Eastern Canada - Best route - TORONTO TO PETERBROUGH

I LIVE IN BOTH TORONTO AND PETERBROUGH, as a student in peterbrough and a worker in toronto. I am looking for the best cycling route to go from toronto to peterbrough on my road bike. Does anyone know if the traills are good for the road bike or have any other suggestions abou the best way to get betoween the two cities. I am looking for doing some 2 day rides, unless I can make it in one.

i'll give you two hints...

1) i recommend that you move out of peterbrough, i passed through there once and it was a real dump of a place

2) you do know that from toronto, peterbrough is about 140 km away.... why would you ever want to bike that far.... do you even have a brain in your head?

2) you do know that from toronto, peterbrough is about 140 km away.... why would you ever want to bike that far.... do you even have a brain in your head? 140 is far? Dude... do you have any muscles in your legs or are they all jello? (I am not asking about a brain in your head because the answer is pretty obvious in your case. :rolleyes:)

almo, where in Toronto are you hoping to end up? Toronto is big, and your exact final destination may have a significant effect on the route.

i'll give you two hints...

1) i recommend that you move out of peterbrough, i passed through there once and it was a real dump of a place

2) you do know that from toronto, peterbrough is about 140 km away.... why would you ever want to bike that far.... do you even have a brain in your head?


Haven't you been banned yet? What's taking so long?

I'll try going to peterborough from toronto soon enough. It's about 140km with a car, but probably 160km if you take the farming roads.
There's also a northern route you can take. But the major issue is trying to dodge hwy 35/115, they're 80km/h zones, but people do 100~120 on them, not to mention most of it is divided with a concrete barrier or center ditch. Lots of overpasses and underpasses that traverse 35/115 though.
I was thinking maybe southern route through lakeshore > kingston > ahhh I don't remember the street names anymore...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Bloor+St+W+%4043.653550,+-79.465270&daddr=Colborne+Lodge+Dr+%4043.640550,+-79.460700+to%3ALake+Shore+Blvd+W+%4043.632320,+-79.435110+to%3ALake+Shore+Blvd+W+%4043.630640,+-79.418820+to%3ALake+Shore+Blvd+W+%4043.635730,+-79.403580+to%3AQueens+Quay+W+%4043.638840,+-79.386170+to%3AMerriton+Rd+%4043.824150,+-79.104690+to%3AHWY-2%2FKingston+Rd+E+%4043.865380,+-79.007330+to%3AHWY-2+E%2FKing+St+W+%4043.893120,+-78.883410+to%3AHWY-2+E+%4043.910590,+-78.703870+to%3ACR-2%2FHWY-2+%4043.954340,+-78.426160+to%3AUnknown+road+%4043.986820,+-78.295170+to%3AHWY-7%2FTrans+Canada+Hwy+%4044.273370,+-78.411400+to%3Apeterborough,+on&mrcr=5&mra=mr&dirflg=h&sll=43.818303,-79.129887&sspn=0.045519,0.050383&ie=UTF8&ll=43.825734,-79.094954&spn=0.045513,0.050383&z=14&om=1

2) you do know that from toronto, peterbrough is about 140 km away.... why would you ever want to bike that far.... do you even have a brain in your head?

Please remove canada from your sig, your an embarrassment to a whole country.

Please remove canada from your sig, your an embarrassment to a whole country.

I am not the one living in Coquitlam

I am not the one living in Coquitlam

Thankfully

I was going to propose you take the waterfront trail (http://www.waterfronttrail.org/trail-facts.html)from downtown Toronto to Port Hope, then head due north from there, but on second thought, the Waterfront Trail meanders quite a bit, so it's probably faster to take ordinary roads, eg. highway 2, as AEO proposed.

Here's another proposal for a fairly direct, more northerly route from Toronto: URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1114788. I consulted an Ontario Rd map and it all seems to be paved, but I don't know how much has a shoulder.

The Bloomington / 7A route is what I would have picked, but it depends on when you're going. Lots of dump trucks on Bloomington on weekdays, lots of big hills on 7A all the time.
It looks like there are 2 choices - north for lots of hills or along Lake Ontario for a longer ride.
You could split up the ride by riding to Oshawa and taking the GO train to Toronto, bikes are allowed on trains as long as it's not rush hour.

Thankfully
btw toronto ruleZ

its the only city worth living in canada

btw toronto ruleZ

its the only city worth living in canada

Added proof you have no brain in your head, as if we needed any more.

It should be quite doable in one day depending on how much stuff you are carrying and what kind of mileage you are used to. Unless you have a friends place to crash at in between, added weight of a tent will slow you down. I like the advermap series of Ontario maps for rural bike suggestions. I wish they would show paved/unpaved roads though because loose gravel on a road bike is no fun.

The Toronto Randonneurs have a crazy ride every year where they go from Toronto-Ottawa-Toronto in 3 days. But you can look at the route map because the first 160 km of the route goes from downtown Toronto to Peterborough.
http://www.randonneursontario.ca/routes/tor-pdf/Toronto-Ottawa-Toronto%201000.pdf
These routes are all paved unless otherwise specified in the directions and tend to avoid high traffic roads in favour of county and concession roads.

well, I finally did it... from 11:00am to 9pm pretty much. took way too long since I hit ski country by accident, bonked and my map was obsolete and no good. Those ski hills are huge, long and lots of local traffic going 80km/h. Any major route that google maps tries to take you on, don't take it. Guaranteed disaster with major hills and posted 80km/h with unpaved shoulders. Major thanks to this guy I met at Oshawa by accident for showing me the better routes.

I haven't used hwy7 ever, but from what I heard from a kind guy in Oshawa, they're really bad for bikers.
Basic rules: don't use hwy7 or hwy2 if at all possible. Really crappy unless you are near a city with a decent 50km/h~60km/h zones, otherwise stick to the back roads because Hwy2 is a major route for all the heavy dump trucks and 18 wheelers. Lower traffic and posted limits are 50km/h with a majority being paved with unpaved shoulders. Hwy2 from Brock to Harmony in Oshawa is ok. There's a really nice back road that runs from Townline in oshawa hwy57. It's a great road, nearly no traffic with just nice farm land all around.
Going north on 57 from nash is no good, major hill, unpaved shoulder and 80km/h traffic. from there it's just a matter of avoiding 80km/h areas going up hill as best as possible. Hwy9, Hwy10 are 80 zones, but 10 had a paved shoulder for a while and there wasn't a high volume of traffic.

The other option of course being you avoid going east before you hit 35/115 and going north to try and get to Stewart line or Sharpe line.

If I do it again, this is the route I'd most likely take this time.
http://tinyurl.com/ypbwbm

Portions of Hwy 7 are actually quite ok. But I don't doubt that many portions are also quite awful.