LOOKING SOUTH: HUTCHISON JUST NORTH OF ZION
Version Date: Sept 2015
Port Hope to Peterborough
The easiest route. 50 km of lovely riding.
For those who want to get up here with the minimum of time spent away from the Lake, here’s a direct route up from Port Hope that takes in some of the beautiful riding available in the eastern section of Northumberland County. The most southerly section of the route is also part of the Waterfront Trail’s new GreenBelt Route.
This ride is suprisingly not-all-that-hilly for a route that crosses the Oak Ridges Moraine. There’s elevation gain to be sure, but for the most part the grades are gentle and protracted rather than steep and short. Once you’ve made it up to Wallace Point Road, just east of Millbrook, it’s a mostly flat cruise into PTBO.
“Are there any gravel sections?” you ask:
One short section of dirt on McCamus 1/4 Line. For some reason, the gravel on McCamus refuses to pack down. Even when all the other dirt roads in the area have become smooth hard-pack it remains strewn with large gravel and deep dust. Gird your loins, it will be annoying.
June 2017 Update: Huchison between Zion and Dyell has been torn back to gravel in preparation for chipsealing, so there’s an extra km of gravel on this route just north of the McCamus 1/4 Line section. In past years Cavan-Monaghan has taken several months between asphalt removal and resurfacing, so this section may be gravel the whole season.
Not a service to be found along the entirety of this route, so start prepared.
Ridden southward in its entirety, mid-September 2015.
For those who want to get up here with the minimum of time spent away from the Lake, here’s a direct route up from Port Hope that takes in some of the beautiful riding available in the eastern section of Northumberland County. The most southerly section of the route is also part of the Waterfront Trail’s new GreenBelt Route.
This ride is suprisingly not-all-that-hilly for a route that crosses the Oak Ridges Moraine. There’s elevation gain to be sure, but for the most part the grades are gentle and protracted rather than steep and short. Once you’ve made it up to Wallace Point Road, just east of Millbrook, it’s a mostly flat cruise into PTBO.
“Are there any gravel sections?” you ask:
One short section of dirt on McCamus 1/4 Line. For some reason, the gravel on McCamus refuses to pack down. Even when all the other dirt roads in the area have become smooth hard-pack it remains strewn with large gravel and deep dust. Gird your loins, it will be annoying.
June 2017 Update: Huchison between Zion and Dyell has been torn back to gravel in preparation for chipsealing, so there’s an extra km of gravel on this route just north of the McCamus 1/4 Line section. In past years Cavan-Monaghan has taken several months between asphalt removal and resurfacing, so this section may be gravel the whole season.
Not a service to be found along the entirety of this route, so start prepared.
Ridden southward in its entirety, mid-September 2015.