by George Dyke…..
September 29th marked Citroën Autoclub Canada’s third outing to the Peterborough Lift Locks – a great destination not only because of the engineering wonderment of the lift locks on the Trent River Canal, but also the route taken whereby participants managed to drive on lovely back roads all the way there from our morning departure point in Richmond Hill.
Those that gathered for the drive included: Angela Fusco, Silvia Basedau, Trevor Cole, Chris Deja, Sietse and Petra Elsinga, Larry Lewis, Herns and Ketty Pierre-Jerome, Jim Sciberas, Roland Voegele, Simon Walker and my wife Marijke.
It was heartening to see Gerald Punnet make it from Guelph and Elizabeth Matthews come all the way from Owen Sound!
Joining us as we gathered at our meeting point was George Klein bringing along the Mazmobile he just completed restoring. It’s a 1982 VISA II Super X that belonged to the late John Mazmanian. It has a very colourful history and George has made an incredible effort redoing the brakes and control arms, fitting nice seat covers and doing a matching colour orange vinyl wrap to the exterior body.
George had to miss the drive for family reasons but managed to accompany us up Leslie St. in Richmond Hill before heading home.
We traveled over to just south of Stouffville on 19th Ave, and then on to Webb Road where we turned north to Coppin’s Corners and made our way east, passing by Lakeridge Ski Resort and taking Townline Rd, which becomes Coates Rd. A left onto Simcoe St and a right onto Shirley Rd and eventually we made it over to HWY 35 and to Pontypool. From there we headed east on Hwy 12 and once we took the overpass to Hwy 115, we dropped down to a lovely road called Zion Line, taking it all the way over to Peterborough Rd 28. Cutting east again on Road 21 we were able to scoot right over to the lift locks.
After a stop for a photo op and to meet up with Angus MacDougald and Kaye Machines who came west from Verona in their SM, and Douglas Ogle and his friend Elizabeth who travelled up from Brighton in a 2CV to meet us, it was time to relax and have some food.
This year Mike Whibbs, a Club member who lives in Peterborough just a kilometre from the locks, invited the us all to a BBQ lunch at his home, a most generous offer as he and his family members were also preparing to roast a pig that would be served to some university reunion friends that evening.
The lunch spread included sausage on a bun from King Street Market, a local butcher shop that makes amazing sausage, in house, from local sourced ingredients. The fellow who runs it is Herb Raglan, a former NHL’er who played the majority of his career for St. Louis. When he retired he came back to Peterborough and opened this little shop. According to Mike he’s the best around hands down!!
After lunch, and thanking Mike and his wife Tara, we commenced part two of our outing for the day which was a drive over to the charming town of Warkworth nestled just east of Oak Ridges. Rolling hills and perfect driving weather made for a beautiful drive passing through Hastings along the way.
In Warkworth we paused to take in the town for about an hour and allow those that were so inclined to do some shopping.
From Warkworth we made our way west on Concession Rd 3 W – a nice bit of curvy and hilly road that let us get a good feeling as to why Citroën engineered cars the way they did. What a great driving experience for me in the GS! Alas, with more tame roads to travel, we made our way south to Coburg for dinner with the group dining at the Mill Pub and Restaurant.
Those going back to Toronto slipped onto Hwy 401 for the 90 minute drive back and with that another fall outing for Citroen Autoclub Canada was in the history books!
It was nice to see that so many many Club members could make it out for the day and get to experience some great roads and camaraderie along the way. It makes Citroën ownership so much more worthwhile!
See a full photo gallery of the day here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskKgK9UW