Get Lost.

I forgot to mention a few details about last night. I brought that umbrella that Nick lent me after the yard sale adventure with me everywhere that day. Sure enough I thought it would be a great idea to take this along with me to the bar. I lost it somewhere that night. I can’t believe I forgot about that whole thing. I guess another damn moment that won’t make it into story mode.

Well today I rode my bike up to Wal-Mart to get a new one for him that would look almost the same. I got on my yellow bike (Tanya) with my Adidas back pack on and rode out at around 17:00 hours to the store. I took a bunch of side streets to avoid doing too many hills and heavy traffic. I made my way around town and darting in and out of various side streets. I had a general direction of where I was going. It was pretty relaxing to just ride the streets in the sun and see what is going on in the neighbourhoods. I was going pretty good getting towards Wal-Mart, but eventually I made a wrong turn and had to turn my bike around and go back the other way. The suburbs in this area are your classic brick houses with trees lining the sides of the road. Chalked up sidewalks from children, old people waving hi to you, and the grown littered with buds from the trees.

I turned onto Sunset Blvd, the connecting street to the Chemong straight. Nothing is too exciting about this road despite its famously stolen name; a few houses on one side, and a park on the other. I go on Chemong and ride on the sidewalk beside the traffic, cars and SUVs zoom past me as I bike uphill towards Wal-Mart. When I get to the top I rode around the parking lot to the very edge because of the elevation you can see almost all of Peterborough from this height. The town looks like a miniature model from afar; everything is shrouded with bubbled treetops with the occasional building popping out, most notably the classic building with a cylinder obstruction for a roof, the ones reserved for important historical buildings.

I walk into Wal-Mart wearing my grey tank top and shorts, plus the usual accessories like shoes, shades and Jays baseball cap. I walk around the store hopelessly looking for an umbrella. I dodge moms with shopping carts and runaway kids in the narrow walkways as I made my way to the clothing and accessory section. I couldn’t find anything remotely like an umbrella so I asked one of the confused workers who eventually asked someone else who lead me to a small stand of where the umbrellas were located. I picked up the cheapest one and took it to self-checkout. After paying for it I went back outside and hopped on my bike to ride over to Nick’s house.

I stopped suddenly on Chemong at the sight of paved trails going either way. I turned my bike to the trail leading west and headed down it. I called up Nick after a few minutes to let him know I am on my way over to his place. “Ok here’s the deal.” He started. “Mikaela kinda recruited me into going for a walk, so I recruited my buddy Mark, and now I am going to recruit you.”
“I’m going to be a while though; I actually don’t know where I am right now.” I said.
I wasn’t lying, I was actually wondering if it was a bad move to go on this paved trail.
“What do you mean you don’t know where you are?” He asked.
“I thought I’d take a side trail to get to your house, but now I am thinking it was a bad idea.”
“Is it paved?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry then, it will lead to my house.”
“Ok, I’ll call you back.”

I continued for another fifteen minutes and actually ended up more West than I should have been. Oops! I recognized Parkhill road so I decided to take that back to the main roads so I can get to Nick’s faster. When I turned onto Parkhill road I noticed another paved trail that spiraled downward on an elevation, with the end not visible. I turned my bike down the spiral and it picked up speed down the curving slow which eventually straightened out and curved back through some woods. I was really going fast at this point but it was thrilling so I continued at the speed. I rode over an all wooden bridge with a roof and jumped off the end of it onto some gravel path. I took this path further going in some unknown direction. I am thinking at this point that I found some path I’ve never seen before, and thought it really cool, so I continued along. I had no idea what direction I was going, but I figured it would take me to a street which I could get off at and then figure out how to get from Nicks from there.

The gravel path was really secluded; to my right the trees were right beside the trail the entire way. I would look inside the foliage as if to see if there was anything to it, but I can derive that it was only condense wilderness. To my left there was a river and often I would pass over a small bridge. I could see some teenagers on the other side of the river with mountain bikes talking on cell phones. The occasional person would pass me on the opposite direction so I anticipated finding a road soon.

