Rando Rambles

Route / Event:   The Great Canada Bicycle Tour  / 600km Brevet [  Ride Log  ] Premise of the ride: The Great Canada Bicycle Tour was the brainchild of John Cumming, a fellow randonneur from the London area in Ontario. In his blog , posted in the spring of the year prior, John noted that 2023 would mark the 140th anniversary of a bicycle ride that took place in 1883, by 40 "practiced gentlemen" on their high-wheel bikes. These men were members of a cycling club from Chicago who devised a tour through south-western Ontario to demonstrate the effectiveness of the bicycle as a form of transportation used for long-distance purposes. In the pre-car era of the late 1800s, horse-drawn carriage would have been the only mode of transport used for such endeavors.  Using articles from the archives of The Wheelman magazine, written both before, and after the ride, John pieced together the route that these gentlemen rode, the result of which was a 600km point to point journey...

   Route / Event:   Karen's Challenge  / 400km Brevet [  Ride Log  ] Asleep(?) at the BMotel 3AM approx. Blenheim, Ontario Photo credit: Stanley Zhou I pulled into Tim and Brenda's place in Lasalle Ontario in the early evening. My gracious hosts had agreed to put me up for the night, given that our brevet the next day was departing at 5AM nearby.  Given that I lived two hours away by car this arrangement saved me getting up and leaving my place during the hour of the wolf . The ride would be a 400km loop from Essex out to Port Stanley on the north shore of Lake Erie, and back, and we'd have all of 27 hours to complete it in order to be credited completion. "Great news" said Brenda as I pulled my bike into their garage. "Tim's decided to ride with us tomorrow after all!".  "That's awesome!" I replied excitedly. It only took a few seconds though to realize that this otherwise exciting bit of news completely disrupted my packing strategy. ...