Sunday July 3, saw us cruising from Sugar Beach to Cliffside and Bluffer's Park as a way to celebrate my birthday and miss the hull-a-ba-loo of the Pride festivites downtown. We waited at the foot of Sherbourne Street beside the new water park till 12:30pm for anyone wishing to join us, before heading east on the MGT for the Beaches. After taking a rest at Balmy Beach we joined up with the Waterfront Trail and cruised and mountain-climbed our way up to Kingston Road and Birchmount. I say mountain climbed because after riding on a few residential streets the Waterfront Trail enters into a paved park trail that rises at about a 60 degree angle upwards through woodlands along side what turns out to be Rosetta McLain Gardens. What a blast to come down that trail on a mountain bike but we were on r'bent cruisers and had to push them up the grade! At Fallingbrook & Kingston I spotted a red sign on a post "Monolithic Sidewalk Begins" and a bit further on "Monolithic Sidewalk Ends". We have never seen these signs before and thought, what the heck is a monolithic sidewalk. Now we know, looking it up on Wiki. Continuing on we got to Brimley Road and Kingston Road and had to stop for the stoplight. While waiting, there was a continuous stream of cars coming through the light and turning right at the light going down the Brimley Road hill to Bluffer's Park. The exhaust fumes just hung in the air as they came to a standstill, definately not a place for cyclists to go, so we continued on to Harewood Ave (just past St. Clair) and stopped at Pizza Pizza for a slice (spicy chicken). After soaking up the free air conditioning for a while we went west on St. Clair to Birchmount and down to hookup with Danforth Road then Danforth Ave to Woodbine and southwest on Gerrard to The Tulip at Coxwell & Queen (mostly great donwhills) Since we were not hungry after the downhill cruising from St. Clair, we continued onto the MGT and after a rest stop on the dock at The Docks, we headed for home. A great way to celebrate my birthday, cruising around the city; for sure! 8 hrs, 28km.
