Early morning in Bronte Creek.

Waking in Bronte Creek Provincial Park to a cool morning. The distant muted roar of traffic. The much closer sound of birds and people grudgingly extracting their bodies from sleeping bags.

My point-and-shoot camera battery said “no more” just after I woke up, so most of today’s photographs are from the camera of Mr. Ed Kwaka, my biking buddy extraordinaire.

Here I am hauling my pillow over to my storage bin in exchange for a bowl of porridge.

Just up ahead and on the right are Dave and Mel enjoying the view across the Lake.

Downtown Toronto skyline. (Photo courtesy Ed Kwaka)

Here’s Michael VanDerHerberg taking the difficult route across.

The bikes were put away in the garage for the night. I’m sure they had some amazing discussions!

(Photo courtesy of Ed Kwaka)

After we’d all enjoyed a couple of rehydrating beers, Ben’s sister provided superb massages to all who wished! She worked on my shoulders which hold a lot of tension when I ride long distances and it was as if a weight had been lifted off them by the time she had finished working her magic!

Then we all gathered in the beautiful back yard of this gorgeous home for a candlelight feast that was beyond comparison, around tables filled with the most amazing people. We ate and drank and laughed our way into the night and then retreated to our tents for the last sleep of this year’s ride.

Night falls at Bronte Creek

Riding across the top of the Niagara Escarpment, you get some pretty good views of Lake Ontario and bits of the Golden Horseshoe conurbation.

After riding through a lot of countryside, the scale of  cities always comes as a surprise.

Eventually we arrived above Hamilton and made the big decision about which road to drop down into the city on.

The picture below shows Dave Blondel scouting the terrain to determine which tarmac ribbon would get us the closest to the shoreline of the great Lake. This scene reminds me of those paintings of Columbus, Cartier and Cabot that have the great explorer standing on the prow of their ship while the scurvied lackeys wait anxiously for him to announcethat indeed we have arrived at the New Land …..

Dave’s choice was a road that descended at a ferocious, brake melting rate with – bonus of bonuses – a sharp right about four fifths of the way down that cars coming up the hill left their lane and crossed into ours to take at a faster clip!! I was so nervous coming down that I didn’t fully appreciate it and I hope that one day I can return and let the bike do its own thing!

We raced through the streets of Hamilton which were pretty clear and in surprisingly good condition.

We made our way to the Lakefront trail which is a wide paved smooth and very fast ride but on this day was also fairly well populated with roller bladers, runners, walkers, families, little and big dogs and so we picked up speed where we could and were careful everywhere else.

At this point last year it was the only cold and rainy day of the ride.

This year it was beautiful and so we were able to appreciate the mega-structure of the Skyway …

Soon after passing this great big bridge we crossed another great big bridge. This is the lift bridge that you can see when you cross the Skyway by car. Some of us rode across it and some took the sidewalk. If you’re thinking of riding across it I’d suggest taking the sidewalk! I’ve done both and the sidewalk feels a whole lot better under the wheels than the interlocking metal grid of the roadway!!

From here we continued along the Lakefront park trail which became even more densely populated. At one point we saw two women walking along it in scuba diving flippers ….. and eventually the trail ended and we came out into Burlington where we stopped at a favourite pastry and coffee stop of Ride for Africycle riders – the Lakeshore Coffee House.

Here we were able to strech out and put back some tasty Americano’s and I believe that most people parked a slab of cheesecake back as well.
From there we rode on caffeinated legs at a very good rate of speed along Lakeshore Boulevard, and then North towards Bronte Creek. Bronte is an improbable park, located smack dab in the middle of suburbia. But you would never know there were housing developments within a kilometre of you at all times through some cool trick of nature that has placed trees, small rises and a really beautiful setting to distract you.

We set up the Ride for Africycle tent city …

and watched the sun go down behind the trees.

But first, getting the body back in gear – there’s cycling to be done today and lots of it! The process of preparing for a day of riding becomes so much easier as you establish the little routines of bike maintenance, organizing clothes (trying desperately to keep the smelly ones away from the clean ones…), and packing up the camping gear, becomes secondary to enjoying the sleepy banter of a dozen people getting revved up for a ride.

Today’s ride began gently with our wheels turning along a beautiful parkway that more-or-less parallels the Niagara River. We passed through the beautiful town of Youngstown – I’d love to spend more time there sometime.

Image courtesy Ed Kwaka

It’s the strangest thing to look across a river at the opposite shore and realize that it is not simply “the other side”, but another country.

