Lake Ontario, ON

My Watermark is Lake Ontario along the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail in Bowmanville.

The story that had the biggest impact was when I joined the group I now belong to which is the older adults association in the Bowmanville Cycling Club, it has since become the 3C Cycling club. I hadn’t cycled since I was 15 years old so I thought at 59 years old which I was then, 7 years ago, that I would not be eligible but they assured me that I would be. Their motto was, “There’s no hill you can’t walk up, and you will never get left behind.” I very keenly said, well I’m in!

My first ride, we were riding up a hill, Mary one of the leaders of the group, with her husband Jim, she stayed close to me because it was my first ride. I was cycling, breathing very heavily, lost my balance and ended up in the ditch. Whilst crawling out of the ditch, my chin started to quiver and I was going to cry and at 59 years old I was saying, “I think I’m going to cry!” All these ladies at the time, gathered around me and said, “No, no, no! Don’t do that, we’ve all fallen in the ditch at some point and we’re all fine!”

That was my first ride, my first introduction to cycling as a senior and I’ve never looked back and enjoyed it thoroughly. Every summer, we’re out all summer long through until the weather changes, from mid April sometimes until October.

We do a lot of the lake shore trails because it’s a very pretty route and we’re seeing the water, we’re riding and the temperature is always slightly better on a really hot day when you’re cycling along the Waterfront Trail, that would probably be one of my favourites.