Day 4 Monday – Sep 27 - Napanee / Niagara-on-the-Lale, ON

Day 4 (418 KM) Monday – 2015-09-27

Napanee - Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

I was up early (6am) this was so I would be in position for four VIA passenger trains and some freight which would start to pass by at 8am, and I scouted the area on Sunday, so my locations were set to go.

BUT, that of course was based on a sunny weather forecast, not one of cloudy and rain/fog, but on my way to breakfast at Tim Horton's it was just starting to "spit" and by the time I returned to Twin Peaks there was light rain.  So that cancelled the morning photo shoot, and that go back on the "to do" list for another trip.

After waiting to about 9am it was time to head home, rain or no rain, plus Twin Peaks was not the place I want to stay any longer.

With my full rain gear on at 9:15 I am heading West on the local county roads up to the 401 Highway, the first 30 minutes had some challenges, as the visibility dropped to maybe 75m in spots and with rain, fog, truck and car spray I got to the point were I could not see what lane I was in, and there was construction which made lanes impossible to read, so without hitting the concrete barrier it was time to get off at Cobourg and re-think this.

I spent about 20 minutes assessing all the weather apps on my phone and determined that the rain would clear within the next 30 minutes, plus I was taking on water on my t-shirt anyway.

There was consideration of stopping at Gansel Beach on the CN near Newtonville, but it was raining still, so I opted for the ONROUTE service area near Newcastle plus I was cold wet and wanted something warm in me.  So I am off the road at 11:15, and spend about 45 minutes there and the rain lets up (almost dry), so by 12noon I am on the read again.

Next stop is GP Bikes in Whitby, looking for some accessories for my bike plus looked at some light weigh motorcycle boots, - no thanks to the boots, they have flat soles and looked like they would leak, and the electrical device was not in either, no sale and I am on the road.

I took the Whitby Brock Street North and crossed over on Taunton Rd to reach highway 407ETR, which I will take the entire length to Burlington in 50 minutes, that means I crossed the entire width of the GTA in 50 minutes !! vs 1 to 2 hours on the 401, the ETR is a tool road, but worth the price.  By now the roads are dry and I can take off my rain jacket, but not the paints, as they are a real problem to get on (especially under a bridge).

One more stop in Hamilton, no not Princess Auto, my old Sony Mini HDV Tape Camcorder is in for repair and if I can get this working I can copy all 200 tapes to Blue-Ray format so I can retire a venerable camera with lots of miles (tapes too).

I am home at 16:15, one very long and hair raising day on the bike, glad I had no real issues that could not have been solved.

It still was a fantastic 4 days of motorcycling in Eastern Ontario.

Final Trip Distance:  1,414km (878 Miles) :: 4 Days

This blog will be on the main site www.ontape.ca in a few weeks so check for that and the GPX files of the Route.

Day 3 Sunday - Sep 27 - Perth / Napanee, ON

Day 3 (189KM) Sunday – 2015-09-27

Perth / Napanee, ON

Ben and I get under way around 9:45, from Perth and head West on Highway #7, Ben is heading for Bancroft via Madoc and I will only travel with him for about 16km before I head South to Westport and on to Gananoque on the St. Lawrence River.

I am taking backroads down to Westport and cross over the CP Rail Main Line near Mud Lake Bridge, this is where I shot the CP Royal Hudson (steam train) back in the mid 1980's in April if I recall as it was cold and wet.  But today is sunny and getting warmer.  BTW no trains today, and I waited 20 minutes for something, but there was no action on the CP, there were trains in Perth around 19:00 and again at 21:00hrs.

Old CP Rail line to Tweed at Bolingbroke (CR#36) 

I arrive in Gananoque by 11:45, just in time for lunch and a stop at Thousland Island Railway locomotive #500, which was one of the early diesel locomotive in Canada, the engine is a bit worn and not that well cared for, but it is still sitting on the Gananoque Branch Line in Town.  Details below:

Thousand Islands Railway 500, one-of-a-kind homebuilt diesel rebuilt by CN owned-Oshawa (electric) Railway from an electric locomotive. Trucks and traction motors from Oshawa 42 were utilized along with twin 125 HP Waukesha gas engines. Other parts were provided by Whitcomb, who assigned it their builders number 50006 12/30. This tiny 35 ton unit operated briefly on the Oshawa Railway before becoming Thousand Islands 500 in March 1931 where it operated on the tiny CN-owned railway. In 1947 it was re-engined with twin 142 HP Cummins diesels. It was retired in April 1963 and finally put on display in April 1966 in Gananoque where it ran most of its life. 

