According to Google Maps, it would only me 55 miles to get where I was going in Port Stanley. Well, obviously that was just too simple, so I just had to take some detours. The first and biggest was to Rondeau (round water, a rounded strip of land jutting out into the lake) because I had been told it was well worth seeing. When I got down there, I asked the lady at the gate what I should see. She told me if I wanted a good ride with a nice view at the end to just follow the main road to the end, that it would be closed to cars at a certain point but fine for bikes, and that it was paved most the way. This was all accurate. But I had expecting the unpaved part would be crushed limestone or gravel, and instead it was extremely cracked asphalt and dirt, which was a lot rougher. But it wasn't so bad, and I was indeed rewarded with a nice view of the lake on a sandy beach, my first real view of Erie. It probably wasn't really worth the probably ten miles of round trip to see it, but I can say I biked out to the tip of Rondeau, and it definitely added some action to the day. When I came back from the beach, I was shocked to see a car parked on the path. It turns out they were turtle researchers gifted the keys to the gates and given special permission to drive out where automobiles aren't normally allowed.
I had some more nice views of the lake on 17 coming up from Rondeau, but after that along 3 I was more inland and mostly saw farm fields. Though on occasion, up on a bluff, I could look across the field to see the lake in the distance. I had originally planned on heading down to Gray Line to follow the lake more closely...but I wasn't feeling the urge to ride more gravel yet. I would later make my way down to Lakeview, which would primarily be more gravel, in order to get more view of the lake. ...But the name is deceptive, and despite my close proximity to the lake, I was still mostly just seeing farm fields. Though there was a cool park, and I walked up a trail that let me see the lake down a sandy cliffside. There were some fun hills too, not the lengthy or incredibly steep sort that really make you work, but the kind that keep things interesting, racing down one gravel hill fast as you dare to build momentum to go up the next sort of thing. I got back on pavement for awhile, then back to gravel, then back to pavement. I rode a weirdly meandering road called Lake Line that after many miles of farmland took me down a steep curving hill and suddenly dropped me right into Port Stanley.
It was a short ways from there to my host's...but up quite a steep hill into the aptly named Mitchell Heights. I was taking a picture of the hill looking down when a man pulled up in a car and asked who I was looking for. I told him Terry, and he said that was him. He directed me where to go and I was short behind him. His house is down quite a set of stairs from the road, and I remarked moving furniture in must be real work. I unloaded my stuff and helped him take down some of his as well. It's been a nice, relaxing evening, time spent chatting, taking a little walk on my own along the beach, having a nice dinner, drinking a couple beers. It's still a little early, but I feel like I could sleep soon. It will be a long haul tomorrow and a night by myself sleeping on the beach at the end. There won't be any wifi for posting an entry either.
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