Because it was only supposed to be 74km to Kingston I had intended to stay and enjoy the beach until about 11am. When I woke however the weather was cold and overcast. Instead of soaking up the sun I decided to take a tour of the park and see the dunes. As luck would have it the roads on th far west side of the park where the dunes were was flooded. So I returned to have my breakfast at the camp restaurant and packed up.
The Waterfront Trail was inconsistent. Sometime it followed roads and sometimes trails but it was not as nice as the trail system from Hamilton to Darlington.
I couldn’t find a host with Warmshowers so I decided to camp at the Rideau Canal. Because I was not familiar with the route I interrupted a girl listening to her mp3 and asked where the Rideau Canal in Kingston was. Unfortunately she had no idea what I was taking about.
On my way through Kingston I passed by the same old locomotive we saw on a family outing about 15 years ago.
Before long I had arrived in downtown Kingston standing by a Holiday Inn, 200 meters from the Wolfe Island Ferry, still not knowing where the Rideau Canal Locks was. I was really tempted to get out my wallet and stay the night. But after mulling things over, remembering how much I hated hotels, and how much I liked the canal, I decided to reject the easy, comfortable and convenient place to stay and set off to the find the canal. It was a 5 km ride north. If I wanted to be comfortable I would have stayed at home.
The canal is part of the Canada Park system. The cost of setting up a tent for the night for cyclists, which includes access to a washroom, is $4.90.
