before i even leave . . .

over the next few days i'm going to turn the blog into a travelogue of sorts. i kept brief notes and took a few pictures on my recent bike journey and so i'm going to assemble, embellish, and share them here for myself and then also for those who know me. i hope you enjoy the journey as much as i did!

it’s been a wish of mine, maybe even a dream to ride a bicycle a fair distance. having read stories about trips across europe, asia, africa, and even across the united states and canada the pump has been primed for a long time. the trouble is i have never had the right combination of time, money, equipment and most importantly the will. so last year i came across an idea - well a route actually - that extends from niagara falls in the west, to montreal (and actually even further if you want) in the east.

i find that planning for anything is more than half of the fun of the whole experience and this trip was no exception. researching on-line and eventually coming across resources that helped me refine my plans was tons of fun. the best resource i came across for cycling across the northern half of lake ontario is the waterfront trail site. the waterfront trail is an ambitious project that connects niagara falls with brockville along a route that follows the shoreline of lake ontario as closely as is practical.

the site provides maps of each section that are detailed enough to include side trips. or you can simply order a copy of the book which contains all the maps and relevant information. depending on your ability, you might want to look at their section entitled itineraries for suggested routes and timelines.

so i went through most of this material and initially i was thinking i’d somehow get to niagara falls and then bike back to cobourg but commonsense prevailed and i decided instead to ride from peterborough down to cobourg. then i would travel on to belleville and end up in kingston from where i would turn around and retrace my steps.

every journey begins with a place you leave. so i’ll begin this story by telling a bit about where i live - peterborough.
i can remember very clearly my first trip to peterborough. it remains burned in my mind, etched in my memory and set the stage for much of what i hold most dear, that i am most proud of, and which i treasure above all else. it was a visit to view trent university - to see what i thought of it. i want you to imagine that you are 19 years old. you have never lived away from home, and you see a university that at that time had 2500 students in total and was in this setting . . . . what would you say?!! i was absolutely gobsmacked of course . . . . it is in my own experience, the most beautiful campus i have seen. i was hooked. but it was the community itself that held the greatest sway over me and even when i finally left the university, i always promised myself that in some way, shape, or form, i would return to peterborough to live.

peterborough is not a big city, in fact at present it includes just over seventy-five thousand people. it is a university town but the university - trent university - is a small liberal arts university valiantly struggling to rise above that descriptor by bringing in science money and also by attempting to double its student population. the university impacts the city financially but more importantly through its drawing together of people from disparate and wide-ranging backgrounds and placing them squarely in a relatively conservative rural city.

as a result, the city has a wonderfully divergent feel about it. it has an amazing array of restaurants that are not only diverse but often really good! it also has a strong cultural core that affects not only the adult population but opens doors for students passing through high school who perhaps “don’t fit” the get-your-diploma, go-to-college/university or get-a-job routine. the downtown streets are filled from august to april with young, cool, thinking, partying people and that can’t help but set a tone.

peterborough’s history goes back 11,000 years to when the glaciers from the last ice age were retreating and first nations groups followed in their path. there is a river that passes through peterborough and within a hundred metres of where i teach called the otonabee river. it is the remnant of a glacial spillway. at one time it was a wild river comprised of massive rapids and was probably a stunning if not impassable waterway. it is now a controlled river, spotted with dams that in some spots slow up the river, in others are used to generate electricity, and in others are a part of the trent canal, a waterway that connects georgian bay with lake ontario.

woodland natives lived in this area between 1000 bc to ad 1000, followed by iroquois and mississaugas. there is still a strong and vibrant native presence in peterborough and area at curve lake and
hiawatha first nation. in 1615, samuel de champlain travelled through the area and stayed for a brief time near the present-day site of bridgenorth, just north of peterborough. here's samuel striking a "looking into the distance" pose . . . and here's a map that explains why he needed to look like that. this boy travelled a long, long way in very difficult territory a long way from home!
in the 1800’s peter robinson (the peter of peterborough) took care of the passage and settlement of over 2500 poor catholic families (mostly from ireland) to settle in lanark county, carleton county (today’s ottawa), and scott's plains which was re-named peterborough in his honour. here's peter . . .
peterborough is now a thriving community situated approximately 125 kilometres (78 mi) northeast of toronto. peterborough is known for many things but among its more famous features are the liftlocks . . .
and the peterborough petes who have supplied more hockey players to the national hockey league than any other team in the world . . . here's a pic of them receiving the ontario hockey league championship trophy . . .
of course there’s lots more history and geography and economic and cultural information i could share about peterborough, but it’s time to get on the bike and leave all of this (and my family) behind and get going!

before we leave, here’s a good link that includes many images of the beautiful city of peterborough. this map gives you a general sense of where peterborough is in relation to some of the communities i’ll mention . . .
the practical sides of the journey including clothing and equipment are pretty uninteresting to be honest but for verity i'll share them all the same. i ride a de vinci nassau retrofitted with a blackburn pannier rack and panniers supplied by mountain equipment co-op. i upgraded the drivetrain to a shimano sora front end and a shimano tiagra backend chiefly because i wanted a little better quality than the bike came with originally and also because that combination gave me bigger gears so i could ride faster. they still aren’t big enough but i hear that that’s a common complaint among many bike riders in general.

other than that, i took the usual little mound of clothes, some energy bars, a camera, cell phone, a book, notebook, maps, tool kit, bike pump, rain gear, and bike jersey and shorts. oh and not to forget the credit card! all of these things were jammed into plastic bags and then further jammed inside the panniers on the back. a couple of water bottles on the bike carried electrolytes and spring water. i wear a garmin gps on my wrist which tells me how far i've travelled, my speed, and my pace. it doesn't tell me where i am.

before i left, i booked ahead to stay in cobourg at my mum and dad’s place and also at hotels in belleville and kingston and then again in belleville for the return ride.

tomorrow - the road to cobourg.