Intro: The where and the why

These are notes from a ten-day circuit of East/Central Ontario—a there-and-back from Ottawa to Tronna

My outbound route traverses “The Land Between”. This is a broad swath of land stretching from the coast of Georgian Bay eastward to the Ottawa Valley. It’s a transition zone between the Canadian Shield to the north and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands to the south. “The Land Between” is also the name of a conservation organization dedicated to the region. (The website is here: www.thelandbetween.ca)

My route took me westwards from Ottawa along the edge of the Canadian Shield: through the back country of the Lanark and Madawaska Highlands, to the Highlands of Hastings and Haliburton, and from there, south and west to Orillia and Barrie, north of Toronto.

On my journey home, I followed the north shore of Lake Ontario to Prince Edward County at the NE corner of the lake, and from there, I angled north and east to meet the Rideau Canal, the 200 km waterway between Kingston and Ottawa.

These maps show the two routes.

Sept 4 – 9: The northern route, a traverse of The Land Between, from Ottawa to the Barrie GO Train station via Denbigh, Bancroft, Haliburton, & Orillia. Distance: 502 kms

Sept 12 – 15: The waterfront route, Oshawa GO Train Station to Ottawa, via Cobourg, Prince Edward County, Adolphustown, & Delta. 415 kms

This is a tour through countryside I know and like. I grew up in the farming country, small towns and villages in the centre of the area bounded by my circuit, and I’ve lived in the two cities which are my start/finish and turnaround points. Yet, while I’ve travelled many of the region’s main and secondary roads over the past fifty-plus years, I haven’t cycled through the entire neighbourhood. This short tour would let me see familiar places in a new light.

There were personal reasons for my trip, as well – a visit to our daughter, Meg, now living in Toronto; a visit en route to longtime friends in the Madawaska Highlands west of Ottawa; and a visit to Bob Ormerod, a well-travelled cyclist whom I came to know in October 2016. Bob lives near Orillia, and when we met last year, he showed me his similar route from the western end. Lastly, I wanted to make the personal acquaintance of Alan Wu, the Rohloff agent for Canada. His bike shop, Spoke Wrench Cycles, is in downtown Toronto. I had arranged for him to inspect my hub after 11,000 kms, particularly to check the wear on the internal shifter cables and the condition of the seals and sprocket.

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