Cycling Outside Waterloo Region

[Acitta]

Sometime in the '90s I took the ferry from Toronto to St. Catherines and explored the Welland Canals. There were several built before the current one and parts of them still exist. Here are some pictures. Old Welland Canal.

[tomh009]

Very nice! Where and how does one find these?

And welcome to WRC!

[DHLawrence]

I know some of the original entranceway still exists at Port Dalhousie, but more the outline than the actual infrastructure.

When did the St Catharines ferry last run?

[clasher]

Some nice easy riding can be found along the original feeder canal for the first Welland canal, it starts near Port Maitland on the Grand river and cuts a straight line across to Wainfleet and onto Welland. There's a trail that starts in Port Colborne and runs along an old canal section that has been dammed and part of it is used for a rowing club. In Port Colborne the trail goes right past the huge old Robin Hood flour mill, there's also the old lift bridges that are pretty neat and good views of passing ships. Worth checking out the area on bike.

[tomh009]

I found some nice info here, too:
http://oldwellandcanals.wikidot.com/home

[Canard]

Thanks for the awesome photos, and welcome to WR Connected!

[Canard]

I came across this video tonight and was so excited! I have been dreaming of doing a Holland "biking only" vacation someday and this just got me so pumped about doing it!!

[jamincan]

Video doesn't seem to work.

[Canard]

Whoops; I made an error with the URL. Should work now!

[danbrotherston]

About two years ago I went a bike tour in the Netherlands, it is truly spectacular.  We biked a similar distance, but a different route:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kTXLUp...sp=sharing

The infrastructure just makes it so easy.  I didn't plan a route before hand, I knew the cities I was going too and the highlights, and a general route, and barely even looked at a map during the day.

Also, we did as the locals did, we bought dutch bikes when we landed from a used shop for about 300 Euros, and rode them across the country, no helmets, no repairs.  Amazing.

The other thing we did was we found lodging through "Vrienden op de fiets"  Friends of the bike, which is a network of people who will put up who are bike touring in their homes.  Its pretty inexpensive, but much more importantly, you get to meet tons of people along your route.  It's actually targeted at locals (being in Dutch, and locations being largely confined to the Netherlands itself), but they occasionally get other Europeans, we were the first Canadians any of our hosts had met through the site.  

https://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/en

I'd highly recommend the trip, but a word of caution, you may not want to leave.

[Canard]

That sounds incredible!

I had the same thought about bikes - just buying one while there. I'd want to bring it home, though, and not part with it! What did you do with yours when you left?

[danbrotherston]

That was definitely a challenge and an adventure.  I budged for simply donating them.  I looked at a few bike shops for one to buy them back, but most are not really willing to buy bikes given the issue of bike theft in the Netherlands.  We did find one that was willing, and one bike was easy, the second one, not so much.  The bike shop looked it up in a database, and found it reported stolen.  Which led us to find a police station in the Amsterdam, who told us that while it was reported stolen several years previous, it had actually been recovered and returned, still, because it's in the database, no bike shop will touch it, and as a result, we simply gave it to our host.

[KevinL]

I've only ever rented bikes in the Netherlands (or borrowed from family - not your usual source!), but then I only ever took day trips and used the train from city to city. Key tip on that - the Dutch transit smart card (OV-Chipkaart) works on EVERY form of public transport, even intercity trains.

[Canard]

1/3 - Cycling in Bermuda

We went to Bermuda for a week earlier this month.  There is a railway which ceased operations in 1946 that ran the length of the island, and has since been converted into a (very fragmented) multi-use trail.  It's called the Bermuda Railway Trail.

We were staying at the West end of the island, near Somerset Village.  I rented a bicycle for the week (a 18" Trek 3500, which, as I dreaded when I questioned them beforehand about sizing, was entirely too small for me) and I rode about 10-15 km of the trail (~100 km total over several days).  I also did some on-road stuff up to the Northwest end of the island (Dockyards), which turned out to be my favourite run, actually.  I generally hate riding on the road, but I loved the scenery and actually North of Sommerset there was hardly any traffic, especially early in the morning, when I tended to go out.

As much as we loved Bermuda, they do have a total 100% car culture there - despite the law meaning each household can only have one car (and visitors being prohibited from renting them).  Any other vehicles are what we would call scooters (which they just call "bikes").  Bicycles are called "Pedal Bikes" and are virtually non-existent, and I think the general thought is "Why on earth would you ride a bike when you could just drive or ride a bike (scooter)?!"  I saw a couple of white lycra guys but that was it.  Not even the poorer locals ride them, they just ride their scooters.  The roads are exceptionally narrow, almost all are without sidewalks, and drivers seem very hostile toward cyclists - our cab driver from the airport when we landed spent 45 minutes talking about how much he hates cyclists and took pride in having actually hit one - I kept my mouth shut!).

Things are changing, though, and actually on our last day there I ran into a race of hundreds of cyclists heading the other way, for some full-length island ride for a charity.

Here are some photos.

   
First day out: the start of the Railway Trail!

   
Signage at the start.  I'm not sure if "Auxiliary Cycle" is supposed to mean Moped or E-Bike, but cars and scooters and motorcycles all used the trail, too.  "That's Bermuda." became one of our favorite sayings.

   
I guess I should never complain about a cattlegate here in Ontario!

   
The trail is really fragmented - while most of it is paved, suddenly you'll hit something like this.

   
...and then, 2 seconds later, you're greeted with this, and all is forgiven.

[Canard]

2/3 - Cycling in Bermuda

   
Heading North toward the Dockyards, I rode on the road.  They drive on the left here, like in the UK or Japan.

   
I actually did this run several times, since traffic was so light and being so close to the water meant some great views.

   
#wintercycling

   

   
While way too small for me, I didn't want to give the bike back! Like my water bottle?