Norfolk County - Port Rowan to St Williams

As part of my training for the "Give it a try, triathlon", (more on this in another post) I decided to go for a bike ride on "the mainland". I started of from the Port Rowan library, leaving George working on his Smart Serve Certification there.
The road from Port Rowan to St Williams was under construction last year and now half of it is beautifully smooth with a paved shoulder to bike on. The other half is due to be completed this year according to the Port Rowan Good News (yes that really is the name and its a lovely little monthly paper that keeps us abreast of everything of importance to Port Rowan and Long Point).

It was a lovely spring day, sunny and cool enough to be comfortable for riding. There was not much traffic on Front Rd on a Tuesday morning but the following sign was appreciated.

The first place I stopped was the overlook just West of Port Rowan. There is a great view of the Long Point Inner Bay.

There are two of these little fishing sheds, that I am aware of, on the Inner Bay. This one is just
below the lookout and the other is on the Causeway. The contraption on the right is used to pull
the big nets out of the water. They must have some sort of special permission or license to fish
like this in the Bay.

The next thing on my Front Rd tour was a cemetery that I have wondered about every time I drove by. It sits between the road and the Bay, with a historical marker.

The old head stones have been set in a cement and brick wall behind the marker. The founder of the family, locally,
John Troyer was a church leader, businessman and herbal healer known as "the witch doctor".

At the same site there is also a Quilt Board. There are a number of these scattered throughout Norfolk
and the surrounding Counties, encouraging people to go for a drive and find them all.

I had not realised that a cemetery could be designated a heritage site.

I continued on. The road is mostly flat except where there are ravines cutting down to the Bay. The corn was about 6inches high in the fields beside the road and the soy bean only about 2 inches. There were lots of birds including a heron flying towards the lake and a turkey vulture who took way too much interest in me. Sizing me up as potential road kill perhaps. The Flocks or Sweet William (as George calls them) were in full flower in the ditches.

I reached St Williams and cycled a little further along what, I now discovered, was the Waterfront Trail.

I turned around only to find I was now fighting a Westerly head wind. Riding back was much harder than going had been. I passed, again, the entrances to the three marinas and their corresponding, seasonal, communities, that snuggle in to the banks along the North Shore of the Inner Bay. All along the road it is possible to catch glimpses of the Bay and Long Point beyond the farm fields and between the trees.

I'm not sure how much this can really constitute a training ride. Its not very far from Port Rowan to St Williams and back and it took me an hour and a half. Of course, there were lots of stops, picture taking, and shaking my fist at the Turkey Vulture. I think triathloners are expected to ride as fast as they can, not admire the scenery along the way.

I don't know how many times I have driven passed this sign and never noticed that Long Point is part
of the community of Port Rowan.