October 8, 2006
2003 Kawasaki Concours
David Grenier
  Today was a short trip. I was hoping I could see some of the fall colours up north at the sourthern end of Algonquin Provincial Park.I left home just after 11am and headed north-east towards Linsday. Just past Regional Road 57 north of Bowmanville, I found this mailbox in a small town called Haydon.I continued to Regional Road 20, pased Mosport and got to Highway 35. |
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  I got onto Highway 35, skirted Lindsay and continued north towards Dorset. Driiving through Coboconk I saw the sign for “Canada’s Smallest Jail”, a sign I had seen several times but never bothered stopping. This time I turned and came across the “jail” almost immediately. Claiming it’s a jail seems a stretch since it’s currently a craft store (closed today). |
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| I continued driving north hoping to catch some good colours. It looked like I had waited a week or two too long since a lot of the trees were bare.Just north of Minden on Highway 35 I saw a lake set back from the highway. I turned down the road and came across a good place for some pictures. | |||
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  I finally came up to Dorset and took some shots of the observation tower. A couple of years back I had gone up and was treated to an awesome view. I thought I’d go up again, but was thwarted by the crowds. There were so many people trying to get into the tower parking lot that traffic was backed up onto Highway 35. After sitting still for 5 minutes, and waiting for the guy in the pickup truck ahead of me to make a decision about staying on the road or moving to the shoulder (he finally picked the shoulder), I took the shoulder and managed to get ahead of the logjam.I got to Dwight on Highway 60 and turned east towards Algonquin Provincial Park. It seemed like every hiking trail had an overflowing parking lot, and gawkers who stayed on the road when they should have pulled over. These people were driving at 40-60 km/h in an 80 km/h zone!I finally got to Whitney on the east side of the Park and filled up. I continued SE to Highway 127 towards Maynooth, where I did a couple of quick turns onto Peterson Rd. and Elephant Lake Rd., always a good ride. This being the middle day of a long weekend, traffic was light.
I hit Wilberforce and followed County Road 4 to Highway 118, then to Tory Hill and Gooderham where I picked up Regional Road 507 and headed south. Once I high R.R. 36 I programmed the GPS for the quick way home, which took me through Peterborough and then onto the slab: 115 to 401 to home, arriving just after 6pm. 7 hours, 568 km. |
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| Next year I’ve got to make a note to do this trip a couple of weeks earlier, before the leaves have had a chance to fall. | |||
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