A ride into St. Lawrence River history.

John Anderson, Jim Oliver and I pulled out of my remote cottage north of Kingston on our way to ride the Adirondacks in upstate New York. I have had a lifelong love affair with history, and I wanted my friends from the Georgian Bay area to appreciate not only the beauty of the journey to our mountain riding destination, but also the fascinating history along the way.

Riding matching 2015 V-Strom 650s and a 2022 Kawasaki Versys 1000 on my favourite backroads to Kingston, we passed by the fortified block house protecting the locks of the Rideau Canal at Kingston Mills. Kingston, the first capital of Canada (from 1841 to 1844), started off as a French trading post which transitioned into Fort Frontenac, where a fragment of the stone wall foundations can still be seen with a quick sideways look from the bike seat at Place D’Armes in downtown Kingston. We did not stop in Kingston, but although I am biased as I live nearby, I would recommend it for its scenery, heritage, restaurants, active nightlife and museums.

FORT HENRY

I planned a quick stop at Fort Henry to show my friends the lengths the British went to protect this important settlement on the eastern end of Lake Ontario at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Cataraqui Rivers. Fort Henry National Historic Site is well worth the visit for any motorcyclist riding through or past Kingston. Touring the impressive fortifications thrusts one into the realm of military life in the 1800s with its museums and heartpounding reenactments of precision military demonstrations. My brother and my son both paid their way through university working in the Fort Henry Guard. It’s worth the detour of any planned ride in the area for just the view.

The St. Lawrence and Cataraqui rivers, the city of Kingston, at least four defensive Martello towers dotting the waterfront, the Royal Military College of Canada, the NATO Defense College, and the Canadian Forces Base Kingston are all visible from the commanding heights of Fort Henry.

DISPATCH RIDER CONNECTION

We interrupted our ride by dropping by the Military Communications and Electronics Museum situated on the Barriefield army base. The museum celebrates the Signal Corps of motorcycle dispatch riders, an important part of the military communications system. This was the site of the S-13 Canadian Motorcycle Maintenance School, whose primary purpose was to train mechanics of the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps in riding, maintenance, and repair of motorcycles. Their job was to keep large fleets of Norton WD16H and Harley Davidson WLC motorcycles in the field during the Second World War. Soon (once I cannot ride it anymore), I plan to donate my resurrected 1944 Norton WD16H, which saw action in Belgium…