Southeast MA to Niagara Falls ON
Thu Aug 25, 2022
(~485 miles)

Despite living just a few hours from the border for most of my life and being of Acadian heritage, the extent of my experience in Canada has so far been limited to a few brief incursions during rallies or certification rides. I’m not sure why, but that border line on a map created a mental wall, keeping my traveler’s eye focused south towards the rest of the US.

Perhaps it’s because I’d always thought of the border-crossing process as being difficult or time-consuming? That can be true, I guess, but so far my own experiences going north have been quite smooth. Though of course I know better now, I grew up thinking that people north of the border spoke French exclusively and disliked Americans (now I know that’s mostly only Quebec 😉 ). The point is, now I’ve grown to realize how silly all that is, and my thoughts have turned to exploring our neighbor to the north via two wheels, as opportunities present.

Char and I booked vacation time around the weekend of August 27 to participate in Steve “Wolfe” Bonham’s experimental 72-hour daylight-only rally through Ontario – Crowns & Anchors. Wolfe is a successful rally rider and IBR finisher from Ontario who has been running his Lobo Loco rally series for the past several years around his home province and online. I hadn’t been able to budget enough vacation time to fit in any of his rallies in addition to the stateside events that I usually attended. With many US rallies being cancelled or retired recently, and the border being opened after the pandemic shutdown, the chance was here at last to head up to Canada and see what’s what.

Unfortunately, the number of registrants wasn’t enough to make the rally feasible and Wolfe had to pull the plug in early August with just a few weeks to go. It’s too bad, because this particular event had an interesting new format and sounded like a great way to explore the province for a few days, while getting to socialize each evening with other riders between legs. We hope it attracts more attention in future years as folks get used to traveling internationally again.

Once the rally was officially cancelled, we were left wondering what to do with the vacation time. We’d been looking forward to exploring the back roads of Ontario, someplace new for both of us, so rally or no rally, we decided to head north anyway and make our own tour out of it. I worked up a multi-day route in Basecamp, connecting various roads from the NER site and a Motorcycle Tourers Forum trip itinerary, along with specific attractions that we wanted to visit or that sounded interesting.

We originally targeted the city of Huntsville as a possible two-night base. There are a few hotels there, but the pricing wasn’t cheap, so instead we made an AirBnB reservation in that area for a couple of nights for about the same daily rate. Wolfe was kind enough to review our plan and made some route suggestions. Then he extended an offer to stay at his house one night and then ride together for a day through the nearby provincial park. Have I mentioned before that Canadians are so nice?! After due consideration and hesitation about disrupting his barely moved-in household, we accepted the invite and altered our plan accordingly, now looking forward to seeing a friendly face from the north after the long travel ban.

Entry into Canada required proof of Covid vaccination via their easy-to-use ArriveCAN app, which we downloaded a couple days prior to departure to fill out the necessary forms. I refreshed my memory on border crossing protocols and likely questions, and gathered our passports. I had sprung the extra $$$ for one of those wallet-size passport cards and decided to try it out on this trip. We figured on picking up some loonies (Canadian dollars) from an ATM once we’d crossed. We were ready to go now, and the days couldn’t pass quick enough!

We were wheels-up at 0500 on Thursday 8/25, since we planned to squeeze in our sight-seeing at Niagara Falls this very afternoon. The day was to be sunny and clear. It was a bit cooler this morning than it had been recently, but that only meant mid-60s. Still, we bundled up against the wind chill during for the long interstate run west to Buffalo NY. There were pretty pockets of fog scattered on the highway in western Mass, making the morning sun and sky seem ever so much brighter each time we’d emerge. Traffic was minimal at this early hour and we covered miles quickly on I-90 across Massachusetts and then into New York, with one stop for fuel in Blandford MA.

I wanted to show Charlotte the location of the 2021 group photo bonus at the Erie Canal locks, so we pulled into the Mohawk Valley Welcome Center, which is a rest area off the NY State Thruway, to take a stroll around. There are some interesting exhibits inside about the history of the canal, as well as clean bathrooms that make this wayside a worthwhile stopping point.

