Pre-La Tour De Spruce Ride

I met with Spruce Grove Mayor, Stu Houston for a trail mapping ride of the route for Sunday's ride. This would be my first meeting with the Mayor as we'd managed all of the planning on Twitter & Facebook so far. Social media at its best! Stu recommended meeting at Second Cup in Spruce Grove which is right in front of the parking lot where we are meeting on Sunday to start La Tour De Spruce.

I arrived promptly at 3:55 pm, ready to go but Stu had a surprise in mind. He suggested we step inside Second Cup to check out the route he had mapped out and to sample a London Fog. I've never had one but let me tell you that I will be having more! What is a London Fog, you ask? Well, it looks like the below and as far as I can tell it is an Earl Gray tea (Hello Captain Picard!) with plenty of steamed milk and a bit of sweetness - aka: heaven!

We got out the map and had a look. The Mayor had done his homework! The route he had selected traverses many of the areas where I have ridden but there was quite a bit that I had not seen before. Most of my rides are random, go where the Megrims take me. I've never actually looked closely at a Spruce Grove Trail Map. I cannot believe the many trails that I have missed! Here is what we discussed riding tonight & for La Tour De Spruce:

In agreement that this looked like a fantastic route to scope out, the Mayor & I grabbed our bikes and set off!

We rode out of the Superstore parking lot and onto McLeod Ave (that bottom left section of the map above. We headed right on McLeod for a short distance and then took a left into the forest. This area I was familiar with until we reached the 1km mark and veered off to the right along the "shale" trails. These beautiful orange/red trails are a wonderful color contrast to the green grass that grows along the trail and are hard packed enough for a street bike. They offer a wonderful nature ride through the forest.

And that is all the teaser that you get before Sunday's ride! I'll leave it at: It was a fantastic ride that will be tweaked just a bit from the above/below maps - an easy 20-25 km over 2 hours with a visit by the NOW! Radio Trucksicle for Popsicles at the end! If you want info on attending: click here.

Sunday May 25th

Superstore Parking lot - Spruce Grove

110 Jennifer Heil Way

11:45 am meet time - 12:00 pm start time

Ride: La Tour De Spruce

20-25 km at an easy pace - suitable for kids

POPSICLES!! 

We will be met by the NOW! Radio Trucksicle after the ride for free popsicles