The Goose Lake Road is a favorite early season bike route.   Start at the lower end and park your vehicle near the junction with the Long Lake Road.   The road turns to gravel quickly, but the day I rode it, it had been freshly graded.   In a two hour ride on a weekday, I only saw three vehicles along this quiet corridor.  The first few kilometers wind through grazing land with occasional cows, horses, and grasslands birds in the fields and gullies.   When the road crosses Peterson Creek, there are some wet marshlands below in the gully.   Scaups and mallards kept the blackbirds company.   Meadowlarks called from their perches on top of posts.

The road winds among glaciated hills and ridges not far from the Upper Afton Pits and then the road starts to climb to Goose Lake.   The alkali lake is not very inviting, but the road is flatter here and a few ducks called out as I wheeled by.   At the end of the lake, the big hlll starts, climbing into the forest past the Little Ranch.   Forest and fields alternate until the road enters the forest all the way to the Lac le Jeune Road.   Conditions are much wetter and cooler at the top.

The Goose Lake Road is a 24 km round trip with some good climbs in the first half and a quicker ride back.  Ride the road in 2012 because it will not be so quiet, nor so scenic once the Ajax Mine starts up.  Where will we ride then?