Sun, Aug 8 2010 - Waterfront Trail: Burlington to Niagara Falls (80-100 Km) (View Original Event Details)
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Usually, it is the event coordinator who writes a report about the event. For this particular ride, one of the participants wanted to share his report with us, and here it is. Thanks Will for such a great write-up :)
"We will ride south to Lakeshore Blvd and then take the waterfront trail heading west. This a great trail that often goes besides the water. Bring snacks for the ride; we will stop at Niagara-on-the-Lake for Lunch. We should have enough time to explore Niagara-on-the-Lake a bit before riding up to Niagara Falls train station to take the 7:25 pm train back to Toronto. Total riding time will be around 5 to 6 hours."
I set out with my five cycling mates (cyclemates?) on a somewhat cloudy Sunday morning from the Burlington GO station with the following questions in my mind. Would I be able to finish this ride in the allotted 5-6 hours? Would I be able to make it to the lunch stop at Niagara on the lake? Would we find a decent ice-cream place to stop? It had been a while since I'd done such a long distance cycle and wasn't sure if I had made the right choice, having wanted to purchase a light frame Road bike this year but never quite getting around to it. So what was gonna be, would be.
The ride along the lakefront through Burlington and Hamilton beach was wonderful. Flat, with a great breeze coming off the lake to cut down on the humidity which was starting to build. Part of the trail cut through the quiet residential streets of the villages of Stoney Creek, Grimsby and Winona before following the Service Road paralleling the QEW. This road, although noisy from the car traffic wasn't so bad, and the wind and noise were diminished by the appearance of a noise barrier wall about halfway along that road.
At the Victoria Ave cutoff to Jordan we needed to stop, regroup, and make a group decision. Those who wanted to cycle through the village of Jordan (an extra 6 km added to the route) would cut off here and follow the road south to check out the village. Caroline and Morgan on their respective Mountain and Recumbent bikes opted to continue on, while the other 3 of us preferred to cut through Jordan.
While the somewhat hilly route down to Jordan was scenic, there probably wasn't enough in the village to warrant us getting off our bikes to explore, and since we didn't have the time for a wine tour, we headed back up to the Waterfront trail!
Back on the trail our goal was to stop for lunch in a Port Dalhousie. Much to our surprise and chagrin, we came to an impasse (bridge out over Fifteen mile creek) since none of us were willing to wade into a marsh, back we went to the nearest intersection, then South along that Road to catch the South Service Road Past the creek to the nearest road that would take us back to Waterfront Trail. An added 12 km.
Back on the trail again, we met up with Caroline and Morgan at a small park along the water. They were just finishing lunch and were going to continue on to Niagara on-the-Lake. Lunch!, I should mention that by this time I was feeling quite famished and since I hadn't packed any energy bars could only hope to hold on til lunchtime, a few kilometers away. The Heat and humidity were also beginning to take its toll.
After losing our way a couple of times in the process, we finally made it to Port Dalhousie for the lunch stop at which point the now cloudy skies could not hold on any longer and began to downpour on us and the patio of the cafe where we'd stopped for a bite. No sooner had it started, it stopped ! We finished up our “soggy” lunch and loaded and mounted our bikes for the journey to Niagara on the Lake and beyond!
What more to say about this expedition? The trail was hard to follow leading out of the City of St. Catherines with a lot of detours through streets, however once past the (Welland) Canal it was pretty much clear sailing, I mean “Cycling” along the Lakeshore Road . Another stop at Niagara on-the-Lake for beers and regroup, a couple of more stops at an outdoor fruit stand and to replace the tube on Marianne's tire which went flat, Onward along the well-marked Niagara Trail, beautiful views of the River below, Roadside vineyards, picnic -ers, beautiful trees and shrubs, the Niagara Gorge, the memorable climb up historic Queenston Heights. Even though it was drizzling a bit by this time, the scenery was outstanding.
Downhill now from Queenston, past the Floral clock, the Hydroelectric plants on both sides of the River, we glide into the Niagara Falls VIA station with time to spare (about 50 minutes). Was the 122km ride with all the detours worth it? – Hell yeah! Did I meet my personal goals for the ride? Well, lets see. We were able to eat lunch, albeit not quite on Schedule, and we were able to make it to the train on time– Bonus!
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.