FROM GUELPH TO GODERICH on two wheels
How riding the 132-kilometre rail trail became an exercise in friendship
It’s pouring rain. The storm has already lasted an hour, and we are well and truly wet. We stand with our bicycles at the intersection of two rural roads; all we see are trees, and the roads stretching ahead of us. No houses. A single car passes us, carrying a Mennonite family home from church. Our phones, with their weak cell signals, offer no guidance.
We’re lost
On a sunny day, we might have appreciated the beauty and seclusion of the spot. Instead, soaked, dirty with road grit and tired from a poorly signed 10-kilometre detour laden with hills, my two friends and I offer one another what good friends should in this situation: a chance to stop the ride altogether, 15 kilometres from our goal — Lake Huron and the end of the Guelphto-Goderich rail trail.
But this is my fourth stage of the 132-kilometre trail, which I’d started at the Marden Tract, just outside Guelph, earlier in the summer. This is our chance to finish the route, which, until this point, has been fairly straight and flat.
We agree to press on
In recent years, I’d taken to seeing more of Ontario — and improving my fitness — by hiking and biking long-distance trails. I’d walked the entirety of the 121-kilometre Avon Trail, stretching from St. Marys to Conestogo, completing it in 2020. This year, it was the G2G. But if it weren’t for the women who accompanied me at every stage, I probably wouldn’t have done it.
Rail trails are excellent for those of us whose bodies are failing us, or who only play at being outdoor enthusiasts. They’re flat (mostly), straight and wide enough to cycle side by side. For me, riding the G2G from end to end was more than just exercise; it was an exercise in friendship.
None of the women who came with me are particularly fit or frequent bikers.
All of us are over the age of 50. But we enjoy the camaraderie and conversation as we leisurely roll through beautiful countryside, along the backs of Mennonite farms and at the edges of small towns.
From the first kilometre to its last, the G2G has many moments of pure pleasure.
Canopies of trees shade the route, and birds sing to you through the distance. Occasionally, a bridge guides you over a burbling creek, or a much wider river. The path takes you along cornfields planted within a few feet of the trail. Silos, painted bank barns and neat houses, with carpets of flowers in the garden, pepper the fields of wheat, hay and soybeans. Sometimes, cows or horses greet you from behind a fence.
As I cycle, I imagine the trains that carried the cargo and passengers from Guelph to Goderich, disappearing into the trees, announcing their approach at each road. I imagine the trains pulling into the little towns we pass through — Elmira, Wallenstein, Monkton, Walton, Blyth, others — as they built up around the railway.
The G2G passes backyards with secret gates, and I revel in all the wildflowers en route. The rest stops and vignettes that private landowners have created for trail users are whimsical, gestures of kindness just when I need a break.
As the trail rises towards Lake Huron, the hills become long and steep. By the time my friends and I finally reach the beach in Goderich on that wet day, we’re so tired after our 50-kilometre leg, we barely have the energy to high-five one another for completing the trail. Soon after, though, over burgers and fries, we begin planning another rail trail adventure for next summer.
We’re looking forward to seeing who comes along for the ride.
Rail trails are excellent for those of us whose bodies are failing us, or who only play at being outdoor enthusiasts