We rode at a good pace and after the big climb up the side of the Niagara Escarpment …

Top of the Escarpment (Image courtesy Ed Kwaka)

we were on the Robert Moses Parkway. Another post-apocalyptic riding experience that saw us using a former Expressway that runs right alongside the Niagara River but is now entirely abandoned and given over to runners, walkers, and cyclists like us. The views were a bit industrial, but then I find that stretch of the River with its massive hydro-electric facilities a lot less than natural!

Here’s Ed Kwaka putting the Big Ring to work

After a little fun trying to figure out how to get onto the Rainbow Bridge, we found ourselves riding alongside happy tourists who were bemused to see a team of cyclists making their way across the border.

This is what you see half way across the bridge!

This year we had agreed that when we got to the Canadian side, we would stay on top of the escarpment and only drop off it when we were near Hamilton. The route was tricky at times but between the pre-ride support of Evan Taylor of the Niagara Freewheeler’s Club and our very own live-action sort-it-out-on-the-fly cartographer Michael VanDerHerberg, we made our way under the Welland Canal …

and through little towns, beautiful countryside, along sometimes busy but always lovely little roads ….

until we came to the drop down into Hamilton.

Look carefully - you can see Toronto (if you want to!)

Waking to our much looked forward to “Day Off” was a strange sensation. Really, I wanted to ride, but I also wanted to wander around the Park we were in and then I had heard that we were near Fort Niagara which I had seen many times from the Canadian side but never actually been near or in. So I figured some combination of those three things is how I’d spend my day.

A hot shower, fresh coffee and a simple breakfast and then I caught up on the notes I was compiling in my little red Moleskine ( a gift for this ride from my Daughter). Along the way I’d also been reading “The Rider” by Tim Krabbe. I’d not made a lot of progress with the book because by the time I crawled into my sleeping bag, I was simply too tired to focus in the half light provided by my flashlight. So I read a few chapters (it’s one of those books that you re-read sentences, paragraphs, chapters over and over again just to really enjoy the brilliance of his writing)

As I walked off to find the beginnings of a trail that led through a wetland I heard that a group had left for Niagara Falls, NY in search of food, bike parts, and a view from the American side of the Falls. I decided to head down to the Lake where a bench that Dave Barber had claimed was beyond awesome was placed with a sweet view of the Lake. I walked there and sat down and wrote stories and a few poems and took in the mellowness of a family playing in the waves below.

After a while I made my way over to the start of the “Nature Trail” and found myself immersed in a beautiful wetland bisected by a dusty trail, rippled with roots and rocks, and all the while I was wondering if perhaps the original occupants had come this very way through the wilderness.

no wonder they stayed …

I started to get hungry again and was thinking about riding over to Fort Niagara – which I think was about ten km away, so I returned along the same path and found Chris and Paul pretty much ready to go on a ride to the Fort. The Fort has great presence and I was absolutely taken by the amount of original detail still available to be seen and touched.

Here’s the entrance:

Inside the barrack house:

The view from the barrack house:

For more images of Fort Niagara please visit my Photobucket page here.
After a thorough, self-led tour of the Fort we biked back to the campsite and enjoyed another astonishing Jerrett-made meal before setting off to sleep knowing that tomorrow we would be returning back to Canada across the Rainbow Bridge.

Dave (in his own blog on the Ride for Africycle experience which you can read right here) said,

“The Lake Ontario State Parkway. Wikipedia it. The most post-apocalyptic-feeling bicycle riding experience you will have (this side of the actual apocalypse).”

It’s funny how scenery like this:

and this:

can almost completely take your mind off the fact that you are riding on this: (here it is without people)

(and here it is with people – truly awesome people!)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the headwind. This was what we referred to as “our long day”. 160 km approximately. When we got onto the L.O.S.P. we fought a headwind that stayed with us for much of the day. Occasionally it slanted at us from just right of centre which has its own special challenge as you push slightly into it and hope that the route doesn’t turn back into its face, but for the most part it was an invisible pair of hands pushing at chest, face, helmet – anything wanting to move forward. We hugged as close to each as we could to grab some sort of draft and people were really good about taking turns at the front.

But somehow it found each person and ground us down, one-by one.

During the whole time we were on the L.O.S.P. maybe a handful of luxury cars with heavily tinted windows flew past.

The post-apocalyptic vibe was enhanced by the gathering stormclouds in front of us.

We stopped for Lunch at Hamlin Beach where we had a superb meal and there was tons of great energy in the air which was grabbed by the Incredible Ben Voss who for a dollar took on the dare of riding a bike down a slide in the Park.

Here’s the evidence provided by the awesome Ed Kwaka.
1. 2. 3. 4.

After Lunch we headed out onto The Road again – the wind was every bit the same and there was an endless false flat also to contend with. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right?!!!

