The Outdoor Club Sporting Event

A pool-closing party is a good choice when September offers a heat wave. But why have just a party when it can be turned into a sporting event? We should work up a sweat before we cool down. Accordingly, this Cornwall-Outdoor-Club-style party will start with a classic bike ride combining country roads with the popular waterfront trail. Better still, our route is pleasantly infused with historical landmarks.

Our group meets near the Lost Village Brewery on County Road 36 in Long Sault. Heading west towards Ingleside, we cycle leisurely, enjoying our surroundings. As we enter the village of Long Sault, we pass an old seaway home relocated from Mille Roches in the 1950s. There are many such homes in this neighborhood. If you look closely, you might spot them. How surreal it must have been for displaced residents to open their doors to a strange landscape, virtually a twilight-zone moment.

Cruising down Manning Road, a quieter alternative to the parallel County Road 2, we are treated to an eclectic mix of new and old homes. An 1800s farmhouse painted Flamingo Pink and decorated with porcelain dinnerware stands out like a single sunflower in a field of daisies. It wasn’t always so whimsical, but age and disrepair have rendered it unlivable. Someone has gone to great lengths to create this bittersweet memory before the building’s demolition.

Our cycle through time takes us to County Road 2 and across the Hoople Creek bridge. We veer away from the heavier traffic towards Colonial Drive. Much like Manning Road, it has diverse home types. I am particularly attracted to a stone farmhouse which I estimate to be about two hundred years old. While its overgrown landscape gives it an air of abandonment, it retains an undeniable character. An old home with an unfamiliar past has charm and a certain air of mystery. I try to imagine how it once was. What life might have breathed within its walls? There is a treasure-trove of untold stories real or imagined aching to be written.

At the western entrance of the Long Sault Parkway, we pause for a rest and hydration. We return by the parkway, a recreational route unique to our region, and borne of the St. Lawrence Seaway construction. After the land was inundated, farmland hills rising above the flood line became a chain of islands. Strategically linked by bridges and causeways it became the scenic parkland we know today. Immersed in history, traces of former villages can still be detected by land or water along the way. This 10-kilometer Saint-Lawrence playground is one of my favorite places to explore. It educates me in ways that history books never could. For a while, I become Nancy Drew unearthing clues, remnants of the past to be assembled, bit by bit, like an intricate jigsaw puzzle.

Nearing the final stretch of our tour, we see a group of divers near the pavilion at Lock 21. They are likely exploring the submerged canal constructed in the Victorian era. How eerie must it be to swim into the shadows of manmade ruins from another century? The underwater world holds so many secrets concealed from the land above. I would rather content myself with living vicariously through the tales of the others than plunge into the sinister depths of the St-Lawrence River. I may be curious, but I have my limits!

We are nearing the end of our loop, and the vision of a refreshing pool spurs me on like a carrot dangling before a donkey. With a new burst of energy, I pick up the pace and reach our destination. We quickly exchange our bicycles for ginger beers and Glengarry Fine Cheese. The long-awaited pool dip soon follows. As my knotted muscles unwind, I reflect on our tour. The history we have traveled through is but an echo of a time that was never mine yet resonates within me. With life constantly evolving, I can’t help but wonder what home will look like a century from now. What remnants will there be for others to piece together the puzzle of our lives?

For more information about the Cornwall Outdoor Club de Plein Air, visit our website at www.cornwalloutdoorclub.ca or follow us on Facebook.