Quest for Beer - 25 Jan 09
 The Long Way To The Beer Store

After a few days of being cooped up in the house because of the flu, it was nice to wake up this morning finally feeling better. As my sweetie Angie was going to be busy up in her art studio all day tending to her paintings, I figured it would be a good idea to go out and get some fresh air on the Ural and pay a visit to a local micro brewery to restock the fridge while I was at it.

It was -20C with the windchill, but I planned my route so as to keep to the well treed back roads in order to stay out of the strong winds and blowing snow. I tucked my new digital camera into my parka pocket and, after suiting up in my usual winter gear, headed out the door at 10am towards the Neustadt Springs Brewery. I had a craving for some of their delicious, dark 10W30 lager that was fast becoming one of my favourites.

Because I had recently serviced the Ural, I pulled over a few km's out of town to check/adjust the rear brake setting. A rather hung-over looking local in an SUV stopped to make the comment that I was "a dedicated rider". Which was a nice change from the usual "crazy bastard" that I normally hear. A few more km's down the road I decided to pull over and take the first photo of the trip beside a rather desolate looking rolling hill. I pulled out the camera and hit the "on" button and... and... nothing. At first I thought the batteries were dead, so I popped open the lid to check them. As I was futzing about I heard a noise approaching from behind and turned to see four snowmobiles riding along the trail beside the road. It would have been a perfect photo op, but the camera refused to light up and they roared off into the distance, cheerily waving as they passed. I figured the camera was frozen from being exposed to the cold in the outer pocket of my parka, so I tucked it into my shirt pocket over the heated vest in the hopes it would thaw out.

A little while later I pulled up in front of the Neustadt Springs Brewery and got the second disappointment of the day; they weren't open until noon and it was only 11am. And the friggin' camera, despite being snuggled up next to a heat source for the last 20 minutes, still refused to come out and play. Great, now I had no beer and no proof of my journey. So I dug out the cell phone and snapped a photo, but as I've never had any great success with it I wasn't anticipating any breathtaking scenes. And about 10km later I wasn't really surprised when I stopped to take another photo and was greeted with a "low battery" warning. I decided to save the power in case I needed to make an emergency phone call, so now I was without a working camera. Or beer.

So, I decided to hot foot it back home to swap the new digital camera for my old, trusty one that has been recording my Ural adventures for well over four years now. A half hour later, I was heading out of the driveway once again for Round Two and heading back to the Neustadt Springs Brewery.

A few km's down the road, I stopped to take a test photo. Success! I retraced my route from Round One and motored along at a steady 70kmh, gawping at the winter wonderland that is Grey County, Ontario. I received many smiles and waves from people in their cars as I rolled along and was totally ignored by an OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) cruiser that went rocketing past at an intersection. Guess it was going to be a good day after all.

I stopped at the same spot where the snowmobiles had passed me earlier, as I wanted to get that shot of the rolling hill. And didn't I hear two snowmobiles approaching from behind as I got off the bike. Deja vu. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera out they were already well past and heading off into the distance (see red arrow). But they waved as they went by.

After they had disappeared, I turned back to the Ural and captured this scene, looking to the West. From this point onwards, the terrain slowly changed to wide open plains on gentle hills which, although spectacular and reminiscent of my beloved home province of Saskatchewan, exposed me directly to the strong and cold winds. While my body and extremities were warm, the wind was constantly flipping up my helmet visor and making my eyes water... and then my eyelashes would freeze to the neoprene face mask, which meant a few stops to clean my glasses and wipe my eyes.

As I was riding along I became aware of a pungent and familiar smell in the air. It was the scent of two-stroke exhaust, so I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with Douk, my four stroke Ural. And sure enough, through clouds of snow I could see two snowmobiles running along the trail beside the road up ahead. I wicked it up to 95kmh and passed them, about 20ft off their port side, just for shits 'n giggles. I was having fun, but was still happy to see the Neustadt town sign finally appear through the drifting snow ahead. The wind was starting to get annoying.

By now it was well past noon, so I was very disappointed to pull up in front of the brewery and discover that it was STILL closed, despite the "We're Open" sign hanging beside the doorway and the Sunday opening hours posted on the door. Maybe they just didn't want to deal with me today? So... no beer for Mikey here, time to move on. I continued retracing the route I had taken earlier, only now the destination had changed - I was heading to The Beer Store in my town of Durham.

On my way out of Neustadt, I made a quick stop in the North end to visit a museum of significant interest to those interested in Canadian politics. Neustadt is the home town of none other than the Right Honourable John G Diefenbaker himself, Canada's 13th Prime Minister. This is the house he was born in, now preserved as a museum.

The plaque on the door was a bit hard to access, as I had to bull my way through 3' of snow up to the doorstep (the museum is closed during the winter months). I'll have to visit here in the spring, as I am curious to see if any of his political history - like that whole Avro Arrow fiasco - is documented here.

 Next stop was the wee hamlet of Carlsruhe, which didn't look anything like its namesake from Germany (Karlsruhe with a "K"). But it was a nice and traffic free road to get there and it had the added benefit of having the wind at my back for most of the trip home.

 And home was a good place to be heading for, as the sky was beginning to darken and the wind was getting even stronger as a snow squall approached from the West.

 One of the attractions of Grey County are the miles and miles of well groomed snowmobile trails, operated by the OFSC (Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs). Many of the back roads in the region are closed to regular traffic so that enthusiasts can take advantage of safe, wide, scenic trails to bomb around on. They are all well signed, too, as this photo shows.

 As tempting as these trails were, it was best that I didn't attempt to ride down any of them. I do not have a trail permit (or a snowmobile, for that matter) and it wouldn't be fair to take advantage of for free what others have to pay for. Not only that, but I'm sure the Ural's skinny tires would make a mess out of the flat surface as they clawed through the crust to gain traction. Still, it would be fun to see where the trails lead to.

 Finally, some three hours after first leaving this morning and 135km later, I finally pulled up to a place where I could get some beer. They don't carry any of the Neustadt Springs brewery products, though, so I had to make do with my usual Keith's India Pale Ale, with a few Kozel (Czech beer) thrown in as an appetiser.

And a few minutes later, Douk was safely tucked away in the garage with his battery suckling on its battery tender, awaiting the next adventure. Sure, we could have saved a lot of trouble and just simply motored over to The Beer Store first instead of heading out on a prolonged quest, but...

...where's the fun in that?

(rides) (home)