Throwback Thursday: Cycling Selfies

I really neglected my bicycle this year.

DW and I got outdoors quite a bit, this summer, as 2020 has been the year to make an effort to get out into the fresh air and keep our distance from those outside our social bubble. And while DW and I got in a lot of walking and kayaking, with the occasional hike outside of our city, we didn't go for many bike rides.

It seems as though, when we did get on our bicycles, we didn't go far. On the occasional Sunday, we would ride from our house to Morning Owl Coffee House, in Manotick, where we would enjoy a coffee and snack before riding home again. Round-trip, the journey would be just shy of 20 kilometres and would be less than an hour.

It's a far cry from last fall, when we would pack up our bikes and head out to the Eastern Townships of Québec, where we would ride the trails and roads through this beautiful part of the country. It's a farther cry from the time before my reconstructive foot surgery, when we were members of the Ottawa Bike Club, and would join groups a couple of times a week for rides that would run anywhere from 40 to 90 kilometres along the backroads to the outlying towns and villages around our city.

Looking back, I miss those rides.

I was looking at old photos of some of the solo rides that I used to do before DW and I joined the OBC. There was one year that I cycled, on my old hybrid bike, from Barrhaven to the Champlain Lookout, in Gatineau Park, and back. On a subsequent ride, a few years later and with my road bike, I worked out a longer route that would take me 100 kilometres to get to the lookout and back, but at the 86th kilometre, I blew a tire and had to call for a pickup (from that day, I made sure to always check my repair kit for spare tubes before venturing out).

One particularly enjoyable solo ride, that I made in October of 2011, had me cycle from Barrhaven, across the Vimy Memorial Bridge, where I made my way, following the Rideau River, all the way to Rideau Falls. On the return trip, I cut through the ByWard Market and followed the Ottawa River Parkway to Lincoln Heights, then to Baseline Station, and down Woodroofe Avenue to Barrhaven.

The trip was just over 50 kilometres. Normally, I would only make one stop on such a ride but I decided to stop every once and a while to snap some photographs before I continued. I seem to recall shooting some video as well, and I think I was planning to make a short YouTube video that would document the trek, but I can't find any of that footage.

But, as I looked through the old photos, I sure seemed to snap a lot of selfies. Here are a couple from that ride.

Happy Thursday!