Biking in eastern Ontario

Every summer, for a week in early August, my wife, kids and I pack up the car, strap on the canoe and bikes, and head up to eastern Ontario, where we rent a cabin (or as they call them up there, a "cottage") on a beautiful lake. It's rustic -- no electricity, plumbing or running water, but incredibly peaceful. We've been going up there for about 12 years now.

Since the road from our cottage to the main road is loose dirt and gravel, and since there are a lot of unpaved roads in the area, I bring my hybrid -- 1992 Univega Activa Country -- which at home I use pretty much only for commuting and doing errands around town. It has 700x38 tires though, which work well with unpaved roads.

This year I managed to get out for three rides. Two of them were to the nearby (15 miles away) village of Sharbot Lake, where there's a grocery store. I brought my Arkel Dolphin panniers and loaded them up with groceries. The third trip was a 44 mile loop through Long Lake, Mountain Grove, along the Transcanadian Highway -- Route 7 -- down Rt 38 through Sharbot Lake and back (see satellite photo of the route below).

The riding there isn't bad. That part of eastern Ontario is, in biking terms, similar to the Finger Lakes -- rolling hills, though nothing as steep as some of the climbs around here. The roads don't have the kind of shoulders you find in NY State though. The highways I've ridden have small shoulders. The 38 has about a foot and a half, which, given the low traffic, is plenty.

The Transcanada Highway, Route 7, has a paved shoulder of about 2 feet in some places, in others (between the 38 and Perth, for example) there's no paved shoulder at all! The route I rode does have the paved shoulder (see photo at right), which was a bit smaller than I'd like, given the traffic -- not very heavy, but some big trucks -- and its speed -- 80-100km/hr (50-65mph).

Last summer I rode some routes that were mostly unpaved, dirt and gravel. These are beautiful rides, lots of very rolling hills, not very high but steep. This year, apart from the 2 miles between our cottage and the paved road, I kept to paved routes.

The other similarity to upstate NY, this summer at least, was the rain. It's been raining a lot, and while we were pretty lucky in that it was sunny most of the time, my last ride brought me through three separate downpours. Though I'd thought ahead and brought my rain jacket, I still got soaking wet.

Anyway, the route I rode took my from the village of Parham north along Long Lake road, which runs at one point along the eastern edge of that lake, where there's a public beach, and then further north to the village of Mountain Grove. The road has no shoulder, but has very little traffic, so it's a nice ride. The terrain is rolling, no big uphills but a number of shorter climbs. From Mountain Grove, I took Mt Grove Rd up to Rt 7. Route 7, as described above, does have a small paved shoulder and a big unpaved, gravel shoulder (see photo above). There were a number of small stands selling blueberries and pies; I bought a pint of blueberries from an old guy who reminisced about riding his one-speed bike up and down the hills of the area.

It was about 10 miles on the 7 until I hit Rt 38. It's a pleasant ride, going through forests, past the Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. At the 38 I turned toward Sharbot Lake. It had begun sprinkling a few miles earlier, but now it began really pouring, so hard that I had a hard time seeing. By the time I got to the grocery store I was soaked. I stopped, went in and bought some supplies, including a half-gallon of grapefruit juice for myself. By the time I was done, it had slowed to a drizzle, so I started off on the final 15 miles of the trip.

The 38 between Sharbot Lake and Parham is a nice ride, rolling, no real climbs, a nice shoulder, and low traffic. It goes through forested areas and passes by a few lakes. Then, the last two miles of dirt and loose gravel, again through a hard downpour.

Overall it's a pleasant place to bike. Just be prepared for some off road cycling.