Lac Morency – Day 2 -Rain

We knew rain was forecast to begin in the morning with the bulk of it early then tapering to an amount that isn’t terrible to ride in – at least that what’s the forecast said.

It turned out that we should have been riding from 7am to 10 because when we arrived in Prévost as 10 it had just started raining, and the forecast showed a lot of rain between 10 and 11, tapering off after that to about 1mm an hour, which I find rideable. So we went for a hike.

We couldn’t tell from the sign how long the hike was, but the local woman we spoke to yesterday said the stairs led up the mountain to a lake and that it is a nice hike. After hiking for 10 minutes and facing a grade of 50% on wet leaves with the rain increasing, I used Strava to see how far we had come. It seemed we were less than a third of the way to the lake so we turned around and headed for the local boulangerie.

At this point our thought was that the rain would taper off while we drank coffee and ate an apple fritter, then we would ride. We had hoped to ride to Saint-Jerome, 14km to the south, and the end of the non-urban section of the trail. South of there it continues in a more urban form for another 35km, but not on the rail line as that part of the railroad is still in use for trains.

After sitting for about an hour and re-checking the forecast we decided to drive to Saint-Sauveur, à ski town with a lot of shops and outlets. There were few people walking in the town as we drove through, but many driving. We decided to park behind the church and go for a walk. There was an astonishing amount of free parking right in town. There are many shops, restaurants, and bars. We had a look around Atmosphere, and then headed back to the car.

We decided to avoid the highway on the way back. It was very picturesque. The P’Tit Train du Nord seems to be about the only relatively level way to travel around here. The roads roll up and down and curve around the mountains.

We had lunch back at the auberge and then went swimming, followed by a whirlpool and sauna. It was very relaxing.

Then we walked around the resort. It really is quite pretty, even in the fog and rain.

There are quite a few vineyards around the property.

We decided to go to Shawbridge, a microbrewery in Prévost, for dinner . We made a reservation for indoors as it was still raining. How busy could it be on a Thursday night in a small town, we thought? Very busy, it turned out. But, only one other group was sitting on the enclosed patio, which was warmed by overhead heaters, so we sat out there, potentially safer from Covid, and also a bit quieter.

Everything looked red because of the heaters. The food was good, and we stayed comfortably warm. Walking to Couche-tard to buy teabags after was quite chilling.

It was a very foggy drive back to the auberge along a dark, narrow, twisty road, but Cindy handled it with aplomb.

Lac Morency – Day 1 – Prévost to Saint-Agathe

The day started cool, but beautifully sunny, with light streaming into our accommodation. We made and ate breakfast, and then drove the narrow hilly road 8km to the P’Tit Train du Nord in Prévost.

Here we are ready to leave Auberge du lac Morency, bikes loaded.

There is plentiful free parking at many places along the trail. Old train stations have been converted in amenities for trail users. In Prévost there is a shop with trail souvenirs, bike rental, and tourist information. There are nearby restaurants, as well.

There were also porta potties that were wrapped in insulated blankets, with heaters and lighting inside! The trail closes for cycling on November 1 and is used for skiing when it snows. It is groomed and there is a charge for some sections of the trail for skiing.

The surface of the first 22km going north was limestone screenings in good repair. The rest was very good asphalt. At higher volume roads there was green paint. The trail always had stop signs at roads. Sometimes the roads would have a stop sign, as well.

The autumn colours are past their peak here, but the landscape is still beautiful.

The signage is excellent with frequent maps and markers every kilometre. The gates at the roads are very unobtrusive compared to what we are accustomed to in Ontario on rail trails.

In Piedmont they had fitness stations beside the trail, bathrooms, a rec centre and a bike repair stand.

In Saint-Adele there was a terrific cafe with indoor and outdoor seating, bathrooms, a bike shop, bike rentals, ebike and child trailer rentals. Everywhere we stopped had bike racks, even scenic lookouts.

I took so many pictures of Cindy on beautiful sections of the trail with the autumn colours, but this is one of my favourites.

At Val-Morin there was a restaurant (closed) and picnic area. There were signs indicating a 1km ride to the town centre, but we decided to stick to the trail.

