For most of the first few days, we would follow the Adventure Cycling Association’s Northern Tier route (segment 10), across the Peace Bridge into Canada. I’ve been an Adventure Cycling Association member since they were called Bikecentennial, and always appreciate the detailed work they do on their maps. You can download GPX files, but I’ve been a bike tourist long enough to know that you always want to have a paper map along. Never trust technology.
Today’s route was mostly pretty simple, except for the crossing of the Peace Bridge. Bridges that cross national borders usually aren’t designed for bicycles, and the Peace Bridge is no exception, but the bridge authority has some good resources showing cyclists and pedestrians how to approach it. After a short jaunt through Buffalo we got up onto the bridge and celebrated the border crossing. [Reflecting on it, despite all the international riding I’ve done, I haven’t actually crossed a national border on bike since my 2001 trip in Glacier National Park with Timberline Adventures.]
After crossing the bridge on the sidewalk, bikes have to jump into the traffic lanes for the border crossing, then hop off to the right side to get down to Niagara Parkway. We had nothing to declare and things went smoothly.
Niagara Parkway is 2 lanes without a shoulder, but light traffic and low speed. There’s a separate pathway or frontage road for much of the length, but we mostly stuck on the main road, which was pleasant riding, rolling along the river bank.
Temperatures were in the high 70s to low 80s; if it had been much warmer we might have taken the pathway route, which was more shaded. As it was, being along the river was nice.
There were not many businesses along the route leading up to Niagara Falls; it was mostly residential, with some older houses mixed with McMansions. We stopped at a picnic area for a rest and snack shortly before entering the city of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls as a natural feature is amazing. Niagara Falls as a city is a shit show. The mellow road riding switched to pathways increasingly filled with pedestrians. There were a couple of fun bike/bed footbridges over water infrastructure, but as we approached the falls there were too many people to ride.
We got pushed out onto the road, where tourist traffic was heavy. We took a pause to walk out on the Rainbow Bridge for some pictures (costing two of my Canadian dollars left over from a trip years ago), then continued north along the river.
There were still some tour buses on the road north of town, but traffic started to drop off as we passed by more of the local tourist traps. We stopped at the gondola over the Great Whirlpool, where we ran into another couple bike touring from Ohio, and chatted about the kinds of things touring cyclists chat about.
Nancy was tiring as we neared the Queenston/Lewiston bridge; fortunately Queenston was our destination. We had a nice downhill into town (only unfortunate because we’re coming back that way tomorrow) to the Carriage House on Kent, a traditional B&B where we’d spend the night. We had a small navigation error getting there but it only cost us a trip around the block.
Rob, our host, gave us good advice for our trip, including where to get dinner (there are no restaurants in Queenston itself). We wound up choosing a brew pub called Grist, about 6km away; Nancy had just enough energy to get there. We had fried halloumi sticks (yum!), a pizza, brussels sprouts, and beers.
We rolled back to Queenston, showered up and got to bed early. Tomorrow we’d climb that hill back to the bridge, and cross back into the U.S.