snowprocn

hi! everyone....
i just got my first road bike. i am planning ride my bike to toronto alone to visit my frd in august(actually mississgua). I read "Brian Hedney's Cycling Website", but still have some questions..
1. what do i need to bring?
2. is safe ride alone?
3. is the road flat? coz i dont want to ride my bike on a rough road. any suggestions for a nice route? (picture plz)!!!
4. how to prepare for the long distance trip?
5. can i finish within 3 or 4 dayz?
6. how much it cost? the cheapest!! how to save money!!

thank you for your help.
or contact me snowpro_cn@hotmail.com!!!

Dan The Man

You should start to prepare by getting rid of the extraneous exclamation marks and zeds. Once you have mastered that, you can try holding down the shift key, when you use the word I, or when you start a new sentence.

IronMac

1. What sort of ride this will dictate what you need to bring. Sounds like it will be a camping type trip if you want to save money by not using hotels and B&Bs.
2. Yes.
3. Relatively flat...use Highway 2 once you get into Ontario.
4. Ride a lot(?)
5. It's over 600 kms so I'd say no unless you're a randonneur who's done the full series of brevets this year already.
6. You could stealth camp but it's a bit difficult. I'd say, if you're camping, maybe $60 a day for a week so about $420 should do ya.

acantor

I used Brian Hedney's site to help plan my Toronto to Ottawa trip, and found it an excellent resource. He obviously understands the needs of cyclists, so consider it a reliable guide.

Much of the route manages to avoid Hwy 2, which means you spend a lot of time on scenic roads with little or no traffic. I can say from personal experience that the section between Toronto and Kingston is relatively flat. Given that the route hugs Lake Ontario, you won't see too many monster hills.

In my opinion, there are too many interesting diversions -- Hedney mentions several -- to plan this as a three or four day marathon. You may want to wander the streets of Port Hope (the downtown appears to have been transported intact from the 1880s), check out Pan Chancho in Kingston (THE best bakery I know of!), stay at the Bed-and-Breakfast aboard an actual ice breaker in downtown Kingston, explore one of the Thousand Islands by bike (e.g., Wolfe, Amherst, Howe), go swimming at Sandbanks Provincial Park (think fine white sandy beaches and dunes), visit a winery or two in Prince Edward County, or if you are so inclined, take a propaganda tour through one of the nuclear power plants that you will pass east of Toronto! If it were my trip, I would plan for six or seven days. If your time is tight, maybe four days pushing hard. Is it possible to grind out 200 km per day and arrive in three days? Sure. Would you enjoy yourself? Only you can answer that!

Traffic into Toronto from the east is crazy, so try to heed Hedney's advice and take the "Go Train" from Scarborough to downtown Toronto. There are roads that are not worth bicycling, and Kingston Road is one of them. Alternatively, take the Go Train to Danforth Station (about $4). That is just far enough to avoid the worst of the traffic. Then head south toward the lake, and wiggle west to pick up one of the east-west bike trails.

IronMac

Actually, Kingston Rd. is no biggie deal and most stretches are quite wide. Traffic is a bit busy at times.

jpmartineau

From Montreal to Ottawa, I'd advise against route 148 on the Quebec side because it's the only direct route on the QC side.

On the Ontario side, there's route 17, but most traffic takes the TCan.

Also, roads are likely to be much nicer on the Ontarian side...