Val-David was a bustling little town with a large park on one side of the trail and a main street perpendicular to the trail. We briefly searched for lunch, but decided to continue on to Saint-Agathe-des-Monts to the restaurant we chose last night when planning the ride.

Only when we got to Saint-Agathe-des-Monts did we realize the the restaurant we chose was actually in Val-David. So we picked a little local restaurant from google maps that looked cute, but fast. Two kilometres later, down a steep hill we discovered it has gone out of business. Next we tried a sushi restaurant on the way back to the trail to find it is closed on Wednesdays. Finally, we ended up at a great little Vietnamese restaurant on the main street back near the trail. We had spring rolls, a pork sandwich on crusty baguette and iced tea. It was delicious. It was only the second restaurant meal I have eaten inside since the beginning of the pandemic, but other than the proprietor, we were alone in the restaurant.

We headed back south. On the way we encountered a large group of young children, with a couple parents, or teachers, with a P’Tit Train du Nord volunteer corking intersections (making sure drivers allowed the entire group to cross) and sweeping (ensuring no one was left behind).

We stopped at Val-David for coffee. There were an astonishing number of people walking, playing, cycling, shopping.

There were some cute signs along the trail.

The sun began to get lower in the sky, and enhanced the last few kilometres. The day had almost 500m of climbing, but it was all on the way north. The ride back was almost effortless at times.

Back at the car we had a lovely conversation with a local woman who told us some history of the area. We were happy not to be riding the 8km back to our accommodation. We rode 82km today.

We bought cheese bread in Val-David to go with squash and lentil soup Cindy made and brought, leftover bean salsa from last night, and a salad I made. Pears, blue cheese and chocolate were had for dessert. It was delicious.

Lac Morency – Travel Day

Cindy has a time share that she needed to use, and given the pandemic she did not want to travel to the US, so she looked for a cycling friendly place in Canada, and invited me to join her at the Auberge du Lac Morency north of Montreal in the Laurentians. It is only 8km from the P’Tit Train du Nord, a 235km bike route that runs from Montreal to Mont-Laurier.

My cat Oreo was very interested in my suitcase. Because we were driving and doing day trips, I didn’t have to be careful about how much I took with me. So I brought the giant pink suitcase for which I have been endlessly mocked for taking on my first cycling trip to Ottawa in 2017. However, its handy because everything fits in the one bag and it has wheels. Additionally, I had two coolers, as did Cindy, since we will make most of our meals.

There was a bit of traffic at 409/401 this morning and then some skirting Montreal. We had a bathroom stop at Odessa ONRoute, our packed lunch in the parking lot at Mallorytown ONRoute, and coffee just after crossing into Quebec at a Couche-Tard service station. I drove from the bathroom break to the coffee break. It was 8 hours from my house to registration at the auberge.

We saw an elevated section of the Montreal REM under construction. It is a regional transit network of 67km that will be opening in stages from 2021 to 2023. They have a giant elevated guideway building machine that seems to be similar to a video of a bridge building machine in China that I saw a few years ago. I got quite excited when I saw it.

This one lane bridge just before Saint-Sauveur was controlled by a stop sign at each end and a directive that cars take turns.

There was an interesting looking plaza across the road from where we got gas in Saint-Sauveur.

We also passed the P’Tit Train du Nord in Saint-Sauveur. I believe most, if not all, of the path is paved.

We will be doing daily trips from the auberge, a cute two story row house with living room and kitchen on the main floor and bedroom and bathroom on the second floor.

The view from our front door is lovely.

The restaurant at the auberge is closed Tuesday and Wednesday so we made a bean salsa and omelettes for dinner.

Welland Wine Country Loop – Day 6

We planned a route, starting in Welland, around wine country to the northwest of Welland. I started with a route that the Brampton Cycling Club created. They have an account on RidewithGPS with all their routes. I planned a route from Welland to the nearest point on the Helen Bick Memorial Niagara ride and then lopped off the northwest section to keep it to a manageable distance for our group. The hotel we were staying at had direct access to the Welland Canal Parkway Trail. However, we were only on it briefly as our ride today was primarily on country roads.

These were the types of pastoral country scenes we passed regularly on the rides, along with quiet country roads with very little motor vehicle traffic, vineyards, and wineries.

