Saturday August 29, 2015

We started today\’s ride on the Waterfront Trail. The Waterfront Trail was the beginning of our long distance cycling. Eight years ago I had decided I wanted to challenge myself and ride my bicycle every day for a week.  I found the Great Waterfront Trail a one-week fully supported ride from Niagara on the Lake to the Quebec Border approximately 656 kms.

We did the Waterfront Trail in its first year and there were some hiccups, the signage wasn\’t great and the support team were still learning the ropes.    Fortunately we met two Americans on this ride (Anne and Barrie) who told us about GOBA, where we met more great people and learned about other supported rides.

Eight years later we are cycling around the world.

The Waterfront Trail has improved on the signage and the trail itself.

We followed the waterfront trail for most of today through Port Hope, Cobourg, and finally Trenton.

The route varied from paved trail to gravel to on-road on paved shoulders, it is a really nice route.

As we were cycling down the trail I noticed two dogs running loose. Actually only one running, the other was too fat to run anywhere. I stopped and waited until I could see the owner, Ralf cycled past the fat waddling dog, and mentioned to the dog owner that the dogs should be on a leash. The guy got in Ralf’s face about his dogs and how Ralf hated dogs. Ralf said I don’t hate dogs, I just don’t want the dogs to get under my wheels and get hurt. The dog owner was getting really aggressive, I came up and told him to calm down, he backed off and then his bloody boxer dog chased me as I cycled away. Ralf checked the “Etiquette of the Trail” sign and sure enough – dogs should be leashed. Idiot man.

We stopped in Cobourg for lunch and then cycled through the downtown. Both Port Hope and Cobourg have really nice historic downtown areas.

Both Municipalities welcome cyclists.  I think this is due to the increased tourism the Waterfront Trail has bought to the area.

Disaster struck in Port Hope, Ralf’s camera stopped working. He will now have to use the small digital camera that I have occasionally used. We are hoping to get his camera checked out in Kingston tomorrow.

We passed this lovely treed area, which had memorial plaques on each tree.  It reminded me of my Mum\’s \”woods\”.  When my Mum passed away she asked for us to plant a tree in her memory, we planted more than one tree we planted ten trees.

We are staying tonight with an old friend from Ralf’s days in the military. We were in Germany together. Darren welcomed us, it has been over 14 years since we last saw him.  Ralf and Darren spent the night catching up on people they knew.  After a good chat we had an early night, Darren had to work the next day and we were heading to Kingston.