Anything I need to deal with re: customs & my Infinit, various supplements, etc. on my way to Lake Placid? Just wondering since I’m constantly hearing about various restrictions on supplements and similar stuff. Do you have to declare those?
Are you driving or flying?
Driving - sorry I should’ve mentioned that!
Personally, when crossing the border I never offer information they don’t ask. They usually ask if you have any fruits/veggies. Depending on what border you will be going over, the questions seem to vary. When they ask why you are traveling and you say IM USA, they tend to just shuttle you in (especially if your bike is in the car). I remember saying once I had race nutrition and they never said a word.
I think the key is to just answer the questions honestly but don’t give them more information than they are asking and don’t confuse them by saying something like “I am bringing over gels and Infinit” as that tends to peak their interest. If you want to, just say you are bring over some energy drink/gatorade. And then go out and buy a couple of bttles of gatorade.
Or you could get a batch sent to the place you are staying from the states. That’s what I did when I went to Vegas.
There is no reason to declare your nutrition at the border. The only thing the US Customs is interested in is fruits & veggies and meat (and only those that carry disease that will affect the US crops - we’ve declared apples before and they were no problem). As long as your nutrition plan doesn’t call for a nice steak on the bike, then I think you’ll be ok. As Marcus said, just answer their questions and don’t offer anything more. You are not bringing in the Infinit to sell (sometimes they ask what you are bringing in that will be staying in the US). I cross the border every 6 weeks or so. Here’s what they usually ask (US customs):
- citizenship
- where are you going
- how long are you staying
- are you bringing in anything that will be staying in the US
- do you have anything else to declare
Coming back into Canada is even easier. They don’t even ask citizenship, usually. They ask where you live, how long have you been away and the value of goods you’re bringing back.
I just spent the weekend up in Penticton training on the IMC course and drove up through the Oroville / Osoyoos border crossing. I had large containers of Infinit and Recoverite on the passenger side front seat in plain view; the other supplements were in my suitcase. After answering the usual questions about the destination and purpose of my visit I got no additional questions about the supplements; they were much more concerned about any alcohol, fruits, and vegetables I might (but didn’t) have with me. Flying with this stuff seems to be much more of a hassle.
If you’re going from Canada to the US, it’s US Immigration and Naturalization Service that you’ll be dealing with - not Canada Customs. As long as you’re talking about commercially packaged product (Infinit, bottled vitamins, etc) you should be just fine. It gets sketchy when you’re buying maltodextrine from your local beer supply store and carrying it in ziplock bags, or if you were carrying “non traditional” (homeopathic, traditional Chinese) herbs, etc.
Make sure you aren’t carrying any meat or dairy products, or fresh fruits/veggies. You should be just fine.
Consider carrying the receipt for your bike, especially if it looks new.
Coming back into Canada, they may question whether you bought it in US. They don’t want to look up the photos they took of your car on the way out of the country, with the bike on top. At least, they don’t want to do that in front of you.
If you don’t have receipts you can register your bike/any equipment with Canada Customs on your way out of the country. They record serial number and the fact that you have it on the way out of country, give you a nice little card with date stamp. If there are no lines, takes 2 minutes.
If bike lacks a serial number, they may record identifying marks. They used to give a sticker for that too.
Paul Smeulders
I’m going from the US into Canada and back into the US on the way there. I live in Michigan and the fastest route is to drive up through Canada.
Now that can get ugly, depending on who you get at the border. I had a lot of hassle doing a trip from Ontario to Nova Scotia cutting through the US. We were basically accused of doing some kind of smuggling trip. Mind you, I think they were bored out of their minds at the Maine/New Brunswick crossing and it was late at night, but a quick transfer through countries raises flags on the computer system. Long thorough search of the car and personal items.
Unless you are in the more norther part of the Lower Penninsula and are crossing at Port Huron and heading over to Buffalo, it is probably worth it just to stick to 75 and then catch the ohio Turnpike until you can cut north to 90.
Again, much will depend on time of day and the individual you get at the border.
Good to know. I’m in SW Michigan but we might spend the night in Toronto on the way. Mapquest says its @ 12 hours from Grand Rapids thru Detroit thru Toronto and then to LP.
If I stay in the US I will add @ 1hour 45 min. drive time.
So the question is, is it worth the hassle to save the time, or will I not save any time in the end? Of course, I have no idea where the summer road construction projects are en route either.
