Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
St Catharines to Burlington Ontario

July 24, 2005
Distance 43 Miles

We met Barbara and Scott for breakfast in the motel restaurant at 7:15 this morning. After breakfast we loaded our bicycles and headed east to Hamilton and Burlington Ontario. For most of the day we were very close to Lake Ontario and we had many beautiful views of the lake.

We saw an old rusting steel hulled sailing vessel in one anchorage along the way. We entered the town of Grimsby and found our route was blocked for cars by the local police. Our route through town was also the route for the bicycle and running portion of a triathlon. First the bicycle riders passed us like we were standing still and we were traveling at 16 to 18 miles per hour and then we passed the runners who were leading the race. It was different having all the people sitting next to the road and cheering us, and others on.

In Hamilton we finally found the Lake Ontario multi-use trail. It was paved and was at least 12 feet wide which was very good because it had a lot of use on a Sunday with bicycle riders, walkers, and roller-blade's. At the end of the trail we reached a bridge that was raised so that a couple of sail boats could pass under it and enter Lake Ontario. When the bridge was lowered we had to walk our bicycle across. As we entered Burlington it started raining, not real hard but just enough for us to feel we needed to find a motel quickly. After stopping at a couple of motels we found a visitors center where we got a better feel of where the motels were located. We called and decided on one that was out by the freeway. By the time we almost reached the motel it stopped raining, so we stopped and ate a late lunch (after 1:00) and then rode on to the motel.

We reached our motel for the night and did our usual laundry, read our e-mails, and walked to supper at a restaurant that specialized in fish dishes. The service was very slow but the food was good. Then back to the room to write about our day and get ready for bed.