OK, just a glimpse of the Trent Canal system, from Peterborough to Lakefield, 13.2 km, and an exploration of another trail, but surely one of the 'nicest' 13.2 km of Canadian bike trails. And mostly disregarding the actual trail. Better than a beeline through bush -- you can use the pokey highway #32 that hugs the canal, slow and windy. Hardly a car in sight. 

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts. No!

Well then, don your bicycle helmet. No! Drivers actually pay less attention to you if they see a helmet, figuring they're not likely to kill a smarty-pants, and are less careful around you (2x as likely to pass close). A toque or baseball cap in case of rain is more practical.

Walberg's bike adventures in and around Toronto (ok, walking around Gaspe and some religion too)

Trent Canal by bike 10 July 2025

Peterborough-Oshawa-Toronto by bike 14 July 2024

Biking the Grand: Reinventing tourism 06 July 2023

Shakespeare by bike 25 June 2022

If you need a reminder that there is a higher order watching over us (NOT our profane version of moneyless fusion of people under Big Brother), put yourself in danger. I mean to the edge of things. That alone should be enough - if you survive. But if you are blessed with unexpected rescue, bringing you back from the edge, that is even better. I had two such moments in this, my latest ambitious attempt to extend the bounds of Toronto cycle pleasure to the edge of the world. I.e., what's doable by bike ALONE (OK, public transit too), but sans the killer car. You'll have to read to find my epiphanies, but they were/are truly divine. No other explanation.

Trying to have a good time without a car is challenging. There are lots of scenic bits in Ontario, in Canada for that matter, but the bike magazines just assume you have a car with bike racks and plan to drive 'there', park and bike. Sorry, but you're still part of the problem. And you should be going somewhere, like Amundsen. You can be the first cyclist to reach the South Pole only in your dreams, but you can find Everests, what's doable and a challenge, wherever you are. We have to reinvent tourism if we are to survive.

GO trains have been a godsend. When they added Kitchener (Berlin till 1914*), armed with my faux sleeping bag, I planned my next adventure: Berlin Paris Brantford Hamilton. Europe, colonialism all wrapped up together. Kitchener/Berlin was newly discovered land for Eric Cyclist, and biking from Berlin to Paris? Cool.