Day 3: Presqu’ile PP - Sandhurst Shores

Well as much as I was dreading today, it turned out better than expected!

It was forecast to start raining at 2, so I figured I should try to leave as quickly as possible to beat the rain. I hadn’t seen the beach of the park when I came in, so I packed up camp and ate breakfast on the nearly empty beach.

From there, googlemaps was trying to route me through the Millenium Trail which at the entrance points I saw was pretty rough with loose gravel, so I didn’t really want to go there. So I ended up back on the Waterfront Trail, which is a sham, because it neither goes along the waterfront nor is a trail separated from the road for the majority of it. Anyways, then the road I was on was closed so I had to take a detour, but once I got to Prince Edward County it was really lovely. I was surrounded be vineyards and farms, and the hills weren’t too bad until towards the end of the day. 

Also, it wasn’t until I hit West Quinte Bay that the electoral riding finally changed—it had been the same riding since Clarington, which seemed huge to me. Someone was telling me that some of the ridings up in Northern Ontario are bigger in area than the size of France, but I wasn’t expecting such massive ridings in southern Ontario. 

By the time I got to Picton, it still hadn’t rained, which I was feeling pretty happy about. The town of Picton, “A Proudly Loyalist Town,” was cute, it reminded me of St.  Catharines. They are celebrating their loyalist heritage everywhere there, including naming the main highway Loyalist Parkway and there was a place where you could ride horses and dress up as Americans or Loyalists and I guess reenact some battles. Leaving Picton towards Glenora, where I had to catch a ferry from, the rolling hills started again, and I was already pretty tired. As I was heading up the final hill, I saw a sign that said the ferry was only 750 m away. That gave me the motivation to keep pushing to the top, and as I got there I saw a microbrewery, Lake on the Mountain Brewing Co. That was just what I wanted, so I popped in and got their sour IPA which was delicious and so refreshing. Also the guy that worked there was super friendly, so I left feeling much more energized. 

As I got to the bottom of the hill where the ferry dock was, I could just see the ferry leaving. I missed it by 2 minutes. But it was totally worth the pit stop, and the ferry runs every half hour from Glenora to Adolphustown. It was a quick ferry ride, and I chatted with a few people in the cars about my bike trip. Once we landed, it was only 18 km to my campsite, and it was all flat. 

I arrived to the Pickeral Park RV Resort and Campground, and I was the only tent in the whole place. Walking around and seeing the RV community was so interesting—some of them have built decks and the trailers are massive. I was chatting with one guy who lives in his trailer 6 months a year, but his job is always moving him around, so he was spending a week here. 

After setting up camp, I meandered down to the lake to watch the sunset. It was a tough day, but not at all terrible. Tomorrow is forecast to thunderstorm all day, so hopefully I’ll get a bit more luck and a bit of dry weather. 

Total distance: 98 km

Total elevation: 357 m

Day 2: Darlington PP - Presqu’ile PP

I’ve heard from a number of cycle tourers that day 1 is great, day 2 is tough, day 3 is hell, and then from day 4 onwards your body has acclimatized and its easy riding. 

So far that has been true for me, so I’m not looking forward to tomorrow...

Waking up to hearing the water lap against the shore this morning was great. It took me a bit longer to pack up camp and make breakfast than I expected, but I’m sure I’ll get quicker as the trip goes on. I hit the road around 10, and was aiming to get to my next campground around 4. 

As soon as I left, I was hit with a headwind that would last the entire day, so that made things difficult. On top of that, the signage for the Waterfront Trail is terrible in Clarington, so I ended up having to double back a few times and was constantly having to stop to check my phone. At one point, following the signage for the trail, I almost ended up on an on ramp for the 401. A bit after this the trail abruptly ended and there was a sign for the trail pointing down a narrow gravel pathway that was more suited to mountain bikes than my setup. I went down it, and ended up at a fork with no signs for either direction. Finally I managed to find my way back onto the “trail,” but aside from a few short stretches, most of it was on roads, with barely a glimpse of the water. For a while it ran parallel to the 401, which was not that pleasant. 

Clarington is a weird place. For starters, it’s huge. It ends just before Port Hope, so it extended almost half the distance I went today. It’s a mixture of cookie cutter suburban McMansions on crescents and cul de sacs, and then there’s a bunch of farmland too. It’s got a ton of rolling hills which were killing me combined with the headwind, as I couldn’t get much momentum going down to carry me back up. I was super thankful for my lowest granny gears, but I was going so slow. 

I was aiming to have lunch in Port Hope, but about 20 minutes before I got to the town I decided I was too hungry to keep going so I had a picnic in some random field. 

Port Hope was fine; I was hoping to find a little coffee shop, but didn’t pass any along my route so just stopped at a Tims, and the woman filled my water bottle with ice water which was amazing. But even with the ice, about half an hour after I had left the Tims, both my bottles were already lukewarm. 

After Port Hope, I passed through Cobourg and then Colburn, where I stopped to get some groceries. By this time I was so exhausted, but the provincial park was only 12 km away!

I finally arrive at the park, with no strength or energy left in me. Everything is in pain. And the park is a peninsula. And of course the campground is at the tip of the peninsula. So I keep going. 

I arrive at the campground at 6:30, much later than I had anticipated, and the campground office had closed at 6. So I wrote a note explaining my situation and that I’d pay in the morning, picked a site, and stuck the note in the spot where you’re supposed to stick your permit. Hopefully the park ranger doesn’t come by, and if they do, let’s hope they’re sympathetic!

The park is beautiful, and Lake Ontario seems like an ocean from here. It’s pretty windy which keeps the mosquitos away, and the water is crashing against the shore. 

After setting up camp, I started to make dinner, but as I had my food all laying out and was crouched down by my pan, a goddamn racoon came to try to raid my campsite! I would scare it off for about 5 seconds, turn my back to keep stirring my food, and then it would come back from another side! I finally managed to scare it off for good after about 10 minuets, but not before it got its dirty paw prints all over my shirt that I had washed in the shower and had out to dry. I’m totally prepared for bears, snakes, even coyotes while camping, but I thought I would have left the raccoons behind in the city!

Let’s hope I get through tomorrow ok so I can get into the easy riding part of this trip. 

Total distance: 110 km

Total elevation: 598 m

Day 1: Toronto - Darlington Provincial Park

I have successfully completed Day 1 of this 51 day trip. Starting in Toronto, I headed East along the Waterfront Trail (with a slight detour on Kingston road), passing through Scarborough, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa. 

Once I got back on the trail at Rouge Valley, the majority of the trail went through waterfront parks which was lovely. It was pretty cool seeing the vastness of Lake Ontario as I passed by beach after beach. 

It was also interesting (and slightly terrifying) to see all the election signs in different areas. Although Oshawa had a fair bit of orange, it was a sea of blue from Scarborough to Whitby.

I stopped for lunch overlooking the water right at the border between Pickering and Ajax. And of all the suburbs I passed through, Whitby definitely had the best signage for the Waterfront Trail (in Oshawa, on the other hand, I would have been completely lost without my phone). 

The weather was beautiful and sunny...I couldn’t have asked for a better first day. By the time I got to the park though I was exhausted, and tomorrow’s ride is slightly longer, so hopefully I’ll have the energy to keep going!

Darlington PP is really nice, they’ve got a few camping areas and a beach, which I immediately went to once I set up camp to dip my feet in the water. 

My 3 main takeaways from this park:

-Lake Ontario is still far too cold to swim in

-If I pick a campsite in the “Cliffside” section of the park, I’m going to have to bike up a pretty steep hill to get there

-Showering is difficult when the little shower cubicle is swarming with hundreds of mosquitos. 

Total distance: 82 Km

Total elevation: 438 m

Bronte Creek Provincial Park

Before loading up my bike and heading towards Newfoundland, I figured I should do a practice run first, so I headed to Bronte Creek Provincial Park this weekend for an overnight trip.

I left from my parent's place, but realized I had forgotten my first aid kit at home, so made a quick detour back to my place before heading down to the Waterfront Trail.  It definitely paid off later that I had gone back for the first aid kit.

