Bicycle Touring 101: Deja Vu - Day Two

Actual Date: 2005-08-06
Uploaded: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 09:58:49 -0400
Distance: 0.00 km

Port Burwell's lighthouse is one of the oldest wooden lighthouses remaining in Ontario and Canada.
Click to enlarge.

Surprisingly it got a bit chilly last night but using the sleeping bag as a quilt left me toasty warm.

The first order of business was getting some breakfast and it was during this time that I met my first bicycle tourer of the day. Brian was out enjoying a short weekend tour following his successful artic bicycle tour about two weeks ago. Over breakfast Brian and I shared stories about our various touring adventures. His travels north to Inuvik were quite nice to hear about especially since I hope to tour through those areas myself someday.

Wouldn't this make an excellent addition to anyone's Round Lake Erie tour journal? This sign is located near the main beach.....
Click to enlarge.

I spent some time taking pictures of the Port Burwell lighthouse from different perspectives before heading back to the provincial park to get a campsite for another night.

Of course the only available campsite required me move the hammock and re-setup camp at the site.

A more traditional view of the lighthouse.
Click to enlarge.

Afterwards I headed back to town and explored the Marine museum. Once again I realized just how greatly the loss of one ship back in 1958 affected this town's propsperity. Before the ship was lost there was some industry and a sense that an even better future was coming. Once the Ashtabula was lost massive change occured removing what little industry remained and plunging this town into a period of quiet.

I was quite surprised to discover that all of the businesses I remembered from my previous tour through the area had either closed or been sold to new owners. I suspect that this must be a town that's very, very dependant on the tourism trade making the rest of the year tough to survive through.

Jenn from Simply Scoops asked me what three ice cream flavours I wanted with my banana supreme sundae. I told her to surprise me. Here's her creation (hmmmmm good).
Click to enlarge.

I discovered a neat signpost down by the waterfront that would be a nice addition to anyone's Around Lake Erie photo collection. This sign had arrows showing the direction and distance to Cleveland, Erie and Ashtabula.

While returning to camp I met two other cyclists who were looking for a campsite after being told that the park was full. They accepted my offer to share my site and as a consequence I shared some more bicycle touring stories with Marvin and Dave. Both are quite interesting guys who seem to tour in a way very similar to my favourite way to ride.

Some pretty flowers in the foreground with the Port Burwell lighthouse in the background.
Click to enlarge.

Dave started up a fire so as I type this we are sitting around the fire swapping some more stories.

Ended the evening watching the flames from the fire slowly burn out. Once the firepit was nothing more then some red hot coals I setup my camera to take some 30 second exposures of the bright stars overhead.

My recorded distance for today is 0 kilometers since I didn't actually move to a new destination so I chose not to count the distance I did cover by bicycle. In actual fact I pedaled 39 kilometers today while looking around, eating ice cream and chatting with various people.

A view of the stars above framed by the surrounding trees.
Click to enlarge.

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