Early in the day, one of the roads leaving Welland was somewhat busy with rush hour traffic, however, mostly we had the roads to ourselves.

David and I matched today. Many of us have attended Greg’s Ride, a memorial for OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart who was killed while cycling on Tremaine Road in Milton in 2006. After Greg’s death, his wife Eleanor McMahon founded the Share the Road and the annual ride is a fundraiser.

We had an excellent lunch at the Jordan House. The food was very good, and the setting pleasant, except for the frequent sound of motor vehicle traffic. It sits at a busy intersection.

The route took us briefly onto the North Service Road beside the QEW before heading back towards Welland. There were several fun, long steep descents on the first half of the ride, but the climbs going back were even longer, and thus less steep, and not overly challenging compared to if we had done the counterclockwise version of the route.

We stopped at Henry of Pelham where there was a sign for a Cafe, but it turned out they didn’t serve coffee! So, we continued on in search of a coffee shop.

We found the Travel Cafe in Fonthill. We bought drinks and treats and ate on a bench across the road. Just as we were finishing up the owner came out and explained that each day, when they closed, they gave away any remaining baked goods, and gave us a box of mixed berry muffins. So generous and delicious.

As we were finishing the muffins we realized the Share the Road Jersey, that four of have, and Wayne was wearing, has a map of where we had been riding and where we had stopped for coffee!

As we returned to Welland, we were going to ride the last few kilometres on the Steve Bauer trail. Steve was born in St. Catharines, was the winner of the first Olympic medal in road cycling for Canada, and remains the only Canadian to have won a stage of the Tour de France. The good news is the trail was being improved. The bad news was that we were unable to use it. So I got opened Google Maps and navigated us back to the hotel via the roads.

Back at the hotel, after about 500km of riding in six days, we are all still smiling. It was Lina’s first cycling trip, and Cindy’s longest. It was a terrific end to a fabulous week.

Great Niagara Circle Route – Day 5

This morning we were all downstairs and ready to ride just before our agreed upon time of 8:30. We seem to be getting the hang of this.

We spent a lot of time at Niagara Falls. The town was strangely deserted as we arrived last night and continued to be even at the falls this morning. It was a beautiful, bright day and not too windy. The mist was very wetting at Table Rock and there were beautiful rainbows all over. Despite a lot of forecast daytime rain, and heavy rains overnight, this was the first time we got really wet this week.

Eventually we continued along past the power plant which opened in 1906 to supply the Toronto market. The palatial powerhouse was designed by Toronto architect E.J. Lennox to compliment the scenic setting. It is an early and unusual application of Beaux-Arts to an industrial site. It operated until 1974.

We used the path, but could just as comfortably use the road which was mostly empty of motor vehicles as were the massive parking lots that line the road.

In several places today we cycled across long Active Transportation bridges that meant we did not have to go onto the road over inlets such as the one below.

This is the International Control Structure built by the Canadians and Americans in 1954 for two reasons: to divert more water to the American Falls and to divert water from the upper river into intakes for Canadian and American power plants downriver of the falls at Lewiston N.Y. and Queenston, Ontario.

This is one of the intakes of the Niagara Tunnel Project to convey water to the Sir Adam Beck hydro plant which was constructed from 2005-13.

Shortly thereafter we met Bruce, a friend of Cindy’s who was a great local guide, and who had lunch with us and then continued with us back to Ridgeway where he lives.

We had lunch at Southsides on the Niagara River in Fort Erie on a patio overlooking the Fort Erie Peace Bridge to the US. The sun was warm and I found myself almost dropping off after finishing my meal while the others chatted.

Here we are heading for the Friendship Trail which parallels Lake Erie from Fort Erie to Port Colborne with the Peace Bridge in the background.

The Friendship Trail was one of the best rail trails I have been on. It was fully paved and wide enough to comfortably ride two abreast.

We had to cross this lift bridge in Welland to get to the place Cindy wanted to stop for afternoon refreshments.

We had coffee and cake/pie at The Flying Squirrel which had a view of Lock 8 in Port Colborne.

Here is another bridge which the trail crossed just before the Robin Hood Mill which is still operating despite its decrepit look.

There was a ship docked on the canal next to the trail.

