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I Can Go Anywhere With My Bike
by
Grey Coyote
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hot dirty city
i leave by bike
to sleep outside
Well… it started well… It’s June 27th and I made the 6:13 am go-train comfortably and found a copy of my favorite newspaper, The Globe and Mail. It’s a beautiful morning, and I have a whole train car to myself to ride to Oshawa in. It’s the only train out of the city before rush hour, when bikes (for whatever lame reason they came up with) are prohibited…
For me, this is all about getting into the habit of taking very-low-to-zero emission vacations. There is no time left to change our ways of living. We have to do it now. If this makes you think at all about how much energy you use, then that’s great. You see, I just found out that even though I don’t own a car and I recycle and compost everything and only eat meat a few times a week, if everyone on the planet lived like me, we would need four earths to sustain everyone… This is not a good thing for a world with millions of people moving into the middle classes in places like India and China… Like I said… there’s no time left…
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I know exactly why I’m here… to defragment my city-jumbled mind by staring at the stars, campfires, trees, water and birds and such. Oh yes… and to meet some friendly faces along the way. I work in my record store fifty hours a week in Kensington Market and this is a much-needed break from my usual madness…
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I’m in a deli in Oshawa around 7:00 for a sandwich and a cup of coffee. The ladies there are nice but all the men talk about is soccer and Formula 1 racing. I continue on my bike through an ugly stretch of cars and trucks before coming to Second Marsh. I follow the wonderful trail and try not to linger looking at the scenery for too long because the mosquitoes are ravenous. Birds that I never see in the city are everywhere. A small pair, probably husband and wife, land on a post literally a foot away from me, one after the other, unafraid to check me out…
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The marsh is the lungs, liver, kidneys and intestines and all of the things that keep us alive. It throbs with life. I continue to the General Motors conservation area and think that I don’t care how much money they’ve donated to all of this. It’s far, far, far too little to even start to offset the damage they’ve done… Then, i’m in Darlington Provincial Park, where my wife Terie and I were married. Grateful memories come flooding back with such force that they jostle and unlock another thought that hasn’t come to mind for quite some time. I want to die outside. I can’t stand the thought of dying inside, enclosed by four walls in some room somewhere. Please Terie, my wife, make sure that I die outside… Well, it’s map time now. I’ve never been east of this park on my bike before…
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…And I didn’t know what I was getting into… good God…there is a beautiful stretch of trail and road that goes all the way to Port Hope. For four hours I cycled, getting increasingly tired until finally exhausted. I think I barely made it here. I pushed myself too hard. I need saddlebags to take the weight off of my back and I pray that there is a cycle shop here. I feel terrible. That stretch was a strain that might prevent me from reaching Presqu’ile. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to cycle 100 k in one day without training more. This might be a problem…
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…Ahh… not so… I rebounded nicely with orange juice and chocolate bars. I got to a Canadian Tire and now that I have a gel seat cover and a handlebar carrier bag, I’m more evenly distributed. The only thing bothering me now is that things keep coming to mind so fast that I can’t stop and dismount every time I want to write something down. To give you an idea of the kind of area that i’m riding through (big houses on huge lots), I pass roadside mailboxes with names on them like “Kelly and Kirk Krakenberg”… seriously… you can’t make shit like that up. It’s too perfect…
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.. . At a Dominion grocery store in Cobourg, I ask a middle-aged, tanned, amiable-looking lady to watch my bike as she waits for her ride. I pick up a two-pack of hard-boiled eggs, pepperettes and juice. In return she asks me to get her a copy of the free food and lifestyle magazine that they’re giving out. I look for it and ask for it but the checkout lady says that they’re all out for good. Oh well… I go back out to find the lady’s mother watching my stuff…
“She went in to find you and left me here…”
“Okay, I’ll go get her.”
I go back in. At the film processing counter just inside, I see the magazine in a rack and so I take one. Then I see the lady and we exit together…
“I didn’t want to break my promise, so I had my mother watch your things.”
“Thanks. They told me they didn’t have any magazines left but I found one on the first counter.”
“So did I.”
“Well now you have two.”
“Yeah, one for my mom. Where are you biking to?”
“Prince Edward County.”
“Taking Highway Two?”
“Yeah, and the waterfront trail.”
“That’s quite the undertaking.”
“Well, I cycle all the time, so it’s not too hard.”
“Are you going camping?”
“Yeah, and visiting wineries.”
“Sounds nice. Have a great time.”
“Thanks for looking after my stuff. See ya.”
“Bye.”
Simple stuff for sure… but sometimes that’s the just the sort of thing that makes me feel right inside…
I come to a particularly quiet stretch of farmland and find myself at the top of a large embankment with a beautiful view of the lake. I round a house that is easily a hundred years old and see an old man in a lawn chair, chin on chest, snoozing in the afternoon sun. All in the world is perfect…
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…Until I realize again what I’ve gotten myself into. Growing exhausted, I collapse on the side of the road and eat cheese with a knife and chug water. I’m going up and down hills and the up part is taking its toll. I have to start walking the bike up some of them. I brought too much stuff -that’s the bottom line. Or I haven’t packed it properly. It’s just too much weight and my tires are too thick for this type of long distance trip. Thinner tires get up speed easier. Well… things I’ll know for next time…
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I… made it… One hundred kilometers… I practically stumbled into Presqu’ile Provincial Park at 8:30 pm. I’m a little delirious but still in good humor. The staff is pretty impressed and so am I… now just another three k to my site… sigh… Well… I’ve got a fire and food and a tent, so I guess I should be happy. Oh yeah, I’ve got wine and mosquitoes too. Huge fanged things that are getting to be too much -even with the toxic repellent I’ve sprayed on myself… oh well… I’ll be full and a little drunk and asleep soon…
Mortality is a funny thing. So much pain and discomfort in one life, but such a desire to live. Insects that want to live are eating my ankles. One of my favorite moments today was turning in circles on my bike on a deserted stretch of road, trying to catch fluffy bunches of seeds so that I could wish for the safety of my wife and I… I miss her terribly… I wish she was with me to share this but she’s with her family in Japan right now. I have to make enough money for us to spend more time together… somehow…
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exploring
my prefecture
endears it
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The farther I go, the more wildlife I see. It’s great to be passing Presqu’ile during turtle egg-laying season. There are signs all over telling everyone to be careful and look out for them…
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Dan Sullivan’s Rosehall estates winery was fantastic. Thanks to an introduction from “The Man From VQA” (my buddy Steve, who sells Ontario wine) I was invited to do an extensive barrel tasting. Dan told me that he used to work as a chemist, spent a small fortune drinking French pinots, and spent some time in France learning from oenologists before starting his winery. I can tell that he has a keen instinct for his art. His wines are very French in style, which is essential to capturing all of the best qualities of the pinot grape. It’s no surprise that he’s sold a blend to Jamie Kennedy…
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…continued on part 2… click here