ride for africycle day seven (part two)

hamlin beach state park to shalamar campground, niagara falls, ontario 120 km + (part two)

from youngstown we rode along some really lovely bike paths that threaded together to get us closer to the border crossing at lewiston.

here we are riding along in happy time comfort by the side of a small road that connects youngstown to somewhere further up the river!

speaking of the niagara river, here it is just past the trees that line the bike path.

here we are flying along a road that bisects some of the distance between youngstown and lewiston.

a much happier space for cyclists looks like this sweet and curvalicious bike trail that we hooked up with.

getting to the other side of the niagara river is something of a challenge at the lewiston crossing. there are on ramps and off-ramps and freeways ending up at the border crossing itself and the whole thing's not really set up for bikes but where there's a will there's a way and we eventually wound up on the scorching hot concrete pad leading up to the little row of booths.

it was so hot under my feet that i had to keep lifting one off the ground to let the temperature drop and then do the same with the other foot!

i didn't take any pictures of this whole process because they (the border people) can do things to images and cameras that might upset the trade balance between the two countries, not to mention the import and export of undesirable elements (and maybe i'd be one of those!)

so here's a picture of the bridge we crossed into canada.

big thanks to the golden fish airborne recon team who rented a very tatty hang-glider and braved the windcurrents in the gorge to get this sweet pic for me.

we walked our bikes one at a time through customs, handing over our passports getting them scanned and then off to say goodbye to bike buddy linda who was headed home from there and off down the escarpment at breakneck speed - bike buddy ben scored 70+ clicks while i settled for a demure 62 clicks down the escarpment. a very brief ride down part of the niagara parkway,

a sharp left and we were at our destination for the night being shalamar campground.

after setting up camp, we managed three intense volleyball games (which my team bravely let the team led by bike buddy mike take in a hotly contested and epic series of volleys).

today i put back twelve bottles of water.

they all evaporated off my body.

these are the google map directions from hamlin beach state park to shalamar campground.

tomorrow we head off to bronte creek campground in oakville.