Late this summer will be biking from Toronto-- starting from west end of lake ontario trail, to Kitchener. -- with my wife. I bike regularly (but never that far), and she doesn't. We will probably go at a 15 kph pace most of the way.

One long option is to take trans-canada trail through hamilton, brantford, and cambridge.

It looks a lot closer by bird. What would be a good bike route to take? What's a good strategy to not get lost?

can you give some general advice for interpreting google maps for the country side near toronto? I've not biked or driven much out of the city.
If a road doesn't have a name, is it most likely unpaved?

what "highways" or numbered roadways between southern toronto and kitchener should be avoided for being too busy/or not having enough road/shoulder space? (I know to stay off the 401 )

Its a bit hard to tell what roads are and are not paved based on goggle maps. you can sometimes tell with the satellite shots. For the most part, the roads that are yellow are the busier 'country' roads. i would stay off of Highway 5 (dundas), 6, 8, 25.

From what I've been told you can pretty much ride from hamilton to cambridge via the rail trails, althought I have never done any of these sections. The rail trails should provide better grades than the roads, the surface wont be as smooth (crushed limestone).

There are many quiet roads to take to get to Kitchener, most of the 'Lines' and 'sideroads' are great for cycling. The roads can be quite hilly between the escarpment and the kitchener area, with the escarpment being the biggest climb.

Although I have never ridden all the way to Kitchener, I have come close.

First get an Advermap Recreational Trails map for the area. It's called Map 2 Golden Horseshoe. If you can't find them at a bike shop try the Ontario Travel Centre at Dundas and Yonge. That map shows the trails. I would not consider riding on the over-crowded highways in this region, especially if you are going slow with an inexperienced rider. Sadly Google maps only show roads for cars and don't indicate narrow or dangerous routes.

The basic route I recommend is taking the Waterfront trail to Hamilton. From there take the Hamilton Brantford Trail Trail. It's kind of hard to find from downtown Hamilton. From Brantford take the Paris rail trail then connect with the Cambridge Paris trail. The latter I have not been on so I don't know if it is bike friendly. Perhaps another member can tell you.

At your pace give yourself 2 days to get there assuming you are not going to rush. Camping is not great as there are almost no campsites on the trail. Stealth camping is not something you do with a partner. There are however great and inexpensive accommodation almost everywhere along the way. This route is partly off-road and except for the end bit, I have been on it many times. If you are interested in more detailed info please email me through this forum.

I found this route too...
https://www.cycleontario.ca/pcrn/maps...ooToronto.html

It looks like it is trying to use one of the few diagonal segments of road between toronto and guelph
It goes through the north of the city instead of hamilton.

The one thing I noticed about highways 5,6,8,25 --- roos, is that in google earth, they are one of the few roads that appear at a fair zoom out, so perhaps it makes a good rule of thumb to plan a route using roads that only show up at closer zoom levels.

google earth is well worth the download if you plan to study routes between places. Better faster interface, and altitude info.

Are there any rules of thumb that determines the difference between country road and side road?

Are you recommending the trail because it makes for a charming/enjoyable journey, and country roads in the area can still be pretty hectic and nerve racking? -- so its not worth the shortcuts?

What I'm saying is that in my opinion it is neither safe nor comfortable riding to Kitchener via mainroads. Since there has been almost no new highway construction in several decades, highways are packed with SUVs, vans and trucks going at high rates of speed. Often the only shoulder is course, loose gravel. If you are satisfied with that, then Google Earth is good. Unfortunately you cannot see the vehicles on the road or see their rate of speed.

The option I gave you is a combo of streets where the speed limit is lower and are residential streets and pathways and railtrails. If I were going to Kitchener by bike that is how I would go. Otherwise I'd rent a car and drive. That's a lot faster and more direct. You probably could get there in about an hour and a half from most places in Toronto.

If you have the time and would like to explore some very pretty countryside my route is best. It is more relaxed, quieter and gives you a real short break from life in the fast lane.

Thanks... that's the bottom line judgement I needed help with.

I guess most roads are 1 lane for each way? If you time your ride out of rush hour, is trafic light enough on these roads for cars to give you space? I'm guessing if you are passed 5 times/minute or less then traffic is light enough to share the road comfortably. If most roads were like that, then stumbling on a busier road, and staying on the shoulder till the next turnoff if its too hectic could be ok if it happens just 2-4 times during the trip.

I can see though how cars going 100kph+ are not going to share the road with the same patience as cars going 50-70kph in the city.

Does the strategy of going through very small towns (waterdown, milton), and off the routes that would connect the larger towns, a trusty way to avoid traffic? Seems like hamilton-bradford-paris-cambridge would be a substantial detour. -- we like our exercise as lazy as possible

Just a matter of interest, I was on several of those roads recently. I took The Gore Road up to The Albion Hills and then Heritage Road and Mississauga Road back from Terra Cotta. At 6:00 on weekend mornings they are fairly light and I at no time felt threatened even though the cars were travelling at a high rate of speed.

Your other option is to go up to the Caledon Trailway
https://webhome.idirect.com/~brown/webdoc1.htm
and then to the Cataracts Elora Trail.
https://webhome.idirect.com/~brown/webdoc3.htm

At that point you will be quite rural and within striking distance of Kitchener.

