Hamilton 2025 – Day 5

Last night, Cindy asked me if I had ever been to Ancaster. I had, on a Greg‘s ride, riding from Dundas up Wilson Street into Ancaster. I remembered it being very challenging, and it was a much cooler day that day, than it was forecast to be, today. I used Google maps to determine it was a 12 km ride, and we decided we could manage it if we set out early. I mapped a route on Ride with GPS up Wilson to Ancaster, then along the Ancaster section of the Radial Trail, which I hadn’t done before, then continuing down the section we did yesterday, for a ride of 26km.

My first thought when I woke up this morning was, why would we ride up the steep sunny road, when we could ride up be much less steep, and shaded, rail trail. So I spent a few minutes reversing the route over breakfast.

When I went upstairs to get dressed, I discovered that Joanie had made herself comfortable in my suitcase.

We left about 9:30, got about a kilometre away, and it was so hot out already, that I reached down to take a drink from my water bottle. At that point, Cindy realized she had forgotten hers, so we had to go back home and get them.

We set off again. Across from City Hall was the Hamilton Central Public school, which was built to accommodate 1000 students, and was the largest graded school in upper Canada at the time of its opening, in 1853. It was extensively remodelled in 1890 by Hamilton architect, James Balfour, who designed Hamilton’s first City Hall. It is now a public library.

Hamilton has a lot of one-way streets, but many of them allow bikes to travel in both directions, either with a bidirectional cycle track, like this one, or with a contra flow lane.

We joined the Chedoke Radial Trail at Dundurn, at the top of the hill leading to the escarpment. It really doesn’t look that bad in this picture, but with the heat, and 5.6% grade, it was challenging.

There is a water fountain, with water bottle filler, and dog bowl, at the trail access, along with stairs that climb to the top of the escarpment.  I was so hot that I took off my jersey and wet it with the water bottle filler. As I was putting it back on a dog walker, offered to take a picture of us. 

There was some relief on the less steep trail in the shade, but it was still incredibly hot and humid.

Every time I ride over this Bailey bridge, I wonder what the construction looked like. It was erected in 2012 to replace a much smaller one, with a budget of $950,000. Bailey bridges are  segmented, prefabricated structures that are easy to erect and dismantle.

This is as far west, as I had been before, and I hadn’t noticed in the past that the trail continued west.

The Bruce Trail runs along the Chedoke Radial Trail , and there are many side trails off this section.

There is a very impressive bridge for walking and cycling, across the 403, although the approach left something to be desired, so we walked our bikes up.

On the Ancaster side, there are stairs, but with a well designed bike trough.

We were very happy to see the welcome to Ancaster sign. After a couple of kilometres on quiet streets the trail started again for another couple of kilometers.

This is the end of the trail at Wilson Street.

These two churches were right across the street from each other on Wilson Street in Ancaster.

We had decided ahead of time on the Trails Café because it was bike themed.

The air conditioning in the café felt amazing, so we sat inside, even though there was a very inviting swing on the porch. I would love to have a bike frame like this. 

Just south of the built-up area of Ancaster Wilson Street East has a bike line, protected in spots, I would assume where planners thought drivers might come into the bike lane. It was an exhilarating descent with hardly any pedalling required all the way down to Main Street in Hamilton. There is no way I would have been able to pedal up without stopping in today’s heat, even though I managed to do so last time on an upright bike.

The Hamilton Brantford Rail Trail runs through the Fortinos parking lot. I admire the foresight of planners who didn’t leave a disconnected trail through this plaza.

We were so hot as we passed a splash pad, we got off our bikes and joined the kids.

This is one of the narrowest streets I’ve ever seen with a bike lane. It had a one-way narrow lane for cars, a parking lane, and a bike lane. The driver of the car in the picture nearly doored me as I went past. Fortunately I’m always looking out for that type of thing.

This is the Hamilton Central Public library, and Hamilton farmers’ market. A bridge connects them across York Boulevard to a large parking garage across from Jackson Square, which is attached to the farmers’ market and library.

Cindy fried up some vegetables and beans to put in tortillas for lunch.

It was too hot to to do any more riding, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton is free this summer, so we walked over.

I share this picture for those of you who are fans of the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy. This was the family mansion. CBC wrote an article about all the places in Hamilton that were used for the series.

Gore Park was also featured extensively in the series.

The Art Gallery of Hamilton has an exhibition of Canadian Helen McNicoll, who was born in 1879. It was an impressive collection.

This made me smile.

This is by Lester Coloma, who did the mural we posed in front of on Day 3.

I loved this wall of art even though it was challenging to capture. It could be viewed from three levels.

I remember the Bruegel-Bosch Bus from the last time I visited the Art Gallery of Hamilton. It is “quintessential Kim Adams: a magnificent accumulation of miniature worlds, expressed here as the largest sculpture in the AGH collection”.  I enjoyed seeing this whimsical piece again.

There is a good view of City Hall from the gallery.

On the way back, we stopped at Bahn Mi Hue to pick up sandwiches and rolls for dinner. 

I learned as I was researching for this blog that route we did today is one promoted on the city’s website. It’s also evaluated by the New Hope Community Bikes, and I must say I agree with much of their assessment, the main point being that this is not an easy ride.

As I write this, at almost 9 PM, it’s still 32° here, but looking stormy, and with a severe thunderstorm watch. I hope it clears out the heat and humidity.

Tomorrow will be our last day here.