G2G Trail ride - Blyth to Walton

The Trail parking area in Blyth, on Hwy 4. Not too busy today.

Monday was a day of the kind we look forward to every year - a sunny cool fall day, just gorgeous. We headed out for another leg of the Goderich-to-Guelph multi-use trail (G2G). This leg runs from Blyth to Walton, an easy 12 km or so (about 25km round trip). 

Looking along the trail from the parking area, we see a large feed mill, a common sight around here in farm country:

Further along the trail we pass another large feed/seed operation:

Corn and soybeans are the predominant crops in many of the farms. Here's a corn field with little green left in the plants. Corn harvest will likely start soon:

In the background you can see lines in the field where new drainage tile is being installed in the field. It seems unusual to add drainage tile to a field with this much natural slope. Maybe it helps reduce erosion on the slope?

Along the way we saw some wildlife:

Unusual to see a raccoon out in the open this time of day

We passed another landmark today:

Only 100 more km to Guelph!

Soybeans are ready for harvest now:

The darker brown in the foreground is ready to harvest.

Combine at work, kicking up some dust

This outfit is waiting to collect beans from the combine, once the combine hopper is full.

I had a chat with this farmer. He commented on the dust from the combine, showing how dry things are. They aim to harvest beans at 14% moisture. They are coming in at 12% though, and he gets docked a bit for that. That surprised me, I thought a bit dryer than "normal" would be a good thing. Lots of surprises today.

The combine cuts very close to the ground.

Here's the combine finishing a row. The hopper on top is getting quite full:

After turning he starts another row. Once the combine straightens out, the pickup wagon is there to synchronize speeds for the unload. On-the-go, as the combine usually doesn't stop moving:

Several trail signs indicate gates must remain closed:

Open today though...

The last marker close to Walton says Guelph is "only" 92 km away now. See how excited Cathie is at the thought :))

We won't be getting to Guelph today, for sure. Even though it was the easiest stretch we've ridden on this trail, with a good surface and no missing bridges etc, we were both under the weather a bit and it was a tiring ride. Something we ate the day before we think. No, not Corona symptoms!

Today's ride, in red: