Author: tariq

This summer I planned to take a week off to go on a bikepacking trip. For those that don’t know what bikepacking is, it’s like going on a hiking trip but riding a bike instead. The idea is to ride on unpaved roads or trails and to camp along the way. For someone like me that already has a bunch of hiking and camping gear and likes to go on long bike rides it seems like it would be a perfect fit and so I’ve been wanting to go on a bikepacking trip for a while now and finally this would be my chance.

I already had most of what I’d need my planning really focused on where I wanted to go. I’ve read reports for trips that other people had done and in looks like in Ontario we’ve got lots of good routes if you’re willing to drive up to them. The driving thing makes planning difficult because if you’re driving then you have to do a loop or out-and-back trip to get back to the car and can’t do a point-to-point trip. Also it means I’d have to leave my car in some random place for a week and hope that no one did anything to it. Because of this I decided I’d try to figure out a trip I could get to by public transportation. VIA trains can take you pretty far but the schedule outside of the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor is not very convenient so I could go out somewhere but there wouldn’t be a train to take me back at the end of the week. There are bus routes that go to Northern Ontario but their stated policies on bikes seemed to indicate I’d need to pack them into a box for transport which makes things more difficult. Because of this I decided to settle for the GO Train because that could take me up to Barrie and then I could make my way from there.

Because I’d be doing this in August I wanted to go somewhere with dark skies so that I’d be able to get a good view of the Perseid meteor shower. In the past I’ve seen them at the Torrance Barrens Dark-Sky Preserve as well as near the Lennox-Addington Dark Sky Viewing Area. I had heard that there is a dark sky area on Manitoulin Island and so going up to Manitoulin Island and back became my plan, it would be an out-and-back trip up and down the Bruce Peninsula because coming back via Sudbury and the Georgian Bay coast would be a longer trip than I had time for and apparently the route between Sudbury and Barrie isn’t very enjoyable.

One great thing about the internet is that there are lots of people that will make routes and share them with the world
so if you’re planning a trip you don’t need to start from scratch but instead use what other people have done. There’s a cross-Canada route called the Great Northern Bikepacking Route that already has a segment going from Manitoulin Island down the Bruce Peninsula and so I used that for the way back from Manitoulin Island because it looked to be a bit more meandering and my plan was to go up to the island in 2 days, spend one day on the island, and then take 4 days coming back. This was mainly because the campground I wanted to stay at on Manitoulin Island had a requirement for a 2 night stay during the Perseids.

For the first 2 days I could either take the GO train up to Barrie or Bradford. I was leaning towards Bradford because even though it’s a bit longer after getting to Orangeville the rest of the way to Owen Sound would be along the rail trail which would mean I’d be able to make pretty good time but that there’d also be towns nearby so that I could stop for food and drink. And on my way back I’d be able to take the Georgian Bay trail which looked like it would be a nicer ride anyway.

Bradford – Owen Sound – Tobermory

Barrie – Owen Sound – Tobermory

The plan would be to stay at the municipal campground in Owen Sound on Saturday night and make it up to Tobermory in time for the last ferry to Manitoulin Island so that I’d be able to make it to the Eco Park on Sunday night. Then I could spend Monday resting and seeing a bit of the island and on Tuesday I’d take the ferry back and make my way down to Barrie.

Tobermory – Lion’s Head – Owen Sound – Collingwood – Barrie

The way back would be at a more relaxed pace which fits with the meandering route. But of course even the best plans don’t survive first contact with the enemy and these plans would need to adapt to circumstances as well.