86.28 km, 4:40:54 total cycling time, 18.43 kph average, 43.56 kph max
Those of us camping at Fort George in Niagara-on-the-lake unloaded our bikes and luggage pitched our tents on the evening of July 3rd. The evening included a party with local vintners and Steamwhistle brewery in attendance. Music was provided by _ Town, a Juno Award nominated band, bringing music of the islands to the festivities.
Things on two wheels:
The British Army’s in NOTL standing guard against a possible American invasion. Still they take time out to fire a field gun signaling the 09:00 start of the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure. Great chaps. Fortunately the Americans stayed on their side of the border except for a few friendly Yanks who came to Canada to join the ride.
Day 1, I wore an England side national football jersey. With all those guys walking around Fort George wearing swords and carrying muskets I didn’t want any misunderstandings.
Off at 9am from Fort George with a one gun salute. 250 cyclists rode through NOTL to the Waterfront Trail. Beautiful day, even the ducks were enjoying the sunshine.
Unfortunately I broke a rear wheel spoke this morning about an hour from lunch. This wheelset is 26 years old (original to the bike) and has never given any trouble in all that time. I removed the spoke and nipple, re-inflated the tire, and made my way to the lunch stop with a wobbly rear wheel.
One advantage of such a well organized tour is they’ve arranged for bike mechanics to meet us at various places. Day one lunch is one such place. They didn’t have a spoke to fit (how many would they have to show up with?), but at least managed to true the wheel so it runs straight between the brake blocks.
Fantastic lunch put on by Autumn Restaurant; home made bread, fresh salads, everything fresh from their own garden. This was Autumn’s 1st anniversary in business: their first catered event was last year’s inaugural GWTA.
Back on the road, rear wheel going bump … bump … bump. Wheels should be round, but with a missing spoke this one isn’t. At least it’s not dragging on the brake, but I’ll have to get this fixed properly. Can’t ride this all the way to Quebec. For now I’ve decided this is my high-tech rear wheel. 35 spokes instead of 36 makes it lighter, more aerodynamic!
A stop on the way was a tour of historic Grimsby, with strawberries and ice cream.
That night we made camp at Confederation Park in _. I split a bottle of Kozelmann’s Red Moose (picked up at their stand at the party the first nght) with Drew from St Catharines, Deb from Ajax. The three of us joined up with Dan, Ted (one of the tour volunteers), Michelle and Ari for supper at Baranga’s on the Beach. Apparently they’d expected the crowd to descend much earlier and had packed up what had been laid on and sent some people home and closed their patio (not that we were especially late), so we ate in the restaurant.
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