Our route for the day was to ride along the Waterfront Trail, west to Long Sault where we left off yesterday, then return to Cornwall to see the waterfront park, and a local conservation area as recommended Laurie. She also reviewed the route and made some improvements to it based on her excellent local knowledge. It was another beautiful day living up to the long-term forecast from last week.
We set off with Ride with GPS providing voice navigation cues. The planned route crossed itself, and sometimes Ride with GPS gets mixed up and provides an incorrect next cue when this happens. We had only gone a few kilometres when I heard the “boing, boing” noise that indicates we were off course. We had just passed a split in the multiuse path that we were on. So we turned around and headed on the other path which made Ride with GPS happy. However, it left me feeling things were not quite right, even though I am not familiar with Cornwall. After several kilometres I realized that we had been sent along the latter part of our route to explore in Cornwall, rather than the former part heading out to Long Sault. No matter. We carried on given that it was already late morning, and there would be better food options in Cornwall than in Long Sault.
The trail through the hydro corridor to the Power Dam was lovely. We had it all to ourselves and it was downhill all the way.
At the south end there was visitors center, but it wasn’t open.
It did have a good views of the dam, which is a joint project between Canada and the US. The Canadian half is a 16 unit hydroelectric station and has an available capacity of 1045 MW. It is one of two large generating stations housed in the 1 km long Moses-Saunders Power Dam.
I noticed that the hydro towers nearest the dam were painted red and white, and when I looked it up I learned that towers above 200 feet off the ground are required to be painted that way to be more obvious to passing aircraft under FAA rules. I didn’t find a reference about a Canadian rule but assume that we follow the same.
We had water on both sides of us as we cycled. The Cornwall Canal bypassing the dam to our left and the St. Lawrence River to our right.
Cofferdams are temporary steel structures submerged in water and filled with rock to withstand water pressure and are used to expose the riverbed for construction. The one that was used to construct the Moses-Saunders Power Dam was blown up on July 1, 1958 with 27 tons of explosives. The dam was 183 m long and 4 km upstream from the Power Dam. It raised the river to the appropriate operating level for the dam and submerged 10 Canadian communities.
The remains of an old paper mill were on the canal further east. It was the third paper mill on this site and closed in 2005 due to changes in world markets which made it unprofitable.
The Seaway International Bridge crosses from Cornwall to Cornwall Island. Cornwall Island is divided between Canada, the US, and the Mohawks of Akwesasne. There is a second span from the island to the US. Originally there was a high-level bridge which had been built to accommodate the creation of an all Canadian seaway which never came to fruition, so when the bridge was replaced in 2014 it was replaced with a lower structure.
One of the abutments from the old bridge has been left standing next to the new.
Lamoureux park was beautiful, still showing fall colours, on the river, with the Waterfront Trail running through it.
One of the features of a Bicycle Friendly Community is good wayfinding signage.
Adjacent to the park was a museum with a mural on a retaining wall.
There is also a marina.
The Waterfront Trail continued through downtown Cornwall and passed the Canadian Forces School of the Aerospace Control Operations on the east side. This is where air traffic controllers are trained.
The Old Stone House was built in 1850 and is used for functions at the NAV Centre.
We left the Waterfront Trail to ride through Gray’s Creek conservation area which had a paved path through the area. It connected with a multi use path through the city to the west, and then a bike lane that ran the length of Second Avenue. At this point I was beginning to think that Cornwall, with a population of less than 50,000, was a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community. I made a mental note to look it up when we got home. brampton is Bronze. The difference is quite noticeable.
When the post office building became available the city purchased it to use as a Library. Apparently it is quite nice on the inside. It certainly looks nice from the outside.
We stopped at Carrots n’ Dates, recommended by Laurie, for lunch. The food was good, but the menu was a bit odd. They didn’t serve anything made from cows. Apparently goats were fair game though, as I had a grilled goat cheese sandwich. I considered having a BLT, but I prefer my bacon to come from pigs, rather than coconut. The decor was pretty, and they had a protected patio area in which we were able to eat.
The United counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry is a regional municipality, the municipal building of which is located in Cornwall, but the counties exclude Cornwall. Their tagline is, “This is the place where Ontario began”. The first documented European settlement was established in 1784 by United Empire Loyalists. My grandmother was proud of being descended from United Empire Loyalists – American loyalists who resettled in British North America during or after the American revolution.
After lunch we headed west along the Waterfront Trail toward Long Sault.
Along the way we passed Ault Park, named after the family that donated the land. The park was originally on Sheek Island, but was flooded with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and relocated to its current location. The Lost Villages Historical Society operates a museum incorporating a number of buildings moved from the villages. Other buildings from the villages were moved to Upper Canada Village.
At our last Brampton Cycling Advisory Committee meeting we discussed the bike repair stands that Brampton will be installing in various locations. I believe it was this brand and style that was chosen.
Once again we stopped at Tim’s for a coffee and snack and then turned around. The Waterfront Trail from Cornwall to Long Sault was paved, and separated from the road, and beautifully covered with fallen leaves in some areas.
As we rode back into Cornwall we saw this sign which showed, as I suspected, that Cornwall is a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community. It’s great to find water filling water bottle filling stations, especially ones that are still operable at this time of year.
In Cornwall some of the bike lanes were separated from motor vehicle traffic with a rumble strip.
The weather remained nice enough for us to have another meal outdoors.
After dinner Laurie, Cindy, and I drove to Upper Canada Village for Pumpkinferno. The tickets had a timed entry and there were a reasonable number of people there – sold out, but not overcrowded. The displays were creative and colourful. There was no access to the buildings other than the hotel, which was providing a meal if people wanted to purchase one.
The temperature had only fallen to 15° by the time we finished exploring. It really couldn’t have been more pleasant for a late October night. It was a fun way to end a great day exploring another Ontario city by bike.
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