George, on touring/camping in Canada --
First thing to say, is I expect/hope that anyone you meet & speak with will welcome you as a visitor. People do make a distinction between individual citizens and actions/statements by the President. There has been a wave of national waking-up/reassertion of our (historically ill-defined) national identity, with lots of very funny videos. (Look for videos by Mark Critch, a key member of the comedy troupe "This Hour Has 22 Minutes.) All that said, it might help if you can find one of those lapel pins with both of our flags
On finding a camping space: I don't have recent experience outside Eastern Ontario & Western Québec, on account of limited travel during the pandemic, & more recently, twin hip-replacement surgeries. That said, both provincial parks and private campgrounds usually hold back 10% of their sites for those who show up without a reservation. And, I've found that a touring cyclist is enough of a novelty that you can be reasonably sure of being shoe-horned in, one way for another.
You're always welcome to swing by our place in Ottawa if you should find yourself in these parts again. I wrote a piece on cycling to & from Toronto in September 2017. It's on CycleBlaze, here:
www.cycleblaze.com/journals/ontario1/And, in several posts here on the Forum, I've referred to Québec's province-wide cycling network, la Route Verte. I've always found Québec's roads much more cycling-friendly than those in Ontario -- wider paved shoulders, for example. Here's the link to la Route Verte, available in English and French:
www.routeverte.com/en/Nice photo of you, your bike, and the Tronna skyline. Was that taken from a point on the Waterfront Trail, just west of TO? (That trail, as you may know, runs all the way from Niagara Falls to Montréal, along Lake Ontario & the St Lawrence.)
Within Southern Ontario, there are a couple of cycling routes close to historic waterways that are worth exploring. The waterways are the Rideau Canal, which runs S-N between Kingston (at the eastern end of L Ontario) and Ottawa; and the Trent Canal, between Trenton (about 150 kms west of Kingston, on L Ontario) and Port Severn, nearly 400 kms northwestwards, on Georgian Bay. Both have many locks, which allow boats to traverse the rocks & hills of the Canadian Shield. You can camp at lockstations for $5 a night (=about USD 3.50).
The Rideau Canal was completed in 1832, in the wake of the Serious Unpleasantness between 1812-14. It was built to allow shipping to pass from the eastern end of L Ontario to the Ottawa River, and onward to Montréal, out of range of US batteries in NY state on the S shore of the St Lawrence.
The Trent-Severn Canal was opened about a century ago. It allows small vessels to go directly from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay & hence Lake Huron.
Happily, both are now used only by recreational boaters, and by cyclists who happen to know that they're scenic spots with cheap campsites, and water that's OK for swimming.
Cheers, John
