SpecialEnvoy1

What are road and traffic conditions on ON 69 Parry Sound - Sudbury?
We are planning to tandem summer 2015 around the Georgian Bay and need to know about that section...
- deb

conspiratemus1

Hi Deb,

The route is un-doable by bicycle at this time, to the best of my knowledge.

Highway 69 is the only highway from the Huronia Region (north of Toronto) to Sudbury. It continues north from the Highway 400 freeway and indeed it is gradually being converted into Highway 400 as it is progressively twinned and upgraded to a limited-access divided freeway on which cycling is prohibited. This process is occurring at both ends growing toward the middle. In some stretches, the new road is on a completely different right-of-way leaving the old 69 as a paved, bike-friendly service road; in other places, a second carriage-way is just being built alongside the existing 69, wiping out its accessibility to cycling. There are not many back roads up that way other than gravel roads which head off to cottages and First Nation reserves but don't provide an alternative through route. Eventually, the 400 route will be made freeway all the way to Sudbury and Highway 69 will disappear as a provincial highway designation (sort of like U.S. Route 66.)

Here is a link to a document prepared by an advocacy group, Manitoulin Island Cycling Advocates, (MICA) hoping to redress barriers to bicycle tourism created by the highway expansion project.

https://www.manitoulincycling.com/GEO...ISSUE%208A.pdf

The most problematic section is a short stretch (~ 3 km) just south of Sudbury, from the north end of Burwash Farms Rd. to the south end of Estaire Rd. A long section of Hwy 69 was twinned through here in 2012 and the Ministry of Transportation barred it to cyclists as is their policy for all limited-access freeways even when, as on the section between these two back roads, there is no alternative route available. You might e-mail MICA to see if they have any news for next year.

Elsewhere, the old two-lane sections of Highway 69, on which cyclists are permitted, are in quite good condition and have paved shoulders for the entire distance (a rarity for Ontario provincial highways other than freeways.) We've never cycled on 69 but my wife drove this route about 3 years ago in her car and found it quite pleasant without a lot of heavy truck traffic -- this was during the week in late summer just as the leaves were starting to turn. (Hwy 69 is the only way to get a truck from Toronto to Sudbury or the Soo but I'm told that truckers heading all the way to Thunder Bay or points west will prefer to use Highway 11, which goes much farther north and avoids the hundreds of hills along Lake Superior.)

With careful route finding, you can make your way from the southern end of 69 (where it becomes 400 just north of Parry Sound) through Huronia and around the south end of G. Bay.

Not sure if you are familiar with this part of the world -- your use of "The" Georgian Bay suggests you are not -- so would like to tell you that the shoreline of Georgian Bay features some of the most magnificent landscapes and sunsets in eastern Canada. Only problem is you cannot see Georgian Bay ever from anywhere on Highway 69. The way most of us enjoy Georgian Bay is by canoe or kayak or, if we were among the 0.1 per-centers, from the dock of a cottage on the rock-bound shore or on one of the 30,000 or so islands. (Yes, the 0.1 per cent -- mere 1 per-centers cannot afford waterfront property up there so the rest of us know it only from photographs and the paintings of the Group of Seven.) On 69 you are entirely in the woods but the rocks and shores of small lakes are pretty and the river crossings are often quite spectacular.

There are a multitude of great loop rides in the Huronia and Muskoka regions, as well as in the Bruce Peninsula and on Manitoulin Island -- it's just really difficult to tie them together with a circumnavigation of Georgian Bay. Sorry for that -- your query got us thinking about trying that ride, too.

Good Luck!
Les