{"id":33295,"date":"2012-09-07T14:00:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=33295"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:39:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:39:37","slug":"cycling-day-trips-uxbridge-to-peterborough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/07\/cycling-day-trips-uxbridge-to-peterborough\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling day trips: Uxbridge to Peterborough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Omemee<\/a><\/p>\n

September and October can be the best months for bike day trips \u2013 the days get cooler and leaves will soon change colour. Within the city, trails such as the Don Trail between Sunnybrook Park and Lake Shore Boulevard, can be beautiful during those crisp, autumn days, but crowded too. The same with the Taylor Creek Trail and the Martin Goodman. \u00a0Luckily, it is easier than ever to go for long, peaceful rides outside the city.<\/p>\n

Until recently, without access to a car, it was only possible to transport bikes in a bike box aboard a train or plane (and paying handsomely for the privilege, not to mention the hassle of disassembling the pedals and turning the handlebars), or bringing the bike aboard a weekend or off-peak GO Train on the Lakeshore Line.<\/p>\n

Sure,\u00a0GO’s Lakeshore Line provides a\u00a0nice way to do a bike trip without straying to far from an easy ride home. The Waterfront Trail<\/a> extends\u00a0to Hamilton (albeit with some on-street sections), and with the nearby GO corridor, one\u00a0can ride with the bike back into Toronto at many different points along the way. Last year, I surprised myself by cycling over 60 kilometres along the waterfront from Exhibition Place all the way to Downtown Burlington before riding back up to Burlington GO station. To the east, the Waterfront Trail is a misnomer (neither a trail nor on the waterfront) through much of Scarborough, but a nice ride between Guildwood and Ajax GO Stations is very possible via Highland Creek and Rouge Park.<\/p>\n

There are now many more options for getting out of town with your bike.<\/p>\n

VIA Rail’s new Biketrain initiative<\/a>, the installation of bike racks on all GO buses and\u00a0most Ontario transit operators, allow cyclists to easily take bicycles farther afield, and take advantage of rail trails and other cycle-friendly locales throughout southern Ontario. Unfortunately, this is not well marketed; I only managed to stumble upon VIA’s Biketrain page.<\/p>\n

In July, I took advantage of that program and took my\u00a0bike on a VIA train to Kingston. New bike lanes and signage in the Limestone City make the ride from the from the somewhat remote station to the waterfront and downtown easy and pleasant. While there, I cycled the quiet roads of Wolfe Island and even took the ferry across the St. Lawrence River to Cape Vincent, New York, for lunch and a ride to the lighthouse at Tibbets Point. The provision of bike racks aboard each corridor train equipped with a baggage car make bicycle assembly\/dis-assembly\u00a0unnecessary, though the $20 one-way fee for transporting bicycles still applies.<\/p>\n

In mid-August, I cycled the rail trails between Uxbridge and Peterborough<\/a>, stopping in Lindsay for lunch. I utilized the racks\u00a0on GO buses on either end to transport my bicycle. (More details and some photos of this ride are\u00a0below the fold.) The weekend after that, I rode from downtown Kitchener to downtown Hamilton via Paris and Brantford<\/a>,\u00a0just over 100 kilometres,\u00a0again\u00a0mostly on rail trails. I used GO buses to transport my bike to\u00a0Kitchener and back downtown\u00a0from Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Rail trails, at least in theory,\u00a0are ideal for recreational cycling: they are relatively flat and separated from motorized traffic, making it comfortable to go at one’s own pace. It should be said though that\u00a0rail trails are not well suited for road and\u00a0racing bikes\u00a0\u2013 though hybrid and mountain bikes ride great on the crushed stone surface .\u00a0Also, one should be prepared for unexpected detours. The section of the Uxbridge-Peterborough ride within Durham Region was unexpectedly and disappointingly sub-par. Happily, other trails, such as the Kitchener-Brantford and Brantford-Hamilton rail trails, are in excellent condition. <\/p>\n

