Wednesday September 2, 2015

Finally we have left Ontario. After 33 days and over 2,500 kms we are in Quebec. We spent 29 days and cycled over 1,600 kms in Texas. Although Texans say their State is big, there was only one day where we had to cycle over 80 kms because there were no services. In Ontario, we had to cycle over 80 kms most days because there were no services.  We are looking forward to doing shorter distances again, maybe 60kms to 80kms.

We left Cornwall at 8:15 am heading towards Quebec. We saw this interesting new building utilizing the old red brick building and building new behind as we were leaving Cornwall.

The weather was foggy again, because we are so close to the St. Lawrence River.  In the fog this island looked like one of the large container ships that go up and down the St. Lawrence.

Today was another lovely ride, so much so I was thinking about carrying on after we got to Halifax. Take the ferry from Yarmouth to Portland Maine and head south to complete the square of North America. The weather might be turning against us though, we will see what happens as we cycle through September to Nova Scotia.

We stopped at a gas station and McDonalds and I chatted to a lovely older lady who said she had almost given up riding at 70! Her husband wanted to buy her an E.Bike but that didn’t wash with her until she saw the power assist bikes. It helps her go up hills and against the wind, and she continues to do 30 to 50 kilometres a day with a little help.

We also stopped and chatted to a couple of Quebec Touring cyclists who were heading into the wind, towards Brockville. A short trip from Montreal and back. As we were telling them about our trip he kept saying “Tabernac”. They were a really nice couple also in their 70’s. I have noticed that cyclists do not look their age.

The Route Verte (Green Route) is  a series of cycle routes that criss-cross Quebec.  There are 5,000 kms of cycle routes that are incorporated into the Route Verte.  We will be following Route Verte 5, all the way to Quebec City.

This first route called, the Soulanges route, was well signed and the signs indicate where the services are along the route (in French) but with pictograms they are easy to follow and understand.

The bike signs on the bike paths are a bit unusual, the bikes look as though they have two sets of handle bars and no seat.

We joined the route Soulanges it follows the Canal path and was really nice.

We stopped at a grocery store and Ralf went in to get some sandwiches for lunch. There was bike parking outside of the grocery store – similar to the ones we saw in France.

This is where I gave myself a chocolate milk shower. Ralf had very kindly unscrewed the lid of the chocolate milk. I had not seen him do this and he only usually unscrews a lid for me, if I cannot do it. I grabbed the container and began to shake it, chocolate milk shower!! Rather messy, after the initial shock, I asked him why he had unscrewed the lid, response “I was just trying to help”. As it was a warm day I went into the washroom of the grocery store and rinsed my top, it was dry by the time we got to the motel.

We are staying at a small motel in Coteau du Lac, I had to wash my shorts and top because of the chocolate milk shower, the weather was hot enough to dry them. I had sent out a few warmshowers requests for Montreal, as usual whenever we request warmshowers in a big city we usually strike out. We will be staying at the Youth Hostel in Montreal, which we always enjoy.

Tuesday September 1, 2015

Another great ride today, although we didn’t have the off-road cycle path we did have wide shoulders for most of the day. It was a very misty start to the day, which made cycling along the river very pretty.

Ralf is getting used to using his old camera again and not doing a bad job, but I think he misses all the extra features that his camera has to offer. This tower was a windmill and the Village had some lovely stone buildings.

This blue church dates from 1845, the first Methodist church on this site burnt in 1840.

Although we had scrambled eggs and toast at our warm showers host, we stopped at 10:30 for a second breakfast which kept us going all the way to Cornwall.  This mural was on the side of the Canadian Legion, really well done.

After we left the café the sun was out and it was getting quite warm. Today is the first of September, can you believe the leaves are changing colour.

We opted to follow the Waterfront Trail along the Causeway and could have camped along the St. Lawrence. However, it was 30 degrees and humid.

The ride along the causeway was very pretty and we stopped in at the Lost Village Museum. To create the St. Lawrence Seaway they flooded several villages and moved the villagers to other locations.

