Spills, chills and thrills...

Yup, we had all three of the above on our trip to Pigeon Lake yesterday. Granted, the thrills would have to be attributed to seeing actual homemade pie on the menu at the Eco Cafe, but that was sufficient for me.

The spills... well, there was really just the one. Our benevolent and bikey friends Mark and Micah joined us for the first half of our ride yesterday, despite the rain. They rode one of Mark & Jen's two tandems and were leading us over to Keillor Road, north of Fox Drive. I'd not been that way before so when Mark took a sharp left off the bike path onto the road, my first inclination was to follow him - at short notice. In the span of about a second and a half, I started to turn, thought the better of it and attempted to straighten out - while on the border between wet concrete and wet asphalt. Not a good choice: concrete is slippery stuff. The bike went out from under me and I took what must have been an interesting wipe out. (Wish I had a video!) I don't know what happened exactly after the bike slipped as it was all rather speedy but I ended the fall with a rather nice roll and have only a very slight bruise on one knee to show for it. Since I frequently get much worse bruises by whacking my calves on the pedals, I'm quite pleased. My helmet doesn't even seem to be scratched, which I can't quite figure out as I would have guessed it would at least have brushed the concrete when I rolled.

The bike is also fine, though the bell, light and shifter tops are all a little scratched - I'm not sure how that happened as it would seem to imply the bike actually landed on the top of the handlebars...? Now you see why I want a video! In any case, I was up and pedalling again within 5 minutes - the delay only caused by having to fix my slipped chain.

And as for the chills... well, it was raining when we started out, though that happily quit after 15 minutes or so, but it remained cool - say 5-8 degrees? for the whole trip. I was quite chilled by the time we got to Calmar for lunch and never did really get comfortable. It was a good temperature for Rem to be riding with just his jacket and no sweater - which of course means it's freezing for me. I was VERY VERY happy to get into the Village at Pigeon Lake and order some tea at the Eco Cafe. OF note, if you ever want a nice day trip by car, head out that direction, enjoy the pleasant wetlands scenery, have a wander around the provincial park or a paddle on the lake if you have a boat, and be sure to eat at the Eco cafe. The food is fantastic, the decor is lovely and the service very friendly. We'd happily make it a favourite stop if it weren't 118 kms away.

We stayed at the By the Lake B & B, which was also highly recommendable. Really nice hosts who welcomed us with tea and homemade cake and fed us a fabulous breakfast this morning, and a beautiful house facing out on the lake.

So, the numbers:
118km
Average speed 20.?? km/h
5 hours, 45 minutes pedalling time
10 hours of trip time ... with a good stop in Calmar for lunch and a long, long stop at the eco cafe for supper
Max speed: 43km/hr

Times Steph's sugar crashed when Rem had gone on ahead, thus risking being torn limb from limb by his ravenous wife when she finally caught up: 1
Beavers watched: 1
Species of domesticated pasture animals seen: 7 (Sheep, goats, cows, horses, llamas, donkey, buffalo)
People who randomly invited us for a pit stop in their houses: 1
Lebanese former professional cyclists turned pizza makers met: 1
North Saskatchewan River crossings: 2 (once by the Whitemud, once on the highway getting into Devon)