Blackberry and Apple without the Blackberry - An Early Autumn Bike Ride

Along the Elora Cataract Trailway

We've been planning a ride along the Elora Cataract Trailway for a long time and yesterday we finally made it out there. We drove to Orton, zigzagging across from Highway 10 along country roads and dirt roads, unclipped the bikes from the back of the car and off we went.

The Trailway follows the route of an old railway line

The trail follows the route of a former railway, so is fairly flat and straight. It runs through pretty farmland and passes by Belwood Lake. The length of the whole trail is 47km or 29 miles, and we planned to do a twenty kilometre section. We started pretty much in the middle at kilometre 25 and cycled towards Fergus and Elora. It was perfect weather, bright blue sky with a slight autumnal nip in the air. The late summer flowers, golden rod and purple asters, brightened the edges of the trail. Fields of sweetcorn stretched towards the horizon.

The trail is quiet and peaceful, just a few other cyclists enjoying the early autumn air and towards Fergus a few walkers strolling the path. Around 14km along our route we reached the Belwood Lake Conservation Area, where the Shand Dam dams the Grand River, creating Belwood Lake. We admired the view from the top of the dam, then continued on our way.

View from the Shand Dam

Other trail users cross the Shand Dam at Belwood Lake

Shand Dam at Belwood Lake

On our way again, the sight of this sign made us smile as we headed towards Fergus with thoughts of tea and sustenance keeping us going.

The trail stops at Fergus, although you can pick it up again at the other side of the town and continue on to the end of the trail at Elora. We cycled on streets into the town of Fergus, to be greeted by the welcome sight of a Tim Hortons, where we treated ourselves to well-earned large steeped teas and cinnamon doughnuts. Another Tim's patron was sitting with her feet up having cycled from Forks of the Credit, the start of the trail. She had called it a day and sent her husband back on his bike to fetch the car. Wise woman. After that we had a brief stroll down to the river bridge and along the main street (where J informed me Jeremy Paxman had once trod, whilst filming a TV series about emigrating Brits). Stroll is perhaps the wrong word, given how stiff I felt after 20km of cycling, but I limped along in the footsteps of Paxman before mounting my trusty bike once again to ride the 20km back to the car.

By then the shadows were lengthening and the countryside looked beautiful in the evening sunlight. We stopped to gather some fallen apples from the side of the trail. In England the wayside would be full of blackberry bushes covered in fruit at this time of year - in Ontario they don't seem to exist, so we will have to make do with stewed apple. The sight of the 25km marker post was an eagerly awaited moment and I climbed stiffly into the car for the drive back to the city.

Maize Fields

Foraged Blackberry and Apple - without the blackberry