Goose, Coach LD, 'Bent and I went for a destination ride on the (mostly) paved Humber Trail from its new terminus at Claireville Conservation Area to the Toronto waterfront. I was worried about using my mountain bike with such a strong group so 'Bent and I spent some time last night setting up Princess (my road bike).
Browner, who knows me pretty well, said, "You HAVE a road bike?" I looked back in my AP log to find the last time I rode Princess outdoors instead of on the trainer. It looks like it was the Horseshoe Centurion 50K race in July 2012 - yikes! I worried about whether Princess could keep it together after all that time in the basement but nothing happened except a screw that fell off the water bottle cage, dropping my bottle and leaving my pump flailing. I had worried about more spectacular failures so that was fine.
It was chilly when we started out and I was glad for all my layers. We tried to strike a happy medium between keeping up a decent pace and being polite when we met pedestrians and dogs. Except for the final few kilometres, the trail wasn't too busy. There were several construction projects along the route but we were able to get through, even when signs said the trail was closed. We rode through some muddy, soft sections that weren't great on a road bike but Princess sucked it up.
We arrived in Browner's old neighbourhood by Lake Ontario and had a great lunch at Cafe Cocoa.