We were told that there were motels along the road going into Cornwall which were reasonably priced and clean. We picked a cheap motel but it was not so clean. You win some and lose some.

As we came into Cornwall we noticed a sign that indicated “Bait Cars” were in use. There is a high rate of vehicle theft in this area. Ralf was warned to keep an eye out for our belongings while in Cornwall. We generally do, and our bikes are always in the motel room with us.

Monday August 31, 2015

We were late leaving our hosts in Kingston but it was a great ride. Leaving Kingston and finding our way back on to the Waterfront Trail was a bit busy with traffic. As soon as we got to the outskirts of Kingston we had a paved shoulder and Highway 2 was fairly quiet.

We passed this wood carvers place, usually there are bears and Indian figure heads, this time there was a Viking (for Melinda).

He also made wooden sheds and what I think is a sauna and hot tub!

We arrived in Gananoque at lunch time and headed towards the Tim Hortons. It was really busy with a lot of people wearing blue and support Stephen Harper badges. This was going to be a shake hands and kiss babies Tim Hortons stop for Stephen Harper on the campaign trail. We opted not to wait for him to arrive and headed out. A couple told us to make sure we take the right turn out of Gananonque as it had a good cycle path.

It had an excellent cycle path, 45 kms of off-road paved cycle path, what more could you ask for. The scenery was lovely along the Thousand Islands and the St. Lawrence River.

I think you can still buy your own island along this section of the St. Lawrence.

I saw this wonderful old stone house, which I thought would make a great Bed & Breakfast or Peddlers Rest. It would need a bit of work, but I am sure it would be lovely, it had a great view of the St. Lawrence River.

Chris, my friend asked me how we spot \”giant\” things.  Of course we are going slowly enough to see things motorists don\’t.  These giant rubber ducks were up a driveway to a campsite.

This big turtle was wandering across the cycle path.  He was the size of a dinner plate, so prehistoric.

Brockville has a nice downtown and the historic homes are well maintained and lovely.

We stayed in a century old house and it was lovely. We had the attic, which was a bit warm, but we had an air-conditioning unit which cooled the room down before we went to sleep. Mike and Dianne have travelled extensively with Mike’s work. It was nice to chat to them about where they had lived and the attitude different countries had with regard to cycling.

Dianne had to be up for work early, we were able to have an early night.

Sunday August 30, 2015

As we left Kingston today we noticed that there were signs for a road race. We saw more police cars today than we have since we entered Ontario! We came to an intersection where a police car was waiting to direct traffic. He warned us to get off the road if we saw the bike riders coming up the street. We were watching for them coming, they had a lead vehicle and after the main group of about 50 riders passed us we carried on our way.

As the race group passed us, we rang our bells and shouted Allez Allez, a few of them smiled and I overheard one fella say “they were the two we saw yesterday”.

We stopped at a Tim’s for a snack, and were chatting to a couple from Florida. A telling statement from them – they had seen us cycling and said “it is so nice to see fit people, we haven’t seen many in Ontario” We agreed with them, there are an awful lot of overweight people in Ontario.

It was a nice ride today, the weather was good and the shoulder was paved most of the way into Kingston. I had found a Henry\’s Camera Store on-line last night and we headed for the mall. Ralf’s camera has gone to the repair shop and hopefully it can be fixed. The thing would not turn on, so the store could not do a diagnostics on the camera.

While Ralf was inside the store I was chatting to people outside. There is always a lot of interest in our bikes and gear.

Arrived at warmshowers host and played with the kids in the garden, I can still do cart-wheels, head-stands and forward and backward rolls. The kids were great fun, although as is typical one always ends up taking something the other wants and tears follow.

When we contacted Dan he had told us that the basement was being painted and we could sleep in the living room. We were getting our sleeping mats out when he suggested that maybe it would be better if we slept in the basement, we would probably get a better sleep and not be disturbed by the children waking up at 6:00! Good call Dan.

