Around Lake Ontario - Day 10
07/22/2010 13:00:00 by Administrator
Kingston, ON
Watertown, NY
55 miles (some by ferry)
Yet Another perfect day for riding, with tailwinds!
We left the Comfort Inn on Princess Street, with full stomachs from their breakfast selection, and rode down to the Wolfe Island ferry. Traveling through downtown Kingston (population 120,000) was very easy and fun. We arrived at the ferry with about 15 minutes to spare. Wolfe Island is rural, and made up of large farms. The farmers are growing all kinds of food, but we think their number one crop is wind turbines.
The Wolfe Island wind turbine project began with 24 turbines and grew to 86. It is now the largest turbine project in Canada (as of this writing). Each wind turbine has blades that are 148 feet in length making the effect diameter of the blade rotation 300 feet. The height of the wind plant mast is 262 feet. As a comparison, they are four to six times the height of a typical farm silo. The rotor disc alone spans one acre.
We took Line Road 7 out of Maryville towards the Cape Vincent (U.S.A. ferry). The road is not traveled on much, and is made of crush stone. We traveled through the middle of the island, and the wind turbines. It is my opinion that these wind turbines are beautiful, and combined with farm silos...it was pretty surreal. I had looked up Wolfe Island on the Google maps the night before and knew we needed to take a left out off of Line Road 7. For some reason the GPS wasn't working, so instead of going all the way to the end of Line Road 7, I took a left one road to soon (fellow cyclist, go all the way to the end of Line Road 7). This put us on the west side of the bay, we needed to be on the east side. After accusations of "pedaling backwards" (I am famous for going real slow on the last day of a tour) from the Rear Admiral, we tried the GPS one more time, and the coarse was correct. Secretly, I was really enjoying this "muck-up".
Both ferry rides were fun, the second one (operated by the U.S.) lifted 4 dollars from our pockets...... but.... SeeMore had his own "car size" parking space! Going through customs was easy, once the Rear Admiral took off her sunglasses! We then had a picnic lunch in the Cape Vincent park. The highlights of the lunch was the freshly made sub from Aubrey's Market, with local cherries for dessert.
The rest of the 30 miles back to the car was through rolling hills and farmland.
Conclusion:
Another great touring experience. HIGHLY recommended! The many bike paths on the Waterfront trail, the people of Canada, and the variety of riding experience made this tour so much fun. Now it's your turn to get out and ride around Lake Ontario!
