Touring - Thinking of a ride around Lake Erie

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Leastbest
01-10-13, 06:51 PM
I'm thinking of riding around Lake Erie this summer. Has any of you done this?


Tandem Tom
01-10-13, 07:13 PM
My wife and I rode it last year on our tandem. We started our trip right from home as we live in NE Ohio. We rode CCW around the lake. It was a great ride. Let me know if you would like more info.
This year one of our trips will be to ride around Lake Ontario.

wardie
01-10-13, 08:03 PM
I rode from Conneaut, Ohio to Niagara Falls, Canada and back over five days. Self contained cooked and camped every night. Met a lot of nice people, high times!
Had some trouble getting back into the states. Seems riding a bicycle loaded made me look suspicious and I got lumped in with the Arabic speaking visitors. Took a while but they finally decided I wasn't a risk so they let me back in to the country. Odd thing..the guy who was checking me out spoke broken English..no I'm not kidding..eh'


Doug64
01-10-13, 08:56 PM
How, or did you go across the Ambassador Bridge?

We started to circumnavigate Lake Huron last summer, but changed directions up at the Mackinac Bridge due to wet, cold weather north and east of us. Instead we did a 900 mile loop through the Lower Peninsula. We hope to come back next summer and do Lake Erie as a side trip from Underground Railroad Railroad Route.

Tandem Tom
01-11-13, 06:30 AM
Not sure if you are asking me about which bridge? But we crossed at the Rainbow Bridge. We had a WarmShowers host in Buffalo and she rode with us through the city and over to Grand Island. Had our first flat on the top of one of those bridges! Watch out for those access covers.

indyfabz
01-11-13, 08:17 AM
Are you familiar with the Adventure Cycling Association route network? You could combine portion of the a few of there routes to circumnavigate Lake Erie.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/RouteNetwork.pdf

snyder1017
02-28-13, 02:26 PM
My wife and I rode it last year on our tandem. We started our trip right from home as we live in NE Ohio. We rode CCW around the lake. It was a great ride. Let me know if you would like more info.
This year one of our trips will be to ride around Lake Ontario.

Hi. Would you be willing to provide more details on your trip? So of the first questions I have are:
What is the total distance? It looks like if you go the entire route, it is over 800 miles. But it looks like on some maps there is a ferry or something in the west that avoids Detroit and shortens the trip a few hunderded miles. What did you do?
Is ther a better way to go? Clockwise or counter clockwise?
How many days did it take you?
Are there campgrounds or cheap hotels along the way?
How much of the ride is on trail (no vehicles) versus road riding? Is any of the road riding dangerous?
What were some of the highlights?

We rode Pittsburgh - DC (375 miles) in 2011, and Erie Canal, Albany to Niagara Falls, Canada (405 miles) in 2012....so looking for something a little more challenging.
It looks like Erie is longer than Ontario, but it didnt seem like Ontario had as much to do.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Steve

colinmonty
03-06-13, 07:16 AM
Bridge Crossing info in Michigan

https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9615_11223-22759--,00.html

xyzzy834
03-06-13, 12:15 PM
There are LOTS of CGOAB journals about circling Lake Erie (including one of mine).

It's a good ride. I took the ferry from Sandusky to Leamington and avoided Toledo and Detroit. I mostly camped with a few hotel nights when there wasn't adequate camping nearby (i.e. Cleveland). It's a very good trip although I might say I enjoyed circling Lake Ontario very slightly more. Tough call.

Bloodshot
03-21-13, 07:40 PM
How, or did you go across the Ambassador Bridge?

You can take your bike through the Windsor/Detroit Tunnel on a Transit Windsor bus at the discretion of the driver depending on how full the bus is. Cost is $4.50CAD.
http://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/transitwindsor/routes-and-schedules/tunnel-bus-to-detroit/pages/tunnel-bus-to-detroit.aspx