3 rd ride of the year or how to get lost in your own back yard.

[Marilyn Mason]

> About a week ago my wife and I were returning home from spending Easter at 
> my daughter's place in Penetanguishene.  We crossed the Madawaska River in 
> the Hamlet of Madawaska and I noticed the normally 150 yard wide river was 
> down to a trickle.
> I decided Monday I wanted a close look at this so I jumped on the bike and 
> using back roads I managed to turn the 120 km trip to Madawaska into 200 
> km. The river is extremely low.  I stopped and took several pictures of 
> both it and the Opeongo river which was at a similar level.  I walked out 
> on what was a dock that was about 20 feet long and there was a 10 foot 
> drop to the sand dune below.  There were dirt bike and ATV tracks all over 
> the sand that is normally the river bed.  The water was 75 yards away. 
> The river was about 10 feet wide.  The Opeongo was no better.  What had 
> been 2 islands were treed hills on a sandy waste land with the odd tree 
> stump sticking up from the river bed.  The Madawaska is about 200 miles 
> long, has a dozen or so control dams and 2 hydro electric power dams about 
> 150 miles from where I was standing.
> I headed south to Maynooth to get fuel.  I was going to take the Peterson 
> Road and return home through Bancroft but it was getting late so I headed 
> north on HWy 62 to Maple Leaf.  I decided to take a short cut through New 
> Carlow, and Craigmont to come out at Combermere.  I have always come out 
> from New Carlow on this road and missed taking the turn onto the Boulter 
> Road.  I kept twisting and turning staying on paved roads trying to figure 
> out WTF I was other than being on the Greenview-Musclow road.  I wasn't 
> too worried as I had 400 km of fuel and a paved road that had to meet 
> something I recognized.
> I finally came out at Hwy 62 at Birds Creek about 20 km he other side of 
> Maynooth and 3 km north of Bancroft.  I rode into Bancroft left on Hwy 28 
> at a very brisk pace through Hardwood Lake, then the back roads through 
> Schutt, Jewelville, Latchford Bridge, Quadeville, Wolfe, Cormac Eganville 
> and home in an hour and 20 minutes 122 km.
> It sure beats riding that Stihl 280 brush wacker or my Stihl 290 chain 
> saw.
> Sorry I can't give you a status report on the Peterson/Elephant Lake road 
> Art maybe next time.
>
> Jim