Lmst

#Hickson

Today’s ride was down the Hickson Rail Trail to the north edge of Woodstock, then west and north back to Stratford. A hot one, but rewarding. More details in the alt txt.

#cycling #gravelbike #Stratford #Hickson #railtrail #Ontario #Canada #photography #sombrero #farming #corn #agriculture #alttext

Hardly a cloud in the sky. A hot muggy midday out in farm country. You’re drafting a gravel bike in the wake of a farm tractor that’s lifted a large round bail of hay high on its front forks. The tractor is hauling a trailer which is some sort of threshing machine with eight spoked wheels folded up. They cast eight sunflower-like shadows over the centre yellow line of the road. It looks a bit like the tractor is hauling sombreros.

A narrow single-track stretches between lime green grass borders off into the distance of what seems a wood but is in fact just the overgrowth either side of what once was a railway line.

Looking north somewhere south of Stratford. We’re on a 1960’s-era concrete bridge with low rails. A craggy leafless tree to the right. A barn off in the distance to the left. The sky a vivid blue patched with cloud. The land verdant.

A gravel bike leans against a wall off corn at least ten feet high. A row has recently been harvested, revealing the pale yellow stalks as they are when shaded by their fellows. It’s all stalk to about three or four feet up, then a tangle of green leaves and a fizz of narrow leaders up at the very top.

Yesterday’s ride: #Woodstock via the #Hickson #Rail #Trail

The Woodstock station shown is a historic gem, sadly left to moulder. The bridge abutment is on the Hickson trail, the last remnant of a short viaduct over a creek bed. The longhorns are a bunch of friendly gals near #Harmony.

The bicycle I’m on these days is an #Opus Horizon gravel bike.

#Stratford #Ontario #Canada #cycling #gravelbike #photography

You’re a cyclist looking down the yellow centreline of an empty country road under a blue sky streaked with a sheet of cirrus slightly tinted with diffuse wildfire smoke. A lonely telephone pole at left, a green field at right, a think green stand of trees a kilometre or two off in the distance.

A gravel bike (a robust ten-speed style bike with fatter tires and more baggage than a racing bike) sits under a large multi-paned window below the ornately supported eaves of a railway station likely dating back to early last century. A prominent sign hangs within the window frame proclaiming’Woodstock.’

A concrete bridge abutment rises from a thick tangle of summer greenery beside the Hickson Rail Trail. The trail travels along the right side of the frame and disappears up a short steep hill into the trees beyond. A single sliver of blue sky is visible below some spot ahead we can’t see where the trail presumably continues onward.

Four momma longhorn cows and three of their offspring approach a fence to inspect a visiting cyclist who is not visible because he is behind the camera taking the picture.the grasses in the pasture come up to the cows’ noses. A stand of trees sits in the background under a cloudless sky.

Yesterday’s ride was to the #Hickson #Rail #Trail. A bit rougher than the #G2G, but equally enjoyable.

#cycling #Stratford #Ontario #Canada #photography #gravelbike

A jungle-like scene looking down an old rail trail turned bike path. A sliver of blue sky textured with fluffy white cumulus is just visible between the walls of tangled greenery either side of the single-track path we are riding on.

A puff of cumulus rises in moist hot air over a field split down the middle with yellow hay on one side and 18 inch green corn stalks on the other. It may not be hay on the left, but that’s the best I can surmise. In the distance, a tree line under the clouds over the horizon.

The bars of a gravel bike with a farm country valley in the distance and a gravel road pointing off to the horizon on the left. It’s a hot muggy day and in the photo it looks it. In the foreground, the tall amber grasses typical of many roadsides here.

@f800gecko We discovered this little gem last fall, too. Great ride from #Hickson to #Woodstock. We stopped for lunch at #BrickhouseBrewpub before turning back. Quiet trail, mostly dog walkers out there when we went. We’ll head back out again once the ground is a bit drier lol. #Biketooter #cycling