 

Just a bit further down I-90, we exited into Herkimer to get some breakfast at Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner. This place is now becoming a staple of mine when running the Thruway, cuz the food and service are just solid. Char would finally have a chance to sample the cuisine here after reading about it in several of my past adventures.

As we walked in and down to an available booth, I spotted some fresh-looking bread piled up and bagged on the counter. Upon closer inspection, it looked like freshly made buttermilk biscuits…oh boy! After chatting with our waitress, who confirmed their freshness, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sample one as an “appetizer”. Delicious!

We both opted for variations of their eggs benedict, and I ordered a side of sausage, forgetting that it comes in the form of a huge handmade patty, that could almost make a meal in and of itself. Quite a lot of food, but absolutely fantastic! We enjoyed our breakfast, thrilled to be out traveling again on a beautiful day.

Bellies full, we de-layered a bit and got back on the Thruway to finish out the remainder of our run across New York state. We stopped for a quick nature break at a service plaza just past Rochester and Char snapped a shot of some NFL swag inside the visitor’s building. Guess we’re not in New England anymore!

I wanted to fuel up and prepare for the border crossing, so we exited onto the grid of city streets in Buffalo to hit up a gas station I’d used before, very close to the border exit. We hadn’t crossed the border together on the bike before, so I briefed Char on the likely questions we’d be hearing from the guard. I removed my ear plugs and got our passports transferred to a handy pocket on my chest.

In a couple more blocks, we joined I-190 for a quick minute before exiting again to navigate the tight series of curves up onto the Peace Bridge, over the Niagara River to Canada.

The lines were only a couple cars long at the Canadian security checkpoint, but it was pretty warm out now so I switched the bike off a couple times while we were waiting to move. After 10 minutes or so, we were up to the booth, so the wait was not bad at all. Everything went as expected, we showed our passports, answered the normal questions about our plans for the next few days, and lickety-split, we were welcomed into Fort Erie, Ontario!

 

Pulling quickly to the right after getting through the booths, I took the first exit to get us down to our planned route along the river. Near a boat ramp, we found an empty lot with some trees that offered a bit of shade for us to collect ourselves. I’m sure border crossings are humdrum for a lot of folks, but it’s still new to us, so a certain amount of stress was now lifted. We were feeling excited and relieved, with a new country ahead of us to explore. I also took a few moments to figure out how to switch my GPS over to kilometers, to better match the speed limits and road signs while we were here.

A local guy on an e-bicycle, pulled into the lot and came over to chat, wondering why we were so overdressed on such a hot day. We laughed and told him about our trip and had a nice little conversation about our plans. He lamanted about about his recently stolen motorcycle, so we promised to be on the lookout for it in “the Falls”, as it’s called locally. It felt nice to meet someone local and friendly right off the bat, and set a good mood for the rest of the day, I think.

It was just past 1400, so we still had plenty of time to enjoy the ride along the river on our way up to the falls. Niagara Boulevard becomes the Niagara Parkway as it leaves the closely packed streets of Fort Erie. It is a beautiful scenic ride, so we didn’t really mind the lower speed limit which gave us time to enjoy the view. We ogled the posh houses and semi-mansions lining the access lanes parallel to the main road. These folks are certainly paying for the gorgeous view out their front windows! It was nice that most of them are opposite from the river, allowing road travelers to enjoy unobstructed views of the water.

Moving north, we eventually spotted the towering updrafts of water vapor rising above the big waterfalls, the only indication at this distance that there was anything of note up ahead. This was our first visit to Niagara Falls…well, first for me in daylight and as a tourist – my midnight fumblings in the 2019 IBR barely count as a visit.

Dipping inland a bit to cross the tributary Welland River in the village of Chippewa presented a verdant and more intimate scene than the wide Niagara, with the lush green waterfront park foliage lending the water an emerald sheen.

The approach into the city is marked by hydroelectric buildings and equipment housings that appear to be left over from several periods of the history of this area. Older blocky concrete buildings, alternating with sleeker metal structures, and the lines connecting everything – yes power lines everywhere it seems (which I try to avoid in the photos).

