Point Clark Loop Adventure

Last Sunday was  not quite an endurance ride, but one of my longer rides this summer.

I hop on my bike with the goal of pedaling an 80 km (54 mi) "loop" to the south and west of my country home near Tiverton, Ontario, Canada.    

I leave my home about 9:30 am under sunny skies and a pleasant 18 C (64 F) heading south towards the village of Armow. Forty five minutes later I passed through Armow and continued on south to the village of Ripley. 

(The road to Ripley)

Fascinating little town. In the 1850's a bad Scottish landlord on Lewis Island, Scotland, was making life unpleasant for 109 hard working families. 

So they said, "Enough." (And probably a few more appropriate phrases and gestures.) 

They all moved to a section of  wilderness here in Ontario and continued to work hard clearing the land and eventually earned the right to call it their own. Later their settlement was named Ripley. Believe it or not :-)

This is believed to be the largest settlement of one group of people at the same time and place anywhere in Canadian history. Cool, eh?

So now I finally understand why almost every village in southern Bruce county has a Scottish name. 109 families would have been the most dominant cultural presence in this beautiful countryside.  By clearing and taming this land they certainly earned the right to name the villages. 

And they did. Check out any Bruce county and Huron county map and you'll find names like Glammis, Holyrood, Kingraf, Kinloss, Lucknow, and Gargill. There is probably a village named Argyle somewhere.

And to think I learned all this while reading three historical monuments while chewing on a power bar and drinking power aid. 

Hopping back on my bike and enjoying the 20 kph (12.4 mph) tailwind provided by nature, I am averaging a really nice 21 kph for the first two hours of my ride when I enter the Lake Huron shore village of Point Clark. 

(The road to Point Clark)

Point Clark is home for one of several amazing lighthouses built up and around the Tobermory Peninsula from about 1850 through the early 1900's. They were state of the art wonders in their day. 

And it's a good thing a lighthouse is here -- the rocky shoals extend 3.2 km (2 mi) out into Lake Huron from the shoreline. 

There have been so many shipwrecks around this peninsula over the past 150 years that Scuba divers come from all around the world to check them out in the shallow, clear (and very cold!) waters.   

After straining my neck looking up at the 1850-ish lighthouse undergoing renovations, I turn my ship north and up the coast towards Kincardine. 

(The beach road north of Point Clark)

A pleasant ride weaving along the sleepy Sunday morning beach roads with both beautiful vintage and modern cottages. 

(More beach road)

Arriving in Kincardine (Note the good Scottish name) I am 50 km  (31 mi) into my trip and well into the second half of the big loop (or more accurately, rectangle) route I am pedaling. 

(View of Lake Huron between Point Clark and Kincardine)

I stop and eat a very Canadian lunch at Tim Horton's restaurant, really enjoying the BLT and chocolate milk. (Beer and Wings would have perhaps been a more Canadian lunch.) 

I continue heading north along the coastal shore roads to the cottage community of Inverhuron where I stop and purchase a Dr Pepper at an old fashion country store and drink it on the old fashion bench outside in the shade of the awning. 

(Creek flowing into the Lake in Inverhuron)

I pedal my final 12 km home where I enjoy my post ride stretches and a warm shower after an almost 6 hour adventure. 

A beautiful day and a beautiful ride. 

Today's stats:

Distance: 80 km/49.6 mi

Max Speed: 52.1 kph/31.7 mph

Average Speed: 17.8 kph/11 mph

Time on bike: 4 hrs, 30 min

Total trip time: 5 hrs, 55 min

Temp: 18 C/ 64 F

Calorie Burn: 1,768

Fat Burn: 151.1