Featherstone Point, ON to Fort Erie, ON.
55.1 miles.
By Victoria Curran.
Our morning began lakeside. While I slowly roused myself, Judd had already set breakfast up for us: Apple cinnamon brioche from the bakery we stopped at along the way yesterday, pour-over coffee made from grounds purchased from Cafe Intelligentsia in Chicago, bagels, bananas, and blueberries from the blueberry farm we'd found. What a delicious feast!
And out in the water were our friends, the Canadian geese. Probably hundreds had taken shelter for the night on the lake in front of the rocks we could see from our tent. All night long they softly talked to one another, and this morning, they picked up the volume as each individual group drew up it's flight plan and synced their schedules before taking flight.
We said goodbye to the geese, then we said goodbye to the four other cyclists who had stayed at the home of the same Warm Showers host as we had. These four started out in Seattle and were headed for Bar Harbor, Maine! They had some interesting tales to share. The couple you see in front got caught somewhere in the Rockies with little food or water one night. Between them they shared a 600 calorie dehydrated backpacking meal (when cycling, 300 calories is nothing) and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter to hold them over for the night. Further justification for my water mantra, I'd say.
We pedaled along Lakeshore Drive for quite a while. It was very scenic and thankfully quite cool as we stayed alongside the lake. Eventually, we headed north for a while on our way to Dunnville where we planned to have a second breakfast/lunch. It was amazingly easy to travel this distance; I must be getting stronger. Plus, the wind at our backs really helped as well. To get to our destination, we had to cross the Great River, which we were told is one of the largest rivers in Ontario.
We stopped in at Flyers, a restaurant recommended to us by our Warm Showers host. Surprisingly, we have no photos of breakfast/lunch, but we both had eggs florentine and Judd also had a short stack of pancakes. (No, I have NO idea where he puts it all). While we were eating, a woman in bright colored clothing and a bandana (sure signs of a touring cyclist) strode up to us and said,
"I see you're eating right now, but I see you're the other touring cyclists here and I'd like to chat with you when you're done." This is just another cool thing about touring; there's an immediate sense of familiarity like we're all part of the same community. On our way out, we stopped by our fellow cyclists' table where we met Judith and Jackie. The conversation usually starts with "where ya headed?", but this one started with my being asked, "are you Erica?" Um, no, why? Turns out that Erica, one of the two cyclists we ran across back in Frankenmuth, and her traveling partner, Chris, had signed in at places where Judith and Jackie had been so they were curious to finally meet them. Since we all tend to travel a similar route, we tend to see one another from time to time and sometimes become friends. And, as our conversation continued with Judith and Jackie, we came to learn that they're from Ocean Beach, just a hop and skip from where we live, how cool is that? So, we'll be meeting up with them some time soon, I'm sure.
After lunch, we pedaled further east in a more or less southeasterly direction toward Stromness. Somewhere along the route between Stromness and Low Banks, I saw this sign and just had to pull over and take a picture.
That's one place I think I can wait to be welcomed to.
Further on, we saw these sweet little cottages. There are actually two sets on opposite sides.
By this time, we had pedaled about 18 miles and were running low on water so we made a stop in Long Beach to buy some water. Unfortunately, the place we stopped at only sells the small bottles which means it's going to cost a lot more than it would if we could buy a gallon. Fortunately, however, the woman working the register took mercy on us as cyclists and charged us a lower rate. Then, she proceeded to sweet talk us into trying one of her "mean" milkshakes. Well, if you've been paying any attention at all to this blog, then you know that we weren't a hard sell and wound up with a salty caramel and chocolate shake, just what we needed to take the edge off this hot day.
We continued on through Burnaby and Camelot Beach before we got to Port Colborne. We'd had a great day so far with the wind at our backs most of the time. We took a left turn and headed toward Friendship Trail which was to take us the rest of the way to Fort Erie where we were to stay for the night. Judd and I had decided that we wanted to take a picture of Clarence Street Bridge that crosses over Welland Canal and it seems that I thought it would be a good idea to take a short cut over a tiny curb that turned out not to be so tiny and over the handlebars I went. Amazingly, I only scraped up the pinkie finger on my right hand. My left shin and ankle hit my pedal pretty hard so I have two big bruises (one in each location) and I landed pretty much onto the right side of my chest with my right hand absorbing most of the blow; now it feels like I got punched in the chest. But, hey, I eventually got the picture of the bridge:
After being completely pampered by my husband who gently cleaned and bandaged my finger and walked me around the parking lot to make sure all was intact, I brushed myself off and we continued toward Fort Erie. I was now especially grateful for Friendship Trail since it meant I could ride in safety without having to think about cars. Or curbs.
And, I was so thrilled to see way up in the branches of a tree that a cardinal had set himself above us for a decent photo.
Finally, we made it into Fort Erie and took in the views.
We then checked into our hotel, the Comfort Inn, and headed to a place called The Barrel for a delicious Italian dinner.
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