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This past weekend I decided to get away from the city and go on a short 3-day bike tour to Darlington Provincial Park, just east of Oshawa. On Friday after work I rode down to the Port Credit GO train station to catch a train to Oshawa. From there, I rode to Darlington Provincial Park, about 13km away. On Saturday I did a day trip by heading east along the Waterfront trail past Bond Head and out to Port Hope. And on Sunday I rode all the way back from Darlington to Etobicoke, mostly along the Waterfront Trail.

It was a fantastic weekend. Getting a head-start on the GO Train to get out of the city on Friday Night is a great way to start the weekend. I think I'll have to use this method more often.

Riding along the Waterfront Trail east of Oshawa is spectacular too. The trail is a mix of on-road and off-road riding that sort of zig-zags all over the place, so it's not the best place to ride with a loaded touring bike. However, it's great for doing a day ride through the countryside. The roads are mostly empty, the views of the fields and Lake Ontario are excellent.... For me it was a much needed perfect weekend getaway. I will definitely have to do it again.

Of course, I have plenty of photos and more commentary about this weekend. You can see more of it by starting here.

This week I went to the second public meeting about the Six Points Reconfiguration, which is basically a complete redesign of the Bloor - Dundas - Kipling intersection in Etobicoke (west Toronto). The purpose of this reconfiguration is to make better use of land that is swallowed up by this highway-style interchange (new civic, residential and commercial development), and better pedestrian and cyclist access to the area. Click the photo for some map displays that I photographed. Here's the Google Map of the area.

There's a ton of information about this project on the City's website, but I just wanted to share some of the things I learned at the meeting, and comments that people made. Note: I don't necessarily agree with many of the comments and concerns, but I'm quite pleased at the turnout (probably over 100 people) and the enthusiasm of the attendees.

Several options had been discussed, but the planners are currently favouring the "Fully at-Grade Dundas St. Loop" solution, which would eliminate all bridges, introduce more traffic lights, and re-route Dundas St. with a south-east loop. The rest of the commentary in this article will deal with this proposed solution.

Here's what I like about it:

• Pedestrian-friendly
• No longer a high-speed highway-style interchange.
• Much better east-west bike access, particularly along Bloor St. They are even talking about putting in bike lanes, and the Dundas St. loop will have a wide curb lane. Several times they mentioned this was part of the city's Bike Plan (I didn't think the Bike Plan actually included any of Bloor, but I could be wrong).

My first Critical Mass ride of the year. I had fun, even though I broke my camera right near the start of the ride and didn't take many pictures. Ohwell. You can see the small bunch of pictures over here.

I covered quite a long distance on my bike on Thursday, especially for a regular weekday. Almost 70km. My usual commute to work was followed by a ride out to the depths of North York for a memorial for a 16 year-old cyclist named Bianca Gogel who was killed by a truck last week. Although the main destination for all this riding was to attend a sad memorial, I wanted to make the best of this nice riding weather and enjoy myself.

The pictures tell more of the story.

Saturday wasn't the most pleasant day to be out riding my bike (about 10C and rainy), but it's very rare that bad weather stops me from getting out there! I still had a fun time riding downtown to meet some people and run a few errands.

As I rode home along Bloor St., I saw a huge pile of bubbles all around the fountain at Jane St. There were a bunch of kids having a great time playing with the bubbles. Definitely a fun site to see on a dreary spring day.

Check out the pictures to see more bubbles'n'bents.

I spent the Easter long weekend visiting my family in Hamilton. It was great to get away and relax for a few days, especially after having to work the previous two weekends. Plus, I haven't visited my parents much lately, so it was great to be "home" again.

Since I now have my Bike Friday folding bicycle, I was able to take a bike with me to Hamilton for the weekend without having to ride all the way there. It turned out to be a bit more of a pain than I expected, but still definitely worth doing.

Friday: After spending most of the day catching up on some housework at home in Toronto, I took off on my folding bike down to Union Station. It was a great day, so I was happy to be out riding. When I arrived at Union Station, I folded up my bike and put it into the "travel bag". Fitting it into the bag was a little trickier than I expected, but like packing it into a suitcase, it may require some more practice before I'm good at it. I lugged the bike and my panniers through Union Station, bought a ticket for the GO bus to Hamilton, then went to board the bus. I placed the bagged bike myself into the luggage compartment under the bus. I probably should have waited to bag the bike so that I wouldn't have to carry it around as much.

