1. Arriving in Brockville the night before the big Tour.

Vicki Barron, Kate Harries, Nikki Rendle, Anna Biro (Marlaine Koehler photographer)—reunite to tour the extension of the Trail east of Brockville.For this trip we have recruited David Arcus to serve as our logistical genius. He'll drive the pick-up truck we rented to move the group and our equipment from city to city. After a short bike ride along Brockville's beautiful off-road trail, we take in a late dinner at the Brockberry Cafe. We stayed overnight at the Best Western Motel White House, 1843 Hwy #2, 1 mile east of Augusta (there is an exit off 401 at Augusta) 613-345-1622 (has heated outdoor pool).

2. Brockville press conference.

We kick off the tour with a press conference announcing our plans to extend the Trail east of Brockville and recognizing CIBC's decision to renew its 9-year partnership with the Trust for the next three years. CIBC is the Trust's founding corporate partner and has provided $1.2million todate to support the Trust's work to complete, enhance and promote the Trail.

Pictured here (from left): Nikki Rendle (WRT), Marlaine Koehler (WRT), Victor Romard, District Leader Personal and Small Business Banking CIBC Lawrence Lukassen, Account Manager/Personal Banking Brockville Branch CIBC, Vicki Barron (WRT).

For more information:

City of Brockville: www.brockville.com

CIBC: www.cibc.com

3. Ann Weir and Mike Lalonde look over the new trailhead signs.

Ann Weir of the Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce and Mike Lalonde of the Cornwall and Seaway Valley Tourism examine the new trailhead signs that will be installed along the Trail with Vicki Barron for Brockville paper. Mike Lalonde has organized the Ontario portion of the Tour for us.

For more information:

Brockville Chamber of Commerce: www.brockvillechamber.com

Cornwall and Seaway Valley Tourism: www.visit.cornwall.on.ca

4. We're off for the first leg of our ride.

Outside Brockville, we ride along HWY 2, which has a paved shoulder for the most part. Monday morning this road is moderately busy with both vehicle and truck traffic. The speed limit is 80kph.

5. St. Lawrence River in the Morning

The morning mist casts a mystical haze over the beautiful St. Lawrence River. Views like this make cycling a rewarding treat.

6. Blue Church

A few kilometres west of Prescott, the Blue Church tells the story of the early settlers to the area. Many of the region's pioneers are buried in the cemetery.

7. Prescott Ogdensburg International Bridge

This bridge is a reminder that the Trail is connected via a number of crossings to our American neighbours. Every summer the Trust fields a number of calls from American cyclists planning a trip along the Trail.

8. Arrival in Grenville Campground in Prescott.

Township of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal Mayor Peggy Taylor meets us at the Grenville Campground just east of Johnston. After a long and hot ride, this is the perfect stop for a break. Our group soaked their feet in the cool water down by the beach. This is a popular holiday spot for families and campers.

Grenville Campground: www.recorder.ca/grenvillecap/edwardsb/edgrenp.htm

9. Meeting our new partners.

Local politicians, staff and volunteers describe their work to develop new ways to promote the area. Everyone welcomes the idea of connecting to the Waterfront Trail as an enhancement to their current marketing initiatives. We discuss the need to create better conditions for cyclists, for example paved shoulders.

South Grenville has already created mapping and commissioned an informative and encouraging study into the economic impact of bicycling tourists. Their website should be up this summer—lots of great opportunities to collaborate.

Thanks to the Town of Prescott for providing the lunch.

For more information:

United County of Leeds and Grenville: www.uclg.ca

Township of Elisabethtown-Kitley: www.elizabethtown-kitley.on.ca

Township of Augusta: www.augusta.ca/

Town of Prescott: www.prescott.ca

Township of Edwardsburg/Cardinal: www.edwardsburgh-cardinalbusinessassociation.com/

10. On to Cardinal

Leaving Prescott and on our way to Cardinal there are some stretches of paved shoulder. Much of the way however runs on narrow to no shoulders with moderate levels of traffic (including trucks). With a measure of caution, our party felt comfortable riding along the road.

11. Upper Canada Village Heritage Park

Jancis Sommerville, Marketing Officer for the Upper Canada Village Heritage Park treated us to a guided tour of the historic grounds. All of the buildings in the village have been relocated to create the village, some were taken from Morrisburg prior to the flooding for the St. Lawrence Seaway Project.
www.uppercanadavillage.com

12. Morrisburg

Orville and Claire explain the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project in Morrisburg. To build the Seaway many communities including Morrisburg had to relocate their town centres. Many of the homes and businesses moved north closer to the railway by the new HWY 2.

Today Morrisburg's waterfront is a wide expanse of park and greenspace, referred to as the "Dock" by local residents. In the evening people gather there to catch up.