No such road would show up though and I eventually had to stop a middle aged woman walking down the trail to ask her if a street was coming up. She asked if I was around here before. I didn’t want to say yes because then she would just think I am stupid, so I said no. She told me there is a street up ahead, so I continued on my way. I see an old couple walking towards me from the opposite direction, I get to thinking that there is no way that these old folks have walked that far and a street was coming up. I nodded at their presence and pressed on. The sun was behind the trees at this point and I could really hear the wilderness sounds all around me. I see a mother walking with two children towards me and I smile as I pass them by. Ok, there is no way that kids would walk that far, there must be a way off this trail into the city. Right?

I see a small stream that made its way across the gravel trail, I jut to the side to avoid most of the water so that it doesn’t splash up on me. I get my tires wet however so I slow down and let the gravel sand collect on the wheels. I turn around a bend and the scenery totally changes. It now looks like a setting from a wetlands brochure with tall whips protruding out of lily pad infested murky water. The water was on both sides of the trail which now has straightened. No road in sight. I call up Nick at this point and tell him about my location and the details. He has no idea where I am or where I am going. I see a couple of girls pass me by on bikes so I stopped one of them and asked them about a road, and they tell me there is one just up ahead. She rushed off to catch up with her friend. I told Nick that I’d call him back.

I ride for another fifteen minutes and get to the end of the trail. I was so relieved to see cars going back and forth on the road. The girls were at the end of the trail too and they asked me where I was going. I told them that I wanted to go downtown. They looked at me with gawking eyes and started to chuckle. “Yeah you have to go back, this road leads to Lindsey.” One of them said.
“You got to be kidding me.”
“Nope, this is the very outskirts of Peterborough.”
The cute one told me about going left will take me to Flemming College, but it’s a long bike ride. They argue a bit about the truth of the directions and eventually come to the same conclusion. I should bike my buns back. Her words, not mine.

I call up Nick to tell him I have to bike all the way back the way I came on the trails. He offers to pick me up, but I wasn’t 100% sure on my location. So I rode back. I started thinking about where that old couple came from, or the mother and kids, cause it was a least 4kms from where I ran into them on the bike. A couple of guys rode past me on motorized scooters which almost deafened me. The bugs were starting to come out and I was actually worried that I wouldn’t beat the night sky. I didn’t bring my LED lights with me on this journey. So I biked as fast as I could to get back to my old location. Passing people again on the way there, over the same small stream, over all the same bridges with the chain linked fence. I get to the park area again after around thirty minutes and see a circle of kids playing a game. I look over to my right and see more paths going all around. I make a sharp right which makes me drift a little on my back tire. I start biking up this trail that was a steep hill. I got about halfway and thought better of it because it would have worn me down. I rode back down the hill and turned to another trail that went deeper into the forest. I figured what do I have to lose?

It actually worked in my favour this time because after passing by some kids I found myself underneath a stone bridge which leads to a park. A park I was familiar with cause it is right near the Rotary Trail which runs through the city. I bike on the Rotary Trail and eventually get to Nicks house. I was so happy I was able to get there. I ran his door bell and he chuckled at my sight. I handed him the Wal-Mart bag with the umbrella. He looks at the bill. “Wow, five dollars, you really went all out.” He said with a laugh.
“Hey man, it looks exactly like the one you lent me.”
He agreed.
I went upstairs and met Mark and we all watched some TV until Mikaela came over, to which we omitted the walk and decided to drive to McDonalds instead.

We pile in Nick’s low-to-the-ground-80s Honda Civic and get to the McDonalds on Chemong Street which is right near the Wal-Mart. “You know,” I said in the car, “I really didn’t think I would see this part of town for a long while.”
We all laughed, they couldn’t believe my story as I recalled it in the car. Nick drops off Mikaela at the Blockbuster and we all go to McDonalds and sit down for some food. We joke, talk about women, and funny happenings. After we finished our meal we laughed at how sick we felt afterwards. We picked up Mikaela at the near DQ, and then drove back to Nick’s house.

I got on my bike and made my way home. Without any shortcuts.