G2G – Blyth to Goderich to Blyth – Day 2

We started the day with breakfast at Tim’s. Some of us walked, some biked. Some at there, some back at the hotel. We met, ready to ride at 8:30.

Like yesterday, we had a few road detours, and there were a few short sections where the trail had not been recently groomed.

The lack of a bridge at the Maitland River is the biggest obstacle and creates a 6.5km detour each way. The detour is on gravel roads that are quite hilly. The crossing is on Ball’s Bridge, which was erected in 1885. It is a two-span Pratt design , pin-connected wrought iron bridge. It is apparently an excellent and rare example of such a bridge. It was deemed unable to support modern vehicles in 1989, but was restored and upgraded and reopened in 2007. There is a similar one over the Conestogo River in Waterloo that was used in filming The Handmaid’s Tale.

As we continued on the other side I misread the route. Nelson headed back onto the trail at this point, but I thought we should keep going. David headed down the hill after him and they made their way back up the very steep rough trail. About a kilometre further on I realized Nelson had been correct, but we carried on and picked up the trail a bit further on. We found out later on that they had only made it about a third of the way down the hill.

The detour roads were deserted today of motor vehicles and we only met a handful and a few other cyclists.

The views as we came into Goderich were incredible and improved as we arrived at the CPR Bridge built in 1905-1906. The last trail crossed it in 1988. Fortunately, the bridge was saved from demolition in 1992 and is now part of the G2G Trail.

Wayne took us to a terrific fish and chip restaurant called Goderich Harbour. The food menu was short, the selection of salts and vinegars was almost overwhelming, and the food was good. There were lots of picnic tables and a great view of the harbour.

After lunch we toured the harbour. Goderich is home to the largest salt mines in the world.

Then Wayne took us on a single track desire line over to the beach. There were more great views of the harbour and industry. I think there is a strange beauty to buildings like this.

There were a lot of recent improvements made at the beach with parking which was clearly created for summer crowds. It wasn’t crowded today.

We cycled back along the beach and then climbed stairs with a bike trough, not as easy to use as yesterday’s, to the lighthouse. Wayne and Cindy decided to ride the hill. The climbers made it to the top first.

Goderich is also famous for its octagon shaped road around the courthouse with shops all around the outside with angle parking on one side and parallel parking on the other. Other than the fact that it was littered with cars its quite interesting.

We stopped at a cafe on the octagon for coffee.

As we sat drinking our coffee Wayne checked the radar and there was a storm front coming in. I planned road return and trail return routes for the day and we hadn’t yet decided which to do. We finished up , got on our bikes and ended up deciding to split up. David and Dayle, and Wayne took the trail. The rest of us the road.

The road route turned out to be quite good. Part of it was on the Waterfront Trail and had shoulders wide enough to ride two abreast. Traffic was light.

Neither group encountered much rain. The road group made it back to Blyth an hour earlier than the trail group. The trail group discovered how big the hill detour was at the Maitland River (3x what Nelson and David went down and up this morning).

We had dinner at Cowbells, the local brewery. It was excellent. There were farm cats begging at the table. So cute, until Lina got scratched! As rain threatened we hurried back to the hotel and avoided it ending another great day.