We decided to try Collingwood for a day trip yesterday since we haven’t been there yet this summer and also Kim wanted to check out the Northface Endurance Challenge.
The trip started out by stopping in Erin to adjust the straps on the bike rack, conveniently parking next to Holtom’s Bakery. This is my favourite bakery to visit and we picked up a lemon danish and tea biscuits. I don’t know if there is anything in there that I don’t like. They have a good variety of breads, tarts, cupcakes, cookies and other pastries.
I could stop there and be happy for the day but we continued to Collingwood to bike the Georgian Trail that goes west from Collingwood. We checked out a map from a building nearby and started our ride along the trail. I was very impressed with the upkeep of the main trail and that every intersection was marked with the name of the other trails. This is such a good feature since I have been confused many times on other trails about which trail to take because there are unmarked trails that lead you away from the planned route.
We decided to take a ride off the main trail and went into a series of little loops that started with the Colberry Trail that lead to the Turkey Trail and eventually the Deer Trail. These were nice and shady but when we passed the seatbelt trail, just before the Deer Trail, there was a lot of mud and we decided to turn back so if you don’t want to get muddy right now I would avoid that loop.
Here is the map route downloaded from the Garmin of our bike ride.
After that we went to Blue Mountain to check out the Endurance Challenge. There were people crossing the line for the 50k race while we were there. The top finishers completed the race in just over five hours. Pretty amazing. There was also a 50 miler and full marathon going on that day. There is a 1/2 marathon, 10K and 5K scheduled for today plus a kid’s fun run.
Ended the day off at Guelph Lake for a quick swim and to cool off after travelling around for the day.
Please let me know if you have any favourite cycling routes around Collingwood or Pretty River that we could try out the next time we are there.
scottibiscotti 