The By Ways

Story by Ron Keys

Sitting astride my motorcycle, I survey the ruins of old Fort Cataraqui and imagine myself here in the year 1673. Natives wander to and fro with stacks of beautiful animal furs. I hear the chatter of bartering French trappers. This is Upper Canada, known at the time as New France. The foundation remnant before me is all that remains of what was later called Fort Frontenac, built to control the lucrative fur trade in the Great Lakes Basin and later destroyed by the British conquest. In 1824, the new Fort Frontenac was completed across the street. Built of local limestone, it housed military troops during the War of 1812, and it is still in use today as a training facility for our military.

In 1826, Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers was assigned by the British government to supervise the construction of a navigable waterway between Ottawa and Kingston to afford protection from the Americans. Through wilderness, swamp, bush and solid rock, the canal was finished in six years and opened in 1832, a watery monument for over 1000 workers who died from malaria or accident during its construction. With 47 locks and 52 dams, today the 202-kilometre waterway is known as the Rideau Canal – one of the greatest engineering feats of the nineteenth century. In 2007, the Rideau Canal, the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About to begin our tour along the Rideau, we first visit the Celtic cross overlooking the Cataraqui River, commemorating the workers who forfeited their lives building this edifice.

And thus begins our trip, as the bike wiggles this way and that on the open grating of the Lasalle Bridge. On my right is the Royal Military College, founded in 1874, in the shadow of Fort Henry, the last fort built in Canada. I turn left onto Highway 15 and catch glimpses of the Cataraqui River as I leave the amenities of Kingston for the backwater areas awaiting me.

At Codes Corners we follow Kingston Mills Road, and as we come out of a hollow and over a bridge, the blockhouse on our left and the locks beneath tell us we have arrived at Kingston Mills, the last of the Canal’s locks before Lake Ontario. With a lot of ground to cover today we are soon off again, running north on County Road 15, hunting for Washburn Road. A left turn up and over a small knoll brings us to locks 43 and 44 at Brewers Mills. Luckily, we are just in time to watch as the lockmaster manually opens the single-lane swinging bridge to allow a boat to pass through. The park-like setting at each lock allows overnight tenting for boaters passing through Brewers Mills.

Northbound again, we take a side trip northeast along CR33. It’s a perfect day for riding with excellent pavement, beautiful weather and wild flowers of every description in bloom along the roadside.

We approach the village of Lyndhurst and ride slowly across Ontario’s oldest bridge, spanning Lyndhurst Creek. Designed in 1856 by a local miller’s helper, it’s a triple-arched, single-lane stone bridge with flared entrances at either end, and it is still the main entrance and exit to the village. With children frolicking in the river below and folks lounging in the park, this is a scene of summer tranquillity.

We wind along CR33 and merge left onto CR42 to arrive in Delta. The Delta Mill on Beverley Lake is without a doubt the finest example of an early Ontario mill in pristine operating condition. Every Saturday, the miller sets the water wheel in gear and mills flour from which local ladies make hot bread for the tourists. Hot bread, slathered with butter – Oh how I wish it was Saturday.

With one more stop on today’s agenda, we ride through Philipsville and then left onto CR8 to Elgin. We eventually wind our way to Jones Falls. Here the Kenny Hotel, a stately old inn, overlooks the river and the lower locks. A long boardwalk takes us across the water to the first of four 15-foot locks that accommodate a 60-foot drop in water elevation. To our right, I can see the powerhouse at the bottom of the hand-built stone dam, 62 feet high. And we think that we have it tough today.

From here, I let my GPS lead me along CR11 to Sand Lake Road, Bush Road and Davis Lock Road, until we arrive again at Elgin. We ride north to Crosby to CR42 through Newboro and over to Westport, a pretty town on the shores of the Upper Rideau. Our destination for the night is the Cove Country Inn – we have made a good choice of this century home with a balcony overlooking the lake. The Jacuzzi tub is a welcome sight after a long day’s ride. We sit on the restaurant patio, overlooking the manicured lawn that slopes down to Westport Lake; the breeze is blowing, dinner is cooking and the ambience is perfect. MMM

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