This is an old lift bridge on the old canal. The Welland Canal connect Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and is part of the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes Seaways. It enables ships to ascend and descend the Niagara Escarpment and avoid Niagara Falls. It is the fourth canal connecting these waterways and there are still remnants of the older canals.

Here we are back at the hotel we stayed in on Tuesday. We checked in, cleaned up, and headed out to dinner at Kavern. It started to get quite cool by the time we finished eating and a skunk spraying hastened out departure. It’s hard to believe we have only one day left. I’ve cycled 440km in the last five days.

Great Niagara Circle Route – Day 4

There was a forecast of rain for the first two hours today, but we didn’t get a drop and with a mix of sun and cloud and high in the low 20s it was a perfect day for cycling. There always seem to be some hiccoughs and today was no exception with missing the departure time, losing and finding a glove, almost leaving without a helmet, loading tomorrow’s route and wondering why the cues weren’t working. Finally, we were off.

We were on the trail in a couple minutes. The ground was damp and sky threatening, but there was no rain.

There are so many interesting bridges along the canal.

Lots of the path along the canal is next to parkland or even feels like it is out in the country.

Still dry!

This is Port Robertson. It is a small community divided by the canal. Bridge Street in Port Robertson used to be connected by a vertical lift bridge known as Bridge 12, however, it was damaged by a ship which collided with the bridge when it failed to sound the horn in time to lift the bridge. It was deemed too expensive to repair so a free passenger and cyclist ferry was started in 1977. Car drivers must take the long way around. When local government considered cancelling the ferry in 2015 it was determined that it carries 2000 pedestrians and 6000 touring cyclists per year, and the service was continued.

This is one of the many bridges we crossed today and the view to one side.

The is a rail, canal connection.

The Lock 3 Visitors Centre has viewing platforms, a museum, lounge area and bathrooms. Very useful for passing cyclists.

This is Cindy approaching the QEW Skyway bridge.

Once we started got to the north end of the locks at Lake Ontario we were very much in the fruit and wine region passing orchards, vineyards, fruit stands and wineries.

Lunch was at the Sandtrap in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

A block later we came across a bakery Dayle had been raving about and stopped for coffee and cookies. We seem to have bottomless capacity for eating on these trips.

Niagara on-the-Lake was as empty as I’ve ever seen it in nice weather.

We had a quick look at Fort George, one of the sites of the War of 1812.

I had been dreading what I believed to be the one significant climb of the day. A 4% grade for 1.3km. I was pleasantly surprised to find it is no longer a challenge for me many years after two prior ascents.

The trail passes over the power plant and has spectacular views of the river and the Queenston Lewiston bridge to the US.

Niagara Falls was extremely deserted, much more so than Niagara-on-the-Lake. I’ve never seen it this empty even in the winter.

No one was crossing the border at The Rainbow Bridge and the guards were leaning on the gate and waved at us as we passed by.

It turned out that the hardest climb of the day was on Murray St to get up to hotel. I stopped to “check the map” so everyone but Dayle stopped with me. Dayle carried on up without stopped and was Queen of the Mountain in our group today.

It was a wonderful day of riding – 71km, but not tiring. There were lots of interesting sights.

Dinner was at Margaritaville. Jimmy Buffet is one of Wayne’s favourite artists.

G2G – Blyth to Guelph – Day 3

The Hotel Lux in Blyth was a treat. There were only three rooms and we booked them all. We were provided with codes for the front door, bike room, and bedrooms. The rooms were luxurious with Prosecco and cheese, chocolate covered pretzels, Werthers candies, and fresh local cream for our coffee. Having a bike room at the front door made it easier than keeping them in our rooms.

We started our day with the Prosecco and cheese.

Cindy and I rode our bikes to Tim’s to get breakfast.

There was a tornado warning and it was going to be a long day with headwinds, possible rain, and possible tornado. We were fortunate to have little or no rain the past two days with heavy rain overnight while we were sleeping.

David and Dayle, and Wayne were outside early so decided to get a few minutes head start as Dayle is not as fast as some others in the group. Unfortunately, when I got Lina’s bike out of the bike room, the front tire was flat. Because it was soft yesterday morning after we started riding, we decided to change the tube this morning. That delayed us almost an hour so we took the road that parallels the trail for the first 40km. It was challengingwith the headwind so Nelson, Cindy and I took turns leading the pace line of four.

