Hamilton – Day 5

We started the day by walking across the street to the Ark and Anchor for lattés which we took back to the apartment to drink while I made breakfast.

Ralph came out this morning and ate his breakfast, and then settled down for a rest in his litter box. I’ve never observed such behaviour in a cat before. The litter box had been recently cleaned.

The corner where this condo is used to have an All Saints Church built in 1872, but damaged by an earthquake in 1998, which forced the removal of the stone spire. In 2009 the building was declared unsafe and closed. It was demolished in 2016 to make way for this condominium, however, the church has taken over space on the main floor.

I planned a 60 km ride to Caledonia today. It began by climbing the Escarpment Rail Trail that we rode up yesterday.

Then we crossed the Red Hill Expressway on the same bridge I used two days ago.

Two days ago, I turned left at this intersection, but today we crossed and cycled down a multiuse path to the right, which connected the Escarpment Trail and the Chippewa Trail.

The Chippewa Trail follows an abandoned rail line most of the way to Caledonia. The northern section is managed by the Hamilton Conservation Authority, and the southern section is in Haldemand County. It is 15 km long. It is part of of Greenbelt Route and the Trans Canada Trail.

The surface was limestone screenings, and it was very smooth. There were a few spots like this one that were a bit narrow for side-by-side riding, but overall it was a good experience.

When we left the trail just north of Caledonia we saw this new subdivision being built essentially in the middle of nowhere.

Across the road was this unique mailbox stand.

There was a nice gateway sign as we rode in on Highway 6, which was busy with high-speed traffic for the first kilometre or so, but then slowed down to 50 kph as it entered town.

Caledonia has an old station that has been bouses the Chamber of Commerce and a small museum. It was built in 1923 and operated until 1957 when passenger service was cancelled. Parcel and freight service continued until 1977.

We passed by the Tim Hortons on the way into town looking for an independent restaurant and found Jones Bakery. It was a nice little store with friendly staff, and the prices were astonishing.

My lunch of a large chocolate milk, a cup of homemade chili, and a peanut butter cookie was just over six dollars.I questioned whether she had charged me for everything when she told me the amount. She assured me that she had.

The Caledonia bridge on which Argyle Street crosses the Grand River is recognized as the longest bowstring arch bridge in Ontario. It might be the longest of its type in all of Canada. It has nine spans and was built in 1927. The next closest bridge of this type in length is the Freeport bridge on King Street East in Kitchener which has seven.

There was a short recreational trail on the north side of the Grand River.

It had a mini bow string bridge.

It then passed under a train trestle and dam over the Grand River then a multi-use path continued along the side of the road until we turned north to head back to Hamilton.

We had a headwind going south, but were protected much of the way by the trails we were on. We were expecting a nice tailwind on the roads heading back, but the wind shifted and we had a strong crosswind.

The community of Mount Hope had an ice cream shop, but for the second time in three days my potential to have an ice cream was foiled by the shop being closed.

We had 5 km on Upper James Street which was quite unpleasant and felt like a highway. I put Patti in front and turned on my extremely bright rear flashing red light. All the cars gave us lots of room – having a very strong flashing red light that can be seen hundreds of metres away gives drivers time to plan to give cyclists plenty of room , but the traffic noise was tremendous. Patti was a good sport and took the brunt of the headwind being in front.

This little innovation gives people waiting for the bus, a place to sit when there isn’t room for a bench or shelter.

The City has built a wonderful protected bi-directional multiuse path on the Claremont access named for kindergarten teacher, Jay Keddy, who was killed biking on the access in 2015. It’s super fun to ride down, and I have cycled up it three times, and while it is more challenging than the trail we used this morning in terms of the steepness, it’s about a quarter of the distance.

There is street art under Arkledun Road.

The right hand lane on the down bound side has been closed due to a landslide from the escarpment. Since I was there a year ago, a major construction project has started to remove the failing steel wall, and shore up the escarpment face.

I took the picture below last year from the same spot under Arkledun Avenue. The street art has changed and the trees and failing retaining wall removed.

We stopped for coffee at Andiamo, which I thought was a coffee shop, but actually turned out to be a barbershop with a small coffee shop in the corner. They made a decent latte, though.

We returned to the condo for dinner, then walked to meet, a colleague of mine from IBM from 1990, who became a colleague of Patti’s at Reynolds, in the 90s, with whom she has stayed in touch. It was fun to catch up.

It was raining a bit on the walk over, but stopped for the walk back.

Once I finish the blog tonight we will figure out where to ride tomorrow before heading home.


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