Newsletter #137 ⛴️

Let's try something different this summer

Happy Friday, and thank you for reading, as always.

My two-week break from the newsletter was a good and purposeful one. I’m glad I took it and can do biweekly newsletters for the rest of the summer. I was wondering what I should do for this newsletter and the five to come, and I’ve got it!

What if I just yapped about the lakes and the rivers around here? Shared a little (being literal with the word here) story about an experience? Here’s what to expect for the next several newsletters:

• This one (#137) will be about Lake Ontario

• July 25 (#138) will be about Lake Erie

• August 8 (#139) will be about Lake Huron

• August 22 (#140) will be about the St. Clair River

• September 5 (#141) will be about the Thames River

• September 19 (#142) will be about the Grand River

Let’s kick it all off about Lake Ontario!

Lake Ontario is my least visited of the three Great Lakes that I have visited. It is the smallest in surface area too. But less is more.

I’ve visited nearly every Canadian city and town on Lake Ontario, from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Kingston and many in between. I have never been to the United States side, and you may think that the obvious reason has to do with what is currently going on with the Department of Homeland Security. You’re half right. I had serious thoughts about crossing the border, followed by serious reservations about crossing the border long before Donald Trump took office as president—twice.

One city I’ve visited a handful of times in the last few years is Toronto, which is the largest city on Lake Ontario. As tomorrow is July 12, I’m reminded of the the fact that historically, Toronto was known as the Belfast of Canada due to the powerful influence of the Orange Order on civic life. Some still say that the Orange Order still has an effect on Toronto to this day, in many ways. So I can never not think of this scene from Derry Girls every time I set foot in Toronto.

Anyway, my favourite experience on Lake Ontario is taking the ferry, which I did plenty of in my 2022 road trip.

I really enjoyed this one ferry ride I took within Loyalist Township, from Millhaven to Stella, on Amherst Island.

After checking into my first of two Kingston accommodations (the residence at St. Lawrence College), I hastily showered and then relaxed for a bit. I was taking a look at places around me in Google Maps and wondered if I had time for a little side trip to Amherst Island.

Amherst Island is an island just off the north shore of Lake Ontario, just west of Kingston. Prior to 1998, the island was its own municipality within the county of Lennox & Addington. Then, on New Year’s Day of that year, the island merged with the Township of Ernestown and the Village of Bath to become Loyalist Township.

Bath only became familiar to me two years prior when I spotted a souvenir pin of the former village in a bargain bin during a vintage street market event in Downtown London. I shelled out two dollars to make it mine. But Bath would wait until the next day; I wanted to ride another ferry!

Ferries were few and far between in my life. I recall taking a ferry for the first time when I was 10 years old, in the Halifax Regional Municipality. I faintly remember a boat taking me from Dartmouth to Halifax. But for about 20 years, that was it. The next time I took a ferry was in July 2021, when I did a round trip on the MS Chi-Cheemaun between Tobermory and South Baymouth. That first leg of the round trip was my first time in Northern Ontario.

I wanted more boats. For this ferry ride, I drove from my accommodation to Highway 33, taking that west through the suburb of Amherstview (birthplace of our buddy Gord). I continued a bit west to the community of Millhaven, at the intersection with County Road 4. Opposite of that intersection, I would be parking to board a ferry. Now, you could take your car on the ferry, but I was smarter than the rest of my fellow passengers and just brought my bike on for a cheaper fare.

I thought this was interesting: this was a ferry service run by the township and not a tourism-oriented company like the one I boarded the previous year.

It was a calm ride, and it took about 10 minutes or so to sail across the stretch of Lake Ontario to get to the island.

I was one of the first to get off the ferry, landing at Stella 40 Foot Road.

I had about 40 to 45 minutes here, so I decided to make the best of it before I got the next ferry back.

There were a few shops along Front Road, the road that runs along the north side of the island. There was also a park, and I decided play on the swings, and then I remembered the last time I played on swings (I got motion sickness), so I stopped pretty quickly.

I went a little bit west along Front Road, and just explored a little. And sang a little song to myself. I don’t know why, but the song pops into my head every time I am in Eastern Ontario.

I marveled at all of the plaques that popped up along the way. I went past the school and past the radio station and was impressed that people built lives for themselves on this island.

The radio station was created in 2006 by Peter Trueman, who was one of the original anchors of the Global Television Network when it took to the airwaves in 1974. Trueman ended each newscast with a commentary which in turn ended with the line “That is not news. But that, too, is reality.”

I finished my journey on the island with an ice cream cone at The Back Kitchen, the island’s only restaurant. It was unique among many restaurants that I’ve visited. It was non-profit, volunteer-led (many high school students from the mainland took shifts), and sponsored by many local businesses on the island.

When the ferry came calling, I was last to embark the boat, but the first to disembark on the mainland. It was a very fun ride, with a very lovely drive back to the city and I could hardly wait for my next ferry ride!

The following day, I traversed the Wolfe Islander III to make a round trip from Kingston to Wolfe Island and back. The day after that, I took the Dodge further west on Highway 33 through Lennox & Addington to Adolphustown. That ferry carried me to my first-ever visit to Prince Edward County.

Ferries are fun! That’s not news, but that, too, is reality.

The Region Visualized - Highway 33

The Region In Sound

See you in two weeks. Please do me a wonderful favour and subscribe and tell someone you read a great newsletter this morning, one that has never been produced with “the AI”.