A bit of a different ride today. Ok, a LOT of a different ride today! I phoned a guy about a couple of derailleurs that he was selling for $5 (Deore LX rear, and I couldn’t tell what the front was). As I’m hoping to get my Balance bike up and running again, this was a deal that was too good to pass up so I set up a time to go and pick them up. Unfortunately, he lived on the North Shore (NOT on my way at all). When I told Corrie this, she said she had to go to her consignment store so we decided that we would meet there instead of me riding home.
So, I decided to ride through Kenna Cartwright park instead of taking the streets down and around and it was a blast! I figured I had a bit more time than I needed, so I took my time through the park and zig-zagged my way over and down. I entered the park near the end of Copperhead drive, but instead of following the power line east, I found a trail that took me directly south over the hill. Coming down the other side, I turned off and onto the Doc Findlay loop (upper ridge) and took this trail east. I have only ridden this trail once, and that was with Corrie when we rode through the park together. It is a really fun piece of single-track that traverses along the south side of Mount Dufferin. Once this trail joined up with the Red Fox, I took that piece of double-track down a bit further ‘till it met up with the lower Doc Findlay trail which I took around ‘till the infamous Kinnikinnick trail. I say “infamous” because during my short few weeks of riding from TRU to work I took this trail 4 or 5 times and it was brutally steep in a few places. Well, going down it is a blast! The steep sections were not as bad as I remembered.
I really wish I had stopped to take some pictures, but here’s a screenshot of a map of the Kenna Cartwright park. The arrows are the directions I went, notice how I did manage to find the most indirect route down! It was pretty fun!
At the bottom of the Kinnikinnick trail, where it intersected the Reservoir road, the trail kept going (although not marked, so not an “official” park trail). It was pretty sketchy in sections as it is not very well travelled, but it hooked up to the Sage trail that dropped down fast and straight into some City yard (they keep all their trucks, street work equipment, etc.). Well, coming down I did ride through a 20’ opening in a fence, but as there was no gate I thought nothing of it. However, it soon became apparent that I had managed to find my way inside the yard! It was all gated and fenced with no one within range to help me figure out how to exit the place!!! 
As I rode in circles, I discovered a road where they either train the rookies how to paint street lines, or they calibrate their equipment. Either way it was pretty funny to see the entire road covered with white and yellow lines, dashed and solid! I really wish I had stopped to take a picture, but at the time I was a bit worried that I was wasting so much time being stuck in this yard that I was going to be late! I also rode by three or four old WWII bunkers. I didn’t know it at the time, but as you can see on the map this was an old WWII Navy yard. Now the barbaric barbed/razor wire that’s coiled up in the bushes off of the Resevoir trail makes sense! Again, I now really wish I had stopped to take some pictures, but alas I didn’t! 
I finally found my way out of the yard and onto the street where I rode down to Hillside and then rode down Hillside ‘till the bridge across the river. From there, I rode up Tranquille ‘till I got to the North Hills mall to meet Corrie. It was fun, but a lot of work to keep my speeds up as high as I could on Tranquille (slight uphill too). The road is a bit narrow, with lots of parked cars on the right (in other words, watch for sudden opening doors in front of me!) and lots of traffic on my left. Thankfully I was able to go fast enough to stay with the same group of 5 or 6 cars and it wasn’t too bad in the end. I wouldn’t want to commute through city traffic like this every day, but once in a blue moon is OK! 
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