Day 6

We had nice weather today - no rain - but it was still cool. Heavy fog totally obscured the lake even when we were only a short distance from the shoreline. We started the morning on the southern shore of the lake in Grimsby and finished the day on the northern shore in Toronto. Total for the day was 53 miles. When we reached Hamilton we went onto a bike path that hugged the lakeshore for quite a distance. Eventually we came to a lift bridge across the Burlington Canal which was in its elevated position to allow a great lakes cargo ship to pass. The canal allows ships to travel between the port city of Hamilton and Lake Ontario. It took quite awhile for the ship to pass under the bridge. You could hear the ship's horn but the ship wasn't visible until it reached the bridge due to the heavy fog. During the time the bridge was elevated a large auto backup was created. And, on the bikeway quite a few bikes backed up waiting for the ship to pass under the bridge. Eventually, as we rounded the western end of Lake Ontario we passed some beautiful towns along the lake. As we got closer to Toronto traffic became much heavier and we cycled through increasingly light industrial and commercial areas - not the most scenic. Eventually, we were able to ride on a combination of bike paths and quiet residential streets along the lakefront. After reaching the city of Toronto we were able to follow a bikepath into the downtown of Toronto where we found a hotel in the waterfront area right near the CN Tower. Toronto appears to be a vibrant city which is beautifully located on shore of Lake Ontario. There were a tremendous number of cyclists and walkers along the waterfront. It was very different then the areas we cycled through so far on this trip. Toronto is definitely a city I would like to visit in the future.