Day 18, Burnaby Ontario to Turkey Point Ontario

First the positive. It was a very nice ride today for the most part. Great views of Lake Ontario, friendly people, interesting houses, interesting political fight and great weather. 

The road that follows the north shore, Lake Shore Rd, Front Rd and other names, gives tons of views of the lake with minimal traffic. It’s good the traffic is minimal since shoulders are just about nonexistent.  

Looks like GE 2.5MW turbines near Lake Erie 

Lake Front home opposed to 2.5MW GE Wind turbines:)

The political fight is over wind turbines. Mini Rant: I think of this as the classic NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) fight, remember Teddy Kennedy and Nantucket Sound. I saw dozens and dozens of STOP the wind turbines signs and signs questioning the health impact of wind turbines. So I suppose those STOP folks would rather get their power from the coal plant 20 plus miles away. I just have to chuckle at this because these homes are generally down wind of the coal plant where there is a known health impact. It’s sorta like seeing a Prius doing 80mph, and then the driver complaining they aren't getting 50mpg :) Missing the bigger picture.

Now to the Negative side.  

My knees are killing me. Damn I hate this.  My legs, except for the knees, feel like iron man. The knees are my weak link. After 68 miles I arrived at our camp in Turkey Point Provincial Park, Norfolk Ontario and could barely get out of my trike. My knees just didn’t want to work. And today it’s not just the left, both are very sore. After much contemplation and no internet to confirm or deny my suspicions, I've decided it's not wise to go on. My suspicion is that I need to give these 50 year old knees at least a week of very light duty and no cycling. I’m thinking of this just like a muscle injury and they have got to be given time to heal. So as pretty as the Turkey Point Park is, at $42/day it’s not the place to recuperate. 

Day 17, Sodus Point to .......Buraby Canada

Part 2 Today was the day to test out the left knee. It started to give me pain a couple days ago. A pain just below the knee cap on the front and inside. I’ve never had this type pain before so it scared me a little. So on the 12th I cut the day short at 20 something miles then yesterday only an easy 12 mile ride around Sodus Bay to a new campground. This morning no signs of pain so it was off to Palmyra and the Erie Canal about 27 miles down the road. I had decided that if I arrived in Palmyra, or failed to arrive, with a sore knee we would pack up and head home. When you pay your own insurance and have a huge deductible, risks need to be minimized.

I pulled out of camp at about 5:45 am with 48degF and cloudy skies. I deviated from the ACA route and took SR21 from Pultneyville to Palmyra. A local said it was a much less hilly route and had shoulders. Well….. the shoulders aren’t great but the cars were good in passing so it was uneventful and non-stressful ride. The town of Pultneyville is very pretty with a nice little yacht harbor and once again I heard the siren songs of Hobie cats on the beach. But the best news was that I had very little knee pain when I got to the Erie Canal, yeah!!

From Palmyra we decide to skip the Erie Canal part of the ACA route. I did the entire canal from Buffalo to Albany a few years ago and I really hate repeating routes. So we packed the car and gave the knee a 3 hour rest as we drove back roads to Buffalo and crossed to the Canadian side. I restarted riding near the Ft Erie Park. There is a wonderful paved trail from Ft Erie for 19 miles to Port Colborne. My body came alive on this rail trail. After all those mountains, cold temps and rain, here was a +/- 1% grade with sun and 70degF . I felt like a machine cranking along this lightly used trail!!! After about 50 miles total I called it “A Day” and Uber-SAG Donna picked me up at a church in Burnaby. So tonight we’re in a great Provincial Park that has nicer facilities than any US state/fed park we’ve stayed in. So nice, that we plan to spend every night in a Provincial Park while in Canada.

Fallen Solider Memorial - New York USA

WARNING, WARNING Political non trike RANT ON: I’ve seen several of these types of memorials on the back roads of the north-east USA. It’s an incredibly sad sight, because more than likely it’s for a fallen husband/wife/son/daughter of the home. But what makes me madder than hell is that the vast majority of politicians that have sent these fine people to their deaths will never have this memorial in front of their home. Why, because their privileged sons/daughters will never serve (Jim Webb is the only political exception I know of). I just fundamentally think its wrong to have the power of life and death when you have no skin in the game. We either need to end these endless wars or institute a national draft with ZERO deferments for any man or woman between 21 and 55. You'll see how fast the wars end when every politician's or Wall Street financial big wig's son/daughter can be drafted and goes to the middle east. RANT OFF.

Great camp at Point Sodus on Lake Ontario.

Truth in advertising?????? Luxury-Affordable???

Erie canal in Palmyra NY

Nice trail near Ft Erie Canada

Train turned in to Rail/trail and great run. 

TRUTH in Advertising!

Friendship Trail - part of the trials from Ft Eire to Port Colborne.

Held up in Port Colborne.

Starting in park near Ft Erie, great day to ride!!!!