Not sure where you are in Michigan so you may already know this but if not, keep in mind when planning your travel that the bridge in Detroit is the busiest border crossing in the US and Port Huron is not far behind. There is lots of truck traffic so if you are crossing on a weekday there can be some lengthy backups and on a bad day you could end up having to wait in line in your car for 45 minutes or longer. Not much you can do about it if you get stuck but I’d suggest listening to the traffic reports and planning your pit stops accordingly since trying to rush the customs interview with a very full bladder can make you look nervous and worthy of further questioning 
On the customs issue, you only have to declare stuff you bought in Canada and are bringing back into the US so you can pay duty on it. (Of course you are supposed to declare any illegal stuff you have but you don’t have any so you don’t have to mention the legal stuff that might look illegal). The Americans mostly just want to know if you have any illegal aliens in your car and the Canadians seem to only be interested in whether you have any guns. Just give straight answers about where you’re from and where you are going and have your papers ready and won’t take more than 60 seconds once you get to the booth. Probably less than 1 out of every 5000 people even have to get out of their cars. They aren’t going to go through your stuff unless you piss them off or look suspicious.
An overnight would probably not be a bad idea from the customs issue.
STP has a good point about the crossing - and you will want ot use the bridge, not the tunnel. Remember, you will minimally want to avoid shift rush hours - there is a lot of cross border work traffic in the automotive and health care, so the flows pick up around usual shift times. Aim for 10-11 AM for the crossing and traffic should be relatively light. You can’t dodge the trucks, but they have separate lanes as well. That said, you have about 4 and a bit to Toronto from there. Personally, I would push past Toronto, as traffic and be a headache there, and aim for near Kingston - about another 3 hours up the road. Cheaper hotels there, and a very easy drive to the race the next day. You will arrive less fatigued.
I would stay in the states. Any time you think you will gain by coming up here could be lost in 401 traffic. That highway is a nightmare and you really never know what will be going on when you hit Toronto. You could sail right through (VERY unlikely) or you could sit there for 4 hours stressed out of your gourd. Seriously.
Plus with the US dollar the way it is right now, you won’t find any deals up here.
Just my 2 cents
But did they finish the 407 loop out to Peterborough - I would pay the toll for that and drop back down to the 401 there. Unless you are in dead 5PM rush hour it was always pretty clear sailing. It was still under construction when I left - barely made it out to the end of Markham.
lol…the 407 has turned into the 401 rather quickly. And the tolls are ridiculous.
I hate the highways in Southern Ontario.
Ah - guess a few thing have changed since I was on it in 2001 then. It was a pricey, but for occasional use was a great convenience.
Ok, don’t scare the poor girl to death. The 401 isn’t that bad!! 
Just avoid Toronto between the hours of 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm (and especially 3:30 to 7:00). The 407 is good for an alternative if you don’t mind paying the hefty toll. As you approach the city, listen to 1010AM or 680AM for traffic. You can save quite a bit of time if there’s a problem because they’ll tell you to go into the collector or express lanes depending on traffic.
**If I stay in the US I will add @ 1hour 45 min. drive time. **
Depending on when you are crossing in Detroit, you could end up using an hour of that time savings on traffic in the D then waiting in line at the bridge. On a weekend or later at night, you can cross in a few minutes if the gods are with you. The crossing is easy, partiularly getting into Canada. Coming back into the US, 70% of the time its still 30 seconds of “where where you born, how long were you gone, did you buy anything in Canada, welcome back” but the other 30% of the time the lines are long because they are using the long script or you happend to stumble into a mass migration of people and/or auto parts. The problem is you never really know in advance what you will run into so bopping over to Windsor for lunch is not big anymore but other than that, it’s still easy enough not to worry about as long as you are not on a super tight schedule.
If you want to go to Toronto, the border crossing is well worth it. Plus you get to legally drive 80 (km/h that is). If you’re noncommital on Toronto, I might just stay in the states to avoid the possiblity of waiting in line and having to buy gas by the litre with Canadian money.
No problems at all crossing at Cornwall last year. US customs were great and wished me luck. I’d be more worried about coming back across the border. I think because I looked so tired they thought I may have been on something and had us pull over and went through the vehicle. Extremely rude as well. They wanted to know if I could produce a receipt for my clean looking running shoes but eventually gave it up.
Good luck at the race!