Motorcycle Monday: Discovering Canada in One Pair of Pants Page 3

Arthur Frommer (Europe on 5 Dollars a Day) once said, “I will go to my grave claiming that the less you spend the more you enjoy, the more authentic the experience it is, the more profound, the more exciting, the more unexpected.”

Though speaking about travel I think the same is true for life itself and I aspire to live by that philosophy as much as possible.

And as I traveled merrily down a narrow county road on my small motorcycle toward highway 10 I turned left instead of right and enjoyed an unexpected adventure. [link to pg 2 for context]

The following story describing the event was published in The Londoner shortly after I returned home from the trip.

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I barely succeed as nature’s newest traffic cop

An interesting detour or wrong turn can sometimes add spice to a motorcycling trip.

For example, rather than snapping photos of a favourite scene from a familiar vantage point north of Owen Sound in the last week of June, I decided to take the path less traveled (a narrow gravel road I would normally shun) and ride through the very heart of the beautiful landscape.


[A road less traveled: photo GAH]

Ten minutes later I stopped, parked my bike and, after out-racing mosquitoes through 40 metres of bush, photographed views of the Niagara Escarpment seldom seen by anyone other than robust hikers.


[A view seldom seen except by mosquitoes: photo GAH]

The following week, while taking a longer trip to the Ottawa and Algonquin regions, I managed to include not only interesting detours in my travel plans but a few wrong turns and accidental adventures as well (read; I got lost).

At such times the journal I kept seemed to write itself.

On one misguided leg of my journey I unwittingly endangered the life of a giant snapping turtle, and if it never sticks its pointy nose out of the Kawartha Lakes swamp again it has me to blame.

I was happily traveling south (so I thought) through marshland on a straight, flat portion of county road 10 toward Port Hope when I saw a dead animal (so I thought) ahead in my lane. I slowed considerably when I noticed the unfortunate creature was still moving.

As I rode past, however, a healthy snapping turtle, three-quarters of its way safely across the road, peered suspiciously at me through dark, beady eyes.

I carefully braked, turned back, parked at the edge of the road’s soft shoulder and unpacked my camera.

The turtle, aware of my presence, halted in its tracks a few steps from the opposite shoulder.

I took three photos while sitting on my bike, then walked toward the silent hulk for a close up.


After taking one last picture I noticed two cars driving toward us.

Because the turtle had retreated into its 16-inch shell and wasn’t budging I stepped behind it, to encourage it to quickly (i.e. for a turtle) complete the short distance to safety.

Instead, the snapper fiercely turned to face me.

I stepped back in surprise, raised my hand like a volunteer traffic cop toward the first oncoming driver and eventually directed both cars around the stubborn creature.

Realizing I was endangering an endangered species I got back onto my bike.

As I adjusted my helmet I saw two large Mack trucks barreling down the narrow road at full tilt just as the turtle, on fully stretched legs, began hightailing it back from whence he came (unfortunately, the longest distance to safety).

I raised one hand toward the lead truck but it didn’t change speed.

I stepped back off the bike, raised both hands and hoped the turtle wouldn’t get flattened for the sake of my four digital photos.

At the very last second the first driver applied his brakes and both trucks veered sharply into the other lane.

Amazingly, the turtle, undaunted by the squealing brakes and flying dust, stood his ground, raised itself up on three legs and took a courageous swipe at the last passing tire.

When I later returned via the same route (finally heading in the right direction) I didn’t see the turtle.

I imagined it was still swimming toward the quietest corner of the swamp.

***

Once again I salute Ted the Turtle.

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