Welland Wine Country Loop – Day 6

We planned a route, starting in Welland, around wine country to the northwest of Welland. I started with a route that the Brampton Cycling Club created. They have an account on RidewithGPS with all their routes. I planned a route from Welland to the nearest point on the Helen Bick Memorial Niagara ride and then lopped off the northwest section to keep it to a manageable distance for our group. The hotel we were staying at had direct access to the Welland Canal Parkway Trail. However, we were only on it briefly as our ride today was primarily on country roads.

These were the types of pastoral country scenes we passed regularly on the rides, along with quiet country roads with very little motor vehicle traffic, vineyards, and wineries.

Early in the day, one of the roads leaving Welland was somewhat busy with rush hour traffic, however, mostly we had the roads to ourselves.

David and I matched today. Many of us have attended Greg’s Ride, a memorial for OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart who was killed while cycling on Tremaine Road in Milton in 2006. After Greg’s death, his wife Eleanor McMahon founded the Share the Road and the annual ride is a fundraiser.

We had an excellent lunch at the Jordan House. The food was very good, and the setting pleasant, except for the frequent sound of motor vehicle traffic. It sits at a busy intersection.

The route took us briefly onto the North Service Road beside the QEW before heading back towards Welland. There were several fun, long steep descents on the first half of the ride, but the climbs going back were even longer, and thus less steep, and not overly challenging compared to if we had done the counterclockwise version of the route.

We stopped at Henry of Pelham where there was a sign for a Cafe, but it turned out they didn’t serve coffee! So, we continued on in search of a coffee shop.

We found the Travel Cafe in Fonthill. We bought drinks and treats and ate on a bench across the road. Just as we were finishing up the owner came out and explained that each day, when they closed, they gave away any remaining baked goods, and gave us a box of mixed berry muffins. So generous and delicious.

As we were finishing the muffins we realized the Share the Road Jersey, that four of have, and Wayne was wearing, has a map of where we had been riding and where we had stopped for coffee!

As we returned to Welland, we were going to ride the last few kilometres on the Steve Bauer trail. Steve was born in St. Catharines, was the winner of the first Olympic medal in road cycling for Canada, and remains the only Canadian to have won a stage of the Tour de France. The good news is the trail was being improved. The bad news was that we were unable to use it. So I got opened Google Maps and navigated us back to the hotel via the roads.

Back at the hotel, after about 500km of riding in six days, we are all still smiling. It was Lina’s first cycling trip, and Cindy’s longest. It was a terrific end to a fabulous week.