Goderich, 2011

I rode my bicycle to Goderich on August 18, and back to Waterloo on August 19. A tornado trashed much of Goderich on August 21.

Click on a picture to get a larger version.

Riding into town

Preston Manor

This is the bed and breakfast I stayed at.

Huron County Gaol

I visited the old county gaol. Built around 1840; proudly serving prisonors until 1972 - with no heating and no toilet facilties.

	The county courtroom; note the raised arm above the shield
A spatious double room.	A cramped single.

My camera's flash make the cells look bright and cheery (well...); however, the cells were dark, with the only light coming from the window and the cell door.

Sunset

Riding out of town

A sunrise picture to go with the sunsets.

The ride, and some maps

The ride there was 113 km and took 6 hours 2 minutes of riding time over a total of 7 hours, 30 minutes. The ride back was 110 km (I detoured to Blyth for lunch on the way to Goderich) and 5 hours 52 minutes of riding time, over 7 hours 10 minutes. No speed records for me!

I got initial routes from google maps. I modified these a bit when I made my GPS routes to account for what I knew of the roads and to ensure that I went through some towns where I could get food and water. When I rode, I shifted my route a couple of times off the one I had planed. The maps below were made on google maps based on what I actually rode.

The map of the route back is slightly wrong: I didn't go through Benmillar. On the ride there, the road through Poole is low traffic, but unpaved in parts. Eventually, I tired of the unpaved road and headed south to Walton for a paved ride dodging cars and trucks, although traffic wasn't too bad.

Waterloo to Goderich
Goderich to Waterloo

On my ride to Goderich, I stopped for lunch in Blyth. After lunch, I seemed to regain my energy, and cruised through the remaining ride with little fatigue. I assumed that I had regained energy from lunch. The elevation plots below (starting around 80km) suggest another reason for my "renewed" energy...

The long, almost continuous descent on the way there starting around 100 km is a rail trail.

Waterloo to Goderich
Goderich to Waterloo
The two elevation plots superimposed, with the return plot flipped; the faint image is the ride to Goderich.