Friday, September 25, 2020

G2G Trail ride - Walton to Monkton

Some colour along the Trail

The next leg on the G2G Trail (G2G) for us was the 20 km from Walton to Monkton. This would be a 40 km trip for us, since we need to ride back to the car park from as far as we ride. We both felt good today though, and it was another gorgeous fall day, so we gave it a try.

The parking area in Walton was busier than we're used to, I guess because it was Friday:


Another of those large grain elevators, in Walton

 
The trail initially goes by another public trails area, adjoining an old gravel pit:




A lot of the trail was shaded by narrow bands of mixed bush, and generally well-surfaced. It's lovely not having to deal with car and truck traffic:



A nice rest area about halfway along

There are many views out into nearby farmland:

The corn's as high as an elephant's eye

A nicely-done newer barn

Harvested soybean fields on both sides here

The reddish pile is seed (winter wheat?) planted on harvested soybean field to the right

More colour by the Trail

Winter cover crop growing already

From Monkton, only 71 more kms to Guelph:


The Trail stop in Monkton is at the town Community Center area. At a welcome covered  picnic area there (also welcome were the open washrooms), we encountered a couple of interesting people:


To put our grueling-to-us trip today in perspective, meet Daley and Andrea. They had set out from Guelph today about 7 am, and were stopped here in Monkton for lunch, about 12:30. That was about 70 kms so far, and they were on their way to the Goderich end of the trail this afternoon, that's another 60 km or so. After meeting up with their respective spouses, they were all heading for a stay in Bayfield at an Air B&B. And they're still smiling...!

Andrea had done the same trip 2 weeks ago with her best friend, Daley's wife. No motors on their bikes.

With the Trail being run on an old defunct rail line, some of the trees at the sides of the Trail have been there a long time. We passed several apple trees along the way, likely some heritage varieties here:


A nearby soybean field harvest was underway, wasting no time with 2 large combines mowing down the beans and kicking up the dust:


Most farms don't make it easy to step off the trail and intrude on their farmyards etc. One place was an exception, even decorating for us transients:




The ride back to the car was pretty tough for us, with a bit of headwind kicking up, and the temperature getting up to 25C. I must admit we used the electric assist on the bikes more than usual on the return trip. Really glad to have had that option today!


Today's ride, in red:


4 comments:

  1. Another great ride!!!this fall weather gets better and better!!
    Great Pics along the😁 way!!
    Nice to meet up with other riders!! Interesting day!!

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  2. You just get more ambitious all the time!

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  3. Heading west on the Blyth highway between Monkton and Walton Saturday I was thinking about you guys bicycling along the trail. I'm guessing the trail runs on the north side of the highway maybe a mile or less north of the highway. That's the kind of exercise I should be getting,

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    1. Yes you're right. Once the trail leaves Goderich and crosses the highway, it pretty much parallels Blyth rd until Monkton. If the forecast is right we won't be continuing on this week.

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