gotta love that Iliad

Took my girl to Hardwood Hills on Saturday, and we rented her a bike and took off into the woods. After a bit of a rocky start, we decided to go from the Fun trail (Zzzzzz...) to the Serious trail. The Serious trail was hardly serious. From previous visits, I know Hardwood has some grunt and grind stuff (notably the Gnarley trail, or SideWinder taken fast), but this trail was La La La all the way. The only problem was that we had to be off the trails by 6pm, and we ended up doing about 8 or 9 km of the Serious trail, only to get lost in the maze of interior trails as the hour got later and later.

Linda is a novice rider, (AND VERY GOOD SPORT) and she'd had plenty enough by hour 2... I found myself in the postition of saying "I think we're almost there," for at least an hour after her first "are we there yet???" Finally, we were both sufficiently pissed with the poor trail markers for these side trails, that on hearing a truck go by somewhere to our left, I proposed we get off the trail and hike our bikes through the bush, and figure out directions from there. To her credit, Linda put up with this strategy, and with minimal grumbling, followed me out. Whew. It was a palpable relief to get out of that endless maze of trails! Once out, my legendary sense of bad direction took us up this huge hill on a dirt road, where we found a mailbox, and behind it, the obligatory farm-house with rabid dogs defending it. Here, I got directions from a sketchy Metallica dude (completely reverse course- left at the side-road), and we finally made our way back to the gates, where we were lectured for being late, and charged an additional $20. I thought this was poor treatment for people getting lost on their ill-marked routes, and said so- upon being told people get lost up there every week-end, I suggested with some ill humour that the $20 fine be used for some side-trail markers!! bah.

Anyway... Linda ended up saying how much she'd enjoyed the adventure, (ah happy hindsight! She's also looking back fondly on the dog-in-canoe debacle...), and that we should go biking again soon. Life is beautiful... I have added compass to the list of things to bring to Bon Echo this weekend however... no sense pushing it.

We went to the Mustang Drive-in last night, and watched the new Harry Potter (cute) and Troy (you gotta love the Iliad to enjoy this one - by the time Brad Pitt gets the spear through his heel, your patience will be as thin as the dialogue). It poured rain for about 1/2 hour, but I just cranked my 270 watt sound (with sub-woofer!) up a little, put the a/c on, and had the wipers on intermediate. Meanwhile, we reclined in complete spoiled comfort on the camper-like back-seats. What a perfect vehicle. Oh, Ode to the Bright Orange Element... you are a thing of beauty. I hardly mind the 3 & 1/2 hours sleep I came to work on.

So- some news:

June 16th at Cafe Aquarius- Barefoot is playing in Guelph- I'll be in London that night, but they are fun and wonderful players, and everyone else should find their way there.

And Hazel passed on some info about the Red Hill Vally Expressway that I'll reproduce here, in case anyone else feels like gettin' their hackles up:

Friends of Red Hill Valley

Red Hill Tree Sit

Thanks, Hazel. For those to lazy or too busy watching Fox News, this is about the Red Hill Valley expressway, already under construction in the only uninterrupted corridor of green space from the Niagara escarpment to Lake Ontario. So now you know. Pass it on!