Author: carlschaumann

I needed to stay in Canada for another day to see Petr, my friend from Hamilton. So I didn’t have far to go today and I could spend a little time seeing things along the way.

I decided to stop at a place called Balls Falls. There are a lot of waterfalls along the Niagara Escarpment. But I was finding out I was here at the wrong time of year to see them. In the summer, the streams don’t have much water and many of the falls are dry or a trickle.

Balls Falls had a lot of trails so I took a hike and had a picnic lunch.

I made it into St. Catherines for dessert at Beechwood Donuts a vegan donut shop. I know, I was skeptical too, vegan donuts? Really? But they were the bomb.

I went to a park to enjoy my donuts.

I think this squirrel is on to Beechwood Donuts.

On the was out of St. Catherines I came by an on ramp to the Queen Elizabeth Way, a major highway in Ontario. It was the first intercity divided highway in North America when it opened in in 1937 and was the longest stretch of consistent illumination in the world.

Soon I turned onto the Welland Canal trail. The Welland Canal raises ships 326 feet so they can transit from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie and not have to go over Niagara Falls. It provides a very important commercial Shipping connection to all the ports of the Great Lakes that are upstream from Lake Ontario.

When you hear the word campground, what do you think of? A picnic table and fire ring in the woods with tents and RVs? Well Scott’s Campground where I had reserved a campsite had all that but also offered a “gentleman’s club” across the street. It actually was a very nice campground and I met a French Canadian couple that were on a bike tour and camped nearby.

Leftovers from my Pole Star Hearth binge fueled me this morning. Adam had helped me with routing and much of what he recommended worked well for me.

But I do think Adam is more of a mountain biker than me.

Or maybe he is just younger.

I enjoyed a lunch of my stores and a nice coffee and treat from Durand Coffee in Hamilton. I actually have a friend in Hamilton but he was out of town for a wedding and we were going to try to meet a little farther down my route before I crossed back into the US.

Albion Falls was gorgeous and running better than a lot of other falls along the Escarpment I was riding along.

Towards the end of the day I still didn’t know where I was going to camp for the night but the low angled sunlight snuck through some gaps in the clouds to put on an amazing light show.

Eventually I decided to head to a park called Kinsman Park and see about stealthily setting up camp. I figured it was right before dark and the place would be deserted. Wrong, there were quite a few folks walking dogs and exercising in the park. So since I lost my cover and it was obvious I was looking to camp in this park where there was no camping, I took a different tact and asked a woman if she thought I would get caught if I camped in the park. She didn’t seem too sure then a guy walking his dog came up and I asked him. He seemed to think I would be okay camping there and loaded up his dog and drove away. I started setting up my tent and then he showed back up. He had changed his mind and thought I might get caught camping there and the penalty might be high. He offered a solution though. I could ride down to his house a few miles away and camp in his front yard. I was a little unhappy to pack up my tent and ride in the dark to his house that happened to be down the escarpment that I would have to climb back up in the morning but it was nice he was willing to help me out.

His name was Jim and he told me about the days when he was a competitive cyclist. He had recently lost his wife and he was still working as a truck driver. He has a motorcycle and likes to tour on it. His last tour he rode all the way out to the West coast! It was great to get to know him. Thank you Jim for your kindness.

Riding through Stratford along the Avon River first thing in the morning was magnificent.

I am pretty sure my county health department inspector told me he came to Stratford with his wife each year for its annual Shakespeare Festival. Another fun fact: Stratford was the childhood home of Justin Bieber.

I’m kind of crazy about visiting bakeries if you haven’t noticed and this morning was no exception. I am a baker, if you didn’t know, and I somehow came across a bakery in Guelph, Ontario on social media over 10 years ago and have been following them ever since. In that time I have devoured the pictures they posted of their products and have come to admire them for their dedication to craft and community. So besides not really wanting to ride my bike through Ohio particularly, Pole Star Hearth Bakery was responsible for getting me to Guelph, Ontario. And today was the day I would finally get a chance to try their wares. I should have called ahead and seen if I could have gotten a tour of their production area. I also should have made an order ahead of time. I realized they don’t take “day of” orders a little late so that had me up early and heading down the road so I could get there as early as possible so I could have the best chance of getting what I wanted. I peddled the 49 miles there before 11:30 am. They opened at 10:00 and still had a line out the door. I bought a t-shirt and way more than I could possibly eat. Luckily I was going to a Warmshowers host’s house tonight and could get some help.

