Mel & Trinity

The last two weeks, echoed by my trip to date, has been incredible. I’m starting to feel like I’m living in a dream and I’m waiting to wake up.

I left Kevin and Jeanne on 14 June headed for Niagra Falls. I walked around the USA side of the falls which was spectacular, stopping at all the lookouts that I could find. The US side of the falls is made up of the American Falls, best viewed from Prospect Point, and Bridal Veil Falls, best viewed from Caves of the Winds.

The Maid of the Mist boat tour, which I had hoped to take, was closed that day due to the high water level, so I decided to walk to the base of the falls instead. The tour is called the Cave of the Winds. I didn’t understand why until I stood at the base of the falls. The power of the water creates a wind that pushes up against you before the water does. It was an incredible experience but one I would want to do in shorts next time as my jeans were drenched beneath the knee – my poncho only reached my knees.

Below are some photos of Niagra Falls.

I stayed in Niagara-on-the-Lake that night at the Orchid Inn, where I met the delightful Cindy, who I suspect was the owner. I’m slightly sad I did not have an extra day there as I could see all the vineyards as I approached the town and they looked gorgeous!

In the morning I had to be in Toronto at 12:00 to drop Trinity off with Derek from Boxer Cycle Works, who would be servicing Trinity. When he heard what I was up to he offered to do the service for free. How amazing is that! Thank you again Derek!

Meet Derek.

I had a fantastic weekend with my best friend’s family in Toronto. I also have Tom to thank for speaking to Derek about my visit. Thanks Tom!

Tom was an absolute superstar and played tour guide of Toronto. Tom and Karen’s (his wife) home is just east of the city centre near Lake Ontario. After taking Trinity to Derek and having lunch, we headed off for a nice walk along the lake and popped into the Balmy Beach Club, where Tom is a member. There was a beach volleyball competition on so we watched the games from the deck with a beer in hand.

The following day Tom and I headed to Centre Island, which is accessed by ferry front the city centre. Tom hired us bicycles and we had a really good giggle when he was presented with a girly bike and me a mountain bike. This was purely a height thing but it amused me no end and Tom was such a good sport about it.

There has been so much rain in the northeast that many of the paths were closed and there were sandbags in a lot of places to keep the water out off paths and out of the lakeshore houses. I’ve never seen that before.

We explored what we could of the island and also managed to watch a bit of the Dragon Boat racing that was taking place. I’ve participated in two charity Dragon Boat race events before, which were great fun, but these guys were in another league. It was impressive to watch!

Following the visit to the island we walked around the lake front of the city centre. Karen had been taking part in a lawn bowling competition, so she sadly couldn’t join us on our jolly but it was lovely to spend time with her in the evenings.

Below are a few photos of my wonderful time in Toronto.

I left Toronto on Monday, 17 June headed for Tobermory, Ontario. My plan was to catch the ferry over to Manitoulin Island and then head to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan. I had been advised to visit the UP by Sherry in Blowing Rock and Eric who I met in the house at Harper’s Ferry earlier in my trip. This would take me off my original plan to ride along the southern side of the lakes via Chicago but between the severe weather warnings and local advice, I decided north it would be. It turned out to be a fantastic decision (more about that later though).

Tobermory is small and really cute! I stayed in the Bruce Anchor Motel, which is located at the entrance of the ferry terminal, and a short walk to the locals bars and restaurants.

After checking in I went for a walk to the Big Tub lighthouse, which was a 1.5 mile walk away. The weather was great and it was nice to stretch my legs after 4 hours of riding.

Bruce Anchor Cruises is located across the road from the motel and they were advertising shipwreck cruises. That sounded like fun.

The view from the lighthouse was stunning and I could see how clear the water was. I was getting quite excited to a potential shipwreck cruise.

After an evening of veal steak and the beer tasting menu at the Tobermory distillery, I was ready to go exploring in the morning. I popped over to the ferry terminal and booked the afternoon ferry and then went to see if the shipwreck cruise could accommodate me. They could – wonderful!

While waiting for the shipwreck cruise I started speaking to a lady in the line (you know I can’t resist). Her and her friend had also been at Niagra Falls but they had taken a Jet boat ride from Niagra-on-the-Lake to the falls. They loved the experience. Wonderful, another reason to go back to Niagra-on-the-lake!

The cruise itself was fantastic! The cruise started by heading left, past the Big Tub lighthouse, into a bay. There were the shipwrecks. You could see them so clearly under the water. I could only imagine how spectacular it would be to dive the wrecks.

After 10 minutes or so of looking at the wrecks, the boat headed out to the islands. There are 20 islands in total but most are protected so you cannot visit them. After passing the Flower Plots (sea stacks) the cruise stopped to let people onto one of the islands for a walk. Since I had a ferry to catch I stayed on the boat and headed back to the mainland. This gave me time to walk around Tobermory and also have a leisurely lunch, which was most welcome.

Below are some photos of Tobermory and the ferry to Manitoulin Island.

