15-Niagara Falls-Port Colborne: Another Canal!

39.0 miles/ +447.2 ft/ Total miles 602.6  (969.8 km)

View of Horseshoe Falls this morning- blue sky!

And me in front of the falls:

I left Niagara Falls, riding south along the Niagara River to Fort Erie, where I turned west to ride along Lake Erie. This was the point where I finished the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier 10 map and rode onto the Lake Erie Connector. I will be riding on this map for 505 miles, across Ontario and Michigan. 

After riding about 3 miles on the trail, I came to a point of confusion, and stopped to look at the map, the Garmin GPS and GoogleMaps to figure out what to do. Just then, a man on a bicycle asked where I was headed, and when I said Ridgeway and then Port Colborne, he offered to ride with me, since that’s where he was headed too. It was wonderful to ride the next 12 miles on the paved bike trail with someone to talk to. We stopped in Ridgeway for lunch and then continued on to Port Colborne, which is where the Welland Canal provides ships access from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. 

My cycling companion for today: 

While we were sitting next to the canal, the lift bridge was raised for a ship headed to Lake Ontario. When I was in town for dinner, I say another ship, heading the opposite way:

The canal was first built in the 1830s to allow access to the upper lakes. It was enlarged several times, and finally built to its current size in the 1920s. The earlier swing bridge at Port Colborne was replaced by the large lift bridge – which was visible several miles from town, due to the height of the towers. The current canal has 8 locks to lift ships up onto the Niagara Escarpment. I walked to Lock 8, which is mainly used as a guard gate to control the flow of water from Lake Erie through the canal. There were no ships when I was there, and the entire lock is surrounded by a big fence and MARSEC 1 security signs, so no pictures.