trails

Brian Betsworth sent me a heads-up of a new cycling organization in town. The Toronto Off Road Bicycling Association (TORBA) was founded just under a year ago with the aim to benefit off road riders by taking care of Toronto's many unofficial dirt trails, and to engage with authorities to help legitimize cycling off road. As Brian explains,

The City of Toronto Official Plan envisions a city where active transportation helps to relieve congestion and improve air quality. Yet, right now less than 2 per cent of the City of Toronto Transportation budget is dedicated to walking and cycling infrastructure.

Now is your opportunity to let the city know that it needs to treat cycling as a serious form of transportation.

I've heard of many mountain bike trail building efforts within the City of Toronto, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, but this example of railway underpass / bridge building on the Don River is the most interesting one yet.

Last Friday, my partner Wendy and I rode down to Port Dalhousie/St. Catharines and stayed overnight at a nice B&B.

If only I will age quite as gracefully. At about kilometre 60 into the 100 km "Amazing Toronto Bike Tour" an older gentleman on his Canadian Tire road bike tells me that only last year he was hospital-bound with a broken hip from a cycling accident. And now he's biking 100 km in one day. Amazing.