Upper Hook

The Great Lakes have been lovely, but we are moving on. I will remember the breath of the Great Lakes: rich, heavy, but often carrying a whiff of sewage.

As we cycled along the north shore of Lake Erie, we asked Google maps fifty times what is the shortest way home. The message was always to continue along to Niagra Falls and then take the Adventure Cycling route through New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. I have some questions about Google Maps’ algorithm. A perfectly good alternative is to trace the north side of Lake Ontario and travel along the St. Lawrence River and then down to Maine, with the advantage that you avoid three mountain ranges and you see Canada. Another puzzle is that no matter what towns we entered into Google Maps, the route would suck us up into Montreal, an urban sprawl we were sure we wanted to avoid. We couldn’t decide and couldn’t decide. One day we met a young couple cycling the other way with heavily loaded bikes. They were from France and didn’t speak much English. I asked where they were going, and the woman said “The world!” They were taking two years to bike across Canada and down to South America. Their only references were highway maps. We realized we’d be just fine finding our own way. And then Brigitte very sweetly sent an email extolling the vitues of biking in southern Quebec. We decided commit to cycling the north shore of Lake Ontario and then down the St. Lawrence River to Cornwall, Ontario. Once there, we’d figure out the rest. It’s been fine:  we like being in Canada, and we’ve had little trouble patching together a route. 

This map is all I have: we don’t progress along it very fast because it’s at such a small scale.
 Mark has his phone mounted on his bike stem and thus took over as navigator. Following a digital map isn’t ideal: sometimes he swerves around the road while fussing with the phone. We’re using a great app: MAPS.ME. Thank you to Noah and Hania for introducing us to this free, open source tool. You download granular maps for no cost when you have wifi, and then as you travel a pointer shows you where you are. The app doesn’t eat into your cell phone data, consumes very little battery, and works even when there’s no cell reception. 

We committed to this Canadian route but started off with a mistake. We tried to take a shortcut from Port Dover on Lake Erie to Hamilton on Lake Ontario. Every truck in western Ontario must have been on that road, and there was no shoulder. We braved most of the way and then simultaneously freaked out. Fortunately there were lovely country roads just off the busy road, and we jogged and jogged our way into Hamilton. The next morning was frightful too, unfortunately. Hamilton includes an escarpment that drops precipitously to Lake Ontario. Our descent on a double lane highway with no shoulder left me shaking and blubbery. But then, wonderfully, we got to the lake and the marvelous Waterfont Trail that follows the shoreline all the way through Lakes Erie and Ontario and along the St. Lawrence. The route is a patchwork of dedicated bike trails, country roads, and occasional busier roads. There are signs, though occasionally some are missing. Some of the sections are just roughed out. Here we are skirting a nuclear plant. (I was astonished how close they let you get to this string of nukes on Lake Ontario.)

Every time we’d see a Waterfront Trail sign, we’d cheer right up. Here’s a doubly pleasant sight. How easy it is for towns to make cyclists feel appreciated just with a sign.

It was thrilling to catch our first glimpse of Toronto.

Toronto was very busy but also very bike friendly.

For all the delights of the Waterfront Trail, home is calling more and more loudly. Suburbs extended 50 miles east of Toronto, and we grew impatient with the jigs and jogs the Waterfront Trail has to make around housing blocks and commercial strips. We started looking for the direct route. Sometimes that has meant a charmless big road, but we’re clattering along anyway. Oshawa, Napanee, Kingston, Gananoque … Mark is not one for stopping. At food breaks we check our phones for how many miles til Maine (and for who’s in and who’s out at the White House). Tomorrow we reach Cornwall. The end is getting close: we can certainly do this. When we pass an Enterprise Car Rental office, I no longer have to suppress the thought that we could just pick up a car and get along home.