There was certainly more traffic once we hit the city, but everything was moving along, as it was a Thursday afternoon after all. As we passed by the Falls Visitor Center and under the lovely covered pedestrian bridge, it was hard to believe that it wasn’t actually raining, as the spray from the falls sprinkled steadily down on us as we passed within a few hundred yards of  Horseshoe Falls, hidden from our sight. Char managed a few snaps of the area as we cruised parallel to the riverfront park, and tried to absorb the lay of the land.

 

As we would learn, the terrain in the city of N.F. includes a steep slope that forms a natural barrier between the riverfront parks and attractions near the falls, and the primary downtown commercial and tourist districts of the city. There are only 2 or 3 roads along about a two-mile stretch near the waterfalls that provide passage up or down the slope. We took the middle one, Murray Road, up the hill by the major brand hotels and casinos, then north a couple blocks to reach our hotel for the night.

The plan was to check in and take advantage of the included parking at the King’s Inn Near-the-Falls, then go on foot to check out the falls. I’d spotted this hotel online, and it had stood out as the only reasonably priced option near the sights that sounded clean and within walking distance of everything. It’s an older style motel establishment, with rooms opening to the outside and they have an outdoor pool. Their pricing seems to be all over the place, based on timing, but we secured the room that night for $116 US, including all taxes. Pretty good deal I think!

My opinion of the place shot up  during check-in. When the desk clerk noticed we were on a bike, he automatically gave us a ground floor room and then came out to show us exactly the best spot to park the motorcycle, right in front of our room. Very bike-friendly! He provided us with a tourist map and suggested a good walking route to see the sights and make the most of our afternoon. The room was clean and pleasant. Char took a shower, but I wanted to hop in the pool to get that total immersion after this morning’s ride. I took my dip, then we dressed in our “civvies” and headed out to see the town on foot.

Our first stop was at a convenience store just down the road, as I’d realized that I didn’t have any sunglasses with me and it was quite a bright afternoon. I was still feeling a bit on guard in a strange land at this point – things in Canada are very similar to in the US, but just a little different. Enough to notice something seems off, but not completely foreign. I would continue to experience moments like this throughout the trip, though of course I grew used to things day by day. The street signs are probably most of it. Anyway, feeling self-conscious like I had a big sign on me reading “I Don’t Belong Here”, I went inside and found a sunglasses rack and purchased a pair. There, no big deal! That wasn’t hard at all. Buying something in a store is the same as anywhere else – you’ve done this a million times. Relax! 😅

We cut through some local neighborhood streets to get over to Victoria Ave, where it seemed a lot of the action was, per the map. We happened to pass by a striking building featuring what looked like a milk bottle as part of its architecture. It seemed to be some sort of fancy apartment building or hotel. I’ve since learned this building was a former dairy, built in 1928 and later acquired by Borden Dairy. The spa/hotel that bought and renovated it apparently decided to keep the concrete milk bottle as a nod to the building’s history.

One of my goals for this trip was to finally try some poutine, the description and attraction of which had always intrigued and puzzled me. We were both feeling like a bite, as it was past lunchtime, and I spotted a place called Smoke’s Poutinerie. Sounds as good a place as any, so we headed inside. It smelled wonderful and we took a few minutes to absorb the menu choices. Pretty much all poutine, but you can vary it in several different ways and with different meats and toppings added in.

Since this was our first poutine, we elected a large order of traditional – just french fries and cheese curds slathered in a rich hot gravy. Accompanied, of course, with a Canada Dry ginger ale while we enjoyed our snack, sitting by the front plate glass windows and watching the busy activity out along Victoria Street. The poutine was amazing, though the squeaky cheese does take some getting used to. Definitely a winner. Now I’m looking forward to trying some with pulled pork on the next go-round.

We’d decided to walk the riverfront area in an upstream direction, from the Rainbow Bridge towards the falls. So we continued down Victoria and entered the twilight zone of amusement park madness that is Clifton Hill, starting with a huge go-kart track and Ferris wheel. Then a walk down the sloped public street named Clifton Hill itself, which is all dossed up like a carnival midway – huge sculptured storefronts, junk food shops, arcades, rides, and other attractions. It was not something we were expecting and we stared around gape-mouthed as we made our way down the congested sidewalk towards the river. We couldn’t imagine how busy this place must get on weekends!