Eventually The Road came to an end and we dove off onto some small rural roads that more-or-less paralleled the Lake. We stopped for a pie (a whole pie that’s right) and coffees at Burnap’s Farm Market – a lovely fruit stand that has somehow become embiggened and offers all sorts of other stuff that is tasty and can be consumed immediately. A good place to stop – but we had a long way to go still. We rode through endless cattle farms and fields and really it was all so very lovely but it was such a long day and the wind had taken the edge off us but still, here we were living the dream. We stopped in one place for Cherry Dr. Pepper and chips. Stopping in rural America for anything simple results in the richest slice of life you can possibly imagine. All is revealed!!

The bucolic scenery contains stories that could easily become novels.

But, the ride must continue and so it did as we gradually made our way in small clusters to the beautiful Four Mile Creek State Park.

Jerrett decided to try deep-frying a whole turkey – and folks he did! It was absolutely awesome and combined with fresh beans, broccoli and beers and especially the knowledge that tomorrow was a day off riding – a “rest day”, we all relaxed and I’ve got to tell you that I enjoyed the best sleep of the ride that night!!!

The firefighters who had worked the evening shift dropped in to say hi and make acquaintances – all of them were really welcoming and friendly! We gathered the bikes and the bus in front of the firehall and took a pile of photographs with the guys of the Northeast Joint Fire District.

The Big Black Bus outside the Firehall

Finally came the time to get back on the road. Today, a 160 km ride to 4 Mile Creek State Park along the Empire State Parkway – surely one of the strangest roads I’ve ever ridden on. I recall it from RFA 4.0 but that ride was done in sweltering 45 Celsius heat. This ride was way more comfortable and we were able to look around and see the Lake. It’s an interesting to me feature of the ride that it was really cool – exciting even – to actually see the Lake. You’d think that after seeing it a few dozen times you’d get tired of it but I found that I was actually really glad to see it.

The weather forecast was suggesting that there was a very good chance of rain and thunderstorms. Oh boy! The longest ride of the RFA 5.0 wonder voyage and it was going to be wet all over again. But you know what? The power of positive thinking kept the clouds – which literally gathered all around us – at bay. We had a super good headwind for the whole day which made every kilometre a prize to be gathered and stored in the warehouse of trophy experiences. You know, the “I pushed through something that was bigger than me” vault.

The day had lots of flats, a couple of broken spokes but it also had sweet smooth roads. Beautiful scenery, beautiful little houses with gorgeous fairy-tale gardens and best of all, after following Rochester Rick’s detailed instructions generously assembled by Rick in his spare time, we made our way through Rochester’s most beautiful streets,

a little bit of her parkland and then out past a beach that I could happily paste myself to and spend days grilling on!

We made our annual stop at Sips Coffee Shop, although this was a much shorter visit as the day was a long one in terms of distance. I still managed to put away a phenomenal and giant cookie alongside an Americano.

Fueled up with sugar, carbs, and caffeine we headed out and turned towards the Lake to pass through the harbour and then cut across through the beautiful town of Greece. If you looked South you looked over little lakes.

The little cottages that sat on the shore of Lake Ontario were truly beautiful.

Eventually we came to the end of this little heaven on Earth and rode onto the Lake Ontario State Parkway. More about that in the next post!

Our next destination was the little town of Wolcott. We visited Wolcott last year for Lunch and there’s a little park down the hill from the main street with a covered shelter – perfect for our needs. Wolcott has a strong sense of history about it – you can feel that as you ride in. I didn’t really get a sense of that last time I was there so I took this blurry rain-soaked image of a little information board the locals have put up. (If you click twice on the image you’ll eventually get a version that you can read!)

The rain was bucketing down as we glided down the steep hill into the park and the welcome sight of Ben’s car and the Bus was truly awesome. Even better was the sight and smell of barbequing burgers! There’s not much better than hot food when you’re cold and soaked although I’d say that the smiles and good vibes from the riders and support crew was just as awesome as when we took turns standing by the barbeque to get the warm drafts from it. This was truly a day to remember. The ride really came together for me in that little town in Upper New York State. A bunch of people taking care of each other, supporting each other, and having a really good time no matter what. Oh and before I forget – here’s the waterfall right next to where we ate.

Leaving the relative dryness of the shelter was a bit of a challenge but we found our pace and working together we struck out for the town of Webster where we were planning on staying in Webster Park a facility dedicated to providing shelter for campers, people passing through, cyclists and whomever else. Ben and Dave Barber and Jerrett had thrown out the option of staying indoors and we knew that Webster Park had buildings that they rented out. We learned later that apparently they had nothing of the sort available to us and that we would be obliged to camp out. Not a big deal but not the very best option.

