Barrie and Penetanguishene – Day 1

I have a friend in Barrie, Gail, who has a condo on Kempenfelt Bay. The condo has a suite that can be rented for $55 per night by condo owners for their guests. Last year, I was unable to participate in a ride of the Simcoe Loop that Cindy and some other BikeBrampton members did. So Cindy and I decided to do a four day tour to Barrie and Penetanguishene, with day three planned along the western side of the loop. I cycled another portion of the Simcoe loop, from Barrie to Orillia, a few weeks ago. We stayed in the guest suite on days one and three, and at a hotel in Midland, where Cindy has friends, on the middle night. I reduced the weight of my panniers to 8.3kg for this trip. I left my iPad and charging block at home, along with one less pair of shoes, and warm jacket.

We started by riding north on Torbram Road to the Caledon Trailway. The weather was perfect, and forecast to stay that way for the whole trip. The morning started with the temperature of between 11 and 15°C, and the afternoons ranged from about 20 to 25°C. This is my Goldilocks zone – not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

We saw a few isolated trees that have started to turn color, but it’s still mostly green.

We made our usual stop for water at the Caledon East Community Complex. 

We passed only a few people on the trail until we got Humber Station Road. Then we were reminded that today is the Terry Fox run day.  The trail was very busy for the next few kilometers.

The Caledon Trailway connects seamlessly to the New Tecumseth Trail at Highway 9. I recently wrote in more detail about riding the Caledon Trailway and New Tecumseth Trail to Tottenham.

We knew we were close to our planned lunch stop when we saw the Tottenham water tower. We often stop at the Tim Hortons on Queen Street North, but they are closed for renovation, so we went to the A&W next-door, instead.

Tottenham is known for the South Simcoe Railway.  They offer excursions “operated by the South Simcoe Railway Heritage Corporation, a nonprofit historical association, dedicated to the preservation and operation of railway equipment from Canada‘s steam era“. 

The rail trail is discontinuous since tourist trains are still operated on the section between Tottenham and Beeton. I planned a route for the rest of the way to Barrie by road.  This allowed me pick up new tiles.  I have cycled the 28 km on rail trails that go from Beeton to just south of Barrie, on the west side of Highway 400 at Gateway Casinos Innisfil. Our timing enabled us to see the train in operation.

It was such a perfect day. The blue sky was filled with fluffy white clouds, and we saw an occasional red maple completely turned to fall colours.

We stopped in Beeton for coffee and cookies.

Our route led us through a very flat agricultural area with very little traffic. We passed sod and vegetable farms.

We saw a lot of of these rolling irrigation machines.

Crops were being harvested on quite a few of the farms.

I found this field interesting, with stands of corn interspersed with another crop.

It was flat here, but there was a climb ahead.

We did a few out-and-backs on east-west roads to pick up tiles near Highway 400. Some of those were gravel and quite hilly.

We spotted a quilt shop on Highway 27 just north of Cookstown and stopped. There was lots to tempt us, but without much room to carry things, we only made a few small purchases.

I wear a cycling mirror on my glasses so that I can keep an eye on the traffic and people riding behind me. It helps me to be much more aware of what’s going on around me, and it’s especially helpful when making left turns.

We saw quite a few barns with quilt blocks on them.

We decided to stop in Thornton for ice cream at this very colourful shop. The group picture on the left was interested in how far we had cycled, and were very shocked and impressed to find out we had 100 km planned for the day.

As we entered Barrie, we came across the scene of a recent collision. One vehicle was rolled over and another was damaged. A firetruck was being used to protect the scene. All of the cars had to make a U-turn, but we were able to go through on our bikes.

Barrie is in a bowl. There are a lot more hills than we are used to in Brampton.

When we got to Gail‘s place I didn’t quite have 100 km, so we did a short out-and-back on Barrie’s North Shore Trail, which is a multi-use recreational trail, running the entire length of Barrie’s North Shore of Kempenfelt Bay. We did an arrival picture in front of Spirit Catcher by sculptor Ron Baird.

We locked up our bikes in front of Gail‘s car in the parking garage. Then we went up to the condo with her to pick up a bundle buggy with sheets and towels, before taking a refreshing swim, which soothed our bodies, tired by the 100 km ride.

Gail made us a delicious dinner. We enjoyed the view of downtown  Barrie as the day ended.