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My August Long Weekend started off with a bang: I worked late on Friday and spent all day Saturday just puttering around at home and cleaning. Very exciting. But it got much better on Sunday and Monday when I rode my bike to Hamilton visit my parents.

I've done this ride quite a few times since moving to Toronto last year. I've taken three different bikes, and even combined my trips with the GO train when I was feeling a bit lazy. You'd think I might get bored of doing this ride....nope! It's always fun. I enjoy riding along Lakeshore Rd., and stopping at various scenic and tasty places along the way. This time I changed my routes a little bit too, just for some variety and to explore some new places I haven't ridden through before.

On the way to Hamilton, I decided to go the "long" way across the Beach Strip and then back across the east-end of Hamilton. The Burlington-Hamilton Beach Strip is a great place to ride, with some excellent scenery too. I'll have to take this route more often. Riding through the industrial north-east end of Hamilton isn't very appealing though.

On the way back to Toronto, I explored the Chedoke Rail Trail in West Hamilton. I also decided to cut away from Lakeshore for a little bit through Bronte and Oakville, and treated myself to some slower and more scenic trails right along the lake.

It was a perfect weekend for cycling. Great weather, a fun route, and of course it's always nice to visit my family in Hamilton too.

More details about my rides are in my photo galleries for Sunday and Monday.

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 spent the weekend visiting my parents in Hamilton. I decided to travel by Bike (for fun!) and GO Train (for time saving and laziness!) to get there and back.

Short version of the story: Rode my bike to work, and then down to Port Credit station, took the train to Burlington, then rode to Hamilton. On the way home I rode from Hamilton to Oakville, took the GO train from Oakville to Mimico, then rode home. I ended up only riding about 77km over the weekend, so the GO Train cut my biking distance approximately in half.

Read on for more pictures and commentary about the rides.

The fun weekends are really adding up this summer! For the August Long Weekend (technically, most of it was in July), Jen and I did a little bike tour down to the Hamilton and Cambridge area. Of course it is all photo-documented and posted online now. ;-)

All the details and photos are here:
Friday: Riding from Toronto to Hamilton
Saturday: Visiting family, and Bayfront Park in Hamilton
Sunday: Riding from Hamilton to Valens Conservation Area, mainly along the rail trails that go through Brantford, Paris, and Cambridge.
Monday: Riding back to Toronto from Valens Conservation Area

Hmmm...lately it seems that all of my postings are about riding my bike to Hamilton.

Tonight I finally completed typing up my Ottawa to Hamilton bike tour diary. Yeah, it happened over two years ago, so I've been procrastinating quite badly.

This five-day ride back in the summer of 2003 was my first real bike tour and one of the most memorable things I've ever done. The freshly completed tour diary and pictures can be viewed by clicking this link. Enjoy!

Jen and I rode to Hamilton for the weekend. She met up with me in Mississauga after work on Friday night, and we rode together from there. Saturday was spent touring around the city, and on Sunday we rode back to Toronto. Here are the links to the photo galleries with more details:

Friday - Riding to Hamilton
Saturday - Touring around the city
Sunday - Riding back to Toronto