Lake Erie – One Big Lake

July 7, 2015 by Kim Ross Leave a comment

Harking back to my elementary school education where I had to color and label a map of the Great Lakes that the teacher “mimeographed” for me, (in the days before photocopiers), and reading up in my ever-trusty source of all information, Wikipedia, I find that Lake Erie is in fact the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes. In other words, it is the second smallest of the Great Lakes. In spite of its rather poor showing in terms of size compared to the other Great Lakes, Lake Erie is either the 10^th or the 13^th largest lake in the world (depending on how one chooses to measure such things.). Riding along its shore on a bike serves to reinforce exactly how large it really is.

After riding along Lake Erie’s north shore yesterday for 100 kilometers, we head back to her shore again this morning and log another 100 kilometers. Yesterday, we passed by cottages along the lake shore most of the day. Today, the shoreline was a little more agricultural, with fewer cottages. Our western-most destination along the lake today is Port Stanley, where we leave the lakeshore and head inland to St. Thomas where we will spend the night.

Yesterday, though a longer ride, was easier in some respects than today. We experienced some sizeable hills today and had to pedal into a fairly stiff wind for most of the afternoon.

One aspect that I have found interesting is the number of wind turbines we have seen both yesterday and today. They easily number in the hundreds, perhaps a thousand. I find the contrast between the very old farms with wind turbines in the fields behind them unsettling. It’s the old concern about progress. Progress is a great thing as long as it’s “not in my own backyard.”

Not everyone favors wind power. I kept seeing signs all along the route voicing opposition to wind power. If you are interested in knowing more, consider the following link. Wind Ontario

Some other sites from today: