Pigeon Lake Ride

A Most Glorious Ride
Sunday Afternoon, Aug 26.2007

Grey Skies, A Desire to Ride no Matter what and good food. I had been looking forward to riding the pigeon lake area for a couple of years. We had ridden out to there last year but had not rode around the lake as of yet.

So We put the word out that the ride was on and we met At the Cedar Crest motel and restaurant in Mulhurst around 3 pm. As we were gathering we realized that the Edmonton Bicycling and Touring Club was just finishing their ride and lunch. They ride around the lake every year, but it is a lot faster ride for faster riders; we much more pokier and stop to much. We are the tourists, they are the more serious roadies. They ride @ 25-30 kph, we ride 14-20 kph. Different strokes, Great folks. So we road east out of town up hill to get on highway 616 to take the north route around to Zender Provincial Park and then back along the cottage road along the lake edge. The ride on the highway was great, little traffic with enough rolling hills and flast to make a good work out. As usual I was on the tail end until I got the top of the hill and then zoomed past everyone else until I was way out front leading. I tried to maintain my lead on this ride to even out the hills. On my Recumbent it means a lot of riding alone until we meet up on the crest of most hills. Then away I go again. 18 or so kilmoters later, just before we got to Zender Park the grey skies let loose with a shower and it was wet riding. Its fun to ride in a drizzle with the right gear and bike! Having fairing on the TE is great as I typically get wet on my face only. Once we got o Zender Park we stopped for about 40 minutes for a potty and snack break. I rustled up some tea with my Kelly Kettle. It was a great hit on a cooler day. Everyone chipped in to find little twigs to stuff down the throat of the kettle. We had boiled water in about 6-7 minutes the first round and within 4 min for each pot after. I was really pleased with my fathers day gift; it worked out just as I expected.
Then we saddled up and back tracked a couple of kilometers to the village of Mission and rode 20 odd kilometers back along the lake front road. This hard packed gravel road has been divided up the by barricades to allow local traffic only. But they have portals and pathways for pedestrians and cyclists along the way. This was a great ride along the lake to gawk at the cottages, docks, boats and water fronts. There are some pretty impressive retreat up there! It was a lot slower paced than the high way but that is what a Sunday ride is for: to gawk at the scenery, right?! Eventually we arrived back for dinner at the Cedar Crest around 7 pm for the usual ride follow up stories, etc.. This was a great ride, weather and all. Its now an annual must do every August from now on. Ride lots and have fun. Next year we may stay overnite at the Inn and cycle around the lake for a nice weekend get away. Wanna come?
Larry