Day 3: Campbellford to Silver Lake

It was another big day on rec trails. Started with a suspension bridge very close to where I camped last night.

As expected, the first 50 or so kilometers of trail were pretty sandy and bumpy. Not quite washboard, but enough to keep you bopping. It was pretty slow rolling.

Stirling was the first stop. Cute little town with a decent coffee shop and a covered bridge across the street where I ate my food. In a rare food related miss, I don’t think I chose well. The sandwich was bacon, cheese and (too much) apple, and the pastry filled with (not sweet enough) vanilla custard. It still powered me for the better part of the day.

Next stop was Tweed. The most interesting part of my brief grocery store parking lot visit there was this exchange with my lady friend.

Then trail, trail and more trail. Other than diversions through towns I think I turned twice. While I didn’t climb much, I did climb ever so slightly pretty much all day long. There were also significant distances between anything and everything after Tweed. I may have pushed a little too far today. Still it was pretty nice as farms gradually gave way to the Ontario north.

And of course the deeper I got into the bush, the bitier the flies became. Fortunately the hungry swarms mostly didn’t leave home once they heard Chris wasn’t with me 😂 (I couldn’t resist).

I’m now a days ride from Ottawa. My plan is to hopefully make it to the last campground before the city proper tomorrow, but it’s forecast to be awfully wet so I’m not committing. Regardless of when I make it to Ottawa, karen and I have rented a place a day and a half ride east for a few days, so I’ve got some time left on the bike.

142 km / 526 m