On Cycling the Shore

Seems as if much of the excitement in my life revolves around Lake Erie these days.  (Bad thing? Too much work? Good thing? Work provides adventure? Who knows?)

This past week I cycled a stretch of Lake Erie’s shoreline on the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure.  From Port Stanley to Fort Erie, I clocked over 260km in the saddle! TWO HUNDRED SIXTY KILOMETERS. I have one very sore ass and sick tan-lines to prove it. And some pretty pictures.

I don’t think I have done anything quite so physically demanding in my entire life.  And mentally demanding.  I was very anxious about the entire event & my role in it (cycling 260km AND representing my workplace). The last time I had ridden 75km in one day, I had been positively beat… and somehow I was supposed to travel even further (95km on day one), and then wake up and do it all again (100km on day two) and again (73km on day three).

 

But honestly the opportunity was too good to pass up. With a discounted registration and my work encouraging me to participate, it really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. (Though I fully intend to do it again next year!)  And I need activities like this — events I cannot back out of — to kick my lazy ass in gear.  And I have no regrets… except over not bringing a warm enough sleeping bag. (Nights in August should not get below 10 degrees Celsius!!)

Our “south coast” is gorgeous. The lake, Carolinian forest, fields of corn, tobacco & asparagus, Monarch butterflies and dragonflies, prairies and savanna’s with wildflowers in yellow & purple, crickets & cicadas, and fish & chips (mmm, Lake Erie Perch).

Through it all I cycled.  TWO HUNDRED SIXTY KILOMETERS. Boo Yeah.

Fun facts:

• Carolinian Canada is the most biodiverse region of Canada, with over 2000 plant species, 70 types of trees, 400 species of birds and 50 types of reptiles and amphibians.  Many of these species and their habitats are found no where else in Canada!
• Carolinian Canada makes up less than 1% of Canada’s landmass.
• The north shore of Lake Erie is 592 km long.
• Lake Erie is the 4th largest Great Lake according to surface area, though the smallest by volume and by far the shallowest of the Great Lakes.
• Lake Erie’s average depth is 19m and has a maximum depth of 64m. This contrasts quite remarkably with Lake Superiors average depth of 147m and maximum depth of 406m.
• Lake Erie supports on of the largest freshwater fisheries in the world, which isn’t all that surprising when you consider that it is the 11th largest lake in the world (according to surface area) and is the most biologically diverse of all the Great Lakes.
• Lake Erie’s watershed is home to over 11 million people! (The lake is bound by Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan.)
• Lake Erie has it’s very own legendary lake monster, very cleverly (NOT) named Bessie!
• #nerdrant

Oh, and here are the tan-lines I have to prove it. #bikeshortsftw

An actual tweet from the trail: Drinking a St. Thomas beer called Dead Elephant, a nod to the dear departed Jumbo. Yum!

To travelling by rail

I love rail travel.  Without ever stepping foot on a train, I grew to associate them with freedom and adventure.  Perhaps these sentiments came from endlessly reading the Boxcar Children*, growing up on the historic Underground Railroad**, or simply living & playing near a very busy set of tracks***.

  

My first experience on trains happened in 2007, when for 21 days I travelled the English (Scottish and Welsh) country & countrysides by train with my BritRail train-pass in hand.  With unlimited trips, my friend and I spent almost every morning on a train.  Trains have allowed me to see many a marvellous thing.

  

  

  

On Thursday night I took the GO train from Burlington to Toronto for an ENV Alumni Event.  While this trip was not as scenic & serene as the trip from London to Edinburgh, it fed the wanderer in my soul.  Trains in southern Ontario are peculiar. The railroads here have deeper roots in industrialism than in people-moving, so they tend to show the industrial bowels of the cities they pass through.  Scrap yards, abandoned buildings, parking lots.  The viewing pleasure of the passengers appears to be a non-item. There are no ‘vistas’ here. Only the backsides of shopping plazas and old neighbourhoods.

I enjoyed every second of that train ride!  Apparently I enjoy industrial bowels! ;)

I particularly enjoyed the road crossings. Arms down, lights flashing, cars lining up. I spent the trip happily listening to Florence + the Machine while imagining ways I could convince GO Transit to hire me as their social marketing coordinator!

The night was quite fun. I was late to the event because I stopped to have dinner with my sister and a friend. Mmm, we made butter chicken from scratch-ish (we used a butter chicken spice paste, but otherwise, it was from scratch).  The event took place at the schnazzy One King West hotel and we heard a great keynote speech**** by Tzeporah Berman.  I caught up with friends and professors and met a few alumni.

The train ride home was filled with exhaustion and melancholy. Going-to is always easier than going-from.

*The series contains well over 100 titles.

**The Niagara Region was one of many destination areas for the Underground Railroad in Canada.  A secret route by which 19th century black slaves from the United States made their way to freedom in the northern ‘free’ states and Canada.

***I lived in Jordan Station, so named because once-upon-a-time we had a train station. Unfortunately rail travel fell out of popularity with the rise of the personal automobile in the wake of WWII. *sigh*.  This hurts the environmentalist in my heart. Thankfully, the Niagara Peninsula is being slated for Go Train expansion in the not-too-distant future (2016?).

****I’m not sure it’s worth watching the YouTube version of it… it’s never as good as being there.  But if you have sometime to kill, she is a good speaker and shares some valuable insight into how environmentalists can collaborate with industry.