"I guess I'm going down the escarpment." I hadn't planned to go down the Niagara Escarpment at this point near Grimsby, but all roads went down. As a result, I climbed the Niagara Escarpment one extra time!
The route of the double century ride was to be along the top of the Niagara Escarpment from Hamilton to St. Catharines. Well, I guess that was almost the route! There was one minor diversion down and back up the Escarpment near Grimsby. Perhaps the triathletes whom I met on the road near Grimsby diverted my attention?
Before Hamilton, in the early hours of the morning, the route of the 200 mile, double-century, bicycle ride was from my home in Guelph to Dundas and Ancaster. This part of the route followed county roads, Highway 52, and roads 599 and Mineral Springs to Ancaster. Mineral Springs Road is a fun route followed by many cyclists. It's a preferred route since it has continuous hills. I didn't meet any cyclists on Mineral and Sulphur Springs Roads this morning, but I have seen many on this route before!
From Ancaster, the route was along Golf Club Road to roads along the top of the Escarpment in Hamilton. Roads followed along the Escarpment in Hamilton included Scenic Drive and Mountain Brow. After Hamilton, the route was along Ridge Road. These roads go past the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital and Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology.
A variety of other country and township roads were followed towards St. Catharines. This route went past many fruit orchards and fields of grape vines. Eventually, the route was along Road 69 into St. Catharines.
Out of St. Catharines, the route followed Roads 89 and 81 to the Niagara River at Queenston. I didn't climb the hill at Queenston, but just looked up at the Brock Monument. At this time it was raining heavily!
I didn't visit Niagara Falls either. A visit to the Falls would have made the route too long. The purpose of this trip was to explore the ridge of the Niagara Escarpment. Many years ago, I used to hike this along the Bruce Trail. Many of the roads looked familiar. I stopped and looked down at Balls Falls. I remember hiking down in the gorge, below the falls, at one time in my historic past -- over 10 years ago! My, time flies!
The route had covered One Century (or 100 miles) by the time I reach Queenston. After Queenston, I followed the Niagara River Parkway to Niagara-on-the-Lake. After Niagara-on-the-Lake, the route was along the shore of Lake Ontario to Hamilton and then home to Guelph along Cedar Springs Road and various county roads. The route along Lake Ontario is not quite on the shore. After a while, you end up on Road 81 which eventually becomes Highway 8.
Highway 8 was followed into Stoney Creek where I turned down Gray Road to use the back gate into the Conservation Area along the shore of Lake Ontario. Here, I paused to eat some more -- my last 2 peanut butter and jam sandwiches! After all, this point is about 80 km. (50 miles) from home! Here, I visited the memorial to the drowning of the crews of the "Hamilton" and "Scourge" in 1813. These 2 boats capsized in the early morning, one day in the war of 1812.
The pain of so much riding was starting in the knees. I was also starting to slow down -- the last 80 km. took about 3 and a half hours. That's just a bit slower than the first 240 km., but not too much slower!
Overall ride statistics:
The weather was somewhat as predicted -- err, err, or, as predicated that morning. The weather forecast given on the day before was for clearing with sunny and cloudy periods. As it is, there were periods of heavy rain! There were also some delightful periods of sunshine. The temperature was warm, but not hot -- just above 20 C. The humidity was quite high so I was constantly sweating -- a somewhat typical warm, muggy summer day. Ah, it was the first day of summer, after all?
Gee, now I've completed 3 centuries in June! There was a single on June 13 and now this Double on June 21. My first year of doing a century a month is now half over.
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