Crossing Falls Ave, we spotted a landscaped park and headed for that, as one of Char’s trip goals is looking at plants and stuff. 🌷🤷‍♂️  Oakes Garden Theatre turned out to be quite a lovely little park, located right on the parkway with distant views of the falls across the boulevard. Though late August isn’t really prime season for flower-gazing in the northeast, the geometrically-trimmed hedges and stone outbuildings were very pretty in the late afternoon and there were plenty of well-tended colorful plants in the beds, despite being rather late in the season.

We thought it’d be fun to walk halfway out on the Rainbow International Bridge to get some photos, before continuing our walk towards the falls. From the gardens we continued north along the street a bit and found our way to a series of stairs to get up to bridge level, where the sidewalk ends at some doors into a border security checkpoint. Alas, to get on the bridge, you have to present your passport. I had my passport card in my wallet, but Char hadn’t brought her passport along for our stroll, so we were out of luck.

We headed back down to begin our walk back along the pedestrian path. The paved lanes follow the tops of the cliffs which contain the flow of the Niagara downstream of the falls. The river roars past some 180 feet below you here, and there are several spots along the way to view the American Falls, pouring over the cliffs across the border on the US side. Over the years, I’ve had many people describe Niagara Falls as being “not that tall”, “disappointing”, or even “a big let-down”. All I can say is “what the heck are you people smoking”? The majesty and sheer power of the water volume going over this cliff was awesome.

The tour boats that take people in close to the falls run a pretty constant circuit, alternating p and down the river from their home docks on both sides of the river. We noticed that the American boat passengers were wearing blue plastic ponchos, while the Canadian boats provided pink ones. For our first time here, we were planning to do at least one touristy attraction while we were here this afternoon, either the boat ride or the walk “behind the falls”. I had read mixed reviews of the cave walk thing, and in the afternoon’s heat the boat ride looked like it would be quite refreshing.

At one of the places where we stopped for a pic above a service road leading down to the river, I noticed something scurrying along the top of the wall.

“Holy shit, is that a black squirrel?!” I exclaimed.

I had never heard of such a thing. Wouldn’t have my first guess as to the Canadian wildlife we might be seeing on this trip, but beggars can’t be choosers. Like I said, things are just that little bit different in Canada, I guess! Pretty cool.

Eventually, we came to an outdoor pedestrian mall of sorts, where they sell food and souvenirs. The lines for the boat rides appeared to be fairly empty, so it was likely we’d be able to make the next boarding if we hurried. We quickly made our decision and paid for our ticket at one of a bunch of automated vending machines. Then we set off down a series of concreate ramps and stairs, and then an elevator to get down to river level.

When we came out at the bottom, it was a bit unexpected to find another entire area of tourist bars, restaurants and stands selling kitsch. There is also a funicular (inclined railway system) here, providing an alternative means of transport to and from street level. It appeared to be inoperative for the day, so perhaps they only run it on weekends. Still cool to look at.

The boat was just in the process of unloading the previous set of passengers as we made our way out to the dock through the ramps and barriers with a hundred or so other visitors, accepting the pink ponchos that staff handed us and getting a photo taken in case we wanted to purchase it later. The boat takes a lot of people, so we could tell that we’d have no trouble getting on this next trip.

 

We found a nice spot at the starboard rail towards the bow. At first, I wasn’t sure I would want the poncho, thinking it would be nice to enjoy the cool mist, but once you’re down on that boat and feel the stiff cool breezes and spray coming off the falls, you’re grateful for that piece of plastic. The boat basically does a counter-clockwise loop, first swinging past the American falls on the port side, then heading directly into the heart of the crescent formed by Horseshoe Falls.

We weren’t really sure what to expect, but this experience was so much better than we had thought! Noise and spray and rainbows light assailed our senses in beautiful chaos, and all we could do was shout and laugh along with the people surrounding us at the rail!

You can’t really see all that much once you’re in the center of the mist cloud, because you can barely open your eyes!  Water and wind just beat at you from every angle. It was invigorating and quite a lot of fun. Still, it was a bit of a relief when the boat finally wheeled around and headed back downstream towards the relatively quieter and tamer American Falls and Bridal Falls (the smaller cascade to the right). We could see people on the American side getting up close and personal via rocky hiking trails close to the cascades on that side. We’d have to try things out from that side some day for a different experience, but I definitely agree with folks who’ve said the better waterfall views are from Canada.

