No ride today, plus another slow news day has me going back again to the Great Adventure, Anne’s and my big bicycle trip of 1982.  We rode for five months and in the middle of it all took off a month to lounge around the Cabin.  The highlight of that month off was the wedding of Anne and Bill.  One of the other highlights of that month was our Agawa Canyon train ride. 

The train left the station early, well at least early for us at the time, eight AM.  We had to get up and bike to the train station and be there about seven, when the train started boarding.  It was about 15 miles to get there.  About a mile of that route was over the International Bridge to Canada, followed immediately by Canadian customs.  Anyway we made it on time and the train left on time. 

The first of numerous milestones (or more accurately, wooden mile plaques) rolled by, as a reminder that we were beginning a journey that would take us 114 miles north into the Canadian wilderness.  We passed many lakes and rivers along the way (see today’s header), as well as granite rock formations through which the train appeared to barely squeeze.  For many miles, we were hemmed in on one side and then the other by trees.  But somewhere along the line, the train shot out into the open and tore along tracks supported by giant trestles that soar hundreds of feet above the valley bellow and then stopped for a photo-op.  On either side, wide expanses of lakes and forests stretched as far as the eye could see.  It is easy to understand why these vistas and panoramas inspired some of the leading Canadian artists (including the famous Group of Seven) to create some of Canada’s most notable landscape art.

Just after noon, we coasted 500 feet down to the park situated on the floor of the Agawa Canyon, where we stayed for almost two hours.  There was time sit down for a boxed lunch that we had bought from the railway and to follow a couple of short trails.  We grabbed our camera and followed the two trails one after the other: the Beaver Falls Trail and the Bridal Veil Falls Trail.  Above, Anne is pictured standing in front of the Bridal Veil Falls.  The falls were beautiful and very photogenic.  We also climbed up over 300 stairs to the breathtaking lookout platform, perched 250 feet above the tracks, the following picture was taken there.

After two hours we re-boarded the train and headed back.  The dawn launch, the fresh air, lunch and the rocking of the train conspired to make us sleepy, so we napped on the way back.  We re-boarded our bikes, braved the bridge again and this time American customs and rode back to the Cabin.  In the intervening years we went back and rode the train again, this time with the Boyz of Noize.  We followed the same format as before, enjoyed the train ride on the way up, exploded out of the train at the lunch stop and slept on the way back.