The roads were good. Not very hilly, light traffic, respectful drives. And, we encountered some brand new asphalt which was a joy to ride. The atmosphere was oddly dingy and hazy.

At the 40km mark we got on the trail as the roads would have added quite a bit of distance had we carried on along them. We encountered the rest of the group with a hundred or so metres at a rest stop set up on the trail with chairs and a cooler with drinks and snacks paid for on the honour system. After a short break we got going again.

This is the third trip upon which Wayne has spotted a toilet being discarded and requested we stop for a picture.

Lunch was in Millbank at Anna Mae’s Bakery And Restaurant. It is a quaint diner serving home style food and baked goods. We were able to order our food, pick it up outside and eat at picnic tables.

Lunch took longer today and we weren’t riding again until after 2:30 with 45km to go.

Lina left us at Linwood where her car was parked. She relaxed for a while before heading for Welland.

We noticed different things returning on the trail. It also had a different look in the sunshine. It was a hot afternoon to ride.

We’ve seen many Mennonite farms and horses and buggies over our three days in the area.

Back in West Montrose the Lost Acres Variety was open so we stopped for cold drinks before crossing over the Kissing Bridge again.

The stairs were actually more difficult wheeling down with panniers. I lost control of my bike just before the first landing when it went back over front. Fortunately I was able to keep ahold of it and control the landing. My computer flew off, but Wayne recovered it from under the stairs for me. the rest of the group helped each other down. I removed my panniers to continue.

106km later we arrived back at the cars. We bid adieu to Nelson, loaded the cars and headed for Welland.

It was a very long day. We grabbed food at a grocery store, checked into the Best Western, put our bikes in the bike storage room, and headed for our rooms. Another great day of biking came to an end.

G2G – Blyth to Goderich to Blyth – Day 2

We started the day with breakfast at Tim’s. Some of us walked, some biked. Some at there, some back at the hotel. We met, ready to ride at 8:30.

Like yesterday, we had a few road detours, and there were a few short sections where the trail had not been recently groomed.

The lack of a bridge at the Maitland River is the biggest obstacle and creates a 6.5km detour each way. The detour is on gravel roads that are quite hilly. The crossing is on Ball’s Bridge, which was erected in 1885. It is a two-span Pratt design , pin-connected wrought iron bridge. It is apparently an excellent and rare example of such a bridge. It was deemed unable to support modern vehicles in 1989, but was restored and upgraded and reopened in 2007. There is a similar one over the Conestogo River in Waterloo that was used in filming The Handmaid’s Tale.

As we continued on the other side I misread the route. Nelson headed back onto the trail at this point, but I thought we should keep going. David headed down the hill after him and they made their way back up the very steep rough trail. About a kilometre further on I realized Nelson had been correct, but we carried on and picked up the trail a bit further on. We found out later on that they had only made it about a third of the way down the hill.

The detour roads were deserted today of motor vehicles and we only met a handful and a few other cyclists.

The views as we came into Goderich were incredible and improved as we arrived at the CPR Bridge built in 1905-1906. The last trail crossed it in 1988. Fortunately, the bridge was saved from demolition in 1992 and is now part of the G2G Trail.

Wayne took us to a terrific fish and chip restaurant called Goderich Harbour. The food menu was short, the selection of salts and vinegars was almost overwhelming, and the food was good. There were lots of picnic tables and a great view of the harbour.

After lunch we toured the harbour. Goderich is home to the largest salt mines in the world.

Then Wayne took us on a single track desire line over to the beach. There were more great views of the harbour and industry. I think there is a strange beauty to buildings like this.

There were a lot of recent improvements made at the beach with parking which was clearly created for summer crowds. It wasn’t crowded today.

We cycled back along the beach and then climbed stairs with a bike trough, not as easy to use as yesterday’s, to the lighthouse. Wayne and Cindy decided to ride the hill. The climbers made it to the top first.

Goderich is also famous for its octagon shaped road around the courthouse with shops all around the outside with angle parking on one side and parallel parking on the other. Other than the fact that it was littered with cars its quite interesting.