When I arrived in Hamilton, I upacked and unfolded my bike, then hopped on and rode to my parents' place. It's very close the GO station, but it's straight up the escarpment! This was my Bike Friday's first real hill climbing test, and I must say that it passed with flying colours. The gearing is excellent, so I had no trouble finding a low enough gear. The bike is also nice and light, especially when compared to my heavy recumbent.

Saturday: I slept in and relaxed on Saturday. It felt great to do that! In the afternoon I rode my bike over to my grandmother's place to paint Easter eggs. It's a tradition that I've been doing pretty much all my life. My cousin Bob was there too, and we had fun hanging out with my grandma and painting psychedelic Martha Stewart easter eggs.

I had a great Sunday! Woke up early, got the Streetmachine set up after keeping it in hibernation all winter, and then spent a good chunk of my day out on the bike!

My ride took me through downtown, along the Lakeshore recreational paths, the Leslie St. Spit, etc. To top off the evening, I went to a restaurant on Yonge St. for dinner with some of the local HPV crew. Great day all around!

My pictures tell a little bit more about the ride.

March has started off with even more unseasonably warm "winter" weather. On Saturday it hit 10 degrees, and Sunday it went all the way up to 15! Of course, I took this opportunity to do some more cycling around the city.

Saturday's bike ride took me on a meandering route to Downtown and back, with a bunch of stops along the way. I spent some time checking out Roundhouse Park, OCAD, a bunch of back roads and laneways, in addition to stopping at MEC, Urbane, Hello Saigon, and Kensington Market. I took a whole bunch of pictures (of course) which can be seen over here.

Today (Sunday) was another great day, although a bit more overcast. After taking a walk over to the Goodwill for some thrift shopping (bought a cassette player and $5 Doc Martens!), I went for another bike ride. No camera this time, because I thought I was just going grocery shopping. I got sidetracked a little, and ended up riding down the Humber River to the lake. And for the first time since living in Toronto for almost a year, I finally explored Humber Bay Park and the butterfly gardens. It's pretty nice down there, and I'll have to go back in the spring and summer, especially since it's so close to home.

Earlier this month my bike activites were focused on the Toronto International Bicycle Show down at the Exhibition grounds. I was helping out with the ARC booth, in addition to checking out all the other stuff on display. As usual, I spent most of my time and found most of my enjoyment at the other community group booths. I wish there were more recumbents, cargo-bikes, practical vehicles, etc. at the show. I only took a few pictures, all of them at the ARC Booth.

Well, it looks like the weather is turning to rain and flurries for this week. So much for the early March spring weather tease. I'm also looking forward to getting my Streetmachine back on the road soon!

Today Jen left to go back to Vancouver after visiting me here in Toronto for a little over a week. We had a great time together while she was here, and it's too bad that she couldn't stay longer. It'll be a few months before we see each other again.

Last Saturday we took advantage of this NON-winter weather to go for a long bike ride around the city, and to run some errands downtown. We decided to stay off the beaten path (Bloor St.) so that we could check out some of the other neighbourhoods along the way. Sometimes slowing down and taking detours is much better than a fast direct ride! We had one small destination to stop at before running our errands downtown: we had to visit the big elephant on someone's front yard on Yarmouth St. Very cool....not your usual garden gnome lawn statue! We also hit the usual downtown spots (MEC and Urbane), and had dinner in Chinatown.

Last Sunday we met up with Jen's parents and drove out to Unionville to visit Jen's grandma. After the visit and a delicious lunch we were dropped off at Scarborough Town Centre to take the TTC back into the city. The rest of the day's adventures involved exploring the east end around the Coxwell/Pape/Gerrard/Danforth area and going for some tasty Indian food with other bike/HPV fanatics.

Tuesday was, of course, Valentine's Day. Jen and I stayed in to cook up a delicious dinner and dessert.

Friday night involved another trip downtown, this time by TTC. We walked around Yorkville for a while, then found some food and topped off the night out by going to a story tellers gathering at the UofT.

Saturday was Jen's last full day in Toronto. We spent most of the day out in Brampton visiting with Jen's family and celebrating her other grandmother's birthday. We also had a great time playing out in the snow with Jen's two year-old nephew Thomas. It was nice that Jen was able to spend a good chunk of time with her family during this short visit back in Ontario.

Click the above links for more pictures and details of these adventures.

Another great day to be out on my bike! After lounging around all morning, I dragged myself and my bike out for a ride to the lakeshore and out to Tommy Thompson Park. I mostly took it nice and slow, admiring the views along the way. I still can't believe this is "winter". Maybe I got too used to living in Ottawa. But I guess I can't complain, because I'm definitely enjoying these long bike rides at this time of year! Follow the link to my pictures to read and see more.