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.

Friday August 28, 2015

After a wonderful nights sleep, it was so quiet and peaceful. Marg cooked us a wonderful breakfast. Ralf had gone to take some photos of the farm and Carm took him for a quick tour of the farm.

We said our farewell to these wonderful people.

We headed out at 9:15 a.m. it was a lovely route today, rolling hills and lovely scenery. We cycled through the Township of Scugog, Meridian worked in this Township for years, I had to cycle through the Township just to see what it was like. We stopped in Port Perry for lunch and chatted to a few people about our trip.

We then headed out to Bowmanville and Clarington.

We got to Bowmanville around 2:00 pm and decided to call it for the day. Ralf called a few motels and we cycled towards Hwy 401 to the 5^th Wheel Truck Stop. The 5^th Wheel had a motel and we opted to stay there the night. It was clean and considering the location right next to the 401, fairly quiet.

Thursday August 27, 2015

A very late start, we left Melinda’s at 10:30 am! We didn’t get as much stuff done as we should have done over the last two days and I was frantically sending emails out to warmshowers hosts and double-checking the route.

The weather looked a bit grey although the forecast wasn’t for rain.

We headed out on Huronia towards Cookstown and then down to Bradford on County Road 4.  Again, this was an area we were familiar with and forgot to take pictures. We got to Bradford and stopped at the Vintage Car place. Both of us wandered in, me to see the bikes and Ralf to see the cars. Ralf said, all the times we passed this place on our Lake Simcoe Ride and we never came in – we are on a world trip and we stop in!

County Road 4 was busy and had a bit of a paved shoulder, as we headed out of Bradford. It was a lovely ride with some rolling hills and really pretty scenery of southern Ontario and farmland.

We stopped near Newmarket for lunch. I had been thinking that as we were in Southern Ontario people might not be as friendly as other places we have been.

As we cycled towards Mount Albert an older fella stopped us and asked us if he could chat to us. He was a touring cyclist, although he didn’t camp, and he was interested in what we were doing. We chatted to him for a while, I guess I was wrong in thinking people might not be as friendly.

Time was passing, and we still hadn’t found the campsite. We passed the Lions Park near Mount Albert and considered wild camping, it had a couple of toilets, and we figured we could hide the tent behind some trees. However, we opted to carry on and find the campsite in Sandford.

We were almost at the campsite and an older fella were asked if we had been in Collingwood on Sunday. We stopped for a chat and invited us back to the farmhouse for a drink. We hummed and ahhed and said we should really find the campsite. He said we could pitch the tent at the farm. We said o.k. and thank you for the offer of a drink.

By the time we got to the farmhouse he offered us a spare room. As we arrived at the back door, he called his wife (Marg) and told her they had company and we would be sleeping in the “girls” bedroom.

After dinner of roast beef, fresh corn, beans and potatoes (all from the farm) we spent a great evening chatting to them, both of them had a great sense of humour.  Carm said that the campsite we were going to stay at used to be a nudist camp.  He couldn\’t understand why anyone would be nude in the spring and summer in Ontario – too many mosquitos and blackflies. We chatted about farming, he has 200 acres of corn, soya beans and used to farm cattle.

Carm is 81 and Marg is 79 they look about 60ish.  They have a place in Collingwood where they go to relax, the bike in the summer and ski in the winter. Both of them are avid skiers (downhill) because “cross-country is too hard work”.

Kindness of strangers. – unbelievable.

I had been thinking that as we were heading south and towards more populated areas, we might not have as many “act of kindness” Was I ever wrong.

Tuesday and Wednesday August 25 and 26, 2015

Two great rest days in Barrie; meeting friends, drinking, eating and relaxing. The bikes got cleaned, the washing got done and we were able to plan the route for the next few days and get resupplied.

Thanks Melinda for letting us stay with you, it was great. For those I didn’t get to see on this short visit, we will be back in October and catch up with everyone.

