Ride 15/50 – Elora to Erin and back

Rather than join one of the several club ride options this past weekend, I opted to join a few good friends and drive to Elora so we could ride to Erin and back. Krisz, Ana Maria, Mike and I met in Elora at 8 am on April 30 with our CX bikes for the 80 km ride. The route was going to be rail trail from Elora to Erin, then mostly gravel roads back to Elora.

It was sunny but cool as we started our ride. We rode at a relaxed pace along the mostly flat rail trail towards Fergus, then Belwood Lake. At the dam, we stopped to look at the river (and crossed over the Grand River again!).

Three Konas overlooking the Grand RIver from the dam at Belwood Lake.

From there we continued on the rail trail through Hillsburgh to Erin where we stopped at Forks Bicycle Shop on Main St. and chatted briefly with Brian, whom I finally met after exchanging messages with him for months! Brian and his Forks shop offers free coffee a couple of doors down at the bakery, so we stopped in there for a quick snack and caffeine break before making our way back towards Elora.

Mike, Krisz, Brian, Ana Maria and me outside of Forks in Erin.

The route back promised to be hillier than the rail trail. My cycling/work buddy Gaelen has been up this way before and he mapped out a route that included as much gravel as possible, not to mention a few good climbs.

My three riding partners leading me towards a big gravel hill in the distance.

This was a sweet downhill. Unfortunately for Mike, he flatted on the way down (his first of two flats).

I’ll have to make it back to this area – the gravel roads are a lot of fun. We don’t have rolling hills like this in Waterloo Region. Maybe this summer I’ll ride the whole distance, rather than driving to Elora for the start. All in all, we did about 85 km at a fairly relaxed pace on a beautiful spring day!

Using Veloviewer, I’ve highlighted this route – notice the blue line in the image below. I added new lines to my heatmap and connected a couple of sections (this is a loose criteria for my 50-in-50 memorable rides!).