Our little voyage had been quite well worth the money (I think it was around $30 each) and we enjoyed it thoroughly. After disembarking and heading back up the elevators to street level, we continued our stroll along the cliffs, taking in more gorgeous views and lovely flowerbed landscaping. Horseshoe Falls is just a complete stunner.

Watching the water pour over the edge at the top of Horseshoe Falls hypnotized us for a while, until we realized that we were getting quite wet. There is so much mist coming up off these falls and so many big dark clouds in the area, that I’m still not sure if it was the mist or actually raining out, but we headed into the Visitor Center for a few minutes to get out of what we assumed was a passing downpour. We wished we had kept those ponchos rather than recycling them at the boat dock.

After a short break sitting on the floor (there were NO tables or chairs anywhere for resting – some “visitors” center!) we decided to try making a break for it away from the falls to see if we could find things a bit drier out of the mist cloud. There was a botanical garden just south of the falls area that we were aiming for as our turnaround point, so Char could look at more pretty flowers and plants. We continued in that direction and did, in fact, come out of the localized “rain” that had been troubling us.

 

We made it as far as the imposing structure of the old Niagara Parks Power Station before realizing that the flower gardens would be closing very shortly and we wouldn’t be able to gain admittance. We were feeling pretty beat anyway at this point, considering the early wake up, long ride, and then a decent amount of walking around town in our sandals. Plus the water beating!

We were also quite hungry again by now and were looking forward to trying one of the many Indian food restaurants in the city. Reviews were kind of all over the place for many of them. After a short break on a convenient park bench, we finally picked one and set Google maps to get us there via quickest walking route.

After crossing the parkway, we briefly considered riding another funicular that runs between the street level and the downtown hotels and casinos up on top of the escarpment. It seemed like it would be a fun little experience and there wasn’t much of a line, but it was SLOW and then a large group of people jumped in line ahead of us right as we were walking up. Tired and hungry, I said F this let’s keep walking!

Continuing along the sidewalk next to the parkway, we passed by a statue of famed inventor/engineer Nicola Tesla, which brought back fondish memories for me of the ’19 IBR bonus stop, when I visited a different statue of him over on the American side of the river. A cruel rallymaster could make this a two-fer…

Google Maps led us past Murry Street, and I was hoping that we weren’t going to have to deal with the madness of Clifton Hill again to get to the restaurant. Then I noticed that Google was showing some other way to get up the hill, way before Clifton, and we decided to trust it. Sure enough, after walking past the gigantic hasta blooms in Queen Victoria Park, we spotted a non-descript series of stairs leading up the hill into the woods covering the hillside.

Once we were under the tunnel of shade trees, we saw that we were walking up a very steep paved trail, with occasional berms and steps to provide a level place for resting. What a cool footpath and hidden shortcut! The few folks who passed by us looked like local workers rather than tourists, so we figured it must not be that widely known or advertised. At the top, we wearily surmounted a final graffiti-coated set of concrete stairs to arrive in a cul-de-sac by the tall sky tower building.

As we turned the next block, we realized that we’d be walking right by our chosen restaurant to get to the hotel. Not wanting to really venture back out once we showered and settled in our room, we just stopped right then at Inchins Indian Kitchen to get some dinner. The place was busy, with lots of families at the tables, and the smell was wonderful. They seemed to be short-staffed, like so many restaurants these days. There were open tables but they hadn’t been cleared yet, so we waited out front on their patio, enjoying a moment off our feet while they prepared one for us. The wait wasn’t too long.

While the overall service was decidedly inattentive after we had ordered, the food was excellent. We shared orders of paneer masala, garlic naan and vegetable pakora. The pakora was formed into spheres and seemed crustier than the ones we order locally, but still tasty. Everything seemed very fresh.

Feeling much better with fuller stomachs, we left the restaurant onto the darkened city streets and made our way the last couple blocks to the hotel, to collapse into bed for the night. Our walking tour had added up to about five miles. It had been a wonderful and full first day of the trip, and we were looking forward to exploring more new territory over the next few days.