Lake Erie Bike Tour, July 2014 |

Couple of years ago, the Waterfront Trail was extended to Lake St. Clair. We had already traveled the original part, from Port Credit to Montreal so we decided to complete the tour this summer.

We took a Sunday night train from Oakville Via Station to Windsor, then left on our bikes Monday morning back to Oakville. This was a 9 day ride, covering 638 km.

I want to mention some interesting things about this trip – at least for me. First of all the train ride. It was noisy, rough and slow, compared to European trains, but the people were very interesting – very different type of travelers than you get in the airports. We sneaked a bottle of wine on, and drank it out of Starbucks cups. Tasted very good like that ( or maybe it’s just the contrabandist factor that made it so good! )

Living in the GTA, as cyclists, we’re always very nervous with motorists, who seem to think that we don’t pay our taxes and shouldn’t be using the roads. But all along the Lake Erie shore, on fast moving roads such as Hwy 3, the motorists were very considerate. Almost every time, when 2 motorists were approaching and passing where we were, the one behind us would slow right down and let the other through before passing us. This really restored my faith in Ontario motorists, but people down there are much more laid back. I always wave thanks to a motorist who does something like this, just to show my appreciation.

The weather was mostly perfect, but on the 60 km ride from Port Burwell to Port Dover, we had a lot of rain. We got about half way on the bikes, then managed to get lifted to Port Dover by a woman in a pickup truck. Cheating, but worth it on that day.

One of the things I did for the first time was map out all the LCBO’s along the way. This really paid off, as we were never without beer and wine. The food along the way was a little too deep fried for us, but we had a lot of Lake Erie fresh fish, such as Perch and Pickerel, which was great. Apparently, Lake Erie has the largest fresh water commercial fishing in the world.

Last year, when we cycled the German Danube, I had quite a lot of knee and hip pain, and was a little worried about this trip. However, absolutely no pain on this trip! I attribute this to all the Yoga I’ve been doing since last fall. I think that Yoga, weightlifting and cycling are the answer. It confirms my life-long belief about personal health – “If you’re not feeling great, then you’re not doing enough pushups!”

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