With weather and schedules being what they are, this won’t be a daily thing but today it’s two in a row!
Last night after writing the previous entry, I dove right back into Komoot and created a couple more extended bike commutes. While I intended to head out a bit early, entropy and laziness got to me and I actually got out about 30 minutes later than I wanted to. No matter, the route was ready to go.
After a couple of busy streets – only one with a bike lane – I was near my first target, a relatively nondescript suburban cul de sac. Once I captured that, it was off to the square next door, where there is a supportive housing and long term care housing complex. To minimize my time on a busy road and maximize my enjoyment, I found a back way in…
Though it’s only a short distance from home I didn’t know this was nearby. I turned left right at that branch so I didn’t explore it but it looks like it does go a couple hundred metres. Usually I take the parallel Finch Hydro Corridor which goes for a huge distance. Good to know about this one.
I was surprised to find the bike rack behind the care home to be filled with bikes. I wonder whose they are. Employees? Residents who are doing well? I zoomed through their parking lot to pick up a road for another hundred metres or so before turning literally on to “Road to Recovery”. You don’t believe me?
The building looks like something from an old movie, which makes sense as it was built in 1937.
Looking at the Wikipedia page, the St. John’s rehab hospital focuses on, of course, rehabilitation including Ontario’s only dedicated burn rehab and organ transplant rehab programs. Who knew this was just down the street.
Then it was time to head west toward work. About 8 km in (my usual route direct to work is about 6 km), I did a quick diversion to capture one square I missed in a previous run. This part of the route was, despite the very stiff headwind, a delight with the warm sun and cool autumn air.
I drove past my usual turn to get to work and down to the G. Ross Lord reservoir near Dufferin and Finch – the intersection of two very busy roads with lots of nearby commercial and industrial buildings. Even I thought that all the green space was in the park to the north but my route directed me down a previously unnoticed bit of single-track. Now my Surly is not bad on gravel with 35mm tires but the combination of gravel and rutted clay made it more technical than I would’ve liked.
It led me downhill until I got to the edge of the reservoir at which point it was just me and a whole lot of geese. I couldn’t see any of the roads or other humans. I really had no idea that this was here.
I found an even more technical trail – now with the occasional branch across the path – and took that back toward civilization, half riding, half walking through a small forest.
Eventually I came out in an out of the way utility area near a cemetery. Looking down at the map on my bike computer screen, I noticed that one name happened to be marked on the map: “Burial Location of Erkin Koray – Inventor of Anatolian Rock” right in this cemetery. I’m not sure where Garmin’s maps get their points of interest but I love random bits of info. I hadn’t heard of Anatolian rock before so I checked it out. It’s my kind of 70s music for sure:
The route led me down into the park I usually ride through on the way to work but I took a branch I don’t usually take and then it directed me down another bit of single track that soon went nearly vertical. Looking at the map, I wasn’t going to get this next square without going up the hill and so up I went, pushing the bike, loaded with my computer and lunch ahead of me.
And then it was a quick loop around and up the hill to work. In the neighbourhood near work I saw a sign I hadn’t seen before.
Now granted, it’s been about 20 years since I’ve been in the trick or treating loop. We have always lived in apartments where there is no trick or treating happening as well. Before that my own trick or treating ended in the early 1980s long before “accessible trick or treating” was even a fringe idea. I’m glad to see it.
In the end I only added 10 tiles but they were filling important gaps. Still many more to go even near home.
I had plans for another bunch of tiles on the way home but a rain squall came through and I bugged out on riding using the “might get wet” excuse. When I was nearly home I could see that while it was a pretty strong storm, there was unlikely to be any more rain.
Tomorrow is the day before a long weekend and so I’ll be working from home. No extended commute but if the weather’s good on Monday I’ll celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday by filling in a few more gaps. I wonder what new things I’ll see.