We stayed overnight at the McIntosh Country Inn, County Road 2, Morrisburg. For reservations phone: 613-543-3788 or go to www.mcintoshcountryinn.com

DAY TWO:

13. Uppper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Much of the day was spent touring the St. Lawrence Recreation Path which runs 90 kms from Iroquois to the Quebec Border along the picturesque St. Lawrence Seaway. An excellent map and guide is published by local tourism partners and widely available. For information visit www.cornwalltourism.com.

This lovely stretch of off-road path took us through a forested area where we came upon the Uppper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary - www.stlawrenceparks.com. In several spots along the route we were lucky enough to see some deer.

14. Meeting at Long Sault

Drenched from a refreshing downpour, we arrive to meet local community leaders for lunch at the Water's Edge Diner. Once again we are delighted with the enthusiastic support offered by the community for the extension of the Trail along this stretch of beautiful waterfront which includes the St. Lawrence Parks system and the United Counties of Stormont Dundas Glengarry.

Thank you to the Township of South Stormont for providing lunch.

For more information:

St. Lawrence Park Commission: www.stlawrenceparks.com

United Counties of Stormont-Dundas Gengarry: www.sdg.com

Townhip of South Dundas: www.southdundas.com

Township of South Stormont: http://southstormont.ca

15. Lost Villages Museum

July 1st, 1958 Inundation Day. On that day plans to create a deeper St. Lawrence Seaway to accommodate the growing commerical shipping trade were realized. In order to accomplish the plan, six villages had be flooded--people, homes and businesses moved to newly created town centres.

The Lost Villages Historical Society runs the museum. They've done a wonderful job of explaining what happened and perserving what was lost in the name of progress. It is a must see stop.

www.lostvillages.ca

16. Relaxing evening at the First Canada Inn

Jim Heritage hosts a wonderful evening for our group at his inn--First Canada Inns. We enjoyed great conversation and met many of the guests. The atmosphere is very welcoming and friendly. Next door there is a fantastic Italian restaurant.

relax@firstcanadainnscornwall.com

1618 Vincent Massey Drive, Cornwall

Reservations 1-800-545-3689

17. Cornwall's waterfront

The group enjoyed a scenic ride through Cornwall's waterfront on an off-road path created in the early 1990s. Cornwall has developed an extensive trail system with links to residential neighbourhoods.

Cornwall is home to the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences which carrys out critical research on how large river ecosystems, and their components, function, for example they are conducting studies into the taste and odour of our drinking water and source water protection.

For more information:

City of Cornwall: www.city.cornwall.on.ca

St. Lawrence Rive Institute of Environmetal Sciences: www.riverinstitute.com

18. Raisin Region Conservation Authority

Vicki and Mike Lalonde talk with Roger Hood, General Manager at Raisin Region Conservation. The Conservation Authority manages a number of beautiful parks and wetlands that will be connected to the Waterfront Trail, for example: Gray's Creek Conservation Area and Marina and Copper's Marsh Conservation Area. Later this season, they will re-open of the restored Charlottenburgh Park.

Closed since 1990 and located 19 km east of Cornwall, the Park encompasses a total of 234.7 acres of green space. This is a diverse environment with many types of ecosystems including white pine and spruce plantations, a mixed hardwood forest, Class 2 Provincially Significant wetlands, Lake St. Francis and its tributaries, meadows and a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) managed forest area.

For more information: www.rrca.on.ca.

19. On-Route to Lancaster

Outside Cornwall the County of Stormont, Glengarry and Dundas has created generous shoulders along County Rd #2 to accommodate cyclists. During our ride, the road was very quiet, lovely cottage-style homes dotted the landscape. There is very little in the way of stores and restaurants so you should stock up before you set out.

20. Lunch Stop in Lancaster

The group stops for lunch at the Dairy Queen in Lancaster. The DQ and some other fast food restaurants are our first break since leaving Cornwall. Here, Vicki meets with Marcel Lapierre of the Township of South Glengarry.

For more information:

Township of South Glengarry: www.southglengarry.com

21. Riding into the Storm

The group enjoys a ride through the scenic country side but not fast enough to beat the downpour moments later. The rain helped to cool down the temperature. Along this stretch the road has soft shoulders and the traffic can be quite busy.

22. We reach the Québec Border-- at last!

We join members of Vélo Québec and Marcel Lapierre of South Glengarry to mark this historic moment when we reach the Ontario/Québec border. From here, Jean Francois Provonost and Michel Bedard lead way to Les Cèdres along la Route Verte. Once complete la Route verte will have 4300km cycling route throughout the Province of Québec.