I went to the farmers market and then a park to eat lunch. I think I ate something besides marvelous baked goods. A guy at the farmers market asked me if I was riding my bike across the Continent and was staying with Maddie and Adam (my hosts) tonight. It turned out he had rented their house while they were on an 11 month international bike tour and knew they were hosting someone. I guess I didn’t blend in.

Maddie and Adam are great humans. I was impressed they managed to be masters of their destiny last year. They quit their jobs, rented their house, planned and took that 11 month bike tour. On their tour, they visited New Zealand, Tasmania, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, and Spain! This is their blog about their tour:

Madam pedals world tour 2024

Maddie and Adam made an excellent dinner that we enjoyed on their lovely backyard patio.

I was their first Warmshowers guest. They had used Warmshowers on their tour and wanted to pass on the magic to other people on tour. I was lucky enough to enjoy some of that magic, thanks Maddie and Adam!

Maybe they are just novel to me but I do think Canada has better road signs than the US.

I rode past a fair number of wind turbines just East of Lake Huron tapping into the unobstructed prevailing wind. The gravel roads I was on were low traffic volume, had good surfaces and afforded a close up view of the immensity of the wind turbines.

There was a lot of ornate brick work in this area and it made me think of my brother Paul who is a mason.

When I made it to Stratford, Ontario where a Warmshowers host was willing to host me, I stopped at a gas station/convenience store for a snack and some water and noticed a sign in the window.

On my way to my host’s house I passed a park with a disc golf course. I had been carrying a golf disc since Wisconsin and hadn’t had a chance to play so I decided to play a round. There just happened to be a guy who was getting ready to start a round and he asked if I would like to join him. I said yes and we got started. He was kind and complimented the few good shots I took but he was a much better player than I. We shared some deep conversation about our lives and really connected. Sometimes it is easy have open conversations with strangers.

I peddled across town to my host Dorothy’s house and was welcomed. After a shower and setting my tent up in the back yard to dry, Dorothy made us a wonderful dinner. She is a retired teacher and a very accomplished kayaker. When she heard I lived on the Delmarva Peninsula she asked if I had ever heard of the Delmarva paddler’s retreat. I told her my friend Sue had been involved in organizing the retreat for years. Small world. T

hank you Dorothy for your kindness and hospitality hosting me.

I met my campground neighbor in the morning. He was from Guelph, Ontario and he was surprised when I said I was headed there. And was even more surprised when I told him I was going there to visit a bakery. He told me that he was camped here, right next to the Saint Clair River because he was a ship watcher and plans much of his vacation time around watching ships.

Just before I left, he gave me an apple and a peach! The peach was just ripe and was something that a person on a bike tour doesn’t get to enjoy too often because it is not easy to transport a ripe peach on a bicycle. It was a magnificent treat.

I was trying to put my finger on what the differences were since I crossed into Canada. I noticed Canadian road signs were maybe more graphic than American road signs. Could it be because it has more than one national language?

I did notice the fire hydrants looked jaunty and were freshly painted.

Dollar stores morphed into Dollarama stores.

I think I only saw one trump flag in Canada but I saw a fair number of these signs.

I stopped at a coffee shop in Sarnia. While I was locking up my bike, someone told me I shouldn’t be flying my American flag here. I told them I love my country and it needed my support more than ever at this time.

After coffee and 2nd breakfast, I walked down the street to see if I could pick up a multi USB charging block to help me get all my electronics charged at once. I came upon a man in an electric wheelchair that was stuck on the sidewalk in freshly laid soft asphalt. I asked if I could help. The woman he was with and I tried to lift while he was hitting the gas. I never realized how heavy an electric wheelchair is, there was no way we were going to move it alone. I walked back down the street and asked some folks if they could help. In less than 3 minutes there must of been 10-12 people there helping and we got him out. I heard people saying they had contacted the town hall about the problem and when I was walking back to my bike later I noticed someone had moved the construction barrels to stop someone else from getting stuck and they moved some steel plates to make it possible for a wheelchair to navigate the sidewalk.

This all reinforced my belief that Canadians are good folks.

I was curious about the state of cannabis legalization in Canada so I stopped and had a conversation with Jared in front of Blazing Budz.

I got to The Pinery provincial Park , set up camp and went for a last Great Lake swim (of the tour) in Lake Huron.

When I got back to my campsite it was pretty late and I had some fresh corn I had picked up at a roadside farm. I was thinking I would roast the corn over a fire but I didn’t have any wood and there was a no wood collection policy. I noticed the campsite next to me had a nice fire going so I thought maybe they wouldn’t mind if I roasted my corn on their fire. Looking back on it, it was rather impolite of me to ask. And now I can’t recall the wonderful couple’s names but they told me they would roast the corn for me. Later I talked with one of them about my tour and his home country of Ukraine. He told me when he was growing up in Ukraine he once went on a bike tour with a group of youths.

