The skating day trip to Rondeau Provincial Park.

Candy picked me up at around 8 am (May 13th) and we headed to Rondeau Provincial Park. It was a three hour drive from my place. When we got there, Eric and Jacky looked like they were in the middle of break after some skating. Candy and I put our skates on and we started skating all together. The trail, which goes around the park, is so smooth, and it was perfect weather to skate. As I skated, I enjoyed fresh air and the sight. The trail was 15k long. We ended up all together for the first lap.


Eric told us we took a turn for pulling after 50 left leg stride right after we started skating for the second lap. When it was my turn, I just paid all attention to counting strides and focus on basic techniques, but I didn't notice that the pace was not good enough to skate all together. Thus, Candy dropped out and skated back to the starting point, where our camping site was. I pulled the pack again and I kept the same pace as before. However, I didn't think about the fact that Jacky had skated a lot since last Thursday. The pace could be tough for him. Thus, Jacky dropped out as well. Eric and I waited for him for a while but he didn't seem to join us again. We just kept skating, just two of us. We pulled the pack longer than before. Skating behind Eric was quite good. His cadence and mine were almost the same. So we ended up with quite a fast lap. Technically, I didn't focus on DP because I recently noticed that I lose some power when I push with my left leg because I transfer my weight to the right side before I finish my push. Basically, it is brutal. The last moment of push is very important; it makes most of the speed when we skate. Moreover, my left leg is stronger than my right one. As I skated with Eric, I just focused on fixing that problem and I felt really good. In general, I really enjoyed skating there. After 2 laps of skating, we had lunch. I brought Bulgogi and Kimchi, so we had Korean cuisine, kk. After the long lunch, we took a long walk and hit two beaches. Rondeau Provincial Park looks like a small peninsula surrounded by Erie lake, which is one of the Great Lakes. The first one we went to faces to the land, so it has a quite calm atmosphere.

The other side of Rondeau looks quite different because it faces to the main lake. It appears to be the ocean. There are wind and waves and a long wide beach. The lake is so huge, so I couldn't see anything from the other side but horizon. Since I came to Canada, I have realized that I love nature. Whenever I spend time in nature, I feel so calm and comfortable.

After the long walk, we just sat down and talked, and Jacky started packing. When he finished packing, we talked about skating techniques for a while, and then Jacky and I took off at almost 7 pm and we got back to Toronto at around 10 pm.
It was quite a long and memorable day. I really enjoyed skating and everything there. I hope I can go there again this season.

The photos:click here