Words and photos by Christina Palassio
This summer I drove from Kingston to a friend’s cottage in the Kawarthas. I always keep my eyes peeled for good cycling routes on country drives like these, and Hastings County’s winding roads, farm vistas, and open skies screamed, “You’ve gotta bike here!”
A bit of web research brought me here to hastings.bike, which has 23 gravel routes mapped by local guides Laura Voskamp and Adam Tilley, the duo behind BOQ.bike. I was impressed by the range of routes on offer, and the presentation. The website and the route collection on RideWithGPS made it super easy to peruse the routes and get a sense of the terrain and topography.
Every year, some pals and I do a fall bike trip. We love the cooler air, the colours, the bug-free conditions, and the opportunity to make the most of the riding season. We decided Hastings County was a perfect destination for this year’s adventure.
We pulled up in mid-September, when the trees were still green in Toronto but in full colour in Tweed—our home base. We’d gone back and forth on whether to bikepack a loop route and camp each night or stay in a central place and drive out to different routes each day, settling on the latter option because we figured it’d give us a chance to explore more of the county and still have some time to catch the Blue Jays qualify—we hoped!—for the postseason at night. Bikes and baseball are a killer pair.
The forecast that week called for rain and cooler temperatures, so we’d packed our rain gear and some warm cycling clothes. But when we arrived in Millbridge Station—one of the many ghost towns in Hastings County and our starting point for the day—it was warm with just a few clouds. We shook out the highway leg freeze and hopped onto the aptly named Ghost Town Grind route, headed north.
The routes on hastings.bike vary between 20 and 269 kilometres. They mostly run on dirt roads, hard-packed gravel roads (a delight to ride) and the Hastings Heritage and Trans-Canada Trails, which can be trickier to navigate. Both trails are multi-use and allow ATVs, so they’re rutted in spots, and the gravel can be chonky and loose. I was glad for my 38mm gravel tires, and I wouldn’t recommend riding on anything narrower than those.
Halfway into the ride, we stopped into St. Ola’s Station for subs, beers, and Kawartha ice cream cones—a cyclist’s delight. I wished I had panniers so I could stuff them full of local honey and maple syrup. It was an autumn postcard day, and the route kept us on our toes with a range of surfaces and vistas. The cruise around glassy Steenburg Lake on a quiet paved road was a breath-taker, as was the bridge over Beaver Creek and Jelly Rapids. Arriving back in Millbridge Station, we checked the cars for ghosts—none observed—and drove to Tweed to check out Canada’s smallest jailhouse and grab a pizza for dinner.
On our second day, we’d planned to ride the 128-kilometre Arrowhead route, but it’s hard to pick up speed on loose trails, so we opted for the shorter 43-kilometre Find a Finer Diner route, which kicks off from the Springbrook Diner—who can resist a diner breakfast?—and loops through nearby Sitrling-Rawdon. One of the draws of riding in Hastings is the number of mapped routes you can choose from. It makes it super easy to mix and match routes or change plans when the weather or moods change.
Voskamp and Tilley have ridden all 23 routes, some of them several times. Voskamp says her favourite part of gravel biking in the county is the ruggedness. “If you're looking for an adventure, if that's what's going to help you completely unplug, which I know for me, that's definitely the case, then this is the kind of place that you want to go.”
The highlight on Find a Finer Diner was definitely pulling into Stirling and stopping at Farm Girl Café for a piece of peach pie, which we ate near the covered bridge across the street. We checked for trolls—none observed—then continued on our way. Again, the route served up a mix of surfaces, challenges, and an absolute ton of stunning autumn scenes. My pal Garrett, who was wearing an orange jersey, almost disappeared in a sea of orange and yellow maple leaves at one point. The wildlife was entertaining too. My pal Rob and I were riding along at one point and out of nowhere he yelled, “Turkey!,” saving us both from running a-fowl of a wild turkey who was leisurely crossing the road in front of us.
After the ride, we stopped into the Buff Stuff Store and water buffalo farm, home to more than 1,000 water buffalo, for some buffalo milk gelato and sausages, adding a new and unexpected post-ride snack to our repertoire. In the afternoon, half of our crew drove east to do the short Lollygagging in Lonsdale route, which Voskamp says is spectacular in spring when the lilacs are out, and visit the village of Lonsdale. Me, I couldn’t resist spending a sunny afternoon soaking in Stoco Lake.
Day three brought us to the Riverside Rouleur route, which was by far the stand-out ride for me: 60+ kilometres of rolling hills, fabulous fall foliage, and autumn smells. Part of the fun of trying new routes is that you never know how they’re going to treat you. It had rained overnight, so I expected a slosh fest, but the route had more paved sections than expected, and aside from a bit of wet sand, the conditions were pretty good. I was so glad we’d stuck to our plans. (Though Voskamp says that our plan B route, Have a Nice Day, is one of her faves. Guess we’ll have to come back for that one!) I had one of those riding days that make you beyond-words grateful for your legs and your lungs and your pals and your choice to get out on the trail that day.
About the only car we saw all day was a truck whose driver stopped to tell us he’s been riding in the county for decades and that we were the biggest group of cyclists he’d ever seen on the road. He couldn’t get over it. But now that the secret’s out, I hope more people get out to Hastings County for some gravel riding. It’s a total gem, so get out there!
