This morning we were all downstairs and ready to ride just before our agreed upon time of 8:30. We seem to be getting the hang of this.

We spent a lot of time at Niagara Falls. The town was strangely deserted as we arrived last night and continued to be even at the falls this morning. It was a beautiful, bright day and not too windy. The mist was very wetting at Table Rock and there were beautiful rainbows all over. Despite a lot of forecast daytime rain, and heavy rains overnight, this was the first time we got really wet this week.






Eventually we continued along past the power plant which opened in 1906 to supply the Toronto market. The palatial powerhouse was designed by Toronto architect E.J. Lennox to compliment the scenic setting. It is an early and unusual application of Beaux-Arts to an industrial site. It operated until 1974.

We used the path, but could just as comfortably use the road which was mostly empty of motor vehicles as were the massive parking lots that line the road.


In several places today we cycled across long Active Transportation bridges that meant we did not have to go onto the road over inlets such as the one below.

This is the International Control Structure built by the Canadians and Americans in 1954 for two reasons: to divert more water to the American Falls and to divert water from the upper river into intakes for Canadian and American power plants downriver of the falls at Lewiston N.Y. and Queenston, Ontario.

This is one of the intakes of the Niagara Tunnel Project to convey water to the Sir Adam Beck hydro plant which was constructed from 2005-13.

Shortly thereafter we met Bruce, a friend of Cindy’s who was a great local guide, and who had lunch with us and then continued with us back to Ridgeway where he lives.


We had lunch at Southsides on the Niagara River in Fort Erie on a patio overlooking the Fort Erie Peace Bridge to the US. The sun was warm and I found myself almost dropping off after finishing my meal while the others chatted.

Here we are heading for the Friendship Trail which parallels Lake Erie from Fort Erie to Port Colborne with the Peace Bridge in the background.

The Friendship Trail was one of the best rail trails I have been on. It was fully paved and wide enough to comfortably ride two abreast.


We had to cross this lift bridge in Welland to get to the place Cindy wanted to stop for afternoon refreshments.

We had coffee and cake/pie at The Flying Squirrel which had a view of Lock 8 in Port Colborne.

Here is another bridge which the trail crossed just before the Robin Hood Mill which is still operating despite its decrepit look.


There was a ship docked on the canal next to the trail.

This is an old lift bridge on the old canal. The Welland Canal connect Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and is part of the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes Seaways. It enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment and avoid Niagara Falls. It is the fourth canal connecting these waterways and there are still remnants of the older canals.

Here we are back at the hotel we stayed in on Tuesday. We checked in, cleaned up, and headed out to dinner at Kavern. It started to get quite cool by the time we finished eating and a skunk spraying hastened out departure. It’s hard to believe we have only one day left. I’ve cycled 440km in the last five days.

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The only rough part of the ride were the thorns in my arm and the hand sanitizer to disinfect the wounds.
That was nasty.I forgot to take a picture