Day 87 Wasaga Beach to Cookstown, Ontario

July 26, 2011

The traffic in front of the motel on County 26 was pretty much continuous and the troubles we have communicating over the car noise while on the bikes almost carried in to our room. Of course, actually being on the highway was worse, and the little or no shoulder produced continuous stress. We finally reached the turn south onto County 10, the road recommended to us by Mary Ellen.

Typical Southern Ontario farmland can be seen along County 10

County 10 is a reasonably quiet way South

There are many historic brick houses in this area. This one has quite fancy brickwork

County 10 developed a shoulder after the town of Angus

Even though there was no shoulder at all on 10, the surface was smooth and the traffic lighter. Better, drivers seemed to suddenly have learned some manners and many slowed down before passing. After Angus the road also developed a shoulder of sorts, making it quite a good ride.

We hoped to quit early, mainly because we had little idea of target places to stay deeper in to the heart of the Toronto beast. So we veered off route and passed through the town of Alliston, searching out the provincial park on the west side. We found it, and also found the price just to put our tent down to be almost $40. After reaming out the hapless attendant, we flounced off back into the town and established a war room at the McDonalds.

War room or not, there are (a) almost no campgrounds around here and (b) the ones that exist are hard to actually spot and (c) the minimum price is $30.

We decided that we would rather pay for a real motel room than pay $40 for a piece of dirt. However the war room determined that there are (a) almost no motels around here and (b) the ones that exist are hard to actually spot and (c) the minimum price is $130 and (d) they usually have no vacancy.

As the generals were pacing up and down in the war room (sending out couriers to try to buy better maps, and such like) they attracted the attention of two teenage boys sitting nearby. After the UQs had been dispensed with, they offered helpful suggestions for our problem of avoiding getting squashed by the heavy traffic. The route they suggested turned out to be the same as that of Mary Ellen, and is close to the one we will actually follow. They relied on their skateboarding experience to come up with their suggestions, and they also knew about and could describe the Waterfront Trail.

Downtown Alliston. On the western outskirts there is a typical Canadian Tire, McDonalds disaster area

Mason and John - intelligent and charming young men

We headed back through Alliston and headed over to Cooksville, on County 89. This is another deadly Ontario shoulderless special.

Nasty hill between Alliston and Cooksville

We took it because we knew that Motel 400 was 12 km down it, near the 400 highway. When we reached Cooksville on this road we spied a covered pavilion with picnic table. This of course is our favourite, and this one came with a Tim Horton's and a food store across the street. Unfortunately, we judged that that this very fact made it not stealthy enough. Similarly, there was trail nearby, designated as part of the Trans Canada Trail, but we were uncomfortable with the thought of camping off this thing, in the middle of town and so close to Toronto.

The almost perfect pavilion. It's flaw: Tim Horton's

We used our cell phone to check with that Motel 400 and confirmed that their price truly is $130. After gnashing our remaining teeth and pulling our remaining hair, we did slowly drag ourselves off through the town and towards the far end. On the way we passed a church sporting a "No Trespassing" sign. This caused a lot of speculation as to whether any trespasses could be forgiven. We decided not, and carried on. However, the seed had been planted.

We came to another church that lacked any theologically stimulating signs such as the last one had, but seemed instead to stress upcoming church suppers. The doors were locked and I called the number given for the pastor. This produced only his recorded plug for the upcoming events. So, we unilaterally decided to sleep in the graveyard. It seems suitably peaceful, and peace and quiet is what we need right now!

Kids eat free on Tuesdays at this bar. The Grampies were disqualified and had to pay $30 for pizza and burger. However they have left over pizza to eat for breakfast in the grave yard.

Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles)
Total: 5,492 km (3,411 miles)

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