The Kawartha Bike Tour
Sometime at the end of 2023, my friend Chad started planning some possible routes for a group bike tour. In the late winter of 2024, people started to agree on a possible weekend as well as the tour that we would do. We landed on a four-day Kawartha bike tour that touched several rail trails, starting in Barrie to Orillia then to Lindsay and finally ending in Whitby. I'll add galleries of images below for each day, as well as GPX files if readers are interested in recreating or inspecting the route.
Day 1: Barrie to Orillia
Day one started smoothly, despite a flurry of packing in the two days leading up to the tour. We got on a train around 9:50, heading north to Barrie. Bikes can't go on the GO trains during rush hour, so this was the first possible train we would be allowed to take our bikes on without causing a disturbance.
We arrived and got on to the train with no problems. The first stop in Barrie was Fox's bakery and delicatessen , an affordable, delicious and busy bakery. At one point, four employees all clustered in a small counter space, taking four separate sandwich requests.
After we got our grub, we headed down to Lake Simcoe and enjoyed our lunch by the lake. Chad and I jumped into a fairly goose-feather-laden water. The waves were nice, and the temperature was great. After that, we hit the road.
The ride we took to Orillia was almost entirely rail-trail (the Oro-Medonte trail). While leaving Barrie, you curve around the lake and see plenty of lovely glimpses of the water and interesting houses. The weather was great. As we moved along we started to head through rural areas and the trail got a bit more bumpy but was fine. We cruised probably around 15 kilometers an hour, taking in lots of high grasses, trees, swamps, and other views.
When we arrived in Orillia, we grabbed a beer and some nachos at a brewery and then got barbecue (half-price brisket!) and enjoyed that down by the lake. Half of us split off to go to a hotel and the other half split off to go to McCray Provincial Park for camping. The park's office was closed when we arrived (summer hours were no longer in effect) so we couldn't buy wood for a fire. Still, we navigated to our spot, found a sunset and a swim, and relaxed (as well as chased raccoons out of one of our tents). I later found the
camp showers in the dark; they were far better than I anticipated. Hot and high pressure.
As I expected, I slept like trash. I expected raccoons to come around, and I think at one point they did in the middle of the night. The moon was so bright that I had a hard time sleeping, but I managed to drift off listening to white noise tracks on repeat on Spotify.
Clockwise from left: Selfie, Chad's night time intruder, the Oro-Medonte trail, Lunch by lake Simcoe, a swim at McCrae park, a glimpse of Lake Simcoe along the trail.
Day 2: Orillia to Balsam Lake
Day two was our longest day. We packed up our campsite and headed to a designated meeting spot. Our GPS's took us on a highway, though, which made for some uneasy riding as cars whipped by at high speeds. After some white-knuckled riding, we arrived at a trailhead and waited for the other half of our party to greet us. I took the time to dry out my tent, go to Tim Hortons, and rearrange my pack.
Another member joined our crew and we hit the road. Much of the day was on Highway 45, which often didn't have a shoulder—so that wasn't the greatest riding. It was also quite hot, and we knew we wouldn't pass through any towns. But we packed lunches and took rest stops along the way, before arriving at a general store at the side of the highway, where ice cream was bought and breaks were had. After that, we continued until we found a cool little farm coffee-and-sandwich shop. The place had a sign saying "Tim Who?" (haha). The inside was packed with paraphernalia — pennants hung from the ceiling, knick-knacks on shelves, greeting cards, a frozen section for bakery goods, and of course a giant (fake) stuffed bear, holding a stuffed otter (I regret to inform that I did not take a picture).
We ate outside in the shade, took silly photos, and hit the road again.
The writing was much of the same until we arrived in Norland where we went to a pub and got some food and drinks. After this, we split off and the campers headed to Balsam Lake.
Balsam Lake is a lovely provincial park — bigger than McCrae — and the lake is much larger as well. We arrived at the park, the office being open later because it was a Friday night. We changed our spot to be closer to the water, and I picked up some nice stickers and patches to add to my growing collection of Provincial Park patches on my YNOT bag. We got a spot near the water, picked up some wood, and biked to our site. There is something very satisfying about biking to your camp spot, especially when you are hauling 20lbs of wood on top of all your other gear.
The lake was just around the corner, and we cautiously got into the shallow water from the dock. After, I went in search of more showers and cleaned off before bed. I scrubbed hard, but I could not get all the day's dirt off.
We had a lovely fire and went to bed.
Day 3: Lake Balsam to Lindsay
We rode the Victoria rail trail for nearly the entire day. It was great. We stopped in at Fenelon Falls, a quaint cottage-y town where we got lunch by the river locks. After that we spent 16 hours waiting in line to get very affordable chocolate truffles (4 for $1?!), and then hit the road again, it raining a bit. I recall passing Cameron Lake while on the trail and feeling so happy to be riding my bike, with friends, near water, on a trail.
We landed in Lindsay in good time, now sunny, and got ice-cream at a Kawartha Dairy shop, got groceries, and headed to a house that we all booked for the last night together. It had a hot tub AND a sauna. I was almost too tired to partake, but for those who don't know, I love getting myself into hot water.
Chad made some tasty burgers and sausages, and we went to bed full.
The Kawartha Dairy had DOZENS of flavours.
Day 4: Lindsay to Whitby
On our last night, we spent some time rerouting our trip because we realized that the train would not be running from old Elm Go where we had originally planned on ending. This was because the train was only slated to run in the morning commute hours. So we found that it wouldn't be too much trouble to ride straight south to Whitby.
We spent a chunk of the morning on the Kawartha Trans Canada Trail and it was lovely. Not quite a rail trail—a bit smaller but enjoyable in that way. Lots of passing farm fields, bridges, and patches of woods.
We found a rural road—Marsh Hill— off of the Kawartha Trans Canada Trail and took that, and another long road to Whitby.
Marsh Hill was adequately named. Many hills. Marshy. But the hills part—yes—on the nose. I had to push my bike up a few of them. I couldn't ride up the hills without putting on Caribou's new set of singles from the forthcoming album. Once I got up to the top of the hill I had a little dance party by myself.
After the climbs, there were several long descents into Whitby. We arrived, and our party split up again, some of us taking the train home and others biking the entire way back to Toronto, for a ride over 130km.
It was a great trip.
Now for the sentimental writing (optional reading): I bought my touring bike six years ago. I bought it for touring (and city riding, of course). Pandemic aside, the farthest I managed was an overnighter in that time. Touring was something I had daydreamed about doing and easily got lost seeing what other people were doing online. But I never could push myself to go out there and do it: I couldn't get over the castles in my head I had built around it. I had all kinds of reasons, but mostly I was just scared. Sure, it is bittersweet to see how long it took me, but on the positive side, I'm not so scared anymore!
