Day 9 - The longest day - thanks for the tailwind!

miles today: 110 total miles: 441
km today: 177 total km: 711

Today was long - the longest day in terms of km that we will ride on this trip. We got up, did our stretches (with young Liam kinda joining :) ), had some amazing pancakes from Casey and then hit the road at 9am. Thankfully, the forecast was for westerly winds (a tailwind) and sunny skies. We first road through Prince Edward County and climbed a stupid steep (12% grade) hill to get over a little peninsula and catch a short ferry in Glenora outside of Picton. It was cognitive dissonance riding into Picton to catch a ferry (same name of of the town to get the ferry from the south island of New Zealand to the North).

Also suprising was to run into a heap of cyclists who were part of an organized ride across southern Ontario.




It was actually a couple groups who randomly converged which would make more sense if the ferry ran only once a day or something, but this ferry runs every 15 minutes! Anyway, we had nice chats with folks who were riding across all of Canada, riding across Ontario, and us - we were the only ones without automobile support though. The view from the ferry was cool - seeing a couple sailboats - and we soon experienced the transition from Lake Ontario to the St. Lawreence Seaway. The Great Lakes have been present since we left Madison, and now we join their drainage route to the sea. For a hydrologist, anyway, that’s good stuff :).

One of the guides of the Ontario ride rode with us for a while and we had a nice chat. He explained that this road is called the “Loyalist Parkway”, so-named for people loyal to the King fleeing the US after the Revolution. It was a gorgeous ride, mostly flat, and the tailwind was kind! We stopped for lunch in a park and decided it was time to have our first poutine. We shared some and it was a hefty boost for lunch and nice to have something warm along with the amazing sourdough bread from Casey’s mom and our usual lunch things.


The rest of the day was mostly a grind - not too hard, occasional hills, and sometimes glorious views out into the St. Lawrence. We did get a nice 38-mile bike path and even found a lemonade stand - I can never pass those up!


We were the first customers “who were not family or neighbors.” The cost was - free! But they accepted a donation to a food bank. So the single 5-dollar Canadian bill I round-tripped from my last visit to Canada finally got used.

It’s crazy that from some angles, it looked like the Minnesota northwoods or the Boundary Waters out over the water with rocky crags. There were even some buildings on impossibly small islands.

Chandra is cooking as I write and surprising me with something for dinner - I don’t know what. So, I will sign off and go join her now!

p.s. Chandra made black beans and rice with torts and heaps of veggies. So stoked!