Monday August 24, 215

We left Aynsley’s place at 8:30 a.m. and headed on the Collingwood-Stayner Rail Trail. The trail was packed limestone the same as the Georgian Trail, although not as wide as the Georgian Trail.  Thank you Aynsley for having us stay at your place.  Maybe we will buy a unit in your condo block and live in Collingwood.

The trail finished in Stayner and we had to join Highway 26. Highway 26 is a busy road, with a variable paved shoulder. The traffic wasn’t too bad, but it was nice when we got to County Road 10 and headed towards Angus. We know these roads as they were part of our training routes. There was one good hill to climb towards Mapleview and then we were at Melinda’s place. We stopped off at the Polski Deli and grabbed a couple of sandwiches for lunch.

Melinda had told us how to get into her house and we were able to get settled into the spare room, we did some washing and relaxed.

When Melinda got home from work we chatted and I caught up on the news from MHBC.

Sunday August 23, 2015

Up and away at 8:00 this morning heading towards Collingwood and my friends place. Aynsley and I used to work together at Meridian Planning.

Owen Sound has some lovely old buildings.

We passed the intersection of 10^th Street East and 4^th Avenue East which is nicknamed “Salvation Corners” for the four limestone churches that are in each corner of the intersection. One block west lies “Damnation Corners”, once the location of four notorious taverns.

We had a good ride on Hwy 6 the shoulder was variable but the traffic wasn’t too bad. There were some nice rolling hills before we got to Meaford. Meaford is the start of the Georgian Trail, it has a crushed limestone base and is a nice route to follow. However, we had opted to stay on the road as we knew it would be quicker and we have cycled the trail a few times.

We cycled into the harbor area and I passed a couple of cyclists. Jorrie (I hope I have spelt that correctly) commented that I looked as if I was going a long way, I told her Nova Scotia and carried on cycling. Usually I would stop and chat, but Ralf had headed out of the parking lot a different way and I had to catch up to him.

We arrived in Meaford and were looking for somewhere to have lunch. It was still a little early and Ralf remembered a place to eat in Thornbury so we carried on for another 13 ks. The Meaford area is a large rural area that grows a lot of apples – hence the big apple.

Thornbury had a farmers market, it looked like it might have a food stand, but they had veges and plants but no food for cyclists. Jorrie and her partner John spotted us and asked if they could take a photo of us. She said after she had spoken to me in Meaford they were trying to catch up with us on the trail so that they could talk to us. She invited us to stay with them in Mississauga, but we are not going that way. The kindness of strangers again, it would have been really nice to sit down and share a glass of wine with her and had a good chat. Jorrie bought us ice-pops instead.

While we were chatting to Jorrie the lady at the ice-pop stand asked a few questions. Her husband arrived with their son and he has a Marinoni as well – nice bike. She told us that the highway near Collingwood is down to one-lane and gravelly due to road widening and we should really take the Georgian Trail from Thornbury. We often take the advice of locals and the trail was hard packed it was a nice ride all the way into Collingwood.

The place Ralf had remembered was no longer there, we headed out of Town on the trail and spotted another roadside café, which had bikes outside. We had a really nice lunch and then carried on along the trail.

The trail has a really good hard-packed limestone base and is easy to ride on with loaded touring bikes. I wouldn’t want to ride on it after a rain, but when it is dry it is nice. There were a lot of other cyclists and runners out on the trail and we greeted everyone with a happy smile.

We arrived at Aynsley’s condo at about 4:15. We inspected the bedroom, bathroom and general facilities before agreeing to stay with her. It passed with flying colours.

Aynsley has a huge shoe selection and we always joked with each other about our shoe preferences. Mine are flat and comfortable, Aynsley’s are heeled and fashionable. We have the same shoe size and I had to try on her newest selection. I could not walk in them. My sister (Wendy) and niece (Kelly) have the same love of shoes.

We had a lovely stay with Aynsley and caught up on all the news of the people we know. We tried not to leave Ralf out of the conversation too often, but it did happen, sorry my love.