North America in general lacks safe long distance routes to cycle. There are of course quite a few relatively short cycle paths in and around cities. In the U.S. the Rails to Trails Conservancy is working away, and currently claims 2040 open trails covering 22,871 miles. On the surface that seems impressive, but consider that these numbers mean an average length of only 11 miles. In terms of longer rides, the longest are:

Katy Trail State Park — Missouri: 240 miles
John Wayne Pioneer Trail — Washington: 229 miles
Cowboy Trail — Nebraska: 219 miles
Great Allegheny Passage — Maryland & Pennsylvania: 150 miles
Soo Line Trail - Northern Route — Minnesota: 148 miles
Columbia Plateau Trail State Park — Washington: 130 miles
Paul Bunyan State Trail — Minnesota: 119 miles
Flint Hills Nature Trail — Kansas: 117 miles
Soo Line Trail - Southern Route & Saunders State Trail — Minnesota & Wisconsin: 114 miles
OC&E Woods Line State Trail — Oregon: 110 miles
George S. Mickelson Trail — South Dakota: 109 miles
State Line Trail — Michigan: 107 miles
Wild Rivers State Trail — Wisconsin: 104 miles

Even with these, the Katy Trail, for example, is 3500 km from our home. To put that in perspective, getting to that ride is further (quite a bit) than Paris to Moscow!

There are also trails in Canada, of course. For example the Trans Canada Trail (now the "Great Trail") is said to be open across the whole country . We may be mired in the past, but for example we do know that the "trail" involves four lane highway between here and Victoria. No way will we take kids on that!

So that leaves us with short local trails, both for ourselves and for taking kids on. If we are going to fly to a trail, then we will fly to Europe (watch for it, when the kids get just a little older).

But right now the Montreal kids are all 6 or under, so in fact a short local trail is fine. That's where the Lochside Trail comes in. Just 50 km south of us, the combined Lochside and Galloping Goose trails run from Sidney to Sooke, two small towns in the orbit of Victoria city. The total distance is 60 km. Sidney to Victoria is half of that - fine for little kids.

For Avi and Violet, the 9 year olds, the nearest longish trail is the Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, 800 km from here, and 89 miles in length (not quite long enough to make the above list). 800 km is closer than Europe, so this year that is where we will go (again!). Watch for a blog on that, starting in August.

Back to the Lochside, then. The route runs through a variety of landscapes - some urban, some suburban, some farm, some swamp, some seaside. It includes the town of Sidney, which justly calls itself Sidney by the Sea. Sidney features lots of ice cream, a seaside park, an aquarium, and a bit of pleasant main street strolling.

Halfway along is Mattick's Farm, which of course used to be a farm. Right now it's main attraction for us is apple strudel and ice cream. There is a sign advertising the ice cream there that we have already used twice to see how tall Amelia is. We are much looking forward to getting a photo of this year's model Amelia beside the now venerable sign. You may chuckle to thing that after Paris, Chartres, Lyon, Santiago, etc. this sign is now our main target, but we will truly be thrilled to see it!

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