It rained a bit last night, and the wind picked up immensely. Our goal was to depart for Niagara Falls around 7am, but instead we slept in when we woke to the wind whipping against the tent. The wind persisted and made for slow progress. Fortunately, though, the storm predicted for noon didn’t arrive until night.
We happened upon a demonstration of the original five-tiered canal lock in Lockport, which was very impressive.
Today’s lunch was at Smoking Joe’s convenience store, and shortly afterwards we came upon this “Entering NY State” sign. We could have sworn we had been in NY for the past week already!
A few miles further, we approached Canada. We knew it was difficult to cross via bike since there is no other option than to cross via the main bridge with traffic, so we readied our passports and studied the instructions on our map. Once we felt comfortable about what was to come, we headed out, but that feeling was quickly lost when we encountered a construction detour. Of course we messed this up, which caused stress to surface. Eventually, we made it across the border, despite tears shed and the cursing about the lack of a bike lane (read: Rachel).
The destination was worth the trouble, though – it was a beautiful day to see the falls. On our way we biked past a big, flowery clock, and through Niagara Parks School of Horticulture.
While wandering and taking in the different views, we met four cyclists from the Hamilton, Ontario area. We enjoyed talking to them; they were very encouraging!
As we followed the river upstream, the Niagara Whirlpool came into view first, which has tram running back and forth directly above.
The falls were spectacular!
When the sky began to darken, we left the falls towards the Rainbow Bridge, which we once again crossed with cars. After that, we used a bike path along the river that brought us to the north bridge to Grand Island, where Robin’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary live. The bike path was lovely, although quite buggy.
Dave and Mary welcomed us into their beautiful home and we relaxed in the backyard while devouring yummy chips and dip and gawking over their impressive landscaping! Later, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and much great conversation with them.
Trip stats, to date (Day 14)
- Lockport, NY to Grand Island, NY
- Daily mileage: 49.7mi; Trip total to date: 816.5mi
- Daily riding time: 5hr 2min; Trip total time: 68hr 49min
- Daily ascent: 2,224ft; Trip total ascent: 36,855ft
- Flat tires: Rachel – 1; Chris – 0
Whoever put that biking sign up must of had a screw loose.
That’s interesting about it being more difficult to cross via bike. Why is that? I would think it should be treated the same as a car. I’ve been to Niagara Falls once but stayed on the U.S. side
It’s driving with the cars on the highway with a tiny bike lane that makes it difficult and scary for me 🙁
At one point, it went down to one lane with no bike lane. I had visions of being wiped out by a distracted driver.
Ugh! So scary. I like your stressed out thumbs up pic! Glad you survived and got to see the falls from both sides! 😀
I’ve seen that whirlpool. Beautiful and scary at the same time. Records show a few people have survived going over the falls but not the whirlpool.
Me thinks sign was not mounted correctly.