Crossing Canada

Carrie Perdue
In Niagara Falls we enjoyed a glorious and much needed rest day full of putt-putt golf, poutine, and a lot of laying around a doing nothing. Before long, though, we were back on the road. After a short 20 miles we bid a fond farewell to Brandon and watched him pedal away, back to the US, across the Friendship Bridge in Buffalo, NY.

Brandon couldn’t look back lest we see the tears in his eyes as he makes a run for the border

And then we were three. We pointed our bikes westward and started pedaling towards Michigan. We decided to divert from the Adventure Cycling Association Northern Tier route to ride through Michigan on the ACA Northern Lakes route. In order to connect to that route we would first need to cross Canada via the Lake Erie Connector route. It should not surprise you that we spend a lot of time staring helplessly at maps and wondering where we are. For once, though, this seemed fairly simple – we would just bike along Lake Erie for a few days before heading north and taking a ferry into Michigan. Easy peasy. No hills, nice lake views… we would cruise on through with no problems. And then we saw these guys:

Get out of my sight you devilish beast

Wind. It can be a cyclist’s best friend or worst enemy depending on how it’s blowing. And in the US, when you’re travelling east to west, it’s usually NOT blowing your way. The first two days out of Niagara, we put in about 150 grueling miles into a tough headwind. This bad luck may have had something to do with the fact we were riding on Friday the 13th. Our troubles were even more compounded by the fact that for some reason we were also sharing the road with literally thousands of motorcyclists. As we set up camp the first night in Selkirk, we found out why. Apparently Port Dover, a nearby town, is something of a Friday the 13th motorcycle mecca. For years now, every Friday the 13th, thousands of bikers gather to ride around the region. A few years ago their 50th Friday the 13th ride attracted 500,000 bikers. Our ride corresponded with this year’s only Friday the 13th and there were an estimated 150,000 bikers sharing the road with us.

Even though we had two wheels and funny outfits in common, we still didn’t really fit in...

Spirits were fairly low, ears were somewhat deafened by motorcycle noise, and thighs were pretty tired (and in my case extremely sunburnt) on our second day out of Niagara when we pulled into the Sandcastle Restaurant in Port Bruce, Ontario, looking for dinner and a place to camp. We got a warm welcome from Barb, one of the workers there, who invited us to pitch our tents in the yard of her sister at a nearby, and nearly beachfront, trailer park. There was one important caveat, however: we would have to pretend to be Christine (the out-of-town trailer owner) and Barb’s niece and nephews so that Marty, the trailer park general manager, didn’t kick us out. There was one big problem with this plan… Barb could not remember Kellen’s name. At all. She asked him 10 times what his name was, and then introduced him to Marty as Carrie. And then introduced him to her friends as Kyle. Then after learning it was Kellen’s birthday that day, she gave him and Cory her last two beers…. and then told Cory, “Happy Birthday!!”

Double-wide tent accommodations

Beautiful sunset over Lake Erie

Birthday boy enjoying a smores (granola bar) over our Lake Erie campfire

Barb’s forgetfulness aside, a beautiful beach sunset and good night’s sleep rejuvenated our weary souls and a shift in the wind kick-started our next day’s ride. It was Father’s Day, and we really wanted to get close enough to the US border to get cell service and call our families. This would mean putting in at least 85 miles, which would have been our longest ride to date. The wind finally cooperated, and while we didn’t get an actual tailwind until over 60 miles into the day, we avoided direct headwinds all day. At 8pm, around the 95 mile mark, we stopped for dinner and learned we were only 15 miles from Sombra, the launching point for the ferry to Marine City, MI. Even better news was that the last ferry didn’t leave until 10pm, so with the favorable winds we could probably make it back to American soil that night. What followed was the most enjoyable ride of our trip. Nice, crisp early evening air, another beautiful sunset, favorable winds, and, best of all, my first ever century ride (100+ miles). We made it to the ferry just in time, returned to the US in style, and set up our tents just after 11pm, after putting in 111 miles for the day.

Hitting 100 miles at sunset

Sunset with America in our sights

We made it! On the ferry to Marine City

At Marine City we had decided to depart from the trail for a few days to swing by the Smetana family residence in Novi, Michigan. The next day of riding proved to be the most challenging of our trip because we faced a horrible combination of bad roads with no shoulders, tons of traffic, headwinds, high temperatures, and eventually unpaved bike trails. It was a long, hot, stressful day, but before we knew it we had met up with Mr. Smetana to ride the last few miles to their home and all of our troubles had melted away. It’s been really fun getting to relax and to get to know the extremely kind and generous Smetana family and their hometown over the past few days. But the road is already calling us back. Tomorrow we set out again and continue our trek to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Biking skills run in the family

One of the many AMAZING meals we’ve enjoyed over the past 2 days

Trying to conquer a new sport on our day off