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Around Lake Ontario
- Thread starter jeepless
- Start date
At the east end of Lake Ontario, cross using the Cape Vincent and Wolfe Island ferries to save some km and to get some nice views during the water crossings.
The Cape Vincent ferry from New York State to Wolfe Island Ontario is a private ferry so there is a charge, but you would have to pay to cross the Thousand Islands bridge anyways.
There is a pizza/burger place in Marysville for a quick bite to eat. There is also the Wolfe Island Grille with waterside patio for more upscale food and drink, and they often have live entertainment during the day on weekends. There are also a couple of ice cream places in Marysville as well.
The Ontario ferry from Wolfe Island to Kingston is part of Ontario's King's Highway system and is free, and it gives great water-side views of Kingston's waterfront, the Royal Military College, and Old Fort Henry as you come into Kingston.
The Cape Vincent ferry from New York State to Wolfe Island Ontario is a private ferry so there is a charge, but you would have to pay to cross the Thousand Islands bridge anyways.
There is a pizza/burger place in Marysville for a quick bite to eat. There is also the Wolfe Island Grille with waterside patio for more upscale food and drink, and they often have live entertainment during the day on weekends. There are also a couple of ice cream places in Marysville as well.
The Ontario ferry from Wolfe Island to Kingston is part of Ontario's King's Highway system and is free, and it gives great water-side views of Kingston's waterfront, the Royal Military College, and Old Fort Henry as you come into Kingston.
The big Wolfe island ferry is being serviced right now. They have a smaller one doing the crossing until the main ferry returns. There's a bit of a crush as a result if you take the more popular crossings. Long line ups unless you're outside of the times the tourists like to head over to Big Sandy Bay.
I have property on Wolfe Island and am there often. With the Frontenac II ferry replacing the Wolfe Islander III while it is in Hamilton drydock, if you are on a motorcycle you can go to the front of the line and the ferry staff will put you in one of the ferry's side cubbies that are too small for a car.
True enough. I'm in Kingston and wondered if they might have changed the rules though as yesterday at the Glenora ferry I saw new signs saying "motorcycles must be in line to board", before that they used to let them on at the front too.
Those signs have been there at Glenora for at least a couple of years when I first saw them.
I usually ride back from Kingston through Glenora for the more scenic ride compared to the 401. There are also some nice restaurants near the ferry up on the "mountain" overlooking the ferry strait.
The Glenora ferry is a much smaller and different kind of ferry, straight-in, straight-out, no cubby holes of any significance at the side. Letting a motorcycle jump the line there means that a car in line ahead of the motorcycle will likely be left behind.
Glenora in most summers has a ferry departing every 15 minutes (this year is 30-minute service because of ferry shifting due to Wolf Island III being in drydock for refit), so even if you are back in line a bit you won't have to wait very long as compared to the hourly schedule of the Wolfe Island ferry.
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So I was on the Wolf Island and Cape Vincent ferries last week for fun.
Single riders on the Wolf Island ferry (the current one) can jump the queue and be put in the cubby holes at the 4 corners of the boat. The MTO officer mentioned to me that groups would usually have to wait in line though...and right now, there's long line ups as the ferry is smaller than normal. I would suggest finding someone with a safety vest on and asking if it's OK to head to the front of the line though as there's also plenty of cyclists on this boat. The line up during the day on a Sunny weekday from Wolf Island back to Kingston was nuts (again due to the replacement smaller ferry) and I couldn't imagine waiting in a car for that. Strangely all the lines were cleared by 6.30 pm though and after that it's all good.
The Cape Vincent ferry is small but not used a lot so you'll always get on. The boat captain has had a personality bypass but is otherwise fine and will happily take your $8 US cash for the one way trip. Be prepared though...this crossing can (very rarely) be a little rough and standing by or on your bike with a hand on the brake is a good idea. As a fun little adventure when I was on the return ferry last week the boat had engine trouble and we drifted for a little while before it was fixed. I was the only one on the ferry and it was pretty choppy so I sat on the bike and held the front and rear brakes as the sidestand was moving a little. The ferry runs until 7.30pm (from US to Canada) and it's scheduled so you can make the Wolf Island connection back to Kingston (usually, although I missed mine due to the engine trouble). The Wolf Island - Kingston ferry runs much later though so no need to worry if you want to wander around the island a bit.
Single riders on the Wolf Island ferry (the current one) can jump the queue and be put in the cubby holes at the 4 corners of the boat. The MTO officer mentioned to me that groups would usually have to wait in line though...and right now, there's long line ups as the ferry is smaller than normal. I would suggest finding someone with a safety vest on and asking if it's OK to head to the front of the line though as there's also plenty of cyclists on this boat. The line up during the day on a Sunny weekday from Wolf Island back to Kingston was nuts (again due to the replacement smaller ferry) and I couldn't imagine waiting in a car for that. Strangely all the lines were cleared by 6.30 pm though and after that it's all good.
The Cape Vincent ferry is small but not used a lot so you'll always get on. The boat captain has had a personality bypass but is otherwise fine and will happily take your $8 US cash for the one way trip. Be prepared though...this crossing can (very rarely) be a little rough and standing by or on your bike with a hand on the brake is a good idea. As a fun little adventure when I was on the return ferry last week the boat had engine trouble and we drifted for a little while before it was fixed. I was the only one on the ferry and it was pretty choppy so I sat on the bike and held the front and rear brakes as the sidestand was moving a little. The ferry runs until 7.30pm (from US to Canada) and it's scheduled so you can make the Wolf Island connection back to Kingston (usually, although I missed mine due to the engine trouble). The Wolf Island - Kingston ferry runs much later though so no need to worry if you want to wander around the island a bit.
The big ferry should be back around or just after the Labour Day weekend. With 50% more capacity (55 cars vs 35) , the line-ups should diminish significantly except for the most peak-time early morning and late afternoon crunches. The Ministry has also engaged an environmental impact study as part of a plan to add a second ferry on the Wolfe Island-Kingston route with target boat-in-service date of late 2017/early 2018. That ferry will be a 75-car ferry, will operate opposite the existing 55-car ferry effectively giving 1/2 hour departures in peak travel periods, and should all but eliminate ferry line-ups of any duration.
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