\"Uxbridge<\/a><\/p>\n

The ride\u00a0from Uxbridge to Peterborough was very interesting. Val Dodge recently wrote about his ride <\/a>from Peterborough to Omemee and back, but I managed to do the whole trip.<\/p>\n

The trip starts from the Uxbridge Station, still used by the York-Durham Heritage Railway.\u00a0The GO buses between Union Station and Uxbridge terminate right in front of the station, which is the end of track from Toronto. In 1991, the rails were removed between Uxbridge and Lindsay. The trail starts a little bit to the northeast, at Main Street.<\/p>\n

\"Bridge<\/p>\n

In Durham Region, the trail is at times rough and difficult to ride. In winter, it is used as an official snowmobile trail, but is not kept to ideal conditions for cycling in places due to rough gravel and in places, muddy earth. Bridges, such as the one above, are not level with the trail surface. Just beyond Blackwater Junction, without advance notice, the trail was completely closed for construction. What was especially frustrating was that there were no posted detours (that would never happen for a closed road), though my smartphone directed me on country roads to Simcoe Street, where the trail resumed. But the construction here hopefully means the rest of the trail through Durham will be improved.<\/p>\n

\"Trail<\/p>\n

\"Highway<\/a><\/p>\n

East of Simcoe Street, the City of Kawartha Lakes maintains the rail trail (also designated as part of the Trans-Canada Trail) in better shape, and it was smooth riding all the way to Lindsay and from there to Peterborough. Bridges\u00a0that\u00a0spanned the railway now act as convenient grade separations for cyclists and hikers.<\/p>\n

\"Victoria<\/p>\n

Especially interesting was Victoria Junction in Lindsay\u00a0– a parkette commemorating a former railway junction. An interpretive pavilion and concrete patterns echo the former alignment of the tracks. At one time, tracks led from Lindsay owned by CP and CN branched out in seven directions – today, none are left.<\/p>\n

\"Trestle<\/a><\/p>\n

The trail is at its scenic best between Omemee and Peterborough, where the trail crosses a high-level trestle over a lush valley.<\/p>\n

I ended my trip in Peterborough, which has a great\u00a0variety of restaurants and bars downtown to end the day before catching the GO bus back to Oshawa Station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September and October can be the best months for bike day trips \u2013 the days get cooler and leaves will soon change colour. Within the city, trails such as the Don Trail between Sunnybrook Park and Lake Shore Boulevard, can be beautiful during those crisp, autumn days, but crowded too. The same with the TaylorContinue reading “Cycling day trips: Uxbridge to Peterborough”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21759,8],"tags":[2964,20918,12525,13408,20911,20915,495,102,4050,1635,572,6824,20912,469,636,20913,470,8335,89,16557,883,20914,57,19,20916,647,391,20917,3074,20919,496],"class_list":["post-33295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-features","category-transit","tag-ajax","tag-baggage-car-make-bicycle-assemblydis-assembly","tag-brantford","tag-burlington-go-station","tag-cape-vincent","tag-don-trail","tag-durham","tag-escape-routes","tag-highland-creek","tag-kingston","tag-lake-shore-boulevard","tag-lawrence-river","tag-limestone-city","tag-new-york","tag-ontario","tag-oshawa-station","tag-paris","tag-peterborough","tag-scarborough","tag-smartphone","tag-southern-ontario","tag-taylor-creek-trail","tag-the-905","tag-toronto","tag-trans-canada-trail","tag-union-station","tag-usd","tag-uxbridge-station","tag-waterfront-trail","tag-wolfe-island","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCycling day trips: Uxbridge to Peterborough - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/09\/07\/cycling-day-trips-uxbridge-to-peterborough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cycling day trips: Uxbridge to Peterborough - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September and October can be the best months for bike day trips \u2013 the days get cooler and leaves will soon change colour. 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