Finishing my work cycle on the ship, I am riding back to Montreal over the next two days.
Fortunately, there is a nice tail wind so I don't have to pedal too hard as I still feel a bit sore from the recent spill. For awhile I imagine every bit of gravel by the side of the road is a deep pit waiting to suck down my wheel but, after a few kilometres, I start to relax and enjoy being on the bike again.
My plan is to follow the signs for the Harbourfront Trail to see if it is as poorly maintained (or non-existent) as the section between Brockville and Iroquois.
I stop at a nice little park just before Mariatown that even had a portable toilet. I have passed this spot hundreds of times on the ship but not seen the perspective from the shore.
The trail takes you off County Road 2 through Morrisbourg, which has some wonderful brick homes in the Victorian style and a large green space near the water where I stopped to have an ice cream served by a morose teenager feeling her life was being wasted serving old farts in spandex in small town Ontario.
Once out of Morrisbourg, the trail follows the 2 again until just before Upper Canada Village. I have not seen another cyclist yet and it is not surprising. Even when there is a shoulder, you have to deal with speeding traffic and a surprising amount of large trucks. As I saw before, repaved sections of the road omitted to cover the shoulder so there is every sign that cyclists are not really wanted here no matter what the tourist information says.
The trail finally becomes one at Upper Canada Village and there is some nice riding along the islands created by the flooding of the river when the Seaway was created in 1959. The trail comes out at Long Sault Parkway, which has a good shoulder with even a few painted bicycles on it.
Not surprisingly, now that there is some actual infrastructure, I start to see a few cyclists.
Getting into Cornwall, there is a bad section of the trail where the damaged asphalt path has been poorly repaired by throwing down some crushed stone. This is often what happens to bike paths outside of urban areas when they are created with much fanfare and then ignored afterwards.
There was one spot of nice, new path that is along the shore where a new bridge to Cornwall Island has been constructed.
I won't quibble that the only reason the new path was built was due to a border crossing station being installed at the end of the bridge. New bike paths are good no matter the reason.
I make it to Summerstown where the Bnb I have reserved is located. There is one restaurant in the village and, back luck, it is closed for maintenance. Good thing I had that ice cream.
But the nice couple at the Bnb share their protein shake with me (some special diet they are following) and it fills the hole since I am more fatigued than hungry.
Another lesson learned: have some provisions in your bag just in case the expected resources in an area are closed.
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