Google Maps Guidance

Because I got a little bit behind yesterday, I wanted to take a more direct route to Niagara Falls today. Instead of following my Adventure Cycling Association map, I decided to use Google Maps to guide me. From my starting point in Port Dover, I told it to take me to my hotel in Niagara Falls by bicycle (i.e. not car driving directions). Generally, Google Maps did pretty well. From Port Dover, it routed me on lesser-used country roads; I saw very few cars. About three-quarters of the way through the day, it routed me through the city of Wellend. On the approach to town, I was routed on a couple short sections of dirt roads. The first one was fine. The second one was a dead end on active railroad tracks. Uh-oh. (I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't think of it at the time.) There was a discernable path parallel to the tracks. I started walking my bike down that but noticed I was then going off route per the directions on my phone. I looked across the double set of tracks and there was another dirt road. Ah-ha! So I carried my bike across the tracks (after looking and listening carefully for any approaching trains) and started down the other dirt road. After just a short distance of 150 or 200 yards, I came out to a paved city street that was a dead end to my left. When I turned right, I was again going off route per the directions on my phone. I then looked more closely at what was across the road on the other side of the guardrail and it was this fairly primitive path:


I thought about taking it. I really did. Had I been riding a mountain bike, yeah, I think it would have been fine. On my touring bicycle, I wasn't so sure. Instead, I started riding the paved city street out to the right. Google Maps soon rerouted me and that reroute got me back on track and along the trail adjacent to the Wellend Canal.

For those who like visuals, this screen shot from Google Maps might help. I came in on the diagonal Feeder Rd. at the lower left side of the map (heading NE). The train tracks are the first horizontal line and you can see the second portion of the Feeder Rd. just north of the tracks. The primitive trail continues along the same diagonal bearing beyond Humberstone Rd. I took Humberstone Rd. and then Vaughan Rd. and got back on track that way.

The Wellend Canal is one of those cool engineering marvels. It connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario with a series of locks so that ships can navigate around Niagara Falls and the differences in elevation between the two lakes. I didn't see any big ships navigating it today, but I did see some people out in kayaks and on stand-up paddleboards.


At the north end of town, I left the Wellend Canal behind after I rode across the Allanburg Bridge. I'm sure that middle section can be raised up to allow a ship to pass underneath:

Upon arrival in Niagara Falls, I was greeted by an Inukshuk. The Inukshuk is a human-shaped stone statue historically created by the Inuit for various purposes. It was a symbol of the Vancouver Winter Olympics.


Tonight we're in Niagara Falls. I rode 76.4 miles. Tomorrow's challenge will be to navigate the very busy international bridge and confusing roads on both sides of the border. I'm planning to cross the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge from Ontario to New York.

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