Following this I went through Bath, which was nothing like its namesake, but was a cute little town reminiscent of Niagara-on-the-Lake. I made great time to Kingston, my halfway point for the day, thanks to few hills and no winds. Also, coming into Kingston along the water was so beautiful, and once I got into the outskirts of town, a proper bike lane started!
An old friend of mine who I grew up with had reached out to me on Instagram when she saw I was in the area, so I went by the coffee shop she works at and caught up with her a bit which was great! Also, as I was locking up my bike outside the coffee shop I started chatting with these 2 women who were really interested in my trip. Everyone that has stopped to chat after seeing my bike setup has been so friendly.
After Kingston, I said goodbye to Lake Ontario and hello to the St Lawrence as I headed to Gananoque, for a grocery store run. Getting to Gananoque was super simple as the Waterfront Trail just runs along highway 2 the whole way there. There were some rolling hills along the way, but at this point I was getting used to them and how to maximize my efficiency on them.
Gananoque was cute and had some beautiful historical buildings. Following Gananoque, I only had about 30 km left to the 1000 Islands National Park, where I had intended to camp. Leaving Gananoque I immediately got onto the Thousand Islands Parkway where finally there was a separated bike path that went along the water! It was a beautiful route with a view of the St Lawrence and all the islands the whole way. This is what I was expecting for the whole Waterfront Trail!
Finally I reached the park office at 4:45, and it turns out they closed at 4 (seriously what kind of park office closes at 4 in the summer??). I called the main reservations line and the guy said I could do self-registration, but he couldn’t see which sites were reserved or not. All the camping in the 1000 Islands park are on various islands, and I was planning on taking a water taxi over. Not knowing which sites were available or not, I didn’t really want to ferry a water taxi from island to island til I found a spot, so I ended up looking up a campsite that was only 5 km away in Mallorytown. That final 5 km was so steep, and I was spent, but finally I made it to a fancy little campground with a pool and wifi. So I didn’t end up getting to watch the sunset on the St Lawrence, but I did get a pool and a clean shower.
Also, even though it was forecast to thunder all day, it held off until after I finished eating dinner! My coworker gave me a “Protection Eye” from Greece before my trip, so maybe this eye has been responsible for my weather luck. Now I’m just hoping it rains itself out tonight for clear skies tomorrow. Onwards to Cornwall!
Total distance: 115 km
Total elevation: 468 m
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