Leaving Toronto along the water was familiar territory; once I got just past the Humber Bridge, I stopped for a snack overlooking the water.

Going through the various parks along the waterfront I saw the damage of the windstorm from Friday--trees with roots over 2 metres across had just been ripped right out of the ground.

Leaving Etobicoke I passed through a really nice park called Marie Curtis; the Etobicoke Creek cuts through it, and there's a little beach as well.  I got to stay along the Waterfront Trail right up until Port Credit in Mississauga, which was a super cute neighbourhood around the mouth of the Credit River.

Following this, I had to cut up through some side streets, and ended up coming upon a live wire which had fallen due to the wind storm, with a cop sitting in his car in front of it to warn people not to touch it.  Not the most exciting police work, but the cop was friendly and wished me luck on my way to Burlington, where he was from.

Towards the end of Mississauga and into Oakville, the Waterfront Trail signs just led me along Lakeshore Road...not exactly a trail, but it wasn't too crowded with cars.  It led me through the main street in downtown Oakville, which was cute, and I was getting pretty close to my destination, or so I thought.

When I finally arrived at the entrance to the park, there were big signs saying that this was the day use entrance and that the camping ground was at a different entrance. I was starving at this point, so I figured I’d eat lunch in the day use side before continuing on. As I was walking my bike back to the trail after eating, I lost control a bit, as I’m not used to the loaded up weight, and dropped my bike. The gear cog managed to find its way right into my shin, leaving both a gash and a lot of bike grease. 

At this point I was feeling pretty happy that I had gone back and grabbed my first aid kit in the morning. But when I went to clean it, the moist towelettes in the first aid kit were all dried up...so I ended up having to squirt purell all over these dried towelettes, but it did the job. 

As I was leaving the day use side, I asked the park attendant how to get to the other entrance, as google maps had already failed me once. She gave me driving instructions which were definitely not the most direct, and had me going along the major roads with cars whizzing past. So that wasn’t the most fun, but then I finally arrived at the right entrance and got a campsite. 

Everyone else in the park had RVs, including the 2 campsites on either side of me. It was starting to spit rain as I arrived, so one of the guys from the next campsite ran over and helped me set up my tent and throw all my stuff inside before it got wet. His and his family then invited me to have dinner with them in their RV which was lovely. His aunt and uncle had been living in their RV since August of last year and were just travelling all over the US and Canada. They both had also been on many bike tours so had some tips for me!

After dinner they made a campfire to sit around for a bit before the guy and his parents left to go back to Oakville. 

The next morning, the couple in the campsite on the other side of me invited me to join them for breakfast which was also great. So by the time I was packing up my campsite, I hadn’t eaten any of the food I had brought. If this is a taste of what’s to come on this trip, I think I’m going to meet a lot of interesting people. 

On my way back to Toronto, I decided to take a different route back. This was definitely a mistake. Googlemaps routed me through this long suburban main roadway through all of Oakville and half of Mississauga where I was passing strip malls and being passed by very fast cars. Not so fun, but by the time I got to Port Credit, I was able to hop back on the Waterfront Trail. 

Once I got home I was exhausted, but I had a great time and this mini-trip has just gotten me amped up for my big one!

Day 1

Total distance: 70 km

Total elevation: 149 m

Day 2

Total distance: 47 km

Total elevation: 100 m

T-Minus 4 Weeks

I'm resurrecting my blog.  But this time, instead of detailing my adventures through Latin America, I will be sharing my cycling adventure across Canada.

This summer I am planning on spending 7 weeks biking from Toronto to St. John's.  I've never done a cycle tour before, and my round-trip commute to work each day is only 13 km, so this will be a very new experience for me.

My plan is to spend 51 days on the road, and cycle approximately 3,500 km along the way, having rest days in most of the major cities. I'll be stopping in each province's capital city, and will be checking out a number of national and provincial parks.

I am set to depart exactly 4 weeks from today, so I am spending all my free time taking bike maintenance courses, acquiring all the gear I will need, pouring over other cyclists' blogs for tips, and nailing down my itinerary (which I'm sure will change along the way).

Stay tuned for updates!