http://youtu.be/s3im1P-C1kw
This bike ride 120km was supposed to be a 100k ride. Due to election signs blocking one of the key turns we went a wee bit further than we were supposed to.
Tour De Greenbelt is a ride at-your-own-pace marshaled bike ride through a variety of areas throughout Ontario’s Greenbelt. This year, the Tour featured Canada’s newly announced national park – Rouge Park. Conveniently located close to down town Toronto, this year’s tour will bring the Greenbelt closer to home.
I met some friends along the way, and unexpected members from Durham Cycling Club, what an experience. Started of trying to figure out what to wear changing in the outhouse, it was a cold start at about 5-7c. I prepared by layering up clothing and planned to peel off the layers as I got warmer. I got anxious waiting for the speeches to end so I could get going and warmed up. In the end the only thing that came off was my United Way hat under my helmet.
After the ride they had food and great music, I really enjoyed it.
Rouge Valley Park
If you are interested in the Rouge Greenbelt here is some more information and a great video posted on YouTube.
Rouge Park will become an urban national park located along the border of Toronto and Pickering, Ontario, Canada. It will be Canada’s first national park within a municipality.
The lands now in the park were once home to resorts and cottages from the late 19th century to the 1950s.
It is the only large valley land area in Toronto where people can still enjoy a wilderness experience, since other rivers in the city are now surrounded by urban development. People can still live a rural life, and even farm in the park. It is the only remaining rural area within the city of Toronto. Established in 1995 by the Province of Ontario, the park consists of 50 square kilometres (12356 acres) of parkland, in Toronto, Pickering, Markham and Stouffville. The park protects 12% of the Rouge River watershed, with park lands also protecting small parts of the Petticoat Creek and Duffins Creek watersheds, to the East. The Rouge River remains the healthiest river that flows through Toronto. Ecological preservation and restoration were needed. Preservation of near-urban agriculture is the park’s main objective, though a recent decision to end leases for over 700 acres (2.8 km2) of farmland has generated considerable controversy.
Rouge is the largest nature park within a core of a metropolitan area in North America. It stretches from Lake Ontario in the south, north to the post-glacial Oak Ridges Moraine in York Region.
The park is open with free admission to visitors year-round. Camping fees at seasonal camp ground apply. There are 12 km of rustic hiking trails in the Toronto part of the park. In Toronto, the park is accessible by public transport by TTC buses, and GO transit trains and buses.
The Rouge Valley in the southern portion near Lake Ontario rises to 100m, but at the source the river valley rises to under 300m in height.The mouth of the Rouge River stays frost-free one month longer than northern areas of the river system on the Oak Ridges Moraine.Rouge Park has the largest and best examples of Canada’s rare Carolinian habitat in Toronto and is the only officially recognized site in the Toronto area. Rouge Park is the only place where the Ontario Greenbelt reaches Lake Ontario in the City of Toronto.
Rouge Park’s natural setting has provided filming locations for decades, posing as a backdrop for an array of landscapes, from the far north to the bayous of Mississippi. A Canadian film-maker had a studio in the Park for many years, filming underwater beaver activity and simulating birds in flight.
