blue_nose

I am an ex pat and will be returning to Toronto for a few weeks at the end of August. I am attending a wedding in Ottawa and am thinking about cycling from Toronto to Ottawa. My family will be driving, so I do not need to carry anything that I will not need on the ride. I have checked out a few routes and looks like HWY 7 will work. I have driven to Ottawa a few times, but have always taken Hwy 401. Has anyone ever cycled this stretch of rode (on Hwy 7) between Toronto and Ottawa? Is this a reasonably bike friendly road?

The route works out to be just over 370 km. I have ridden quite a few 200 mile rides (320 km) in the past. I am not worried about the distance, but would like to hear from anyone that may have done this before.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

roosmachine

My experience with Hwy7 is very limited, but I do know its one of the major routes in the area and would be one that I would typically avoid. I would think that it would be rather busy and annoying, that being said I've never ridden on that section of 7.

If i were planning a ride to Ottawa, I would probably stick to hwy2 to Brighton, Hwy 33 to Kingston and a bit beyond and find some nice country roads to take north to Ottawa. It would add some kms to your route, probably breaking the 400km mark depending on where both ends of the ride were. I've done the route to Kingston several times (both day and night) and used Hwy15 tp Smith Falls, and some country roads to get to Ottawa in 2005.

The Ontario Randonneurs have a route to Ottawa on their website, they typically take less travelled roads and do add a few kms to get the return trip up to 1000km (both ways).

https://www.randonneursontario.ca/rou...nto%201000.pdf

Andrew

blue_nose

Thanks for the reply. I checked in on the Eastern Canada regional forum and they said the same thing about Hwy 7. My friends family lives in Prescott which is just East of Brockville, so I have decided to take the Waterfront trail most of the way. This will provide a good bail out spot if I don't feel like riding at night. There is a really good Toronto to Montreal route posted here:

https://www.bikerally.org/route.html

This route looks pretty close to what you have described above. I am planning to leave from a friends just outside of Oshawa and it is just under 300k to Prescott. Looks like I can take country roads directly north from Prescott and get right into Ottawa. Your distances are just about right, as the whole route should be about 390 km.

Yan 

Check out this site for a very detailed route.
https://www.hedney.com/

When are you planning the trip for? I'm looking to do the same ride and I get back to Toronto on August 25th, and I have two weeks before I head off to university.

blue_nose

Thanks Yan. I am going to stick to this route here:

https://www.bikerally.org/route.html

There is a great route sheet with maps in PDF at the top of this page. This route is actually from Toronto to Montréal and based mostly on the Waterfront Trail. I am pretty much going to follow the route to Prescott (about 300km east of Toronto) and then head north using the county roads to Ottawa (about another 90km). I am still working out the details of the last section of the ride.

My Friends family lives in Prescott - this should either provide a good rest stop, or I may even crash their and finish the ride the next morning.

I am planning on starting the ride just outside of Oshawa very early in the morning in August 22nd. I would gladly welcome a riding partner. Send me a PM if your plans change and you are able to leave earlier.

Yan 

Sorry, plane ticket was booked months ago. Have fun on your ride. Good luck.