We started our journey by leaving Richard's house and connecting with the local walking trail in his residential area, located behind the upper Canada mall between Yonge and Bathurst.
When we started out it was a bit busy, there were a lot of cars and people in the neighbourhood. This was a bit of a challenge for me because I had clipless road bike pedals and shoes. And as anyone knows who uses them, the reaction time is slower because you have to clip out of your pedals before stepping down. It can be a recipe for disaster if you are hit by someone who isn't paying attention to where they are going. For this reason I spent the first 30 minutes of our trip feeling extremely anxious as I was riding. Luckily Richard lead the way, giving me hand signals and making me aware of possible danger. This helped me extend my reaction time if necessary. Once we reached the main trail which was near the Tannery, I felt much more relaxed. This was because all we encountered from then on were other bikers and a few pedestrians, who were very respectful of our presence on the trail.
We choose to head north on the trail which ended up to be a really great idea. The scenery was beautiful. For example part of the trail followed the Holland River, in fact, this section was where I enjoyed my first mountain biking experience, as the trail gradually went from being paved to crushed gravel, to hard packed dirt and eventually a narrow dirt track. Even though it was rough and a bit technical in spots, it was well worth the effort.
I am really glad that Richard talked me into going biking after work on the Wednesday because it left me with a sense of hope. I couldn't imagine living in York Region and not having access to a good biking trail. I guess I am spoiled with where I live because there are all these interconnecting bike trails for serious bikers. And a serious biker can go a couple hundred km on these trails with almost no interruption caused by traffic. I will admit that I am not used to being a nervous biker, and until this experience I never saw a need to upgrade my comfort bike to a more sturdy trail bike with something other than road bike shoes to wear on my feet. A couple of days later I found myself in a bike store wondering if I should upgrade my bike to a more appropriate training bike. I am not sure yet if it is the right decision for me, but it did put the thought in my mind. I guess I have my friend Richard to thank for opening my eyes to a new bike experience! Thanks so much for sharing one of the best features of York Region to me, I look forward to biking again with you in the future.
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