I was glad he found refuge in Canada but I wished his home country was not at war.

Eddie and I said thank you and fairwell to Pavan and got on the road. Yesterday we wanted to go swimming in a lake and we rode to a State Park on Cass Lake because they had a swimming beach. Unfortunately it was closed because of high E. coli levels. Today we were determined to try again and we called ahead to the town of Lake Orion who runs a swimming beach on Lake Orion. They were open and we were able to take a swim.

Eddie had us on some trails again today. The first two, the Clinton River trail and the Paint Creek trail were mostly unpaved but in excellent shape. The third trail we picked up, the Polly Ann trail started good but got more rough the farther we went. Eventually we gave up and took to the roads. Eddie had a cousin in the area we were riding so we made a quick stop to say hello.

The forecast was starting to look like it might be thunderstorms before we got to Port Huron but somehow, even though there were many thunderstorms popping up all around we never got hit directly and only received some light showers before we arrived at Bonnie’s, our Warmshowers host’s, home in Port Huron. Bonnie was yet another splendid human who is a Warmshowers host, there must be some kind of connection there. She shared her beautiful home, excellent food, local knowledge and marvelous stories of past adventures. Thank you Bonnie.

Bonnie sent us off after a terrific breakfast. We would ride South along the Saint Clair River to Algonac, Michigan where I would take a ferry to Ontario, Canada and Eddie would ride back to His home. The Saint Clair River flows out of Lake Huron towards Lake Erie. It was the most amazing shade of blue. Eddie and I wanted to take a swim in it. We found a nice place called Chrysler Beach. It was right across the river from a Canadian oil refinery but it looked clean and it was a swimming beach.

When we made it to Algonac, we found an ice cream place, had an ice cream and said our goodbyes. Thanks Eddie for rearranging your work schedule and coming out for a few days of touring.

The ferry was six bucks for the seven minute ride to Canada. The Canadian border was pretty straight forward. The only thing that they had any concern about was my bear spray. It is illegal in Canada but the border officer seemed like he was familiar with people traveling by bicycle across the border. He led me with the question “Are you going through the Adirondacks?” And when I said yes, he said “Then you will need it. Just make sure if you encounter any law enforcement in Canada, let them know you have it and why.” This reinforced my notion that Canada is a pragmatic country.

The ferry arrives in Canada at Walpole Island, home of the Walpole First Nation Reserve. While I was riding off the reserve there was a man across the road that waved me over to ask a few questions. I thought he was repairing his mailbox but he was actually building a new one from sheet metal. His name was Wilf and he wished me well on my journey.

I was trying to secure my first international Warmshowers host but no one was available so I ponied up the Canadian dollars to stay in a Township park campground. It was nice but I am always frustrated to pay for a campground that I only spend a few wakeful hours in. Ah well, it was right on the river.

I managed another early start so I could get to Detroit and meet my friend Eddie. I had to be extra careful on the sections of road where the rising sun was lined up with the road.

I rode past a flock of turkey grazing in a road side graveyard. These were the first turkey I encountered that were not very scared and were easy to take a photo of. The turkey where I live would never let you get this close. I would run into many more tame flocks in the Northeastern states.

I first met my friend Eddie through Warmshowers 3 or 4 years ago. He was on a tour and contacted me asking to be hosted. My wife and I had a great time hosting Eddie. It was probably a year and a half later that Eddie called and said he was planning a bike tour down my way again and asked if I would like to join him. So that spring we rode rail trails for the better part of a week in Pennsylvania. And when I was planning my cross country bike tour, I made my route go close to Detroit so I could visit him. I was excited to get to see my friend Eddie again. He had been able to get a few days off work to ride with me.

Eddie has an encyclopedic knowledge of rail trails, loves travel and finding places to visit on Google Maps. He had been helping me on my trip so far finding campsites, Warmshowers hosts and places I should see along my route.

Tonight he had lined up a Warmshowers host for us to stay with and a good route to get there that had us on trails a good bit of the way. When we arrived, Pavan, the Warmshowers host, greeted us and showed us around his beautiful home. He had recently toured along Route 66 from Chicago to California and he has plans for another more extensive US tour. He kept a blog about his Route 66 tour, you can check it out Here. We enjoyed talking to Pavan about bike touring and life. Being hosted by Pavan and his family was a joy. We were very comfortable and thankful.