One thing is: I wouldn't recommend going through Milton. My parents live in Milton and I biked there once from Toronto. Most of the route was quite all right, but one can't avoid several km of narrow and fast two-lane country roads... I would in particular advise that you steer clear of Derry Rd. For the most part it is narrow, and the cars are travelling at 90+ km/h.

Waterdown might be a different story though. I've never been there, but it looks much smaller...

I actually have cycled all the way from Toronto to Kitchener (and past) last summer. Didn't find the traffic too bad. Let me dig up some old maps so that I can reconstruct the route...

Edit: Hmm, can't seem to find it... Here is what I remember. I took Matheson Rd. in Mississauga (goes west through industrial area, and was very quiet on the Sunday morning of my ride). Then rode north on one of the major Mississauga arterials. Now, one CAN pick mostly quieter residential streets to go through a lot of Mississauga, I just wanted something faster (and again, Sunday morning didn't present much challenge traffic-wise). Then I believe I took Queen St./5th Sideroad. Then Main St./8th Line north, then 1st Line north, then Arkell Road west.

Then I made my way through Guelph (one can avoid it if one wants to, but I was stopping there on that tour). That is pretty close to Kitchener already and the rest probably depends on what part of Kitchener you want to end up in. I know we have at least one forum member here from the Kitchener-Waterloo area (sgtsmile) - it might be good idea to ask him about the best roads there.

I am neither recommending nor cautioning against the route I took. There probably are better ways to cycle there and there probably are worse ways. But when I did this ride over two days (Sunday and Monday) I didn't at any point feel too overwhelmed with traffic or have any close calls with cars. If you have control over this, I would probably recommend cycling on the weekend, especially within, say, 40-50 km of Toronto.

I work and bike alot in milton, and while there are certain roads i would avoid, i wouldnt avoid the town all together for that reason. For the most part i would stay off Derry Rd, especially in the new contruction area between 6th and 1st line.

It might be easier to give you the route i would take into milton (actually i am thinking about commuting a few times a week from mississauga).

URL for this route is: https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=236901

Basically the route is layed out from Trafalgar and Lakeshore in Oakville, head north over the qew, over to 6th line on a residential street, then up 6th to 5th, up 5th to mainstreet.

Of course once in milton getting over to Kitchener has lots of options, lots of rural roads, and of course a steep long climb up the escarpment. another option is to take britannia from 5th line and then heading towards kitchener on side roads.

I agree, the town itself is not particularly bad. The problem is trying to come to it from the east (as opposed to, say, west or south). I found it somewhat problematic anyway if one doesn't want too lengthy a detour.

Hey, go for it! If 6th Line is a good road, it looks like a swell commute! No stop signs or traffic lights every 200 m or any such nonsense!

Last year i toured across Canada, and of course i wanted to visit my work on the trip, and my old work location as well. Milton and upper mississauga, with Derry Rd between them. Probably one of the worst sections of road on the trip, i can't remember a worse section off the top of my head. So i must agree with you. I know Britannia can be just as bad in rush hour, to me the best route would be Burnhamthorpe/Lowerbase

We should start a new thread about biking in the Milton area, i've always wanted to do a ride that climbs and decends all 6 local escarpment climbs (Appleyby, Bell School, Main/14th sideroad, Steeles, Applyby (north) and 6th Line. I figure it could be 700-900 meters of climbing in 35kms

I don't know if I will ever understand why people like to do climbs... The rule I live by: downhill - good, uphill - bad.

The masochists, however, (and by that I mean anyone who actively seeks out hills to climb on a bike) must think the escarpment area around Milton is biking heaven! Such unbelievably wonderful concentration of pain!

Thanks very much guys for the good discussion.

Also subscribing to the hills = bad philosophy, I realized that I should probably start my trip from downsview subway station instead of western lakeshore.

Can I avoid big hills (escarpment) and traffic by going north then west, instead of west then north?

Its actually probably better to start south near the lake. There are no hills down by the water front, north of the lake, all the rivers create valleys. there are easier routes up the escarpment. Derry Rd is probably the best route up the escarpment, and west of Milton Derry rd has less traffic, specially west of Appleby. Britannia is another easier climb, its a bit more up and down than the rest tho. MOst climbs up the escarpment are about 1-1.5 kms at 6-10% grade, 100meters, its over quick, even if you stop and rest half way up.

according to google earth, downsview subway has 200m altitude.. 120m higher than the waterfront. Kitchener is 325m. It looks like going north tends to climb faster than west from there.... but hopefully a quiet path can be weaved through.

8% grades is going to challenge me and my wife. Around town, I find routes that climb gradually to be much easier than flat routes with a big climb at the end.

Just to make things more confusing, the Caledon Trailway is closed at Highway 10 for bridge construction. They are building a cycle bridge over this busy 4 lane highway (good thing), but getting through during construction is difficult (bad thing). It even might be impossible during the week when the construction guys are there.

The trail is marked closed, but on the weekend I was there, people were walking their bikes through the construction zone.