Time: 9 and a half hours, not including stops
Distance: 615 km
Date: July 1, 2010
What better way to celebrate Canada than to ride the roads and see more of this fantastic country? I hadn’t been up to Tobermory since 1978, so it was like riding a new road.
It was a fairly easy ride with only a few twists and turns in the road. My riding buddy and I headed out from the north west edge of Toronto at 10 AM and headed up Highway 50, to Highway 9, then at Orangeville we took Highway 10 north to Owen Sound and then north again on Highway 6.
All the highways have a posted speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour, and at time it goes down to 50 kph on the highways that run through towns and villages.
Our first picture stop was just north of Own Sound where we had a nice view of Owen Sound Bay near Balmy Beach (picture on the left).
Tobermoray is known for the ferry launch. The Chi-Cheemaun car ferry transports people, cars and motorcycles to Manatoulin Island on a nearly two hour trip. This saves riders (and drivers) from going around Georgian Bay on their way up north.
Tobermoray is also home to Fathom Five National Marine Park. Apparently this is the THE place to SCUBA dive on shipwrecks in Ontario. If you like hiking, some of the prettiest places on the Bruce Trail runs through Bruce Peninsula National Park. If you decide to hike in the area, you must visit the Grotto, which is a huge cave formation that you walk into with the deep water of Georgian Bay as its floor. When I was there, SCUBA divers popped up in the middle of cave. That was pretty cool.
There isn’t much to the Village of Tobermory except the ferry launch (and good car management by the looks of it), motels, and food establishments, especially sweet shops and fish and chips.
The area ha a lot to offer, but unless you are hungry for saturated fat, or are going on the ferry, there isn’t much the village has to offer the ride through tourist. The picture on the left is of Little Tub Harbour. This is filled with boats and on either side are food establishments.
The ride was long and at times boring. The Highway 6 on the Bruce Peninsula surrounded by Indian reservations, Indian hunting grounds and national parks. There are a few towns, but nothing for us to stop at, except for gas. Not all towns have gas stations, so planning ahead and keeping the tanks as full as possible was a priority.
I’d ride these roads again, but next time I will take a weekend and ride the scenic route to Lion’s Head and explore many of the side roads to the see what the coast has to offer.
It was a fun ride, but now know I will need my iPod plugged into my helmet for my Big Trip.
While the bikes rest, the riders fuel up on sugar (below).
