Iron Horse Rail Trail – Kitchener & Waterloo #cycling #railtrail #infrastructure

I made a last minute decision to ride the Iron Horse and Laurel trails in Kitchener and Waterloo. It is a really interesting trail with so much to see and so many pedestrians to avoid.

Link to the Laurel and Iron Horse Rail Trails:

Iron Horse – Park / Rail Trail

Nearby gravel trails:

Kissing Bridge – Rail Trail

Cambridge Paris – Rail Trail

[Music] A couple of weeks back, I did a ride in GE around the trails there and it was very much an urban ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I put out a video and uh somebody responded in the comments to that video and suggested that I come and try the iron horse rail trail which is in the Waterloo Kitchener region. So I woke up this morning and um I wanted to go for a bike ride and I wanted to go on a trail and so I remembered the comment. So here I am in Waterloo right by the university and today I’m just going to have some fun exploring the uh trails around Kitchener and Waterloo. So, they very conveniently divided that crossing between uh bikes and pedestrians. I’m not going to moan, but you wouldn’t have thought so, would you? Yeah. And uh people didn’t seem too concerned to get out of my way, but like I say, not going to moan it. Uh, I was going suitably slow enough for them to feel that there was no issue and there wasn’t. So, question of the day, do you consider it a trail ride if it’s on something a bit more like this, like a bike path? I mean, theoretically, it is a trail. It’s definitely not a road. So, I’m going to say yes, I do consider it to be a trail ride, even if it’s a bit different. Just to put things into perspective, that uh little heavily pedestrianized bit was literally only probably less than a kilometer. So, um although yeah, not that enjoyable having to sort of dodge in and out of people and being concerned that you’re going to accidentally hurt them. Um, it wasn’t really that much of an inconvenience. And then going back, I’ll just see if I can find another nice route to nip around that little that little part where we’re right in the middle of the uh the university. And this is a surprise cuz I thought it was going to all be paved, but we’re on some lovely gravel. [Music] And we got this really cool little bridge. [Music] [Music] So, I don’t know if you’ve picked this up already, but um this is probably my most unplanned ride ever. I have absolutely no idea where I’m going to be going. Uh I was going straight south and then I saw this beautiful little boardwalk across the lake and I thought, well, why not explore that? [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] It’s been much quieter for probably about 2 km now. But um as the trail has got quieter, the scenery has got slightly less attractive. [Music] So yeah, that’s the end of the trail itself. There are other bike routes, but um it would appear that they’re kind of on side streets going through residential areas, which is perfectly fine. Um I’m going to turn around and start heading back north towards where I parked up at Waterloo University. Um, I’m going to try to find a slightly different route, a few other little trails because let’s see how far has it been. It’s Oh, I’ve only done 10 12 km um so far. So, it wouldn’t be a very long ride if I just go straight back. There also quite a lot of ebikes, which is absolutely fine. Everyone was sort of sort of well, everyone but one person were obeying uh the rules and what were sort of reasonable speeds. There was one point where I did almost get plowed down by one. Kind of my fault because I had moved out to go around a pedestrian, but the person uh on the ebike was coming towards me so fast that I had to nip in pretty quickly. Um largely my fault, but yeah, probably they were going too fast for such a condes congested congested trail as this. Um, so anyway, I’m going to head back past the golf course again and uh see how many times I can get lost. [Music] It actually smells really good around here. I don’t know if it’s because that was a brewery I just passed, but there was a very nice aroma. [Music] When I was a kid growing up in England, we had uh quite near to my house like drainage ditches like this or or a drainage ditch like this. And um at one end of it actually led into a tunnel that normally had an iron grate over it, but people have pulled it to one side so you could actually get in. and it always gave me the the creeps seeing that the thought of going into that dark wet tunnel and not knowing if you’re going to get out. Um so yeah, the beauty of this doesn’t inspire me, but um it does bring back some memories of childhood. [Music] Yeah, I’m so glad I decided on this detour. This is a this is a gem. I need to be over that side of the uh river at some point. So hopefully there’ll be Oh, I was just about to say hopefully there’ll be another bridge. And just as I say that, I see one. This is maybe the fifth, fourth bridge that I’ve been over in this park. So, what can I say about this uh trail? Well, there are parts of it uh this being one of them that are really really pretty. The parks here are absolutely lovely and really enjoyable to to ride through. they’re not too busy and they got those beautiful bridges as well. So yeah, parts of the trail are are uh very very attractive. And then other parts are really interesting. It’s interesting going through uh residential areas, high-rise areas um along by the rail tracks through the university. Um but it’s not like any rail or not like any trail that I would normally ride on. Uh, it is for my liking just a bit too populated. Few too many people. Maybe in the summer when there aren’t so many students, it might be quite a bit quieter. Um, but just for today’s ride yet, it was just a little bit too congested. You couldn’t get into a good flow. It’s definitely not a great place for people if they’re uh if they’re training um and they’re really pushing it. It’s just not safe for that. So, would I recommend it? Well, I certainly would say that if you were here in in Kitchener or Waterloo um for something else and you wanted to go for a a really great ride, then this would be it. It’s away from the roads. It’s uh entertaining, interesting. I had a lot of fun. Mind you, I always have a lot of fun when I get on on uh on my bike, so I’m perhaps a little bit biased. Um would I travel any distance to come here? I I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending that. I’m really grateful that someone suggested it to me and I’m really grateful that I came and checked it out. But um for anyone else, I would say there are plenty of other gravel trails, quieter trails not too far from here that that you could uh try out for yourself. I’ll throw some of them in the description um below. I’ll also throw a link for this trail in the description as well because like I say, if you’re in this area, then it’s definitely worth the uh the trip. The bell you can hear there in the background. I don’t know if you can hear it, but if you can, um, that bell sounds at the crossings. And I think what it means is when the bell sounds then run across the crossing because I haven’t seen many people stopping when the bell starts sounding. [Music] He just reminded me my first day at university, I had to travel across London. took about 3 hours by train and subway or tube train and I had everything that uh I needed in one fairly large uh burgundy leatherrett suitcase without wheels I should add. And I was lugging that thing across London and I got about halfway and the handle broke. So I ended up for the next half of the journey bear hugging that rather large burgundy leatherrett suitcase all the way to uh my college but still happy memories. I do hope you’ve enjoyed this somewhat different kind of trail ride. If you have, please remember, hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and I’ll see you on the next ride. [Music]