Ride along as a 9-year-old cycles The Waterfront Trail.
Hi, I’m Connor and I’m 9 years old, and this is how I spent a week of my summer vacation.
The Great Waterfront Trail Adventure is a 620km cycling adventure from Lakeshore to Fort Erie Ontario, along the Waterfront Trail. I rode with my Dad, John on a Tandem bike, which is a bicycle that holds two people. I rode on the back and my dad was in front steering.
Our ride started in Lakeshore, were about 200 other cyclists kicked off the adventure with a big party, with lots of people cheering us on. I was really excited, but a little nervous too. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to ride the whole way to Fort Erie, it seemed like it was going to be a very long ride. We rode as far as Windsor that day, about 60kms. We went to another party there, but we were in bed early, because we would have a long day ahead of us.
Day 2 was not the best day, it was raining really hard all day, and luckily we were able to stop by home, to dry out a bit. (My mom had warm underwear and socks for us, so that helped make the day better). We camped that night near Point Pelee National Park. There was a huge thunderstorm that night, but I was so tired I slept right through it.
Day 3 was a much better day for riding, lots of sun, but we had to ride against the wind. As we rode out of Point Pelee, we saw a huge bald eagle flying overhead! How cool is that! We rode as far as Rondeau Provincial Park that day.
Day 4 we rode to Port Stanley, I’m beginning to notice that we are passing lots, and I mean lots of corn fields on this ride! As we ate our dinner (pizza) on the beach in Port Stanley, that night a seagull swooped in and stole my piece! I don’t like seagulls!
Day 5 started with a huge hill just outside of Port Stanley. It was soooo high it looked like a wall! My dad and I managed to ride up almost the whole way, we only had to get off our bike and push the last few feet! The other cyclists were amazed that we were able to ride up as far as we did! I’m pretty proud of that!
Day 6 we stopped in Port Burwell to tour the Ojibwa Submarine at the future Museum of Naval History. It was really big and really really cool! After more riding we stopped for the night in Long Point, where we went zip lining. Long Point Eco Adventures has 8 zip lines (one is 750m long), 2 rope bridges and a 50 ft. repel tower. Zip lining was AWESOME, but the repel tower really scared me! Not only did I do the repel, I was the first of the group to go! IT WAS GREAT!
Our last day of riding was pretty short, only 70kms (haha). As we rode into Fort Erie, the end of our adventure, we were met by a huge welcoming party and most importantly my mom and sister Abby were there waiting for us! We saw and did so many cool things on our adventure, but mostly we saw cornfields! We joke that they should rename the ride The Great Cornfield Adventure Tour! I will never forget this trip and the time I got to spend with my Dad…I can’t wait to tell my friends at school!
