Grand River Trail: Freeport to Blair

Last Sunday, I took some photos during my run along the Grand River with full intentions of creating a blog post later that night or at least the next day. This didn’t happen, of course, as it is now a week later and I am finally posting. Better late than never, right?

Let’s see if I can remember any of this run… it was a point to point run starting at the bottom of Kitchener, and ending up in Cambridge.

There were many people out and about on the trail that day; I saw cyclists, walkers, and runners (although not many runners). The nice weather and the fact that the new pedestrian bridge had just opened up 2 days prior were probably big factors in the numbers that were out. I’m sure in a month or 2, I’ll see a lot less people out there.

All in all, it was an enjoyable run with good weather and nice scenery. I will leave you with some photos.

I had to take a photo of the giant house that is being build backing onto the trail. It’s huge!

These next 2 photos are of the new pedestrian bridge that connects sections of trail on either side of the river.

Not too long after crossing the pedestrian bridge, I had another bridge to cross, but it was over something much less scenic: the 401.

On the other side of the highway, I found a new section of trail that I had never run on before. These last few photos were taken there. As you can see, I took a wee break to enjoy the view.

The Flat Lands of Eastern Ontario

As I mentioned yesterday, I went for a run on the roads around my parents’ house and took some photos.

I think the title of this blog post says it all.

Heron flying just above the water.

Labour Day Weekend:

I was in Eastern Ontario for the long weekend, attending a family reunion. While there, I went out for a few runs. The first one was just a short run squeezed into Saturday morning. I ran an out and back totalling 4.3 km. I knew I wouldn’t get a chance to run again later that day, so I just wanted to be sure I got some sort of run in that morning. It was a decent run. It was clear and sunny, but not too hot.

On Sunday, we had some family events during the day, so I decided to plan an evening run that would allow me to finish along the river at sunset and hopefully see some pretty skies over the water. I decided to take my phone along and take some photos during the run.
I ran 20.4 km on Sunday, mostly all in view of the St Lawrence River.

I started my run from a park in Cardinal, Ontario, right on the river. I decided to take a quick photo before starting my run, so here it is:

I headed west from my starting location, down the road a bit, so that I could enjoy some of the water from a quieter road than the highway I was about to be running next to.

One of the things I enjoy about running along the river in this area, is the water on both sides of some of the roads and paths.

The area is popular for diving as there are shipwrecks and lost villages at the bottom of the river.

I ran from the village of Cardinal to the Village of Iroquois (where I went to high school).

Then headed back toward Cardinal, where I had left the car.
There were interesting views and also historical sites along my route.

Apparently I watching the geese too much and was was running too slowly because the road had a message for me to race faster.

The coloured part on the rocks of the below photo used to be a Canada flag pained on the side of the canal. As you can see, it has not been painted in a long time and more than half of it is now covered in plants.

The timing of my run worked out quite well, as I arrived back at the park, I saw the sun setting and beautiful colours were filling the sky.

When I got back to my parents’ house, the sun was still setting beautifully, so I took a quick photo of the setting sun over the corn field.

I went running yesterday (labour day) as well, and I headed out with the phone for some pictures again, but since I have so many photos from from Sunday’s run to share today, I will post Monday’s photos tomorrow.