More later.
Ok --after figuring out this trip so far...so how was Pennsylvania which was your end destination this trip?
Good weather? Sleep well for now. You deserve it! :)
Okay, I'm home now. I will edit my photos and place them on my Facebook and send you all the information.
I must tell you all this...... I am so grateful for the people that I met on this tour, even if only for a few minutes of conversation.
There was one particular guy that I met within the first few miles at the start of my tour as I stopped for a restroom break. He was also cycling. He stopped to talk with me about my tour, provided me with his phone number and said that I should call him if I needed anything. When I returned to Milford a couple of weeks later, I called and left a message thanking him for being so nice. He returned my call and invited me out for breakfast before I left. I couldn't go out because I only have cycling clothes and no regular dress clothes. So, instead, he brought me a big breakfast to the hotel, and we sat in the dinning area and ate breakfast together.
This is another example of the nice people that I met on my tour.
Glad you're back home safe and sound. What a great guy! I'm always on the skeptical side when it comes to strangers, so I'm not sure that if I took a tour all alone I would venture out and talk to many people.
I haven't done any overnight solo bike tours myself yet. But based on what I hear from others, sometimes people are curious about solo cycling tourers.
One woman I know when she was solo bike touring in Ireland, whenever she asked where she was going while she was cycling/temporarily stopping, she occasionally told the person her boyfriend was just ahead of her. She assessed each situation.
Twice when I was bike touring in Nova Scotia out in the countryside with dearie, 2 different female car drivers stopped along the way to ask if I was in "trouble" or if I was ok.
I was. I just stopped for a breather. Dearie was 2-3 kms. ahead of me. :p
It was kind of each woman driver.
Glad you are back. This has been my favorite thread on the forum. I would love to do a solo tour one day. Looking forward to the pictures. Sounds like it was a great trip for you.
So glad you're back and enjoyed yourself so thoroughly! You experienced the same kind of treatment from people that I have while motorcycling all over North America. People are wonderful!
Now make sure you contact me when you plan your Ontario portion of the trip. As Shootingstar mentioned, summers here can be quite warm and humid but for someone from Florida shouldn't be a problem. We don't get hurricanes but we get afternoon thunderstorms sometimes and the odd tornado. But it's flat here and you can see them coming....:rolleyes::D There's also lots of perfectly normal, mild days. :)
I'll assist you any way I can and maybe I'll even get to ride with you for a bit.:)
Anne-Marie (wyndyacre at yahoo.ca)
Before you freak out bikingtourook, southwestern Ontario's tornadoes are VERY rare.Quote:
Originally Posted by footloose
Wow, you're my hero. Thank you for keeping us up to date!
Yes, that's true!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by shootingstar
Thanks for the info on thunderstorms....because I will absolutely "freak out" at he hint of one. I pushed almost 70 miles back to Milford because I was told that a storm was expected later in the evening. It did rain, but no fireworks.
Here are just a few photos from my tour.
I guess one or some did not take....Let's try this
I can see it already..when you get to footloose's area, you will want to spend at least 2 days there, if time is spent talking with the guide/curator at each site. There will be 3 different sites for you to see in that area...which we saw last summer.
I understand that at the Buxton site there is some sort of annual event..during the summer which footloose may know more about.
Hi, other photos have been posted. You can find them on Facebook under "Lynnteer Bennett." Hope you all will enjoy them.
I happened to be working in the area of Uncle Tom's Cabin today so stopped around at the museum on my lunch break. It's not officially open for the season yet (opens on the Canadian Victoria Day long weekend in May) but I was pretty sure Steve and Brenda would be there, getting things ready and they were. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by shootingstar
The website isn't updated with this information yet but I found out that their Emancipation Day celebration is July 31st this year. Just so you're aware...that is a long weekend in Ontario with the civic holiday of August 1st.
The Buxton National Historic Site has a Homecoming Weekend celebration but that is held on the Labour Day weekend in Sept.
Have you decided on a date yet for the rest of your trip?
Thanks Footloose for the information. I don't htink it will be this summer. I'm looking more towards this same time next year.
You know, I am so whipped and so tired to the point that I should not want to see a bike any time soon. but I can't seem to stay off of that darn "crazy guy on a bike" touring site. I look at that site and I'm ready to go again, as if I don't know what's already out there waiting...........That's the fever
I just found this thread, lo these months later. Thanks for sharing your journey with us and looking forward to hearing about your travels next time :)
Hi,
I've just found your forum and wanted to introduce myself.
I had 2 wheels attached to my body over 45 years ago, and will have to have them surgically removed before I am finally put in my box.
It seems that my "normal" way of life has recently developed into a minority sport called "touring". And it seems from the internet that the boys have muscled in on the action to make it their own!
So it was nice to find a womens forum.
As child, the bike was the main way we all moved around - going to the shops; playing sport; heading off for long summer picnics and generally exploring.
As a teenager, it gave great freedom to avoid being reliant on bus timetables and making it in time to catch the last bus home.
In my twenties, in combination with a tent, it was a passport to free holidays & long weekends - and free everyday transport.
In my thirties & forties it was the only way (other than shanks mare) into town.
And now it is time to hit the road for the big trip...the one I dreamed of as a child...the one I would do when I "grew up". Europe, Arabia, India, Africa...
And despite occasional forays into sharing travelling space with others, I still prefer going solo, avoiding campsites where possible & slinging the tent over a wall in a field, or in woods or a quiet beach and watching the sun set over the Atlantic.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that there is no such thing as bad weather...just bard clothing and have cycled & camped all year round.
For the last 25 years, I have been accompanied by my trusty 27" wheeled Peugeot, but the time has come to choose a new travelling partner. But the boys have cornered the market with their high crossbars (which are alien to me for the last 25 years, and something which I am not sure I want to spent the next 25 years of my life attached to). I want a new steel touring bike - 26" inch wheels - drop handlebars - metal mudguards - dynamo lighting - front and rear racks - and zillions of low gears (age and hill gradient seem to have proportional links).
I'm not a bike techie - can mend a puncture and do minor maintainence, but the boys sites are generally extremely techie minded. Being female, I want something efficient, solid, reliable...and preferably black.
So I'm interested on how other women have managed to find something similar.
It's a bank holiday weekend here and a major race festival all week so I'm heading off now for a few days, to get away from the craziness of the traffic, despite grey skies and rain on the wind.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and recommendations on touring bikes...