This trip would be possible, car-free, for anyone within biking distance of a GO train station. We biked to a station and took the train to Hamilton. Don't feel like carrying gear on a regular bike? We rented an electric cargo bike from Happy Fiets Canada (they deliver in Toronto!)

The first 2.5 days were almost completely on rail trails - Brantford to Waterford has been recently paved! We saw some nice signage, the icing on the cake of good infrastructure.

We brought our 3-year-old's balance bike, and every day that we had a trail option he rode for a few kilometres. Such a fun way to travel.

We camped at conservation areas and provincial parks. Every day we visited a grocery store (and often an LCBO) just before arriving at the campground, and so we ate much better than the usual backpacking fare - one advantage of biking near civilization!

Camping used to be cheap but it's still pretty affordable - we spent $220 on 7 days of camping (after splitting with my parents), $400 to rent an e-bike, and about $250 on food for the week (including two fish and chips places on our route).

I saw places I’d never seen before that were less than a half-hour drive from the place I lived for 18 years. It’s true that adventure can be close to home. On vacation I always think to myself, "Wow, I wonder what it would be like to live around here?" This time I actually knew!

It was very cool to bike to and from my childhood home in rural Niagara, a place I've never in my life accessed without a car. Granted, it took us four hours to get to Hamilton by bike from there, but it was such a nice ride that I will definitely do it again someday.

It's a good thing we got the 2-seater cargo bike, because the next time we do a trip like this we will have a new passenger 😉