Linking the CAMBRIDGE TO PARIS RAIL TRAIL to the LN&E RAIL TRAIL

Always wondered about the trail system…(cyclist from Guelph)…good stuff

Thank you. I learn something new every video. Cheers. 🍺🙂

As I live in Cambridge I’ve done the ride to port Dover a few times. It’s a wonderful way to spend a day. I have spent some time on google maps trying to link the Paris trail to lakeshore trail in a bike friendly way as a way to open up a safe way to get to Lake Ontario. That way we have a trail route to 3 of the Great Lakes on trails I can drive to in under 15 minutes from my house. Guelph to Goderich, Paris to LE & N trail, and Paris to Brantford to Hamilton to get to Lake Ontario.

Getting through Brantford, the continuing conundrum! I've done the Cambridge to Paris and/or Paris to Cambridge some twenty times or more over the last decade and a half. It remains one of the most satisfying and beautiful routes I've done, but ironically, the best way I've found around/through Brantford I chanced upon the very first time I did it, and only once since and you hit upon it by using the bridge to cross the Grand before (north) entering Brantford. That's the way around Brantford via the west (south) side of the Grand. I've never exactly repeated it since, as there's so many ways to transit Brantford, many/most of them with very unpleasant stretches on roads. The routes are very poorly marked in many/most spots where a turn is needed.

I've only just glanced at your map, unfortunately some essential details are lacking, not least the two routes into Brantford from the south (west side of Grand), one the LE&N, the other the TH&B which are both used for the southern part of the trail to Port Dover, but each has a separate leg into Brantford.

Here's a good part of the problem in finding one's way past Brantford:

Google: "The Hub of Ontario Trails Map" from the City of Brantford. It's now quite dated. IF you don't have the latest route details to get across Brantford (north-south)(there's a good route, albeit necessitating road connections along the dike) then default to the routing that Cardiac posts. The clue for the bridge Cardiac indicates is the suspended massive water conduit pipe that crosses the Grand River adjacent to it.

Brantford itself is interesting in parts, devastated in others, and getting across it is the antithesis of enjoyable cycling. I've uttered many profanities trying to fight the awful traffic to get through it.

Once past Brantford, if you're doing Port Dover to Cambridge, the route is excellent, approaching Nirvana.

If you don't have a vehicle, then connections to GO (albeit bus with a bike rack on the front) are available in both Brantford and Cambridge. There is no transit option for Port Dover (save for an obscure twice weekly route that runs once on those days) so what I recommend is to have someone drive you to PD, or have three or four of you rent a van w/ driver to drop you there, and cycle north. A decision can then be made to access GO at Brantford or Cambridge, or from Brantford take the TH&B Trail to the Hammer, and take a GO train from there back east.

One can connect through to K/W from Cambridge, but like Brantford, it's essential to know the way across to avoid getting caught in traffic hell. I still can't find the way across K/W that I used to know when I lived in Guelph fifteen years ago. It involved the Black Horse Trail and a pedestrian bridge over the 401 to pick-up a rail trail down to Cambridge, but age (I'm a month away from 75) has left that fuzzy.

I can still do the distance, but I can no longer deal with traffic, if ever I could.

This vid is really inspiring in connecting up the trails in ways most published maps don't.

The Paris Cambridge trail is wonderful. I have done the Brantford to Port Dover but I started way south of the city as the ride from Paris to Brantford, is not fun with all the factories and industrial buildings. The rest of the trail to Port Dover is wonderful but be prepared as you will have to to do the return journey back to your car. Close to 100 k for the day which is 5 hours of riding for me. Looking forward to doing it again. Great video Andrew.

great ride.

That trail you did linking Paris and Brantford is called the "SC Johnson Trail". I was on it two years ago when doing a one-way ride from Kitchener to Hamilton using the Cambridge to Paris and Hamilton to Brantford rail trails. Very beautiful ride.

6:57 I enjoyed this video very much. I have ridden from Cambridge to Dover 3 times now.
I want to point out an error I made that I will not repeat. Right across the road from where the goose sat on the sign, you go right alongside the Poultry factory (Maple leaf Canada) on a paved trail heading south. [ T.H.&B Rail Trail] If you go further down as you did to the intersection of the L.E. & N Trail you will end up merging with the T.H.& B trail after getting to Mt Pleasant if you plan to go to Dover. The T.H.& B Trail is much nicer IMO
Where the two old rail lines merge in Mt Pleasant had me a bit confused, and if I had known I could delete one whole section, I surely would have. It's paved but cracked quite bad. I kept going down a trail that got narrow, only to see others parallel on the main trail [L.E.& B]
Find Maple Leaf Farms and know that from there to Simcoe is now paved the entire way. It's a great trip even for 23mm road tires. I absolutely love that route, but try for low-wind days cuz there is no protection from the wind. In the heat of summer, hot south lake effect winds can be brutal, but I had a south wind of 50 km at my back most of the way home. My longest ride to date was Cambridge to Dover and back in one day. Just under 100 miles 12 hrs pedalling with 3hrs napping.

Hope I didn't confuse anybody, ask if need be.

There are 2 rail trails that run from that point in west Brant that meetup in Mt. Pleasant. Start on the TH&B Trail. It is far better, paved trail, that will meet up with the LE&N.

Ride the Port Dover trail regularly as my wife’s family have a cottage in PD. Love the trails (and great road routes hugging the lake as well). Plan to go a bit further on the trails this summer and just did the Simcoe to Delhi stretch yesterday). Thank you for this video as it opens up some ideas for riding this summer.