We stopped at a cafe on the octagon for coffee.

As we sat drinking our coffee Wayne checked the radar and there was a storm front coming in. I planned road return and trail return routes for the day and we hadn’t yet decided which to do. We finished up , got on our bikes and ended up deciding to split up. David and Dayle, and Wayne took the trail. The rest of us the road.

The road route turned out to be quite good. Part of it was on the Waterfront Trail and had shoulders wide enough to ride two abreast. Traffic was light.

Neither group encountered much rain. The road group made it back to Blyth an hour earlier than the trail group. The trail group discovered how big the hill detour was at the Maitland River (3x what Nelson and David went down and up this morning).

We had dinner at Cowbells, the local brewery. It was excellent. There were farm cats begging at the table. So cute, until Lina got scratched! As rain threatened we hurried back to the hotel and avoided it ending another great day.

G2G – Guelph to Blyth – Day 1

Today we started a six day bike trip made up of two distinct parts. The first three days will be spent on the Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail with seven of us, one of whom, Lina, is doing her first trip by bike. The next three days will be in the Niagara Region with six in the group.

Today five of us drove from Brampton, one from Tottenham, and one biked from his home in Guelph to Bolts Plus where Wayne arranged for us to leave the cars for three days. It is only 3km from the trail on the west side of Guelph.

Traffic was free flowing on the 401 despite the tens of kilometres of construction that has been causing terrible jams when I have visited my son in Kitchener for the past couple months, even on weekend afternoons.

Here we are with bikes loaded with panniers and ready to go. We were off by 8:30. Three kilometres later we were at the trail. Many of the road crossings had these structures with maps and a small covered area.

I find many rail trails can be quite tiring to ride because of the surface and I generally compare them to the Caledon Trailway which is one of the best I have experienced. We were pleasantly surprised to find the G2G comparable.

We were meeting Lina in Linwood between 10:30 and 11 where she arranged to leave her car at the local recreation centre as she wanted to shorten Days 1 and 3 to about 60km each.

Wayne rode the trail a couple years ago before a massive effort was made by volunteers to improve the trail. From what he describes that he endured it has been a very impressive transformation. There are still some connections over rivers which will be very costly which have yet to be made. Here we are climbing stairs to get over the Grand River on the road.

Some of us made two climbs – one with the bike rolling up the trough, and one with the paniers. David’s bike is very heavily loaded as Dayle cannot carry much on her bike which has a carbon frame. It took two to roll it up loaded with panniers.

We made it!

Then we crossed The Grand River on the West Montrose covered bridge, also known as The Kissing Bridge, as is this section of the trail. Covered bridges are often called ‘kissing’ bridges because of a commonly-held superstition that to go quickly through a covered bridge would create a standing wave that would cause the bridge to collapse. Therefore, a law was passed to ensure all horses slowed their gait when crossing the bridge. During these moments of privacy, couples passing through would often steal a kiss or two, thus the term ‘kissing’ bridge.

Another detour to cross the Conestoga River consisted of a short stretch on 86 which is a major road, but it had a good shoulder.

We didn’t arrive at Linwood until about 11:15 and found Lina waiting patiently with custom, inscribed cookies to replenish us after 40km. There were unlocked bathrooms available at the rec centre which was welcome.

Here’s the enlarged group ready to continue.

There was a little rest stop a little further on, and apparently a B&B, we learned from a group we met heading there later in the day.

We had lunch at a park in Milverton, across from a small grocery store. A lot of things are closed on Sundays in this area so we brought lunch with us.

We didn’t stay long and we find our average speed is much lower on trails than roads and we still had 46km ahead of us. The trail seems a little less well groomed just west of Milverton, but perhaps we were also tiring.

We met a group of three women heading to the aforementioned B&B who offered to take our picture and did a great job of arranging us beforehand.

We were all getting tired by 80km, but the hotel was at 105 so we had no choice but to carry on.

Two kilometres to go! I’m not sure where the trail crossing above Nelson goes. I’ll have to look into it.

We are staying in the Lux Hotel, which is very luxurious. Dinner was at the Blyth Inn on the diagonally opposite corner. Very convenient.