I take my lunch back to the CN Main Line at Gananoque (it is Gananoque JCT) and within 20 minutes, VIA #63 charges by at 92mph followed by CN Freight #371 at 13:08.  The main reason for Gananoque station is there is a once a day stop made by VIA #47 at around 14:27, plus the station still looks in good shape so it makes for a nice photo site.

Gananoque Station - CN Toronto / Montreal Main line

Here is what I saw in a space of about 3 hours.

12:42  W/B  Via#63 (90 MPH)

13:08  W/B  CN#371 X-2891 (47 MPH)

13:13  E/B  Via#40 (90 MPH)

14:16  W/B  Via#65 (90 MPH)

14:27  E/B  Via#64 (90 MPH)

14:47  W/B Via#47 - Station Stop  3-off and 4-on

15:11  E/B  CN#?? (Unit Oil) + DPU (42 MPH)

Via #47 Gananoque ON

CN# 371 W/B Gananoque ON

So you can see I was quite busy with 4 cameras rolling including my track-cam GO PRO which captured a 92mph VIA Train passing by, the video will be posted on my YouTube site soon.

Ken's Bike at Gananoque Station on a very sunny Sunday

Once I repacked all the camera and video gear, it was time to head West to Napanee via the 401 highway, which was about 70km away.  I wanted to be into the motel early tonight and this would give a chance to check out rail locations for the AM photo shot on Monday and find a restaurant for the evening as well.  Plus tonight was the super moon eclipse and i very much wanted to see that around 10:45pm as well

Morley at Gananoque Station ON

Morley resting in a Algonquin Chair at the Gananoque Station, or is he waiting for a train to somewhere?  He sure liked the chair at the station, it was hard for him to leave. 

I must say that this trip that Ben and I did over three days provided an opportunity to cover some awesome roads in Eastern Ontario, all of the routes we took I would recommend to anyone, even if you do them in a car, just get out and explore.

Overnight Motel is the Twin Peaks twinpeaksmotel.com, the price was right, but this place was built in 1950, even the projection 32" TV was +25 years old, but worked, room was large and clean, so it was OK, but for one night.

The restaurant in Napanee was not a gem, sorry, this town needs improvements.  The place is called the Loaf and Ale Pub http://www.theloafandale.com/, food and service was fine, just of locals are a bit questionable, but most people keep there distance from "bikers" so one is safe.

The Super Moon Eclipse was a bit of a disappointment, I have on and off cloud cover so I got some on the HD Video but nothing on the camera, o'well well in 18 years I can do it again.

Weather:
Sunny !!, warm at +20c no rain, no clouds, no fog

  

Day 2 - Saturday - Sep 26 - Barry's Bay / Perth, ON

Day 2 (238KM) Saturday – 2015-09-26

Barry's Bay - Perth, ON

The temperature overnight dropped to +3c, so by morning the lake across for motel was in dense fog, but that made for a wonderful photo. (see below)

After breakfast and a not fast start we depart Barry's Bay at 9:30 and continue on Highway 60 East, but first a stop at the 1904 CN water tower in town - Barry's Bay which was the old CN Line through the Park to Deport Harbour near Perry Sound.

Ken's Bike at the Berry's Bay Water Tank.

After Barry's Bay our next stop was CFS Foymont, this was a Pinetree Line Radar site, the odd thing about this site is that it had 4 multi story apartment buildings for military staff, more than anything I have seen so far in visiting all the other 12 sites.  More research is required to solve this question.  But the base did close down in 1974 and since then a number of small businesses occupy the buildings including a manufacture of outdoor clothing called Black River.

CFS Foymont - old Apartment Building

CFS Foymont - old buildings on the base.

After CFS Foymont we are off to Eganville and the Bonnechere Caves, these caves are one of the best examples of a "Solution Cave" in North America, and well worth the stop of about an hour or so.  Here is the link: http://www.bonnecherecaves.com/

The cave has a few brown bats, but they won't bother anyone.  We spent about an hour underground exploring the caves with our trusting guide Kyle, who explained in detail all the features of this cave created about 450 million years ago by the Bonnechere River.  We also met another biker from Timmins enroute to Ottawa on his Harley to visit his daughter, he was impressed that Ben and I had explored so many of the Pinetree Line Radar sites.