I got on the trail early so I would have time to experience Ann Arbor. On this day I was riding on trails more than 50% of the distance. Michigan has a long established bike culture and has done a great job developing bike trails.

At Stockbridge, the first town I came to, about 14 miles into the day, I wanted to make sure I filled my water bottles to the top so I didn’t run out of water like I did yesterday. But the gas station/ Convenience store where I stopped didn’t have tap water that was potable. I was talking to the cashier about my options, she said they sold gallon jugs of water and offered to buy me one. I said thanks for the offer and bought it myself. I went outside and was in the process of filling my water bottles and chugging the rest of the gallon of water when I met Chris. He was hanging out in a patch of sun out front of the store in a kilt. We probably talked for 20 minutes about a range of topics and traded some opinions on what the world needed. He told me he was in a terrible car accident and has been on a long road to recovery. He also shared with me how as a child he saw a blacksmith working and thought that some day he would like to learn the trade. It was great to hear that he followed through on this dream and is now a blacksmith.

I peddled through Chelsea without stopping because google told me there were pastries to be had in the next town. So when I got to Dexter, I stopped at the bakery and enjoyed a treat in some outdoor seating. I saw there was a bike shop across the street and I had been thinking ever since John, my Warmshowers host in Traverse City, shared his special Wolf Tooth chain lube, that I needed to upgrade the Tri-flow lube I was carrying. So in I went. No Wolf Tooth but they set me up with a small bottle of their finest chain lube. They actually filled a tiny bottle that had a metal applicator tube and wouldn’t let me pay for it. Bike shop folks are the best. Thank you Destination Cyclery.

I rolled into Ann Arbor about 1:00 and decided to get lunch downtown before I rode to my Warmshowers host’s house. I settled on eating at Cafe Avalon. They had an interesting menu and the food was very good. They seemed to be all about developing good community. But it was going to be hard for me to not like them when I saw the home made Detroit bread map on the wall.

My Warmshowers hosts were Elsa and Eric but the funny thing was, I never got to meet them. They were in Asheville, North Carolina house sitting for some friends that were on a bike tour. Instead of turning my hosting request down because they were out of town, they had a neighbor hide a key for me and said call when I got there so I could have them orient me to their house and answer any questions.

As I was riding through their neighborhood, it was looking like a typical suburban neighborhood with houses built by a large scale developer. I could see the repeated house models and the universality of building materials. Then I came to the address and saw that Elsa and Eric’s house did not fit the mold, it was definitely one of a kind.

Later I was talking to Elsa on the phone about this and she referred me to a Manila envelope on one of their book shelves that had some information about the house and its builder. Alan Robuck built the house circa 1980. He was a resourceful fellow that found used building materials he could creatively reuse in building his house. There was a lot of heart and soul in it. And there was a five foot square skylight! And I bet there wasn’t another house in the neighborhood (or maybe even the country) that had three interior doors that all closed onto the same salvaged post.

Thank you Elsa and Eric for hosting me from afar.

I did a terrible job of photo documenting this day, I took 4 pictures. This is the only one that is worth including in the blog.

At Sarkozy Bakery in Kalamazoo, once again I found the choices too hard to make and got both pastries.

It was a hot day and the riding conditions were not the best. But when I got to Concord, MI I picked up the Falling Waters Rail trail ( recommended by my friend Eddie) which was marvelous for 12 miles then it was a construction site in Jackson where I was riding over newly poured concrete that had the plastic cover on it still. I met a woman who was out for a multi day bike packing trip.

I was running out of water. It seemed like it should be easy to find somewhere to fill my bottles in a city but it wasn’t. I came to a convenience store and locked my bike up and went in with my bottles. No soda machine to fill my bottles with ice and water. I figured there would be another convenient convenience store on the edge of town but all I found were car dealerships.

Just before I hit the 90 mile mark for the day I was leaving civilization and passed a guy working on his motor boat in his driveway. I stopped and asked if he could help me out by filling my water bottles. Turned out it wasn’t his house but it was his brother’s. He ran inside and got him. His name was Tom and after a few minutes of conversation he filled my water bottles and asked me where I was going to camp tonight. I was planning on riding another 8.4 miles and camping at a state park. It was going to take me off my route a bit, cost me money and add up to a 97 mile day of riding. He said well if you want, you can camp in my yard. So I set up camp and he brought out a beer for me. He offered some dinner but I told him I really needed to eat the food on my bike so it was lighter. Later he and his wife were going for ice cream and brought some back for me. My body really must of needed the calories because that ice cream really hit the spot. Thank you Tom for your kindness to a stranger.