Crossing the St Lawrence

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On the 17th we journeyed north from New Milford PA into NY State following the highway along the scenic Susquehanna River valley. We make our way east of the Lake Ontario up to the St Lawrence River ready to cross into Canada the next morning. It's the same strategy we used on the way in, which allows us to cross early at a quiet border crossing without undue stress or pressure.

For some reason I failed to take advantage of our proximity on the east side to the Lake Ontario or equally the west side of the Adirondack National Park and take a route right up the middle - thus missing some 'new' scenery before I realise what I have done. What was i thinking of?

It's that thing again that RL Stevenson talks about "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive". Sometimes you get so anxious about arriving at your target destination that you miss the 'good bits' on the way. Actually to be fair - the Adirondacks are 30 miles to the east of us - however Lake Ontario is only 10 miles to our west.

We spend an evening at a slightly run down motel on the St Lawrence shore near to Ogdesnburg - but not together after an argument about something or other - cannot remember what it was.

Anyhow the next day we cross the control point - the Yanks charge us for the crossing the bridge, the Canadians luckily lets us in on the other side. SO what happens if you are rejected - do you have to pay to get back over to the US? I don't bother asking.

We have breakfast in a featureless town (Lancaster I think) on the other side. As usual we people watch in the cafe, and they spot us a mile off as Europeans. The usual friendly enquiries follow.

Before long we are zig zagging across the East Ontario flatlands. As the extensive farming landscape is laid out with a grid pattern of roads there is no other way to reach The Laurentian Mountains, other than Highways, than to bear east so far then north, then east and so one. I decide to take the difficult but more scenic backroads.
Occasionally we take a turning and find it isn't a paved road but a dirt track. There is no way of telling from the good old Garmin Sat Nav so we have to double back as our insurance does not cover us for unpaved roads. The landscape is desolate, and it isn't until we reach the last town near the Ontario/Quebec border that we encounter major settlement.

By this stage we hear the nasal sounds of French Canadian conversation in the service stations - but on the Ontario side. On enquiry I am told by the staff at the service station, that most of the Eastern Ontarians(?) have to speak the French dialect of Quebec or they won't get jobs. The curious thing is that even though they are born in English speaking Ontario, and their home tongue is English - their French and their English has the exact same 'French Canadian accent' as a native born Québécois.

As we head further east and north towards our destination of St Donat in the Laurentian Mountains the landscape gives way to spectacular valleys and hills and French becomes to standard language throughout.

We arrive in St Donat at my cousin Faigie's and her partner Ruth's summer house after about 200 miles and a day's ride. Just about right then and a good decision to stop on the border overnight. At last after 30 years of dreaming I am back into the location of my early childhood memories of summer holidays on the lakes and in the mountains.

This account continues in the next entry St Donat, days on the lakes - Visiting Cousins in the Laurentides, Québec

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Photos

Eastern Ontario
Some of the indicated roads are paved with loose gravel - not much use fora Goldwing with a 2000$ insurance excess