After the caves we returned to Eaganville for lunch at the Granary, http://granaryrestaurant.ca/ we were two of the four patrons in the restaurant, but then again it was 2pm and we were a bit off schedule, not that we had a schedule to follow in the first place.

Bonnechere River

Bat in the Bonnechere Cave.

All of the above photos are taken inside the Bonnechere Caves.

After lunch we head for Perth via Renfrew, Calabogie and the 511 Highway, just another great day in the Highlands of Eastern Ontario.  I will not due to some map reading errors on my part, we enedup in Renfrew which was not on the route, Calabogie was.

Old Sawmill hear Calabogie on Hwy# 511

Highway 511 - sweeping curves make this road a must for bikers 

We arrive in Perth at 6:15pm, not bad for a day on the bikes, saw a lot today and could have spent even more time outthere.

We overnighted at the newly renovated Colonial House Motel  http://www.colonialhouse.ca/, but the real gem is Perth, this is a wonderful place, kind of like Niagara-on-the-Lake, lots of limestone buildings and beautiful architecture. 

We ventured out on the bikes for dinner down town at O'Reilly's Ale House http://oreillyspubperth.com/ which I would give 5 stars to, outstanding service and great pub food, and an energetic atmosphere.  Just a great town and place to eat.

Weather:
Sunny, no clouds, cool at the start but warned up to 20c by 1pm, still the temp drops by late afternoon to around 15c.  

Day 1 - Friday - Sep 25 - Niagara-on-the-Lake / Barry's Bay, ON

Day 1 (569 KM) Friday – 2015-09-25

Niagara-on-the-Lake – Barry's Bay, ON

Enjoyable ride from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Huntsville via the QEW, 407, 400 and 11 highways, traffic was OK but just before Huntsville there was only one lane open due to paving the highway and traffic came to a stop for 20 minutes, not fun.

I met up with Ben at Tim Horton's as planned even if I was a few minutes late.  After lunch we were off on Highway 60 through Algonquin Park.  

Highway 60 is just got to be one of the best Roads in Ontario, with scenery that can only compare to the Rocky Mountain forests of BC or Alberta.  There are so many lakes  rivers that are crossed, it is imposable to keep track of it all, thankfully the GO PRO Camera recorded all of it, which will make a nice video in the future.

We stopped along the route hoping to see a mouse or bear but we see no animals at all.  We even checked out the Opeongo Road which is one of the best moose roads in the Park, no luck.

Ministry of Natural Resources - Forest Fire Spotting Plane - Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park

Morley at the Lake of Two Rivers Store Algonquin Park, he at times can be found here in the Chip isle or near the cash register posing for tourist photos etc..  

Highway #523 Madawaska

After Leaving the Park around 4:30pm, we head for Maynooth via Hwy #127, and then back North on Highway 523 to Madawaska and back onto highway 60, that triangle route added 60 minutes to our journey, but all of this was planned and in our GPS's.  Highway 523 is a well maintained secondary road through untouched forests, one might think a Moose might appear but no such luck. 

Halfway along the route it was time to add more layers of (clothing) gear as it was cool (cold) +9c by 6:30pm when we arrived at our motel, the Ash Grove in Barry's Bay for the night.

Weather:
cloudy and cool, +18c and dropped throughout the afternoon, no rain.

Trip Synopsis

Trip Synopsis

This is a 4 day motorcycle trip to Eastern Ontario and the Algonquin Park region of Ontario, with one of the highlights is doing a number of the motorcycle roads (circuits) as described in the Ontario Highlands Motorcycle Map/Guide.  .

There is also one Pinetree Line Radar site to visit at Foymont, ON, and after that I will have been to 9 sites counting this one.

This area is rich in historic railway lines as there was considerable timber and mineral resources taken from the area right up to the mid 1960.  We will be staying in Barry's Bay which still has a station and water tank, the tracks were pulled out in the early 1970's.

Of course we will be exploring the historic Ottawa, Arnprior, and Parry Sound Railway built across the Park in 1895 and removed in the 1950's.

My close friend Ben Gerard (of North Bay) will be joining me on this 1,000km travel through the spectacular scenery of Algonquin Park and Eastern Ontario, along with Morley (he is a moose) as it is his turn for a trip, plus he is from the Algonquin region and knows the area well.

Barry's Bay, ON Water Tank 

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