Our Québec portion of day two was traveling through the picturesque Montérégie region. http://tourisme-monteregie.qc.ca

Vélo Québec: www.velo.qc.ca/english/home.lasso

la Route verte: www.routeverte.com/ang/

 

23. Along la Route verte

The Trail follows one of the old canals that once served the shipping industry--Les Cèdres. You can see that private homes back onto the Trail system and they view the Trail as a wonderful amenity.

24. Les Cèdres

La Mairesse Géraldine Quesnel explains that there are ambitious plans to re-open the Soulange Canal to accommodate recreational boating and invite new development and commercial opportunities to the area.

For more information:
www.ville.lescedres.qc.ca

 

DAY THREE:

25. Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue

Enjoying breakfast at the Auberge Willow Place Inn (208 Man Road Hudson - Hudson - 1-450-458-7006, www.willowplaceinn.com)

Its an early start for the tour this morning. We expect to get in 30 kms by 10:30 am! In order to make our ambitious schedule, and to deal with a 13 km gap in la Route verte #5, we have adjusted our plan slightly. Instead of resuming the tour at Les Cèdres, we drive to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue and start day three from there.

For more information:

Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue: www.ste-anne-de-bellevue.org/en/vis.html

Hudson: hudson-village.info/abouhist.htm

26. Starting off to Montréal

At our meeting point, we're asked for directions to Toronto by a McGill student. He expects to reach Toronto in 3 days! In the end he made it to Kingston the next evening where his bike broke down and was rescued by his family.

27. The River

This stretch of the St. Lawrence has some wonderful public areas to enjoy. This sculpture was about 3 kms from Lachine Canal.

28. Lachine Canal

During the 40 years that the Lachine Canal was closed it was an abandoned eyesore. In the 2 years since the federal government re-invested in the Canal and re-opened it for recreational craft, the private sector has come aboard. There has been over $250 million invested in new development. Today Lachine Canal is a popular and attractive tourist destination and new commmunity.

29. Arrival in Montréal

The Tour is cheered on by members from Vélo Québec, the Manon Barbe, associate councillor to the mayor of Montréal, a representative from MTQ, Sebastian Lapointe from CIBC and local media. A brief ceremony follows to celebrate the inaugrual ride connecting la Route verte and the Waterfront Trail.

30. CIBC congratulates the Trust and Velo Québec

Sebastian Lapointe from CIBC Montréal congratulates the Trust and Vélo Québec for their excellent work on trails. In total CIBC has provided $1.2 million to the Waterfront Trail. They are the founding partner for this project.

Note the sign behind the speaker's podium - it shows the distance marker to Toronto with the Waterfront Trail logo! This is just a temporary sign at the moment but both Vélo Québec and the Trust plan to have a signed route in place by 2007.

31. La Maison des Cyclistes

La Maison des Cyclistes is home to Vélo Québec Association. Its a terrific location with a cafe and loads of travel guides, maps, books and gear for anyone interested in cycling.

32. Montréal

On our stroll through the Montréal streets, we came across this busker challenging people to ride the wonky bike. David gives it his best shot but can't keep the tires straight.

We stayed overnight at the Institut de tourisme et d'hotellerie du Québec, 3535 rue Saint-Denis, Montréal. Phone: 1-800-361-5111, www.ithq.qc.ca

For more information:

City of Montréal: www.montreal.com

Thank you!

Once again we are indebted to our local partners for their hard work and enthusiastic help in arranging the details of our trip. Mike Lalonde, Jean-Francois Provonost and Michel Bedard did an outstanding job of making sure we saw all great sites and forged all the new partnerships needed to extend the Trail to the Québec border. Thanks goes out as well to everyone who took the time to join us on our journey or to meet us for one of the many delightful working lunches!

We also want to thank David Arcus who exceeded our expectations. On this trip it was either drought or downpour--seeing David's truck was a sign that we had made another milestone and could if we wanted or needed to, seek refuge in the comfort of the truck and in the company of David. You enriched us with your eceletic musical collection, found and rescued us at all the right times and generally brightened the conversation and experience.

To Kate--who knew that back in 2002 when you offered to join our first end to end tour that you would be signing on for a multi-year project. Thank you so much for seeing the merit of this project and for capturing in your stories the dedication of the people behind the Waterfront Trail and Greenway.

Anna--no trip would be the same without you. Thank you so much for making all the necessary arrangements in your life to join us. We are grateful for your company and appreciate your perspective on the Trail from a user's point of view.

The waterfront east of Brockville is breathtaking and we can't wait to work with the communities to extend the Trail to include them.

Sincerely,

Vicki, Marlaine and Nikki

• Click here to read Kate Harrie's article that appeared in the Toronto Star, "Cycle Paths Lead to Adventure"
• To learn more about other cycling opportunities connected to the Waterfront Trail click here to return to the Itineraries page.