Stops Along the Way tour

Today was another lovely fall day, better than the forecast (until the rains came about suppertime anyway). Instead of a bike ride though, we went for a loop drive in the surrounding countryside.

A neighbour had  given us a copy of one of those free tourist info handouts, this one with a Fall Colour Tour outlined. We've been on many if not most of the roads, but found an area we hadn't been so headed out that way, a bit northeast from Bayfield. If you'd like to see the drive and info, click on This Link to the StopsAlongTheWay web site. 

We hit highlights like Maitland Block, Little Lakes Road, River Line, Sharpes Creek Line. Quite a bit of gravel road but well graded. The scenery mostly speaks for itself:

Lots of corn harvesting today

 

One of the stops along the way is at Ball's Bridge on Little Lakes Road. Built in 1885 this bridge was a major crossing point of the Maitland River until 1989. It was rescued from demolition and reopened for light traffic in 2007.

A nice little picnic and selfie spot with a view of the bridge

Just northeast of Auburn we stumbled across a herd of longhorn cattle. Not Texas longhorns, but unusual these days around here:

 

I'd bet the local coyotes give this herd a wide berth.

Despite their fierce appearance they were quite wary of us, and soon moseyed over a nearby hill once I got out of the car. 

G2G Trail ride - Monkton to Milverton

Our starting point today

Today we headed to Monkton (Ontario) to ride our next section of the Goderich-To-Guelph multiuse trail (G2G link) to Milverton. This section is about 12 km one way, so about 25 return for us (a bit over 30 with the detour). It was a pretty fall day, kinda cool but we needed to take advantage of the day. The bike ride is also a good excuse for a drive in the country from Bayfield to Monkton. Lots of good colour today in places. 

 

Monkton has a grain-handling depot right in town, common for towns in this rural area. 

Grain gets pumped into the hoppers, and later transferred to large trucks

Today some corn was being deposited for later transfer

The Trail showed some fall colours, as well as views of surrounding countryside:

Little House on the Prairie

A Turkey Vulture checked us for signs of life. We're not ready yet guy!

 

 

 

Several fields had good-looking hay crops, much more luxuriant than we've been used to seeing when we lived in Grey County, especially for this time of year:

The last G2G sign before getting into Milverton, only 58 km to Guelph now. We'll not likely make it all the way this year:

 

Coming into Milverton we encountered a detour sign. We knew there was a detour here, but didn't realize it was 4 km to get around a bridge outage. That's the red V on the trail map shown earlier in this post:

After a bite of lunch and riding partway around the detour, we decided to turn back for the day. Because of the detour tour we had covered about 15 km so far today, and were ready to head back.
 

On the way back we met Doris, a solo rider also on her way to Monkton with her bike, loaded with camping gear:

Doris had left from Monkton yesterday and ridden the Trail easterly to West Montrose, home of a famed covered bridge, where she tent-camped for the night in some rain. That was about a 60 km day for her yesterday, and the same back from West Montrose today. Likely a bit further, since she says she kept getting lost on the detours.

Doris is an experienced cyclist, having often ridden 80-100 km in a day in bygone years, without camping gear. She said she doesn't do that now, as she's not 80 any more - Doris is 81 years young!

She did admit that she found the last mile back to Monkton pretty tough today, as a partial headwind had picked up.

 

Farmers were hard at work on the fields today:

Sprayer at work

Combining corn

End of the row

Heading back to dump the full hopper

 

Fall Colours around Bayfield

Well, summer seems to be over. Cooler weather now, and fall colours. Our favourite time of the year!

Walking down to the nearby Lake Huron shore for a pretty sunset:

Cathie soaking up the sunset

This past Friday we took a day trip north along Lake Huron to the small town of Lions Head, on the Bruce Peninsula. We expected to see more colour change up that way, since it is north of Bayfield, but not too much up that way yet, with a few exceptions. It was a beautiful day for a drive though.

Near Sauble Falls

 

Near Oliphant, the lake Huron levels are still high this year. In years gone by we could drive out on sandy shore here:

Ready for even higher water levels

Looking out into the Bay at Lions Head you can see the colour changes are coming, slowly so far:

Beautiful clear Bay waters

Closer to home, work on the Bayfield River bridge replacement on Hwy 21 is progressing. A lot of foundation work has been done, with more concrete to come:

Looking under the temporary bridge to the new base

Pretty views you'd get from a boat going under the bridge

Still lots of boats in the water at Bayfield Marina

It's getting pretty right here at Bayfield Mews Lane too:

View from our back patio

Nearby Paul Bunyon Rd

And of course the ever-changing views of the Bayfield River outlet from the Pioneer Park lookoff in Bayfield:

One tiny-looking sailboat out there

 

Bayfield Square park

Today we needed some veggies, so headed south to a farm market we go to, Masse's. It's not far from there we get our eggs, so we have an excuse for a country drive once in a while (like we need an excuse!):

Nice rural views along the way

The egg outlet