Circumnavigate Lake Simcoe – Day 3

The day started with breakfast on the patio at the hotel where we ate dinner last night. The portions were generous and I ended up taking some sausages and apple slices with me for snacking. It was our longest distance day of the three (95km), but, it was almost 9:30 by the time we were on the road as the restaurant didn’t open until 8, and there weren’t any alternatives.

Jackson Point’s streets were quiet and tree lined.

There was a mural and a couple ice cream shops on the main street.

Lake Drive out of Jackson Point was the most lovely 12km of the entire circumnavigation, with generally unobstructed views over the lake on our right, as the road was close to the water, with cottages only on the left side. Many cottages had private beaches on the right, across the road from their cottage, but there were no structures to obscure the view. People walked, cycled, and drove respectfully. It was beautiful. And many of the cottages are cottage in name only.

It was interesting how many street names we came across so far from Toronto that we normally associate with Toronto. The picture below is Leslie Street. It had a decent paved shoulder and wasn’t overly busy.

We had been travelling quite fast descending Leslie and had just started to lose momentum when we came across this speed trap.

It wasn’t long before we were in the very flat, very fertile farming area of Holland Marsh. I was surprised how far south we had to travel from the lake through the marsh before we were able to cross the Holland River just north of Holland Landing to begin heading north again.

We stopped in Bradford for lunch. Wayne suggested a Mexican restaurant which he had heard about on the news, whose owner had been attacked by anti-maskers. We agreed as we all felt it was important to support such an establishment. Unfortunately, the restaurant closes on Mondays.

It was very hot. We were very hungry. We tried a couple other places. One had no outdoor seating. Another didn’t open until the evening, although the owner came out to greet us and brought us cold bottled water. Finally, we ended up at Mr Sub and ate at the back of the building, the only place with a little shade, with milk crates for stools.

After leaving Bradford and flat Holland Marsh we had to climb. The 6km segment on Yonge Street was the most stressful of the entire three days – climbing, stiff headwind, very narrow shoulder, heavy traffic. The whole time I was very frustrated because the paving was relatively new, probably done since it became legal for bikes to travel on the shoulder. In many places there was a several centimeter drop from pavement to gravel. We are all confident cyclists, yet it was still stressful. And if one wants to circumnavigate Lake Simcoe by bike, something promoted by the municipality, it is necessary to ride here.

It was such a relief to leave Yonge Street for Line 10. Even though it had no shoulder, a moderate amount of cars for such a road, and a limit of 80, I could feel the stress fall away.

Innisfil is a very big place. We still had quite a ways to go when we passed this sign.

The heat was exhausting so when we got closer to the lake again Dayle suggested stopping when we found a public access point. Literally a few tens of metres later we found one. The refreshing dip kept us much more comfortable most of the rest of the way back to the car.

This was a fascinating example of filterer permeability: an urban planning concept that “filters out” through car traffic on selected streets to create a more attractive environment for walking and cycling.

Many of the local streets around the lake were crescents off the arterial roads. If one wanted to ride on them it would mean a lot longer distance constantly heading towards the water, riding parallel to it for a few hundred meters and then back to the arterial. Rince and repeat. But these two streets were connected by a recently completed active transportation only ramp, which replaced an older staircase, which I spotted on Google Streetview when planning the ride. Even carrying our bikes down a short staircase was worth it to stay on a local street near the water. We were pleasantly surprised to find this new ramp.

I couldn’t resist suggesting a stop for ice cream at Innisfil Beach.

Like many of the waterfront towns we passed over the three days there was lots of parkland and lovely paths near the water.

The beaches were fenced off for crowd control due to covid.

The descent from the 400 car pool lot on Day 1 meant we had a climb at the end. However, the ascent was not steep, and the road was lightly travelled.

We made it and we are still smiling.

I would definitely recommend this trip, with the caveat that one must be confident enough to tolerate 6km on Yonge Street and 8km on Highway 12 into Brechin.

The distances were:

Day 1 – 87 km

Day 2 – 92 km

Day 3 – 95 km

Total – 274 km

July 17, 2024 Update: A friend just did a one day circumnavigation of Lake Simcoe and one made a video blog of the experience. Check it out here.