I rode up Highway 6 on Manitoulin Island and stopped off at a few of the viewing points. I was told by a lady on the ferry, who I had also briefly spoken to in the harbour, that I should visit Ten Mile Point. I therefore headed in search of this point. As I wasn’t sure where it was exactly I followed the signs. I saw a sign saying Ten Mile Point (or something like that) so took the turn. It was not the right turn clearly as I was soon on a rough dirt road and eventually ended up at what looked like a dump. Hmmm! After looking at Google Maps I thought I maybe should have turned right and not left, so I went the other way. Again, this was a dead end leading to a lakeside houses at least this time.

I eventually found a viewing point next the Ten Mile Trading Post which I assumed must have been where I should have been. It was nice but nothing spectacular in my view. I wasn’t feeling Manitoulin Island so I decided to head as far north on the island as possible.

I stayed in Little Current that night. My preferred hotel was full but I got to speak to a lovely female Harley rider who was touring with a large group from Michigan. I eventually found a motel close by which had a room. The room was basic but clean.

The next morning I met the owner, Peter. As I walked out of my room he said, ‘My wife told me about you’. ‘She did’, I said?

‘Yes I told her if I wasn’t married I’d be off on the road with you’. I laughed. Peter also rides a bike and loved the idea of my trip. He’d never taken such a long journey before but he would love to. When I saw that my plan is to head to Asia in 2021 he said, ‘Maybe I’ll see you in India’. Peter is from India so I guess the idea of a ride there appealed to him. That would be cool with me!

It was raining lightly the morning I left Little Current. My plan was to continue on Highway 6 north until I hit the Trans-Canada Highway and then I would head west and see how far I could get.

On my approach to Espanola I saw a sign for Whitefish Falls. Cool, I thought. Let’s see what that looks like. I was so busy looking for the falls when I saw water that I did not pay attention to the fact that the (wet) wooden bridge that I was approaching had a dip in the middle and I was heading straight for it. As I was about to cross the single lane bridge I looked forward and saw the lowered section. Shit! As I tried to adjust my course my front wheel clips the edge of the dip and Trinity starting swinging all over the place. The result we hit the ground, falling over to the right. Luckily I was riding slowly but my shoulder and right hip got slammed into the bridge so I felt that. Ouch!

Other than being a bit achy I was fine. Now I have to get Trinity up. I was shaky and I normally can’t pick her up so this was not a good start. I tried one but it was not happening. Luckily at the point a guy in a truck approached the bridge and jumped out to lend me a hand, which I was very grateful for.

There was water running down the radiator, so I was worried it was coming from the radiator. I rode to the other side of the bridge and pulled over to ‘get my legs back’. There were mosquitoes or flies buzzing about so it wasn’t great to stop.

At that point a guy pulled up and asked me where I was from. ‘The UK’, I said. We chatted for a bit and a told him I was looking for the falls. He told me they were just up ahead and that I could follow him. I wasn’t sure about this guy but I thought I’d follow him for a bit.

He was right, they were only 2 min up the road. ‘Where are you heading to’, he asked? ‘Michigan’, I said. ‘That’s a pity he said. I would have taken you fishing’. Alarm bells were going off in my head at this point but I was polite and kept chatting. I told him my route plans and when I mentioned that I was heading to Montana he said, ‘Oh, I’m not allowed to go there. I was a bad boy when I was younger’.

Right and you want me to go fishing with you, was the thought in my head. At this point I took a photo and said goodbye. At least he was honest about being a bad boy. Thank goodness I sensed that the moment he stopped.

Worried about my radiator and my ride to Michigan I stopped at a gas station to check Trinity out properly. There I met Dave, my hero of the day. I told Dave that I had fallen and that I was worried my radiator may be leaking and he got straight into action, helping me dry Trinity off and placing paper towel under the radiator to see if any fluid was leaking from it.

While we were waiting for Trinity to dry out in the sun, which had now come out, Dave and I got chatting. He was so lovely! He gave me his sister’s telephone number who lives in Sault Ste Marie, which is where I thought I may end up. ‘If you have any problems give her a call’, he said. Awww!

Dave then said that if I had time that I should take the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 17) up the eastern side of Lake Superior to Montreal River Harbour. In his view, after Banff, this was one of the most beautiful parts of Canada.

When Dave heard I lived in London he told me I should look up one of his friends – a guy called Jerry Placken who works at Meyer Sounds Laboratories. I messaged Jerry on Facebook (why not) but I never heard back from him. I’m not really surprised. It was very random! 😂

Meet my hero for the day, Dave.

Following a short stop in Sault Ste Marie, I followed Dave’s advice and headed north on the Trans-Canada Highway. The road did not disappoint. At around 19:30 I stopped to fill up Trinity and noticed the cabins, so I popped in to find out if they had rooms. They did. That was great as the rooms looked right into the lake.

After dinner which consisted of a large salad and a beer, I went for a walk along Lake Superior. It was very pretty and the sunset was beautiful even if I was technically facing the wrong direction at that point.

The link provides photos of Lake Superior.

Even with my rocky start to the day, this had turned out to be a wonderful day. I guess every cloud does have a silver lining!

I will cover the rest of my last two weeks in my blogs to follow.