Ben went ahead and then wandered through the town of Webster asking people if they knew of somewhere indoors where the cycling team and support crew could cook some food and sleep for the night. Somewhere along the line Ben ran into someone who suggested trying the firehall. Journeys are made of moments and this is one moment that will stay with us all for a long time. Ben and his Dad went by the Webster firehall and were welcomed in no uncertain terms to encourage the team to make their way and bed down for the evening.

We didn’t know about all of this until we had found our way into Webster, a truly lovely town with that fascinating mix that so many upper New York State towns have of the beautifully maintained (or restored) clapboard house with a big old front porch and massive gardens, side-by-side with a little mall or an auto shop.

On the ride into Webster itself, the team somehow got split up into little groups but we eventually found each other and rode up somewhat curious to see what Ben had lined up for us. At first sight and thought, a firehall seems like an improbable place to spend a night. I mean would you?! But these guys were so welcoming and genuinely warm. They really respected what we had ridden through and what we were trying to achieve and it showed in the way they opened the facility up to us, encouraging us to use their showers, to help ourselves to their clean towels, to use the kitchen, and to set up our sleeping bags in their conference room.

Once we had set up our sleeping situations, Jerrett got onto the matter of dinner and of course we were really hungry and thirsty. It couldn’t come fast enough!!! Our bikes were stored in a garage area of the firehall. We were given a complete and very thorough tour of the entire Hall which is an incredible state-of-the-art facility. It has everything you can imagine in terms of creature comforts which makes sense if you think about the the brave guys who head out on the trucks to face danger without really thinking of themselves.

Sleeping quarters (Image Ed Kwaka)

The Voss boys getting the tour! (Image Ed Kwaka)

Inside the fire-engine bays (Image Ed Kwaka)

Heart and soul

After the tour we gathered around the maps for tomorrow and looked at some possible routes – a long day ahead of us – 160 km. Hopefully a lot drier!!!

To see more and read more of Chief Akins and the amazing guys at Webster Fire check out their webpage right here.

The generosity and kindness of the men in Northeast Joint Fire District Enderlin Station completely underscores the pride, generosity, and care that firefighters around the World are renowned for.

Thanks for taking such good care of us Boys!

Because of the rain there are very few pictures of this day. I have a picture in my mind that I’ll share with you of riding on some very smooth bike lanes and then entering a construction zone. The two lanes each way roadway narrowed to one lane each way with the side where the shoulder should be marked by orange pylons. Trucks were hissing past leaving great clouds of spray in their passing which didn’t really matter in terms of getting wet because everyone was already soaked. A couple of riders flatted out and several riders noticed they were chilling down and needed to get their rain gear off the bus so we contacted Dave and Ben up ahead and arranged to meet with them at Port City Cafe – a planned stop – in the lovely little town of Oswego.

Last year when we arrived at Port City the air conditioning was a blessing. Stepping from the 45 Celsius humidex into the impossibly cool atmosphere of Port City was amazing! This year with the temperature some 20 Celsius cooler and with several riders really feeling the rain, the experience of stepping inside was a whole lot different!

Some of us decided to try the place next door. An unassuming little bagel shop named the Oswego Bagelry and Sandwich Shop. We were just about to open the front door when a guy came out and noticing our distinctive apparel, got talking to us about our ride. He said that if we needed any repairs done on our bikes that the labour would be free, just bring the bikes down to Murdock’s Bicycles and Sports and he’d take care of us. He also said that the Bagelry was amazing. He was totally right! Wickedgood homemade bagels, homemade cream cheese, great coffee and most important of all – it was warm inside!!

The two guys running the place were very cool and fun and one of them showed us a “Made in Canada” tattoo on his arm because he was actually made in Canada! Scotia, Dave, Mel and Ed and I hunkered inside a booth and scarfed down a pile of truly fine food and coffee and laughed our way through a really funny table cover made up of old newspaper clippings and advertisements from the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. We were joined by some of the other riders shortly afterwards. It was perfect for lifting our spirits.

Then we walked the bikes down the street to Murdock’s where they encouraged us to use their facilities and make ouselves at home.

They took care of some repairs for us and I bought a happy-making rain jacket and a pair of riding gloves that would see me through the rest of the day in warmth and dryness.

Everyone put on their rain gear and set out once more in a better frame of mind to continue our journey to Webster where we planned to stay at Webster Park. There was talk that Ben and Dave were going to go ahead and have a look to see if we could perhaps rent one of the shelters at Webster Park given the difficult riding conditions and general moistness of the day. I was pretty pumped for the idea of staying indoors! I’ll let you know how that one all worked out with the next post!