Traffic lite: Long Sault Parkway spans the decades
Cycling through history BY KATHLEEN WILKER
Just east of Cornwall, the Long Sault Parkway weaves through 11 islands created when the St. Lawrence River was dammed to create the St. Lawrence Seaway. Cyclists of all abilities, including children, can whiz along wide roads past waterfowl, and through the McLaren, Woodlands and Milles Roche campsites from Long Sault to Ingleside. With water on both sides, it’s a stunning ride. It’s part of Ontario’s St. Lawrence
River Parks and cars need to pay to enter, so the paved route is ideal for cyclists who are waved beyond the gates into a low-traffic idyll. The Seaway itself is a series of dams, locks, canals and channels that permit ocean-going ships to enter the Great Lakes from the Atlantic. It opened a passage past the once ferocious Long Sault rapids and at the same time provided Ontario with hydroelectric power from the Robert H. Saunders generating station Along the way, 10 towns were
permanently submerged, though Iroquois and Morrisburg were
FURTHER INFO AT:
• Long Sault Parkway:
www.stlawrenceparks.com/lsp.htm • Great Waterfront Trail:
www.greatwaterfronttrail.org • Long Sault:
www.longsault.ca • Cornwall Cycle Club:
cycleclubcornwall.blogspot.com • Welcome Cyclists:
www.welcomecyclists.ca • Lost Villages Historical Society:
www.lostvillages.ca/
• CBC archival footage of the explosion of the cofferdam and the flooding:
http://archives.cbc.ca/ science_technology/transportation/clips/3471/
32 ottawaoutdoors • Upper Canada Village:
www.uppercanadavillage.com
• Ault Park:
www.lostvillages.ca/en/html/our_museum.html
• Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary:
www.uppercanadabirdsanctuary.com/home.htm
• Anne Michaels’s 2008 novel, The Winter Vault, tells the story of the flooding, the lost villages and the gardens that were swept away.
moved to higher ground instead of being abandoned. Some farms and businesses were moved to Long Sault and Ingleside before the flooding occurred. Many families felt they were ripped off during expropriation because house prices sank in the years leading up to the project. In total, 530 buildings were moved and 6,500 people were displaced by the project. Upper Canada Village was created out of the most historic homes to save them from the waters, and a
museum in Ault Park, near Long Sault, tells their story. The parkway is connected at both
ends to the Great Waterfront Trail, so cyclists ready for longer distances can continue beyond the Parkway. There are bathrooms available at the campgrounds, but no stores along the parkway itself. So pack your own picnic and stop at one of the benches along the route for a mid- ride lunch. If you’ve worked up an appetite
on the ride or if young riders need to be cajoled into finishing on their own two wheels, Grandma’s Cool Treats in Long Sault is a great spot for ice cream.
www.ottawaoutdoors.ca
PHOTOS BY SARKASMO
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